The Florida agriculturist., 1889-02-13
MAKING VALENTINES.

1t takes three things to make comic Y alien
tine-paper, ink and long haired poet. One
thing more is needed to make sentimental
valentine, some satin or filigree work of varl-
Gus designs. Perhaps the largest factory III
the world is located in Brooklyn. About
20,000,000 valentines, comic and otherwise,
are turned out in this factory in the course OF
year.
Let US take a look at valentine making.
The many operations through which yalen-
tines pass before they are ready to be de-
livered to the retailer are interesting The
first floor of the factory is occupied by paper
cutting and embossing machines. The paper
on which valentines are printed is received
from the manufacturer direct and is not i'll
condition for use It must be cut in pieces.
by 215 feet, and on which are stamped six
teen comic valentines After being cut, the
paper is taken to the second floor and printed.
Three hundred out of the four hundred en-
ployes in the factory are women and girls
While the majority of the work is done by
skilled labor, some departments are operated
wholly by machinery.
On the SIXTH or top, floor half dozen art
lists draw the pictures used in valentines and
toy books After a drawing is made
and photographed the usual course in
making process cuts is followed, but
it must not be supposed that valentine can
be struck off complete by one impression. In
some cases valentines pass through no less
than dozen impressions. Each impression
adds different shade or color to the picture.
Take for example drawing of machinist
at work. The mans hat is red, bis face and
arms are pink, his hair and mustache arc blue,
wit IF hlaoE bn md q a
yellow, the trousers are green, while his shoes
are blue with a tinge of black.
Sentimental valentines are made of fancy
paper and satin. The plates pass through the
same process as comic The handsome, highly
perfumed valentines, which the languishing
swain pays from So to SIS for, are hand painted,
or. as the superintendent said, touched up
The touching up process consists of artistically
daubing paint here and there about the outer
surface of the valentine. These hasty strokes
result in flowers, pictures descriptive of the
billings of turtle doves and pastoral scenes.
Now we come to the poet. Chaucer, Shakes
peare, Milton, Tennyson or any OF the bright
galaxy Of bards is nowhere compared to this
one. He gets q weekly salary, and he can
grind out poetry by the yard, by the rod, by
the mile. They say valentine poetry is diff
cult to make; but, bless you, this fellow rolls
it of like a.machine. In six months he has
written 1000 comic and 500 sentimental
verses
'fMany are the poets that are sown by nature
Men endowed with highest gifts,
The vision and the faculty divine,
Yet lacking the accomplishment of verse. "
But this fellow isn't troubled with anything
of that sort His verses may not be polished
they are just verses. Necessarily this poet
must have some system about his work. In
spiration may be a first class thing for bard
who has come one to foot his bills. but III
spiration never put butter on a mans bread;
or, in fact, furnished him with any bread at
all. So our valentine poet, who is obliged to
turn out SO much poetry day, necessarily
must do it like q machine.
He probably writes his comic valentines
something like this: First, he thinks of a
subject which must be one of class familiar
to every one For instance, barber Then
he thinks of some failing in his subject with
which every one is familiar. A barber viii
talk, and every one knows IT. A comic val
entine must, of course be a joke on the sub
iect, SO it must refer in q sort of half satiri-
cal, half conical way to his failing. 1t must