The Flirt – 1907

Not long after the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day in 1907, this comical illustration of a coquette was mailed to L. F. Eckart in Clay, PA.

Clay is a small community in northern Lancaster County, on Rte 322 between Brickerville and Ephrata.

(It is a nice little place, containing both an ice cream parlor and a used book store!)

The postcard was mailed from Stevens, PA., but the sender is not identified.

Although postal regulations permitted a message to be inscribed on the reverse, this postcard (printed before 1906) conforms to the earlier practice of writing only the address.

It is not clear to me what the postcard intends to communicate.

Is “the flirt” a matter of praise or of reproach?

Perhaps the sender of the postcard was miffed about the promiscuous expressions of sentimental affection that were exchanged in Valentines.

In any event, one hopes that flirtation and coyness which enliven social interaction is not discouraged.