Schwinn 1904 Advertisement — Ask Any Rider of a World Bicycle

ASK ANY RIDER OF A WORLD BICYCLE IF HE EVER HAS ANY TROUBLE WITH HIS WHEEL?

We sell the World at $35; it is sold in other cities for $5 to $15 more. It is strictly high grade, and as good as any bicycle on the market. It is NOT IN THE TRUST. We have never had but one defective part on any World bicycle, and that was replaced promptly without cost to the owner.

The World is made by Arnold, Schwinn & Co. now the oldest factory in Chicago. They also make the Admiral, our $25 wheel, which we have handled here since 1897.

If you are interested in bicycles call and see us. We do repairing.

PINNEY & ROBINSON,

THE GUN STORE

Guns, Bicycles, Cameras. Established 1887 PHONE MAIN 147 Typewriters, Sporting Goods.

40 North Center Street, Phoenix.

[There is no engraving. The advertisement is set entirely in type, the headline running three lines deep in open capitals above a block of body text and the dealer’s name in heavy capitals below a double rule.]

[A single column of dealer advertising from page 4 of the Arizona Republican for 30 July 1904, cropped out of the newspaper page. It is the second Schwinn document in this archive and the companion to the January sheet held here, placed by the same Phoenix dealer six months later.

The January advertisement is the one the Ebykr Schwinn article and Timeline already cite. This one is not, and it is the more interesting of the two. Where January stated the trust point in parentheses, this sheet sets it as a flat declarative sentence in capitals — IT IS NOT IN THE TRUST — and builds a headline around a challenge to the reader rather than around a price. The argument has been rewritten in six months, and it has become more confident.

It also carries two claims the January sheet does not. The first is a price comparison: the World sells here at $35 and in other cities for five to fifteen dollars more, which is a dealer asserting that a Phoenix buyer is getting a better price than a buyer in a larger market. The second is a guarantee record — never but one defective part on any World bicycle, replaced promptly without cost. That is an unusually specific thing for a retailer to put in print, and it is the kind of claim a dealer only makes about a supplier he expects to keep.

The description of the maker has also shifted. January called Arnold, Schwinn & Co. the largest and oldest cycle makers in Chicago. This sheet calls the firm now the oldest factory in Chicago and drops the claim to being the largest. Whether that is a considered correction or simply looser copy cannot be told from the sheet, but the two readings are six months apart in the same newspaper from the same advertiser, and the archive holds both.

Two dates on the sheet are not the same and are easy to run together. Established 1887 belongs to Pinney & Robinson. Handled here since 1897 belongs to the Admiral and the Schwinn agency. The Library of Congress machine text renders the first as 1897 and collapses them; both were read off the image at native resolution.

The same advertisement ran at least three times that week and the following Tuesday — 30 and 31 July and 2 August 1904 — and this record cites the earliest impression held. The three scans were compared and are of equal quality, so the choice is one of date and not of legibility. Earlier impressions may exist in the run and were not surveyed.

The transcription follows the sheet, including its own punctuation and the missing comma after Co. The body text was set from the Library of Congress machine OCR and then read line by line against the image at native resolution, which is why this record is marked as machine text checked by eye rather than as transcription.]