PEDLARS AND HOLY CARDS.

PEDLARS AND HOLY CARDS. One passage from CELESTINE which Mary Jane read aloud to me involved holy cards. Mary Jane has always characterized the small area of Syracuse where she grew up as like a village in Italy which had been transplanted to New York state. Her grandmother’s friends came from places near the same village. Her grandmother and a number of her friends never learned English. One of the seasonal visitors to these ladies was a lady who took measurements and made corsets for these enormous ladies. The passage Mary Jane read in CELESTINE began: “Reading matter and religious pictures were also staples of the early-nineteenth century pedlar’s trade, along with religious medals and chaplets.” The corset lady distributed religious cards. After reading the passage to me Mary Jane showed me some holy cards that she had kept from when she was a little girl.