Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-02-10
LOVE ON THE LAY
For His Victims is Preparing His Papers
for Next Wednesday, 80 as to
Suit All Conditions
And ALI Tastes, with Rhymes in and out
OF Reason and Season, and Pic.
lures Fair and Unfair.

Next Wedn esday will be S.. Valentines |
day, and ALREADY this fanciful occasion il |
beginning 10 cause q hutter Of hearts. The |
bookstore windows are filled with tender and
comic valentines, and people OF all ages can
be seen scanning them. Even the white
haired old man Likes 10 hold In his hand one
of the beautiful messages of affection and re-
cali to mind the St. Valentines days OF long
ago, when he took advantage OF the season
and sent a secret token Of the love which be
dared not express. The light of sweet mem
cries shines in the dimmed eve and makes
beautiful the very wrinkles of age. And 20
on the brink of the hereafter, when the
spirit, chs.tened by its long imprisonment in
| the body, is about to break its way through,
and clothe itself in immortal garments, the
old man can look backward s cross the gulf
| OF years, and recall the days of sunshine,
before care or sin came along TO tell him ne
| was no longer a boy.
YOUTHFUL swEErHEAETs.
AS a contrast TO him, is the sweet faced
| school girl with a rosebud in each cheek and
| eyes that suggest the stars in their bright
| meas. She has her fancy, which trouble has
| never clouded. She is preoccupied with the
| thought of sending her sweetheart valen-
tine. She has look of pretty perplexity
in her lace, for she must be very secret and
mysterious so that no one shall find cut to
| whom she sent the valentine, or that she sent
| it at all. She would like for her sweetheart
| to know that she sent it, and yet she don't
| want him to know that abe cares quite that
much for him. AT any rate, she resolves to
send one, and then trust to some little bird
| COMIC PICTURES
To the boy ST. Valentines day does not
mean as much as it does TO her. He looks
upon the comic as we'll az the sentimental
side; and if there is any one whom he wants
to make feel very bad, he picks out the
broad picture of a drunksrd or tramp or
some character equally despicable, and
when his enemy gets it, his soul is at peace.
But with all his mischief, he does not forget
| a certain pair of blue eyes, and he invokes
the resources of his boyish cunning 10 aid
him in sending missive clsndestinely.
| Valentines sent by young men and young
ladies TO each other generally mean some
thing, with rare exceptions. 1t ia true that
some young men have
THE REPREHENsIBLE PRACTICE
OF sending pretty love tokens TO half dozen
girls; but in the end they suffer more per-
plexity than the girls, who usually get to-
gether and compare notes. The young lady
who receives PraDg's magnificent valentine
is perfectly justified in thinking that love
dictated the sending of it.
To digrt 81 upon the character of The val
entines offered the public this year, it is not
too much to say that they excel anything
contrived in the previous years. They are
marvelously pretty, and if the love of a
maiden is to be won, the APPEAL knows Of
nothing more effective to capture the "little
three-cornered exponent of our hopes and
| fears" than beautiful valentine. Some
. idea of
THE VALENTINE RAGE
may be obtained from the following extract
from q Boston paper: "The windows of the
stationers aud fancy-goods dealers are just
: now crowded with cards for Easter, and all
sorts Of fancies for the coming festival Of
st. Valentine. For all these, New York is
said TO be the great distributing center, but
Boston Zone OF the most considerable sub
urbs of the Dutch metropolis of the Empire
State), with the aid Of Prang and others, car
do little something 10 this line all alone Of
itseli. In word, the valentine craze il
! yearly increasing i2 virulence, and its vic
Tins are multiplying. Some OF the more
costly OF these festival fancies range in prizes
from S25 to $50. Valentines costing 500
although rarity. are not unknown; and tht
late Fernando Wood is said to have paid
that sum a few years since for beautiful
, specimen which be sent to his niece. E1
. Senator Roscoe Conkling is also reported te
costing 500. OF course the larges
sales are among the gilt-lace ant
lace-paper variety, costing from five t.
twenty-five cents-about the average limit
OF human credulity. OF the coarse and cheay
(alleged) "comic" valentines Costing, per
haps, a couple of cents each), it is said thai
three firms in New York City dispose o
: over 100000 gross in the United States alon'
in single season. Everybody buys them
t from the spoony youth with the smooth chin
!, and the young miss with her sweet plaster of
Paris smile TO the matronly lady in costly
/ fur cloak, who has hidden few gray hair
y with pomatum aud soothed few crows fee
around her eyes with lily white. Some o
those young and giddy girls, tricked out il
rich and costly costumes, with their French
Z heels and full skirts and jlunty hats ant
sweet smiles, buy them just for the sake o.
0 flirting with a man with beard, notwith
:. standing his gray hair and all his wrinkles
= The ladies, in fact, are the largest purchasers
!, and their indiscriminate use of not a few o
, those risky, mid February missives, is-tt
say the least-ill.a advised"