The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-11
THE 0NECENTVA VALENTINE
ILL NATURE PRINTED FOR ANON
YMOUS DISTRIBUTION


All the Foibles, Occupations and Mis-
fortunes OF Humanity Pictured in
Crude Daubs-The Desire to Infict
/ ain on other People Without Being
Found Out.
From the Ne,g York Press.
The custom of choosing your own true
love on st. Valentines day, when, as the
quaint old story has it, the birds pick out
their mates, is so old that it runs back to the
time when what we call heathens ruled the
world. Adopted and christianized as were
the majority of popular feasts, its patron
saint soon found place in the long list OF
the lesser deities. 1t was, and is yet,
pretty idea, full of poetry and sentiment,
and around it have naturally gathered a
host of tributes TO its beauty, which may be
found in any Of the numerous dictionaries
Of poetical quotations. The obserY-
ance Of the day has changed with
the changed conditions of society," until
what was once an open choice of man and
maid nearly approaching the soiemnlty OF a
| betrothal, has now become little more than
a complimentary remembrance. One sends
valentines in these latter days as one sends
Christmas or Easter cards, and with the
| same indiscriminate prOfusion. Another
very curious change is the secrecy which
now attaches to the presents. In the old
time the ceremony of choosing the valentine
was open to the world, and the fact of the
| choice formed one of the most delightful
pieces of village gossip. Now the gift is
made anonymously, nor must there be even
a hint in the handwriting Of the personality
| of the giver.
With this anonymous character of the
valentine has crept in the custom of sending
them TO persons who are disliked as well as
to friends. TO many people there is a subtle,
! cowardly enjoyment in Irtlng the feelings
of others, so long as it may he done without
those others knowing anything of the
aggreSsor. The fact that the delight felt
can never be shared with another, that the
sender has to content him or herself with
imagining the pain which has been given,
does but seem to add to the pleasure. This
is strange. but none the less true. II is this
feeling which prompts the writing of anOny
nous letters when there Is no special grudge
nor dislike for the person to whom they are
sent. Every year the police records men
| ton aggravated cases of this kind and for
one that comes to the public there are hun
dreds that are never heard Of.
The sense of humor possessed by large
numbers of people is akin to that feeling
which makes knocking a man down the
surest form of combating his arguments.
Such people delight in practical jokes of
the rudeSt kind; one that combines the ele-
ment of cruelty that gives physical pain to
the person upon whom it is played is to
them always the most delightful, and the
source of the greatest enjoyment. The
| anonymous letter is good, but the valentine
which to its anonymous character adds
spice of humor of the crudest sort, is to
them a delightful thing. 1t is for these
people that the cheapest valentines are
printed and painted in enormous numbers.
One of them only costs 1c., and the feeling
that for 1c. one can have a dollars worth of
pain in the victim, is altogether delightful.
These valentines, which may be bought
about this time in numberless little shops,
have one characteristic common to all.
Each picks out some popularity of person,
or manner, or thought and, having done
so, proceeds to strike that as hard as posi-
BILE They do not use soft words. They
delcately call a man fool, an ass, a don
key, an idiot, a liar, hog a sneak, a cheat,
a bore, parrot, or a wlndbag. There is
therefore no mistake as to the meaning of
what they wish to say. They are especial
~ severe upon nationalitieS. English,
| French, German, Irish, Italians, SpaniardS,
Scotch, Russians Poles, Jews, negroes and
Canadians would, it seems, have some rea-
son for regret that they were born. Nor
are Yankees left out in the cold. Western
men are typified by a burly ruffian with re-
|
tines which are applicable to every trade
that can be named or thought of. Has
man no especial popularity; never mind, he
is a coachman, for example, and here is
something which will fit him. Oddities of
manner are frequently commented upon. A
man shutters and he Is told to see II he can
understand himself
OF course, bodily infirmities or deform-
tiles do not escape. The blind, the mute,
the crippes, the hunchbacks, the lame, are
objects for the most cruel iDVective, and
the effect is heightened by the pictures,
monstrous daubS in the lowest and cheapest
style of color printing, yet having in them
the theme exaggerated to the point of the
hideously grotesque. A little girl who had
curvature of the spine, and whose short life
had been one long pain, but whose loving
disposition made her merry and cheerful IN
the short intervals of rest from her weary
burden of the flesh got one of these horrors
by the mail. 1t was pitiful TO hear her say,
"Oh, mamma, do | look like that, reallyP'
For weeks she was more subdued than
usual, for there had been a heavy load
added to that which those little shoulders
had to bear already. And there was one
man who, as he carried her up and down
the room that night until she went to sleep,
with the traces of tears upon her cheeks,
would have given money to know who it
was that sent the cruel thing.
| L Ho SGuUy VI blicSc llillSS ID CdlCuldleu 10
make one take rather deSponding view of
human nature. The enormous number of
them printed shows the demand which
exists for them and they must fly about by
the millions during the present month.
Yet YOU will look i'll vain for one that has
kindly word for anybody or anything The
men who write them seem to have ex-
hausted all the meanness and i'll temper
there is in existence. Even actions which
are generally thought to be brave and noble
furnish subjects ON which to hang some
idea that will hurt. Saving a PERSONS life
at great risk to yourself is surely appauded
by all men, yet the comic valentine can
only find i'll it desire for applause The
estate of matrimony is honorsd generally,
but it is no disgrace to remain single 70
the comic valentine there is nothing more
worthy of satire, if you can call satire the
brutal Safeguarding which marks these
sheets. The old maid and the old bachelor
furnish prolific subjects, judging from the
many variations upon the theme which you
can find.
Perhaps there is nothing more curious,
and at the same time more natural, than
the extreme Indignation excited in the mind
of the sender of one of these things when he
or she receives one IN return. Some years
ago a woman was brought up in the Tombs
Police Court charged with assault. She had
simply torn the clothes off of one of her
neighbors whom she suspected of having