R. F. Outcault was one of the greatest cartoonists in American history.

He may have been the first to use a series of comic panels, the “comic strip”.

The wild popularity of “The Yellow Kid” in the newspaper empire of William Randolph Hearst gave rise to the moniker of “the Yellow Press”.

(The Yellow Kid was a street urchin in New York City who roamed the urban byways in a yellow nightshirt. The comic character was not related to the racist sentiments of Hearst.)

This postcard was printed in the United States and published by J. Ottman Lithography Co. of New York.

The cartoon was copyrighted in 1905.

In September of 1906, Mrs. John M. Byers was living in Quarryville, a borough in southern Lancaster County.

Mrs. Byers had a sister who was in the hospital, presumably in the city of Lancaster.

An unknown friend sent this comic postcard, from Lancaster, to Mrs. Byers.

(It is possible that the sister was working at the hospital. One cannot be sure If the difference between “in the hospital” and “at the hospital” is intentional.)

The reassuring message on the face reads, “Your sister is getting along nicely at the hospital.”

When I first saw this drawing of the woman sewing yet another patch on a worn pair of pants, I thought of the painstaking mending of clothing that was once commonplace in thrifty households.

Today, Americans buy and discard clothing at prodigious rates.

The humor of the piece is found in the boys inability to sleep with the older woman diligently sewing after midnight.

It is possible that the legend, “Never Too Late to Mend” may have a moral message, also.

One hopes that Mrs. Byers was relieved to hear the news about her sister and that she enjoyed the humorous postcard.