Mrs. R. N. Horner lived in Watkins, a village and the county set of Schuyler County in the “Finger Lake” region of south-central New York State.
Since 1926, the village has been known as “Watkins Glen”, a nod to the State Park with a dramatic gorge containing ten waterfalls that has attracted visitors since the 19th century.
The pretty village is also known today for auto racing, an annual Rock Festival, and a large animal sanctuary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watkins_Glen,_New_York
In April of 1907, Mrs. Horner received a humorous postcard from Harry.
Harry mailed the postcard from Mamaroneck, a village and town in Westchester County of southeast New York.
This area, with beaches on Long Island Sound and a short rail commute to Manhattan, is a prosperous suburb of New York City.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamaroneck,_New_York
In the 1920’s, early D. W. Griffith made movies in Mamaroneck.
Many notable persons in varied fields were natives of Mamaroneck: James Fennimore Cooper, Edward Albee, Lou Gehrig, Henry Flagler, Norman Rockwell, William Kunstler, and others.
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The face of the postcard is a comic drawing of a man stepping upon the train of an elaborately-dressed woman at a railroad station.
The woman, wearing a plum-colored jacket and skirt, has dropped her purse in shock at the indignity.
Our heroine sports a large hat, and what appears to be an ermine stole.
The clumsy gentleman bows to the affronted woman, but he does not bear an expression of apology or contrition.
Above the scene, a caption declares, “I Missed My Train”.
The postcard was copyright in a year near 1907, and was published in the United States.
(I cannot distinguish the tiny print on the publisher’s stamp.)
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Because the postcard has an “undivided back”, Harry has inscribed a brief message on the face.
He asks, “How about it?”
He adds, “Disgusted or just discouraged?”
We don’t have any clues about the relationship of Harry and Mrs. Horner – it is possible that the postcard is a veiled reference to some other transgression.
Whatever the personal meaning of the postcard, Mrs. Horner preserved it throughout her life.
One hopes that Harry was not as careless as the fellow on the postcard and that he and Mrs. Horner exchanged many more postcards.
