Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1888-02-15
st. Valentines Day.

he must have done some wondrous things,
For round his name what glory clings
Why, half the world adore his name,
And once a year recount his fame,
And everywhere the ladies pine
To get verse from Valentine"
1t is said that fact in natural his
tory, to wit, that birds in Southern
Europe pair about the middle of Feb
ruary, is the actual origin of the as
ISOLATION of sentiment with this date.
There is no doubt that the custom of
sending valentines can be traced in
origin to a practice among the ancient
Romans. At the feast of the Luper-
Gala, which was held on the 18th of
February, in honor Of the great god
Pan, deriving its name from the place
where it was held, the Lupercal, so
called because it was supposed to be
the spot where the four-footed foster
mother of Romulus and Remus adj
ministered nourishment to the little
waifs-the names Of all the virgin
daughters of Rome were put in box
and drawn therefrom by the young
men. Each youth was bound to off
er gift to the maiden who fell to his
lot, and to make her his partner dur
ing the feast. No doubt this custom
led to the formation of many life
partnerships, which was undoubtedly
what its practical originators desired.
How this very secular custom be-
came allied to the name of saint is
another matter entirely. st. Valen-
tine was Bishop of Rome during
the third century. He is reported to
have been man Of most amiable ma
ture and remarkable gifts of elo-
quence, so that he was very successful
in converting the pagan Romans to
Christianity. For this reason he nat
urally incurred the displeasure of the
Emperor, Marcus Aurelius Claudius,
who hated and prosecuted the little
Christian band, and he was martyred
by order of that ruler, first beaten
with clubs and then beheaded. The
date of his death was February IA,
270 A. ID. His bones are still exhib-
tied to the traveller at the church of
st. Praxedes, in Rome. Pope Julius
erected church to this worthy mar
tyr's memory, and the gate leading to
it, which is now the Porto del Popolo,
was known for several centuries as
Porta Valentino. Archbishop Wheat
ley, in his illustrations Of the Book
of Common Prayer, says that EST.
Valentine was man of admirable
parts, and so famous for his love and
charity that the custom of choosing
valentines upon this festival (which
is till practiced] took its rise from
thence" ,
1t is probable that the connection ]
of name came from a coincidence of j
date only. When the saint came to {
be placed in the calendar, his name
was given to the day of his death, and
this was made festival, to offset that
of the Lupercalia, on the 18th. Alb /
ram Butler, in his Olives of the ,
Saints" tells us that the Jealous faith
ers endeavored to substitute the names l
for those of girls in the lottery, but
without success. st. Francis de Sales, .
of Geneva, in the seventeenth centu-
ry attempted similar reform, order
ing the drawing of the names of saints
and holy men, whose virtues were de- s
serving of imitation. Since initiating
saint is more difficult task than
dancing attendance on a pretty girl,
we can not be surprised that the inno-
walton did not take" among the
young men Of Geneva. BY some
means this custom found its way into
Great Britain--probably Caesars
soldiers introduced it-and was for
many centuries in high favor both in
England and Scotland. We find
mention of it at as early date as
1446 and many times subsequently.
1t was called Choosing valentines :"
probably because there was no choice
in the matter.
Here the young men as well as the
young women wrote their names on
billets to be drawn by the opposite
sex. Thus each had two valentines,
the one which he had drawn, and the
one to whose lot he had fallen, and
we are told it was the custom for the
young man to prefer the former and
to relieve himself of all obligations
to the latter by gift. Fortune hav-
ing thus divided the company into I
couples, it was expected that the
young men would devote themselves
for certain length of time to attend
ance on the maidens given them, "a $
sport that often ends in love-" an old ,
writer says, cas- might be expected"
Indeed, matrimony might be chosen
by the young men from motives of
economy, for he was expected to be
lavish in his gifts to his valentine"
Many other customs of medieval and a
later times might be noted, all having !
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