Cartoon drawing of terrified people on the edge of the planet looking up at the sky, which is filled with flying contraptions on their way to the moon, or still awaiting refugees for the journey. The sky and outer space are one, that is, black and filled with stars.

This funny old German postcard about “the end of the world” caught my attention because of tomorrow’s big event in Washington, DC, Orange Oaf’s return to the White House. The card feels somewhat prophetic, but the earlier threat it references was celestial, not human. Many people were panicking because Earth was expected to pass through the tail of Halley’s Comet on May 19, 1910.

One of the signs to the right in the postcard advertises “Airplanes for rent | Deliverance from the apocalypse!” The other offers big jugs of gasoline, each containing enough to reach (reichend ) the moon, or pungent enough for the odor to carry (riechend ) that far. The airplanes, dirigibles, and hot air balloons for escaping to the moon look as fanciful as their purported purpose.

Source: Newberry Library, John I. Monroe collection of fantasy postcards, NL116N96.