The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-15
CUPID'5 MAIL BAG.
The Postal Clerks Have a Lively Tussle
with the Sentimental Missives.

with the Sentimental Mis5ives.
The postofics employees have a better
idea OF what is being done on st. Valentines
day than almost anybody else They
handle the stuff" as one Of them expressed
it yesterday. They Travelled about over
the city Yesterday with well filed mail Gags,
which they said we're st. Valentine
freight"
I'VE got a heap Of 'em s'mornin', but we
/ spec t'get more seventh" said a carrier,
! who tugge1 with a big bag stuffed full Of
valentines aud pokiug out of the top.
We got a good many hundred by the
northern trains to-day, said one of the de-
| livery clerks They are all large packages
and seem to be costly. We are getting
more Of his sort this year than we did last
| year. AS to the quantity we are handling,
sent out by people in the city, cannot
| begin TO form an estimate. Hundreds of
them are addressed to parties all over the
state d especially to parties in the towns
I and at the country fOstCflces near Savan-
! nah. We make a wholesale scoop of the
/ drops Half of them come addressed and
sealed, with only one cent postage
"W hat do you do in such casesF'
There is nothing left for US to do but TO
try to collect the postage due on the letter
from the party to whom it is addressed and
nine cases out Of ten, after finding out what
it Is, the party refuses to pay the amount Of
pos age due. "
What do you do thenW
I'VE refuse to deliver him the letter, and
1t is sent TO the dead letter office, with an
explana ion of the matter. 1t is generally
destr yed there. Sometimes they send the
le' ter back 70 the person that sent il and an
effort is made 10 collect the postage. Some
tunes they succeed, but most generally they
do not succeed"
Tba %Lat tLa &c
yesterday was enormous, and coming so
suddenly as it did it taxed them to d spatch
it, but the clerks console themselves that II
is only one day tlat they are rushed
Comic valentines, he said, predetermined
this season in the city, but all those ad-
dressed to parties out Of the city, and the
larger portion Of those coming by the north
ern mails are very large, and are evidently
costly ones
St. Valentine according to some ecclesi-
astlcal writer's, was a bishop, while others
assert that he was a presbyter, but they
agree that he was beheaded at Rome in the
year go, during toe reign Of Emperor
ClaudIus, and was soon after canonzed. A
News man, in looking up the history of
this venerable saint, mas found that he was
said TO have been man of eminent piety,
and 80 famous for his love and Charity
that the custo a Of choosing valentines on
his festival took is rise from thence" La
justice to t. Valentine, however, who,
from ali accounts, as a worthy man, it
should be said that although his name
has been given to the one day in the
year when the postal revenues are greatly
| increased by the ira sm ission of messages
Of love or evidences Of hate, the custom
| probably took its rise from a sctice preva-
| lent in ancient Rome at the festival of the
| Lupercalia during he month Of February,
| when, among other ceremonies, the names
Of young women we're placed in box from
| which they ere taken by young men as
| chance directed. THIS Louisiana lottery
way Of disposng OF the surplus young
| women Of K me worked well III some cases
and ia some 1t did not turn out so well.
The carly fathers of the church looked
upon the method as a sort of free love af-
| fair, and tley did not cOunteuauce it. They
| tried at first to extirpate this pagan cere-
money, but finding that impossible they
| proceeded to change its form. TEey ar
ranged it so that on the eve Of the 14th Of
| February the names II a select number of
one sex should be put into some vessel by
an equal number Of the other sex, and then
| every one drew name, which, for the
| tlme being, was called his or her valentine
| Tnls gave those preparing the names Az OPP
portunlty to select those particularly
pleasing to them, and as the coupling was
but for day, it could not lead to any IN
comfortable results. 1t was sort Of mock
betrothal and the pairs made by chance
| furnished great Amusement to those
who witnessed the drawing. The drawing
was always supervised by the local mag
hates Of the place where the festival was
celebrated, and, as will readily be under
| stood, every ticket was a pTiZa, like the
grRU-bag of a church fair. Indeed, some
historians insist that this was the origin Of
| the church fair, alth ugh this transaction
Vas much more fair than many that have
been witnessed at some Of the fairs in recent
days The young people who drew aud
who were drawn were greatly envied by
their associates and high honors were paid
them. Freq lently these valentinarin
couples became genuinely attached to each
other, and Ell they took the chances Of
married life. Sometimes when young
mans luck wa sRsiast him and he didn't
draw the name OF the girl that he wanted,
he would trade Off the one he did get
for the one whom he desired, and then
all would be we'll 1t is not impossible that
the modern practice OF trading candidates
on the day Of election had its origin in the
above practice.
Another alleged origin Of Valentines day
is said TO be that birds were supposed to Sc
lect their mates on Feb IA. Shakespeare
gives hint Of this in Midsummer Nights
| Dream when he says, Saint Valentine
is past; begin these woodbirds but TO couple
row" The poet Walton gracefully refers
to this tradition as follows: "Now all ma
turc seemed in love, and tie birds had
drawn their valentines" Whatever its
origin, the celebration of st. Valentines
| dAy is very ancient