Telegram-herald., 1891-02-10
SOME VALENTINE TALK.
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them undoubtedly "a s1nd cr receive 81
least one II these sentimental Enissiyes Is
a. least a reasonable snpposlsioa. but after
somewhat extended seSroh through The
Published hsss Il nearly al the great
men who have gone. lave been unable
70 find single allassoa 10 any y2lentine
experence. Now sly young lsty who
has spark Of romance "a her soul VIII
agree that this Is most unfortunate
omission, anl that the II. Valentines Day
expenenoes Of the great men of today
might not be similarly lost 70 posteTlty
| recently called on All the famous men
| could reach, Ia order that 1 might re-
cord the story of their first valentines
fer the beneht of future historians.
Ex-President Cleveland was the tirst
on the list that had prepared. Mr..
Cleveland was deep IN tho intricacies OF
some law case when | called. but he
interrupted his labors without mo-
ments hesitation 70 receive me. The
results of nay inquiries were not, how
ever, as fruitful as might have been
hoped
MY first valentine" said the ex-
president repeating my question, wmie
a smile spread over his features. That 5
a queer sort of a question. and j guess
you viii have 10 go 10 some younger
man for valentine experiences. Its a
great many years now since | sent q
valentine, II l ever sent any at all, and
I've forgotten ali about them. You
,.,,st ,arDa,al,ar that / orp "A N,aarS oIl
and since the period when most mems
valentine days are naturally supposed 10
come I've had moro or less TO think of.
Consequently am afraid that viii not
be able 70 give you any information on
the subject"
Chauncey II. Depew, according to his
own account, came il for ST. Valentine
attentions at very early date.
"Bless your heart.' he said to me when
! asked him about bis first Offering. Il
couldn't tell you if / should think for a
week. II seems To me that valentines
have always played a prominent part in
my existence, and guess / got my first
before was able to read y little later
on, when my accomplishments had
grown somewhat, remember they took
on a tender tone, and This sentimental
era in my valentino experience continued
until got married.
after that they came as regularly as
before, but the contents were different.
They were either Of q 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
numerorsly 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 a little less cowardly, would throw
vitriCl IN yeur face OF 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 am
glad to say that didn't exist when |
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 lived. All our valentines
were written. We would get come ar
tistically engraved cards and inscribe on
them some pretty sentiment in pen and
ink. We would either an give appropri-
ate quotation from fsvorite author or
write something original, and somehow
| il seems 70 me that these valentines
meant more than the expensive works
of art that are sent today. But that may
only seem to me because | am not rs
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 "A bushel basket of valen-
tines every year. But Mr. Ingersoll as
surea rne with perfectly straight face
that he had never received or read a
valentino in his life.
''Not eTen when you were young.
colonelT ! asked somewhat doubtfully.
mo. sir, not even when | was young
replied the colonel very positively.
Those were mighty POOR times for valea-
tines, when was young. at least where
lived IN the west You couldn't drop your
little valentine in tho slot and let the
letter carrier do the rest. Houses were
twenty-five or City miles apart. and II
you had been filed With desire to send
your best girl or SOME other fellow
best girl n valentine it would have in
volved loss Of day or perhaps two
davs. And even then the reception ~
the other end would have been very
doubtful / don't know exactly what
would have been the feelings OF
the recipient of the valentine Of
fsring. bnt | feel pretty certain
that IL woal5n't have advanced your
chances for An early engagement The
+ cid people would have looked with ex-
trerae suspicion On any valentine per
fo-manca, and il wosld have required
some effort 30 explain it away. So vou
So Is Is perfectly nsssral that should
newer have ssat or received valentine.
even during the days when might nat
urally have been s1ppseed TO be addicted
/ to the practice, and afservarti the fever
| never touched me
I 80 -