The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1853-02-10

of literature, and withal very creditle
authority, speaks of it as custom never
omitted in his time, Of draining lots, or
Valentines, on the eve before Valentines
Day. The names of select number Of
one sex are, by an equal number Of the
other, put into the same vessel and
after that every one draws out name,
which for the present, is called the Val
entine, and is looked upon as good
omen of their being man and wife,
afterwards. This kind of usage may be
traced back among the English gentry,
as early as the year l476 /; and yet in
l645, it was deemed obsolete, in that
class. Lord North, in his interesting
melange, " The Forest of Varieties"
(written about The middle of the 18th
century says that the customs and
charge of Valentines is not i'll left, with
many other such costly and idle customcs,
which by tacit general consent wee
lay downe as obsolete"
Shakespcare's play of "Hamlet, Prince
of Denmark" was written about the year
1880; and in it poor Ophelia, in her
madness, sings, among her snatches of
old tunes," a verse from what, even at
the date of that play, was an old song:
Good morrow, it's Saint Valentines day,
All in the morning betime,
And a maid Mt your window,
To be your Valentine"
Hurdis, an old English poet, lets a
ray of light fall upon this matter in these
! lines: -
.Thc day, st. Valentine,
When maids are brisk, and at the break of
day
Start up, and turn their pillows, curious all
To know what happy swain the fates provide
a mate for life. Then follow thick discharge
! OF true love knots, and sonnets nicely
penn'd."
The old way of celebrating the day is
shadowed forth in the verse sung by
Ophelia in the play. The first girl the
man saw in the morning of the fourteenth
of February, he took for his Valentine,
and rice rcrsa, the first man the girl saw
was hers, and an anonymous correspond
ence was the immediate consequence,
sometimes leading to something serious
between them, but more often to nothing
Birds are said to choose their mates
for the year on St. Valentines Day.
They may do this in some climates, but
we much doubt if the legend holds good
in our northern attitudes.
I We are inclined to think that how
ever harmless proper observance O.
this festival might be, yet it is made the
occasion Of much mischief, from the fact
that many take the advantage of the
license which it gives, to insult the re-
cipients of their foolish, or worse, dog
grel 1t must be confessed to be only
second to All Fool's day in folly this
custom Of sending Valentines. In the
| first place, they are anonymous, Which
! gives the sender kind of Saturnaliar
, license to perpctratc any sort of quizc OF
} hoax, or even severe personal insult, OIL
the destined recipient. Facilitating this
abuse Of the custom, is the prevalence
OF grotcsque, extravagant, disgusting,
and even indecent Valentines, affordinc
to the evil disposed the opportunity Of
sending to those whom they may feel
: inclined wantonly to wound, missivcs
, that, but for the anonymous shield inter.
: posed by custom, they would never dare
: to transmit. Taking it all in all, a.
0 now observed, we thiak,
/. -" 1t is custom
More favored in the breach than the oh
seryance,"