Mr. Harry Rumsey lived in Rochester, the thriving industrial city on the Genesee River near Lake Ontario in western New York.
The Erie Canal connected the mills of Rochester to the markets of the East and Midwest, and the area around the city became one of America’s first “boom towns”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_New_York
In October of 1911, Harry received a romantic postcard from Phoebe.
Phoebe mailed the greeting from Northampton, the lovely college town in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.
(In the 1840’s, Northampton boasted a utopian community devoted to radical equality – social, economic, racial, sexual; Sojourner Truth resided there for several years.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northampton,_Massachusetts
The face of the postcard shows a solemn young man seated on a chair; his holds folded demurely in front of him.
A young woman, one hand on her hip, one hand pointing accusingly, stands beside the young man.
The printed caption above the scene reads, “Now will you be good”.
Our hero seems to have taken some liberties, forgotten some important task, or failed in some other way.
The woman seems to have imposed a “Time Out” on the wayward youth.
Phoebe has written, “or Careful” beneath the printed legend -but I am not sure that this improves the illustration as it introduces another comic theme.
We have seen other postcards portraying the courtship antics of young lovers in which the “Be Good or Be Careful” admonition is printed.
Here, the comic situation revolves around a young woman holding her partner to a stricter standard.
The young man’s acquiescence is a hopeful sign.
Harry seems to have enjoyed the humorous greeting as he preserved it throughout his life.
One hopes that he and Phoebe remained affectionate correspondents for many years.
