Vintage Black Cat Halloween Greeting Card, Early 1900s

The card text reads 'All Good Luck This Hallowe'en,' yet whoever decided that a wide-eyed, wildly-furred black cat frozen in full frontal existential crisis was the ideal mascot for this sentiment clearly had a very specific definition of luck. The cat — rendered against the lurid green background and flanked by 'Oct 31' spelled out in what appears to be floral lettering — looks less like a good luck charm and more like it just witnessed something deeply traumatic off-camera. The ornate border packed wall-to-wall with grinning jack-o-lanterns and Art Nouveau curlicues completes the experience, because apparently the best way to deliver a warm seasonal greeting is to visually assault the recipient with forty pumpkins and a cat having a spiritual emergency.