Miss Ethyl Cox lived in Golden, Illinois – a village near the Mississippi River, at the westernmost part of the State (where Illinois “bulges” into the Mississippi Valley.)
Today, Golden has the only surviving, working windmill that Dutch settlers built in the area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden,_Illinois
In February of 1913, Ethyl received a postcard from her brother, Ira.
Ira was in Hannibal, Missouri – the Mississippi River town made famous by Samuel Clemens, about 50 miles southwest of Golden.
Hannibal became an important transportation center as railroads, running east and west, and north and south, intersected there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal,_Missouri
The postcard bears an image of the Third Street Bridge in Hannibal.
I suspect this bridge crosses Bear Creek which runs through the town, but I cannot determine this certainly.
Alas, this “bowstring” truss bridge no longer exists.
https://bridgehunter.com/mo/marion/third-street/
On the reverse, Ira thanks Ethyl for her letter; he is “glad that you are all well”.
Ira is also in good health, and he promises to write a letter “tomorrow night”.
In closing, Ira offers some brotherly advice – “be careful with your _____“.
I am unable to decipher that for which Ethyl should take care.
One hopes that Ira wrote a letter, that Ethyl considered her brother’s advice, and that the siblings remained on friendly terms for many years.
NOTE
It has been difficult to find the recipient of the postcard; there are several persons with this name living in 1913.
An “Ethyl Cox” was born in Illinois in 1889.
This Ethyl married Timothy Sullivan (after 1915) and remained in Illinois.
But I have not found documentation that this Ethyl is the sister of Ira.
