This allegorical map is a valentine postcard with accompanying poem. It charts the route from Fair Maiden Station in Forlornia and Bachelor Station in Lonelyville, through difficulties like Indifference and Shyness Siding, to Matrimony Junction and the City of Bliss. It was sent on February 12, 1910, to Miss “Lula Wehrile” of Sunnyside Avenue in Ravenswood, Chicago, with an unsigned, enigmatic message: “Tell him to buy two tickets for June.”
Ernest Nister was a German publisher of ephemeral materials such as this who worked closely with Dutton in the U.S. He published an earlier version in 1906, with a less ornate map and in a larger, folding format, about 6 x 20 inches. http://www.fotolibra.com/gallery/52055/valentine-card-1906-cupids-railway-map/, accessed May 2, 2018.
