The firm of C. W. Jacobs & Allison was located on Cedar Street in Manhattan, New York City.

This firm was an importer of raw materials and chemicals from around the world; the imported goods were used in the manufacture of drugs and medicines.

Cedar Street is in the Financial District of lower Manhattan, and 18 Cedar Street is now covered by a tall residential building – it was erected as an office building in the 1930’s.

In September of 1912, Mr. Stanley Jacob received at work a lovely postcard from Geneva, Switzerland.

Geneva, now a center of international diplomacy, is in southwest Switzerland – on the border of France.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva

The face of the postcard is a beautifully-colored photograph of the Place du Molard.

Place du Molard is a busy square near the center of the city, between the main shopping street and the lake.

In this view, one can see the charming enclosed trolley stop and the sidewalk flower merchants.

https://www.geneve.com/en/attractions/place-du-molard

The postcard was published by Jullien freres (Jullien Brothers) of Geneva.

(All of Switzerland is multi-lingual, German and French are the primary languages. 

Like most people of western Europe, many Swiss are fluent in English, and Italian is spoken in the regions bordering Italy.)

The postcard was mailed from Geneva by M. S. W. who seems to have been touring Europe.

On the reverse, the writer reports that he “came back here Friday” and that he “like(s) Switzerland better than Italy”.

The writer may have had an unusually bad experience as he exclaims, “The Italians are brigands” and that “the food there (is) no good”.

The writer finds that is “lots to see” in Geneva.

Stanley may be planning his own vacation as the writer expresses “hope you have a good vacation at the Lake”.

One hopes that the stay in Geneva remained pleasurable, that Stanley enjoyed a wonderful vacation at the Lake, and that our writer had opportunities to form a better opinion of Italy.