Mr. George Harty lived in Shullsburg, a small city in Lafayette County of southwest Wisconsin.
The community, amid the dramatic landscape of the “Driftless Area” is one of the oldest in Wisconsin.
Once a center of lead-mining and cheese production, Shullsburg today has a remarkable collection of more than thirty historic structures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shullsburg,_Wisconsin
In January of 1909, George received a humorous postcard from his cousin, Martin.
The postcard was mailed from Spencer, a village in Boyd County of north-central Nebraska.
In 1902, the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad reached the community – and spurred the building of a grain elevator and stockyard – and a rise in population (from 135 to 610).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer,_Nebraska
Spencer is about 458 miles west of Shullsburg.
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The face of the postcard is a comic drawing of a young woman holding a pistol and keeping at bay a posse of men.
It is not clear what action is being thwarted, but the plucky heroine seems to be in control of the situation.
A printed couplet provides commentary on the scene:
“She’s no shy goose,
Jump on your cayuse”
“Cayuse” is an archaic term for a horse of poor quality, such as a nag or broken-down mount.
The postcard was published by Theodor Eismann Company of New York, and was printed in Germany.
(We have seen earlier postcards from the Eismann Company which was once headquartered in Leipzig.)
A printed note indicates that the postcard is from the “Illustrated Song Series” – but it is difficult to track the original song because of many text variants by many artists.
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On the reverse, Martin greets his “Dear Cousin”.
The message is one long sentence: “You want to be sure to come out with Ben and Mary”.
It appears that others, perhaps family members, are traveling from Shullsburg to Spencer, and that George is being encouraged to accompany them on the trip.
One hopes that George was able to visit his cousin and that they maintained a long postcard correspondence.
