Mr. Cadiz Schooley was in Mercersburg, PA.
Mercersburg is borough very near the Mason-Dixon Line in south-central Pennsylvania.
We have had postcard stories related to students at the Mercersburg Academy, but there is no indication that Mr. Schooley was a student.
In November of 1910 Cadiz received a postcard from Ethel.
Ethel wrote from Andover, a borough 20 miles northwest of Mercersburg.
The face of the postcard is a fanciful bit of postcard art depicting a dream-like vision of a distant face.
A cupid, accompanied by colorful butterflies, seems to be drawing something – perhaps the “wishes” mentioned in the verse below.
“We cannot meet.
I cannot take in mine
Thy hand, so take my wish
For auld lang syne.”
On the reverse, Ethel reports that “we are well” and expresses a “hope that you are the same.”
The next sentences are a bit confusing.
Ethel communicates the sad news that “Mr. Oph Sipes is dead”.
She then adds, reproachfully, “We did not know what was wrong because you had not written to us.”
I don’t think the second phrase is related to the first, except that the news of Mr. Sipes passing may have exacerbated her anxiety about nor having heard from Cadiz.
One hopes that the nice example of postcard art may have inspired Mr. Schooley to respond promptly to Ethel’s greeting.
