Of course when this label was produced the meaning of the word "gay" was dramatically different than its meaning today.

Generally the word in the earlier era meant a dandy, a person who dressed in a fashionable - sometimes flamboyant manner - way.

Certainly the young man portrayed here is fashionably dressed and, of course, has a cigar raised in his hand.

And he makes we also think that he could be "gay" in the actual meaning of the word...