Mrs. Ruth Carter lived in Fairbury, a small city in Livingston Cunty of north-central Illinois.

The town was laid out in 1857 as a “depot town” in expectation of the coming of the railroad.

The street grid and some street names are identical to other nearby towns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairbury,_Illinois

In July of 1912, Mrs. Carter received a postcard from her niece, Sadie.

Sadie mailed the postcard from Emporia, a city on the upland prairie of east-central Kansas.

The Union Pacific Railroad reached the area in 1869, and the town became a junction for the “Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad” in 1870.

True to it’s name, Emporia became a center of trade and commerce in the region.

The face of the postcard is a humorous drawing of two children contemplating an outing together.

The girl is attired in a red shift and leggings.

On her head, she sports a large, beribboned bonnet.

Her swain, is wearing patched pants secured by suspenders.

He holds a hat in his hands.

The printed legend records the girl’s disappointing statement, “I couldn’t go without a chaperone”.

The selection of this whimsical scene does not seem to have any relation to the message on the reverse.

Sadie addresses, “Dear Aunt Ruth”.

She asks, “How are you standing the hot weather.”

“Momma and Papa”, Sadie reports, “are down to John’s now.”

We assume that John is another relative, and one hopes that the place provides some relief from the July heat.

The parents will be gone until “about the first of August”.

Sadie closes her message, “With love to all.”

Aunt Ruth preserved the comic postcard in good condition throughout her life.

One hopes that the extended family survived the hot summer and that Sadie and her Aunt Ruth maintained an affectionate correspondence for many years.