Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-02-15

Europe particularly certain obligations
and cedrtesies early grew out Of the Gus
tom which gave it Il real social value and
grace. These have long since faded
out of it, and with. n the memory of per-
sons still living "Valentine's gifts
which i'll the days of Shakespeare were
posies and poems, and in those OF Pepys
gems and gold, have degenerated into
doggerel and, rubbish. Chaucer and
Lydgate allude to the feas:, and Charles
Duke of Orleans, the princely poet who
was captured by Henry Vat Agincourt
is of record as one of the earliest writers
of valentines. Drayton introduces the
legend that the birds pair to-day, in his
pretty verses
Muse, bid the morn awake;
Sad winter now declines,
Each bird doth chose a mate
This days st. Valentines.
For that good bishops sake
Get up and let us see
What beauty it shall be
That fortune us assigns
and Dome, in his epithalamium ON the
marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to
Frederick, the Rhen1sh Count Palatine,
in 1914, begins
Hail Bishop Valentine, whose day this is :;
All the air is thy diocese,
And all the chirping choristerS
And other birds are thy pensioners.
Never was st. Valentine held in such
honor as under the Merry Monarch in
England. Married people as well as
bachelors and maidens were liable to be
chosen as valentines, and as the chooser
was entitled to a present the choice often
enough fell upon householders of sub
stance. Mr.. Pepys records, this day 212
years ago, that little Will Mercer came
up to his wise's bedside to be her valen-
tine, "and brought her name written
upon blue paper IN gold letters, done by
himself, very pretty, and we were both
well pleased with it. But l am also this
year my wife's valentine, and it will cost
me So" he.observes.E However, he adds
philosophically enough, ''thst 1 must
have laid out if we had not been valen
tines" MIR. Pepys himself drew Mrs
Plerce's little girl, fact which rejoiced.
his thrifty soul, cit easing me of some
thing more than l must have given to
Others 1t was costly distinction to a
reigning beautys valentine. The same
chronicler records that the beautiful
Stuart, afterwards Duchess of Richmond,
received from the Duke of York on the
occasion an $500 jewel, and from the Lord
Vaudeville .of that time on another a
$500 ring, gifts of this value being sort
of ransom from the obligations of valen-
image. To-day in some parts of Spain
much jealousy and homicide are avoided
by the practice of drawing valentines, the
pair being good for a year, during
which time it Is obligatory upon the
swain to act as his bellies escort on all
social occasions, after the manner
more or less of Canadian muffin
dom. In February, 1868, Mr.. Pepys, be-
ing again his wife's valentine. presented
her with turquoise, which he calls a
"Turkey-stone," set with diamonds. Mis-
sion tells how in England and Scotland
the lottery of love was drawn, the valen-
tines giving balls and treats to their mis-
tresses and wearing their blllets several
days upon their bosoms or sleeves, "a
little sport" he says, (which often ends
in love- Gays verses recall the popu
lar belief that the first unmarried per-
son of the other sex whom one met on
ST. Valentines morning in walking
abroad was destined to become the en-
countercrs wife or husband, and in the
Connoisseur, pert young miss tells how
she pinned four bay-leaves to the corners
of her pillow and one in the middle, so
as to dream-like the heroine of The
Eve of st. Agnes-of her future lord,
whom she would infailibly spouse ere
the year was out. Adapting to another
day Halloween custom, she also devour-
ed hard-boiled egg and shell, the yolk
having been removed and the cavity filled
with salt. After such a dose, she might
have dreamed herself an Andromeda cap
tured from her Perseus by the Cape Cod
sea-serpent. So late as a few years ago
the sentimental valentines still competed
even in this country, with the penny lam
pooh for popular favor, and from %
cents up to $5-or on occasion to $50
the signing swain might obtain a testi-
monial in lace and embossed paper, with
hearts, cupids, hymeneal affairs, flowers
and all complete. Perhaps the growing
popularity of Easter with its eggs, out
OF which with the help of the jeweler and
the confectioner so many pretty things
may be Matched, has had something to
do with the final decline and fall Of St
Valentines Day.