Miss Alice Rafferty lived in Grampian, a small borough in Clearfield County of west-central Pennsylvania.

The place was named in honor of the Grampian Hills of Scotland -from which some early settlers had immigrated.

In 1910, the borough was almost twice as large as it is today and local industry was related to nearby coal fields.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grampian,_Pennsylvania

In November of 1906, Alice received a comic postcard from an unidentified correspondent.

The postcard was mailed from Grampian, suggesting that the sender was a neighbor or nearby friend.

The face of the postcard shows a vivid scene of a horse, overthrowing the rider, charging into an automobile.

While the image was intended to be humorous (I believe) the advent of the automobile was hugely disruptive to age-old patterns of life and was not without controversy.

One can find published opinion pieces about the deplorable automobile – the threat to horses on the roads, the dangers posed to livestock that were commonly driven on lanes and roads, and the noise and intrusiveness of the chugging machines.

Some medical authorities claimed that speeds over 30 miles an hour could be deadly (this same argument had been made decades earlier in reference to the railroad).

The economic dislocation was enormous. 

Many towns had carriage works or buggy shops, and the farm economy was structured to provide forage and stored hay for horses.

Although early automobile manufacturing was done in small factories, the growing popularity of autos led to the development of huge plants which accelerated the exodus of workers from the agricultural-based industries.

And, like the arguments about charging stations today, many voices questioned how the country could possibly supply gas, oil, and service stations for a large number of autos.

I have two other postcards that show a conflict between horses and autos – further evidence that the changing patterns of life were not ignored.

https://www.inthehills.ca/2008/09/natural-enemies-horse-vs-automobile

One hopes that Alice appreciated the artwork.

She maintained the postcard in good condition although it had been badly handled in the mail.

Below, you can see how the face has been digitally restored.