The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-02-11
somE VALENTINE TALK.
Tender Missives Re ceIved and Sent
by Public Men.
Correspondence Of the Press

least one OF these sentimental miSSiveS is
atleast neutrality-suspicious., but after
somewhat extended search through the
published lives of nearly all the great
men who have gone, have been unable
to find single allusion to any valentine
experience. Now any young lady who
has spark of romance in her soul will
agree that this is q most unfortunate
omission, and thatthe Valentines Day
experiences of the great men of today
I recently called on all the famous men
/ could reach, in order that 1 might re-
cord the story of their first valentines
for the benefit of future historians
Ex-President Cleveland was the first
on the list that had prepared. Mr..
Cleveland was deep in the intricacies of
some law case when 1 called, but he
interrupted his labors without a mo-
ments hesitation to receive me. The
results of my inquiries were not, how
ever, as fruitful as might have been
hoped.
"My first valentiner' said the ex-
president, repeating my question, while
a smile spread over his features. "That's
queer sort of a question, and I guess
you will have to go to some younger
man for valentine experiences. It's a
great many years now since l sent q
valentine, if / ever sent any at all, and
I've forgotten all about them. You
must remember that am 81 years old.
and since the period when most mems
valentine days are naturally supposed to
come I've had more or less to think of.
Consequently I am afraid that will not
be able to give you any information on
the subject"
Chauncey M. Depew, according to his
own account, came in for st. Valentine
attentions at very early date.
'Bless your hearth he said to me when
asked him about his first offering, 81
couldn't tell you if I should think for
week. 1t seems to me that valentines
have always played a prominent part in
my existence, and guess got my first
before was able to read. A little later
on, when my accomplishments had
grown somewhat, remember they took
on tender tone, and this sentimental
era in my valentine experience continued
until got married.
"After that they came as regularly as
before, but the contents were different.
They were either of practical turn,
giving me lots of good advice, or they
were harmless bits Of humor or satire
sent by friends And now" and Mr..
Depew's face was temporarily clouded
with the memory of his trials in this di-
rection, ''now they come even more
numerously than before, but the senders
are either cranks, who take the oppor-
tunity to work off some crazy compost
ton on me, or malicious persons who
jump at the chance to send me anony-
mously a lot of disagreeable stuff. The
latter comes from people who, if they
were little less cowardly, would throw
vitriol in your face or shoot you with
an air gun. But as they can't sum-
mon up sufficient courage to do that,
they hide behind the privilege of st.
Valentines Day to shoot their shafts
anonymously.
However, that's one of the unpleas-
ant features of the day, and one 1 am
glad to say that didn't exist when l
was young man. We only celebrated
the agreeable feature of the day by send
ing anonymously grateful little compli-
ments in such way that the sender
could easily be traced. We didn't have
the elaborated affairs in those days that
you have now, at least not in the coun-
try where I lived. All our valentines
were written. We would get some ar
tistically engraved cards and inscribe on
them some pretty sentiment in pen and
ink. We would either an give appropri-
ate quotation from favorite author or
write something original, and somehow
it seems to me that these valentines
meant more than the expensive works
of art that are sent today. But that may
only seem to me because I am not as
young as / used to be in those days.
And then don't send any more today,
which makes all the difference in the
world
One would suppose "Bob" Ingersoll
would receive bushel basket of valen-
tines every year. But Mr.. Ingersoll as
sured me with perfectly straight face
that he had never received or read
valentine in his life
''Not even when you were young,
colonel" asked somewhat doubtfully.
mo, sir, not even when was young"
replied the colonel very positively.
''Those were mighty poor times for valen-
tines, when was young, at least where
lived in the west. You couldn't drop your
little valentine in the slot and let the
letter carrier do the rest. Houses were
twenty-five or fifty miles apart, and if
you had been filed with desire to send
your best girl or some other fellows
best girl q valentine it would have in
volyed loss of day or perhaps two
days. And even then the reception at
the other end would have been very
doubtful. 1 don't know exactly what
would have been the feelings of
the recipient of the valentine Of
fering, but l feel pretty certain
that it wouldn't have advanced your
chances for an early engagement. The
old people would have looked with ex-
IRENE suspicion on any valentine per-
Torrance, and it would have required
some effort to explain it away. So YOU
see it is perfectly natural that should
never have sent or received valentine.
even during the days when might nat.
urally have been supposed to be addicted
to the practice, and afterward the fever
never touched me-"
Russell Sage, the man who is popular.
" supposed to have more millions in
ready cash locked away for profitable
investment in call loans than any other
man in the country, seemed very much
tickled when I asked him about his first
valentine.
valentines? My first valentine? Well,
well, WE'LL" And the old gentleman
gave one of his quiet, secretive chuckles
while he fondly stroked the folds of his
81 rs umbrella. ~ never had time for
valentines; too much work to do. And
then never was sentimental" he con-
tinued, with another chuckle. "NeVer.
You want to hunt up some OF the ro-
mantic fellows. There are lots OF them
around, you know"
Il suppose you receive valentine oc-
caslonally, at any rate, Mr.. Sage?'
oh yes, / get 'em, lots of 'em," and
TINS time the old gentleman almost
laughed outright. "You can't escape
en- and some Of them are beauties
friends Of mine, you know, who want
70 snow me how much they think Of
ne: maybe I'll let you see my valentine
= au some day-some very fine things