"Painting the Town Red" — a dapper fellow in a straw boater spatters red paint across a wall in this vivid Edwardian cartoon postcard, the phrase still fresh slang for a night of abandon when this card was postmarked New York, N.Y., on October 2, 1905. The sender, who signs off with love and a name that appears to begin with "Fanny" or "Janny," urges the recipient to "take this at your leisure and think it over." The illustration style — bold linework, yellow-and-red spot color, the man's striped trousers — is a classic of the early-undivided-back American comic postcard era, when printers discovered that irreverence sold. Addressed to Mr. H. MacInnes at 19 Beacon Street, Middletown, O.C. (Orange County), this little card crossed state lines to deliver its cheeky counsel.