St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-02-14
TO BE YOUR VALENTINE.

Hamlet, w., s..
The boy OF the girl who hasn't COM
posed love verse in honor of st. VAL
ENTINE has lived in vain, and yet the
good old saint knew less about the day
that has been named in his honor and
its observances than any man who ever
lived. There was no st. Valentines
day during his lifetime, and if there
had been he would have been the last
fellow to be guilty of the sentimental
foolishness which now characterizes an
observance of the day.
st. VALENTINE was q good old
bishop who is supposed to have been
beheaded at Rome in the year 270, dur
ing the reign of the Emperor CIATDIUs.
1t is known that he was man of emil
nent piety and charity, for which he
was canonized after his death. He
loved all the world, and all the world
loved him, except the bigoted Ro-
mans who put him to death. Yet there
is no tradition that st, VALENTINE
ever had a love affair or was at all SEN
timentally inclined.
1t becomes matter Of historical in
terest, therefore, to know how "All
Lovers day. came to be established as
festival, and why it bears the name of
the pious old priest. Away back before
the dawn Of Christianity the Romans
observed the festival of the Lupercalia
during the month of February, when
among other ceremonies, the names of
young women were placed in box
from which they were taken by young
men as chance directed, and the couples
who were paired according to this
Louisiana lottery scheme were COM
PEELED to marry. The plan was found
to work so successfully in the way of dis
posing of ROme's surplus spinsters the
Romans were 10th to give it up even after
the city and empire had passed under
Christian domination and influence.
Accordingly the old church fathers
after trying in vain to eXtirpate this
pagan ceremony, resorted to the device,
of charging its form so as to preserve
the fiction. yet divest it of its free-love
tendencies. A church festival was es-
tablished in place Of the Lupercalian
ceremony, into which the Louisiana
lottery scheme was incorporated; but
the marriages which followed were
only mock marriages, and the whole
affair was robbed Of It's former serious
aspect. Then it was thought neces-
Sary to give Christian name to the
festival, and it so happened that the
name of the good old bishop, whose
martyrdom had endeared his memory
to the church, was selected. Thus it
was st. VALENTINES name has be-
come synonymous with heart affairs.
SHAKESPEARE, who often got on the
wrong track, hints in Midsummer
Nights Dream that the origin of st.
Valentines day was due to the fact that
birds always mated Oh the 18th of Feb
ruary. This was the common tradition
in England during SHAKESPEARE
time, for he Weaves q reference to st.
Valentines day into Ophelia's insane
rawlings. The poet WALTON talks of
how 'all nature seemed in love, and
the birds had drawn their Valentines"
Tom HooD paid dainty tribute to st.
VALENTINE and his festival in one of
his best sonnets. and the poets of all
subsequent ages have in some way or
other rung in the praises of the saint
and his day.
That the old custom is still in sweet,
fresh remembrance will be amply dem
onstrated by the increased revenues
that will pour into the postoffice de-
partment to-day. Many swain and
maiden will have their young hearts
gladdened this day by the receipt of a
delicate missive on perfumed paper,
with Cupid's dart worked into bleed
ing heart; but you can bet your bottom
dollar the poor, tired-out letter carrier
tonight will curse the day that st.
VALENTINE was born.