The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-02-21
VALENTINE DAY.
Bill Arp Talks About the Good
Old Saint.
Aud the Day Which is Observed by the
Young Foil5-The Philosopher at
Work in His Garden.

not far away and the robbins have
brought us the news. We see them
now every day and thoy cheer us with
their presence. | would not shoot a Robin
and am sorry that | ever did / would not
shoot any bird that administers to our pleasure.
1t is a sin to kill anything for sport-that is
except snakes. What beautiful innocent life
the birds cnjoy-that is except hawks and buzz
zards-and yet the boys kill birds just to be
killing something. Very often they wound
them and the poor things linger in pain and
die in misery. Boys, it is all wrong don t
do it, When you 90 hunting hunt for
game that is good for the table, such
as squirrels, rabbits and partridges, but don't
blaze away at every little bird you see. Don't
shoot the robbins nor the doves. They arc too
gentle and loving to be killed. They love our
homes and habitations.
1t is old superstition that the birds
choose their mates on Valentine day OF course
this is not true, for away up north it is still
midwinter, and away down south the spring is
over. 1t is only a narrow belt of country that
has the vernal equinox i'll March. Whether it
is winter or summer docs not depend upon the
months, but where we are located. The old
world was first settled in our latitude north of
the equator, and so all the names and signs and
traditions and supersttionS have come down 20
us along the same parallels, but they don't fit
some other counties Mt all. It is hard for us to
realize that away down below the equator De-
ccmbey is hot and July is cold. st. Valentine
never lived down there where the birds began
to mate in September and the March winds
do not blow nor the GogWood bloom in April,
nor the children have their picnics in May.
The whole course Of natures seasons is revers-
ed and we would hardly know ourselves were
we suddenly transplanted there | was read
ing the other day in a northern paper about
the terrible billiards in that region, where
the thermometer was 80 degrees below zero,
and in another column was the foreign news
that told about the awful heat in south Aus
tralia where the thermometer was 120 degrees
above zero on the 18th of January This was
only difference of 10 degrees, and the people
in both countries were suffering about alike,
though in one it was heat and the other cold.
The good st. Valentine was beheaded about
$50 years after Christ. lie was a man of great
learning and piety and charity, and everybody
loved him but the wicked Emperor Claudius,
and so the people commemorated his virtues
by making the day Of his death n notable day.
As he loved everybody and everything, they
got mp that pretty superstition about tho birds
mating. Afterwards the boys and girls took it
up and said it was good time of tho year for
them to mate aud so they started the custom
o: writing love letters and playing sweetheart
for "A little while. At first they drew lots for
their mates. and pretty, sweet girl had to
play sweetheart TO a knock-kneed, cross-eyed,
twiSt-nose BOBBY II she drew him.
The young people love to receive pretty val
entine5 that speak loving words in pretty
verses, and there is no harm in that kind.
They are symbols Of loves young dream, and
are for lads and lassies only These old bach
clors and maidens who have fallen i'll love and
fallen out q score of times, and have fooled and
hirted with Cupid until he has fled from their
hearts, have no right to send or receive val
| entine. III they really want to mate, let them
| make business transaction of it, and write a
| business letter and say "yours truly"
Mr. Joe NJ, Brown is i'll love with everybody
| ! know, for he has issued the prettiest valen-
| tine ever saw of n business kind. 1t is a
| gem--a thing of beauty and tho story it tells
| of the battle OF kennesaw, and how the blue
| and the gray met together in love and kind
| ness over their dead comrades, is worthy of
the good Saint Valentine. 1t makes man
| feel like taking the heDnesaw route and going
| up north and hugging every soldier he met.
| February has curious history. In fact, il
took several centuries for the year to get split
| up into months as they are now. Augustus
| Cesar had August put in the calendar TO please
| his own vanity, and Julius Cesar had July put
in to get even with Augustus; and so King
Numa had February put in in honor of the
festival of Lupercus Februus, one of their
mythical gods. This festival was held an
nually on the 10Th day of February, and some
historians say that tho observance of the 18th
day came from that festival May be it did.
May be it dident. The good saint has the
credit of it, and the best right TO it, and SO Wo
will let him keep it, There is no use in under
mining everything that has been pleasant to
Toll and are after Shakespeare. and the other
day saw an article headed Santa Claus must
go" Some men would assassinate Joan of Arc
| and Aladdin and Sancho PanZa and Cinderella
and Jack and tho Bean Stalk and Uncle Toby
and Tom OShantcr and Christmas and the
Fourth of July. What is the good of drying
up all the imagination Of our natures? Here
are the very names of the days of the week
that came down TO us from the Scandinavian
mythology, and another mythology gave US
10, .fN Hat
So let st. Valentine and st. Patrick have
their days, ana st. Paul and st. Peter their
churches. and st. James his hotels.
Spring is coming, and as usual, from time
immcmural, | have been working in the gar
den planting potatoes and peas and onions and
strawberry plants and ever and anon Mrs. Arp
would walk ont and smile ON me and encour-
age me to keep on that line ii 1t took me all
summer, My back hurts me right now. | got
down on my marrow bones and put out SEQ
strawberry plants with my own hands and
knees. No little boy to help me now. for he is
ut school, and | have to wait ON my old self all
the time Mrs. Arp advised me today TO stop
digging awhile and cut up some stove wood for
Il recreation. | read very sad account about
an old man cutting stove wood and stick few
up and hit him i'll the eye and put il out,
| told her about it and She said she didn I
reckon it would happen again in a hundred
years. 1t took me Two days last week to grade
the terrace in the front yard and then | had to
dig II big holes for the new roses that Mr.,
BcrchmauS sent her from Augusta and II took
n wleelhawow full OF rich earth for every two
holes, for She says there is a right way and u
wrong way TO plant out roses Sho Says that
exercise is good for me fer l am getting too
round and work will reduce me and make mo
SiCcp SWCcter and not quite SO loud. SO 1t is
all light and l Shant complain
There's another dog come homo-Ra,ph is
working down NJ tho mines and took a notion
60 send his iiro dog home. That max es our
dogs rjeht here in q bunch and we can't stand
II. Onols Old and blind ana wont die. Another is
Carts and my wife She claims the sheppard
rs hey pet, but She gol mad with him the other
! day ana said She wished he was away oil on
! some farm. So whilo she was outNisiting, |
! gave the dog away, but it didn't stick. He
/ CGmo hack home before She missed kim, and il
WAS lucky for me that lie did. Ii reminded
| me OF Or. FELTON, when he walked out on his
pia n and saw a LOT OF cattle in his corn field.
/ Here, Madison-Madison, come here, Madi-
/ sonl Don't you see those fonoe-brcakmg cat
( tie down yondor raising the com1 Run Mad
/ iSou; they will ruin mo absolutely! Get your
| gun and Kill the last one of themi declare
! IL is eNaSporatng 20 have na0ols' cattle de-
/ vouying your substance in such way. Run,
/ Madison -con- plague the CATTLE
The doctor went In and sat down in vcxa-