Hilton Hotel, Beloit, Wis.

Undated. From N. M. H.[?] to Miss Bessie M. Roth, Naperville.

The picture

A three-storey red-brick hotel with white trim, a pedimented centre gable topped by a tall flagpole without a flag, and a white columned entrance portico lettered 'THE HILTON' on a street corner; streetcar tracks curve across the unpaved street in the foreground; a girl in white stands on the sidewalk.

• Printed caption: HILTON HOTEL, BELOIT, WIS.
• Printing: colored halftone · color
• Lettering in the picture: THE HILTON (twice, on the front of the portico)
• Postmark ink on the picture: scattered black specks of ink in the sky, upper left and centre, apparently offset from another card's cancel
• Condition: light wear at the corners and right edge

The back

• Layout: divided back (message at left, address at right)
• Printed: POST CARD · This space for writing · This side is for the address · 131187
• Stamp: 1c, green, Franklin
• Postmark: BELOIT / FEB 25 / 1 PM / [illegible]16[?] (duplex: circular date stamp with barred killer on the stamp)
• Condition: light soiling; a crease near the right edge

Exact copy

Line for line as written. [?] follows an uncertain word; [illegible] marks one that cannot be read; ~~ ~~ is crossed out, ^ ^ written above the line, […] runs off the card.

Message (back of the card, left half, lines running from top to bottom, first line nearest the divider, written sideways: written with the card turned, reading downward; turn the card 90 degrees counter-clockwise to read):

Am[?] waiting patiently
for a letter but
it has been said
"all things come to
them that wait"
and so I am rest-
ing on the promise.
Sincerely Yours
N. M. H.[?]

Address:

Miss Bessie M. Roth
Naperville,
Illinois

Reading version

The message joined into sentences, the spelling lightly modernized only where it helps; uncertain words keep their marks.

Am[?] waiting patiently for a letter, but it has been said "all things come to them that wait," and so I am resting on the promise. Sincerely yours, N. M. H.[?]

Who

• Miss Bessie M. Roth — recipient, Naperville, Illinois
• N. M. H.[?] — sender

When

How	Date	Basis
card-features	after 1907-03-01	divided back: allowed in the US from 1 Mar. 1907

The readings

Part	Status	Readers
caption	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
postmark	single reader	claude, gemini, gpt
address	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
message	majority	claude, gemini, gpt
signature	in message	claude, gemini

Uncertain readings:

• message, line 1: Am (or I'm) — the capital carries a dot or tick that could make it I'm
• signature, last initial: H (or K) — a looped capital with an open right side
• postmark year: [illegible]16 — the foot of the date stamp is smudged and overprinted; no year is asserted

Reader's note: The words 'all things' are underlined twice in the quotation. The stamp is placed upside down, which in the postcard 'language of stamps' of the time was sometimes used as a sign of affection; with a message waiting 'patiently for a letter', this may be a courting card, but nothing on it says so. Card sold by J. F. Ruch's 5 and 10 cent store in Beloit.

Scans: Hilton Hotel, Beloit, Wis. - 01.png and Hilton Hotel, Beloit, Wis. - 02.png (sha256 3f6c4c35b3a7…, 3920f2661988…). Media: front — the scanner's white edge trimmed: kept pixels [0, 0, 1088, 702]; back — the scanner's white edge trimmed: kept pixels [0, 0, 1085, 702]