We met M. Z. McGill in two earlier postcard stories: “Help Us Name the Baby” and “The Trip to Bunker Hill”.
From the postcard evidence (and the research of dedicated readers), we know that Mr. McGill was born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, but lived in Washington DC in the early years of the twentieth century.
In the postcard today, we see that Mr. McGill was an employee of the Post Office – the beautiful Post Office Building at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue has now been leased for use as a hotel.
In September of 1913, Mr. McGill received a postcard from A. P. Owen (?).
Mr. Owen wrote from Butler, a small city near the Ohio River in north-central Kentucky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butler,_Kentucky
The postcard was mailed from Cincinnati, Ohio -across the Ohio River from the Bluegrass State.
The face of the postcard is a whimsical drawing of a young couple eloping.
A ladder stands against the house; and the young man and young woman are gathering their bags for a quick departure.
Beneath the fleeing couple is a legend, “Stealing a Peach”.
The postcard illustration was copyright by the Cargill Company in 1910.
The postcard was published by the Cargill Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
(Although one can find numerous examples of postcards published by the Cargill Company, I have not found a history of this company.
https://dspace.willardlibrary.org/xmlui/handle/123456789/8478
I do not know if elopement was a common occurrence in the early 20th century, but there are numerous humorous references to it in postcards.
On the reverse, Mr. McGill learns of his correspondent’s excursion into Kentucky and the suggestion that Mr. McGill would readily join in.
One hopes that Mr. McGill enjoyed his work at the Post Office, that he was delighted to receive the postcard, and that he and Mr. Owen remained friends and correspondents for many years.
