Life, 1926-12-02 · page 5 of 81
Life — December 2, 1926 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily **advertisement disguised as editorial content** for the Douglass Lighter, sponsored by Hargraft. The "satire" is gentle social commentary rather than political critique. The piece mocks smokers who receive cigarette-related gifts annually—here, a trigger-activated lighter. The humor targets the predictability of gift-giving to tobacco users: friends lack imagination, so they default to smoking accessories. The accompanying illustrations show the lighter's features and elegant design (available in precious metals). The implicit joke is that smokers celebrate receiving "a friend" in the form of a luxury gadget, playing on the opening line about lacking "a single brilliant friend." This represents mid-century consumer advertising that used light satire to sell lifestyle products to affluent readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life 3 For Smokers who decide every Christmas that they haven't a single brilliant friend A Lighter that lights at the mere press of a trigger A friend you've admired all year sends ve smoking jacket—well, the are thankful. Your fifth humidor from one to whom you showed four. Cigarettes and cigarettes —and never the kind you smoke. Good friends, bless their generous souls! They'd give you their 1. Yet what paupers in imagina- tion they seem. Not a clever thought among them. Wait—this year there'll be a small package in many a smoker's stocking, and when it’s opened Christmas has come. of ostrich, heard, alligator and calfskin in o rs, one chooses the Douglass that slender fingers wil hold. At $15.00 over silver or $17.90 over gold plate from the shilled hands of master gold- ase at $130.00, Solid silver case, $25.00, For it holds a marvelous new lighter, the Douglass, which, if cased in gold or silver may even bear your monogram or the family crest. Or, if someone knows your passion for color, you'll doubtless find it in that Tre Douglass Lighter Sponsored by shade, done from lizard, ostrich, alliga- tor or calfskin. But your real thrill will come when you work the lighter. It’s automatic! No whatnots to lift. No wheels to turn. Just press the trigger—there's your light! And such is the genius of its fashion- ing that the Douglass adapts itself with equal grace to the vest pocket or vanity home it finds. What a Christmas this will be for smokers—to have a friend “crash through” with something _ really brilliant. The Douglass Lighter, by the way, is found at those very places where sil- ver humidors, smoking jackets and fat cigars are sold. The Douglass Co. ‘The Douglass is auto- i as mg emokers with years of unfailing servwe for the name Douglass fon the bottom of the lighter DEALERS, overlooked . Wrigley Bidg., Chicago. Your custom: ers will gladly wait the few days you need to ‘get an assortment comicbooks.com