In the olden days, creepy men would give "acquaintance cards" to women

boing
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Space for rent - Your stereotype here!

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Looked like reassurance that heā€™d stand back regretfully. and not chase her, and watch her leave with some other guy. Likely a pop culture reference?
This meaning is made clearer on similar cards in the collection.

Contextually, then: non-creepy.

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Yet two of them appear to have womenā€™s names on.

Interestingly, one is from ā€œAlice Ramseyā€ to ā€œMiss Smithā€ (though the ā€˜Missā€™ is part of the preprinting, so perhaps was for a Mr?); another is from ā€œAnna ā€˜Butchā€™ Engleā€.

These make me wonder, were these cards part of the lesbian scene back then?

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I used flash cards on the ladiesā€¦

It was the only way that I could figure out how to work my impressive Excel skills into the conversationā€¦

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I canā€™t tell if the men were worse in this way or if printers were more industrious in this way.

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I dunnoā€¦ but that is something that is eminently find-out-able. Iā€™m sure someone wrote about them at the time. I have a sense that it wasnā€™t considered all that creepy. Some of these were actually meant to lampoon stodgy or overly formal calling cards and were designed to get a laugh. I canā€™t help but feel that a society where one couldnā€™t be seen alone with a member of the opposite without causing a scandal might have embraced these on some level.

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Just last week I got a long, rambling love note from a complete stranger on Facebook. Like ā€œI just want you to know that there is a little heart in here that cares for you a lotā€ and how heā€™s ā€œseen me aroundā€ (Facebook, I hope, since his stated location was 1000 miles away).

Itā€™s certainly not any less creepy than these cards.

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I call bullshit. None of these even mention Mā€™lady on there.

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I once gave a woman of no acquaintance of mine a Valentineā€™s Day card. I had seen her walk past my work and was really crushing. But no pretext for an introduction. So I wrote a card saying that I found her striking and would like to get to know her if she was available and interested. Handed it to her on VD, and never heard anything about it.

Now: Was I being creepy? How does one go about meeting a stranger when youā€™re attracted to them? I can chat up anyone if Iā€™m not interested in them, but if I think they are cute I just canā€™t figure out where to begin.

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The Art of Manliness has an article on both types of calling cards; those formal, and not so formal. The second article references Alan Mays throughout, as does the article which spawned this thread.
I suppose the level of creepiness of the cards varied by perception of the lady receiving them.

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Then how creepy does that make tinder or a dick pic?

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It seems like the next-to-last one wouldnā€™t be so bad (for a more formal time and place), if it wasnā€™t for the picture of the rings. Thatā€™s just weird.

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ā€œMā€™acquaintance card, Mā€™lady!ā€

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Probably he was reading some pap like http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/how-i-met-the-woman-of-my-dreams-using-facebook-jgc/ .

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No, in those days if a woman liked a man sheā€™d do something like drop her handkerchief in front of him. If he liked her then heā€™d pick it up for her.

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And with the context of all the formality and social etiquette of the time, these cards donā€™t look so weird.

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Itā€™s really hard to be creepy with two frogs.

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May have been a bot. I am getting emails from such strangers. The IPs usually go to Russia or to some botnet.

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It could be certainly constructed as a death threat. ā€œGive me attention or youā€™ll croak.ā€

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Lots of Police songs do.