A New Mexican Horse

This postcard hails from Carlsbad, but was mailed from Artesia, so I've included it here. We'll close out the Arteisa collection with the good humor found on this card.

The joke on the front, I guess, is that the "New Mexican Horse" is really a shaggy little mule (or donkey or whatever. I don't know the difference). And it's kind of a cute picture of the mule.

But what I really like is the correspondence on the back. The card was sent from Frank to Miss Bessie Harris in Lubbock, Texas. It's postmarked Oct. 6, 1931 in Artesia, N.M.

Frank's short message to Bessie: "Don't I look natural, I feel so at least."

How great is that? Only nine words, but full of that understated, self-deprecating good humor so typical of the good people of the American west (and really, of "flyover America" in general).