Typically, Fridays are Punch (or, at least, puppet) days here. I’ve got a nifty Punch-ish card and an exciting reveal coming for you the next two Fridays, but today’s card isn’t exactly Punch-related. It is, however, suitably bizarre and has puppet-ish overtones. So, let’s proceed.
The over-printed message is simple enough.
When buying your new spring HAT
present this card and receive a dis-
count of 5 per cent from lowest prices.
Well, that’s just fine. It’s a doozy of an offer, in fact. I’ll bet when I look down, I’ll see an attractive image somehow related to my new spring HAT.
Or…
Well…
Maybe I’ll see a Punchinello-ish butcher waving a knife at a dog who seems to have stolen a ham. The dog looks utterly demented. His eyes are rolling in his little deranged head. I think he might be a little…different. After all, he has rabbit legs. Perhaps he just can’t help himself. Poor thing.
So, surely, there must be some explanation for this monochromatic cerise scene. Right? Maybe it even has something to do with hats.
No.
It says.
“Corners”
A CORNER IN PORK WITH CONSIDERABLE
EXCITEMENT AND ACTIVITY
What does that even mean? A corner in pork…
Surely the back has some sort of explanation. Let’s look, with hope, at the reverse.
Cash trade preferred to long accounts.
Prices guaranteed.
Small store, but large stock.
New good received almost every day.
G.J. KIRKLAND
DEALER IN
DRY GOODS, CLOTHING, HATS,
CAPS, BOOTS, SHOES AND CROCKERY
FORT ATKINSON, WIS.
That pertains to hats, and crockery, apparently. But, it doesn’t really explain a corner in ham.
Maybe nothing can.
2 comments:
In 1909 there was a silent film called "A Corner In Wheat" in which the main character tries to corner the market in wheat to starve the world. So, it would appear that the dog, who looks like some American politicians, seems to be securing himself a "corner in ham" to the dismay of the butcher.
I think that Elizabeth Taylor tried this maneuver before she married Eddie Fisher.
That makes perfect sense.
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