Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1874-02-21
called valentines of vulgar and tawdry

| called valentines of a vulgar and taWdry
character is Issued every year, but they
are for the most part harmless and des-
titute of sting. Like clowns in a circus
they are intended to amuse by their ia
| cial distortions, and their wit is not ex-
tpected to be of a very high order.
The valentines just now going into
circulation have given employment to
large numbers of young women during
| the season of domestic embarrassment
and distress, and this fact alone holds
| out plea in favor of the annual Gus
| tom. To the postmaster and his clerks,
valentines may, indeed, be an annual
nuisance, but it should be remembered
that to the revenue they are sweet
Cynics of all sorts are apt to run the
| usage down, and it was one of that sort
| who averred that if st. Valentine were
born at Rome at all it, could not have
| been in the pontificate of Pope limo
cent. 4 FlH =
An ill-natured version of the origin
of valentines is III this wise: When
| that Bishop Valentine had came to be an
old man he sat in his invalid chair, one
fourteenth day Of the second month,
reading in a book much older than he.
His head was covered with a night-cap
of velvet, his feet with slippers of the
same stuff, his features wore n thought-
/ AuA Ahu w oito just us bt1c clOtk
in the tower should have struck one,
the Bishop snored. The clock did not
| strike loud enough to wake the Bishop.
because Lucifer, who owed the prelate
grudge, had wrapped his tail around the
tongue of the bell. Then he entered
the, cell and upset a bottle of Cologne
water rs a precautionary measure. He
picked up the Bishops book. and max
ing such a face as if he had eaten of
1 <r.I e
summoned an enormous black cat which
he put into the sleeping Bishops arms.
There flashed thercupon, through the
good old mans drowsy soul, II vision of
beauty that enchanted his episcopal
spirit much beyond what the Church
permitted. He grasped the glittering
| phantom cOnvulsively to his bosom, and
the cat scratched him so fiercely that he
awoke with cry of pain to look upon
a dissOlving drama and to curse the 18th
of February evermore. But the penal
| ty of shining under this curse became
| as years went on only a philopenalty,
and at last the sin of valentining has
grown so common that it is held i'm
| many quarters scarcely worth commit
| ting. Marriages and similar offences
were wont to be schemcd for, the in
trigues dating from the day young men
and women, gentle and simple, chose
partners, so to speak, and paired off not
always in earnest, but with the expecta-
ton of getting into earnest il all proved
acceptable. Those who, being elected
consorts to ladies they did not approve,
begged off, did so under philopena, and
very costly gifts these were sometimes.
The custom survived its significance-
One does not now send apples of gold in
pictures of silver to lady friend by
way of intimating, ''I'll give you this
if you will drop yourself from the list
of my cherished acquaintance" The
valentine is only a compliment of the
season and has run to the two entremes
la specimen of the one being the mere
coarse print, and of the other something
bulky and expensive, which may be
classed as an article of furniture. Coun-
try rather than city, and the humble
classes rather than the wealtllier, are
senders of valentines, with just eXcep-
tiOns enough to show the rule. A busi-
ness of about 500, 900 is done i'm all the
United States in the rather old-fashioned
trif1es, and the amount varies very little
from year to year.