Life — February 18, 1926 — page 35: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **Fisk Tire Company advertisement** disguised as humor. The cartoon shows a blacksmith at his forge, holding a horseshoe, facing a saddled horse. A poster behind them reads "Time to Re-tire / Get a FISH [sic]." The joke is a visual pun: the blacksmith is doing his traditional job of shoeing horses with iron horseshoes (re-tiring them), while the advertisement suggests switching to Fisk automobile tires instead. It's promoting motorized vehicles over horse-drawn transport—a topical message for the early 20th century when cars were still relatively new. The humor relies on the double meaning of "re-tire" (replacing horseshoes vs. replacing tires) and gently mocks the obsolescence of traditional blacksmith work in an automotive age.