Object of the Day: A Trade Card for G.W. Clark Music & Variety Store

I have no idea what’s happening here.  This trade card, I’m guessing dates to the 1880s-1890s.  There’s no information on the reverse.  The card advertises:

W.G. Hitchcok

With

G.W. Clark

Music and Variety Store.

84 S. Dallas St., Syracuse, N.Y.

--------

Stock Piano, best in the World,

Harps, Zithers, Violins, Guitars,

Auto-phones, Fine Strings a Specialty.

And, then, there’s that frightening demon child…or maybe it’s a dwarf.  Whatever he is, he has an enormous head which he has burst through a large paper circle (in a hoop, you know—the kind that are used in the circus when equally disturbing creatures ride small wheeled things into large paper circles).  He’s wearing a wee plaid suit and looks, frankly, evil.

Oddly enough, a near-match to this image appears on another card in my collection—advertising something completely different.