Everything Smokers and Chewers Want

Why anyone would think this picture would help sell a product is beyond me. It is amusing though. This is an advertising or trade card circa 1880.

Farm Life Around Bremen, IN

This is not your usual brightly-colored exaggeration card. I like that the name of the town is on the card though -and that it was sent to someone in Bremen, Indiana.

 

Here's a close-up of the picture.

And here's the back of the card, sent to Mrs. Ella Bass.

The message reads:

Good Morning. just arose from my bed of slumber. katy  B. slept with me. Chas R. and Ray B. stayed all night. will go home today. The autatorium will have a cement floor. it will be a large building. the carpenters will begin next week. As Ever (illegible signature)

The card is postmarked Syracuse, but I'm pretty sure that was Syracuse, Indiana not Syracuse, New York. Syracuse is located near Oakwood Park, a religious camp and meeting ground,  which is where the auditorium was being built.  The original 1898 tabernacle burned down in May 1914 and was then rebuilt in August 1914.

French Postman

Here's the back of the card, sent to Louis Madeline, who was a soldier stationed in Saint-Mihiel, in the Meuse department of Lorraine, France during World War I. There's no date on the card, so it's impossible to know if he was there during the Battle of Saint Mihiel, led by U.S. General, John Pershing. I also wonder if this Louis Madeline is the French architect who was born in 1892 and died in 1962.

The message reads:

Saint-Martin-des-Champs

Dear Cousin,

I wish you well and happy and above all that it passes quickly.

Your cousin

Emile (Guy?)