Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-04-07
VALENTINES.
Powerful Poetic Genius not Required in the
Art.
n GROWING FANCY FOR HAND
PAINTED VALENTINES.

"A Poetess" has been advertising
to write valentine poetry to order
She is behind time," said one of the
principal manufacturers of valentines,
"for this season, and little early for
next. There are not many valentine
writers, and l don't think that if you
hunted them over you would find one
distinguished name among them, or
even one that you had ever heard be-
fore. Most of my original ones are
written by lady in Bangor, Me.
She writes also for another house.
Some of her relatives We're in the
business, and she possessed natural
talents for it; 50 in that way she got
into it, and, once in, keeps right along
The late A. j. Fisher, who was the
leading publisher of valentines, used
to write his own mostly. l don't
know exactly what his best hold was,
whether it was the purely comic, the
vengefully satirical, or the gushingly
sentimental The lady in Bangor is
the best in the line. It doesn't re
quire really very powerful poetic
genius to grind out valentine poetry.
When You get an idea fit for a verse
you can sort of model it over a few
times. Frinstance:
GAS on the gold the diamond bright doth
shine,
So thou upon my heart doth glow, my Val
entine.
And then again, by slight twist
Of the wrist you get:
"As in the gold the ruby's gleam doth shine,
81 in my heart thy image sits, nay Val
entine.
"Or, by slight wrench to the
crank:
Like the sparkling glow in the juice of the
Are thy oyes in my heart, my sweet Val
entine.
"Same idea, you see; reels off just
as easy as yarn off ball. Lots of
our Valentine poetry we sort of pick
up. Newspapers sometimes have
poetical fancies in them that we hap
pen to drop on, and occasionally we
can chop out good chunk of heart
throb and burning love where ynn'd
hardly notice it, and where the poet
who originally wrote it would
himself be sort of surprised at the
discovery. Of course we might doc
tor it up little-make it trump in a
little better for our uses, you know
but we would keep the original idea
fairly, nevertheless
Another dealer in the most expen-
sive sort of imported and handmade
valentines said: There is hardly
any novelty in the imported lace paper
valentines. The same things that
were good enough for us when we
were young and spooney, if made
over fresh, are good enough for those
who are young and spooney now, and
will be for their grandchildren when
they begin to get soft about the heart
fifty years from now But for few
years past there has been growing
fancy for hand-painted valentines,
SOlht VI Nuitil uiO fCi NAROhOi'Nf
and for them there is demand for
original poetry. That is probably
the trade that the poetess' is striking
for. Acrostics are popular in them
They are poorly paid for as a rule,
for they are not much in demand
the verses, mean. The hand paint
ed valentines are well-paid for. you
may be sure. and their manufacture
is conducted in quite private way.
But the people who order them. as a
general thing, grind out their own
love-sick doggerel, and no matter how
bad it is the girl who gets it will
think it divine if diamond ring is
part of the valentine, as it sometimes
is. That poetess won't go to Europe
next summer on the profits of her
valentine writing, I'll bet.-N. Y.
Sun.