Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-14
IN BRIEF.

epOCnS love 5 MANIFESTATIONS are SlIDlIdf,
traditional customs disclosing it are pre-
served. The abuse of these has caused
some of sthem to fall into disuse while
others, though perverted, still exist
It is not necessary to tell the young peo-
pie that to-day is St Valentines day, and
from the display in the shop windows dur
ing the past week there seems little doubt
the day will be honored. Valentines day
and leap year are too tempting combine
70 be overlooked.
The origin OF the custom of sending
valentines is. obscure. Some writers af-
firm that the custom has descended from
the Lupercalian feasts celebrated in Febru-
ary, 5when the names of young women
were put into box and drawn by the men
as chance directed. Afterward the Chris
tan clergy, unable to abolish the practice,
as was their wont in pagan lands gave the
day patron saint and allowed the custom.
This theory of the origin is not well sup
ported, for in nations remote a similar Gus
tom prevailed and to this day the reason for
its observance is often given, that on this
day birds select their mates. In Lorraine
and Maine in France. the custom recog-
uized equal rights, for men and women
threw into box the names of their chosen
valentine, and the drawing sometimes
created confusion, but as an old writer
quantity observes: THE man stuck faster
10 the valentine that had fallen to him, than
to her to whom he had fallen"
The practice of sending absurd and
offensive valentines. and also that of costly,
has given the custom disreDute, but so long
Us the fun was good humor, or the senti-
nent pure and innocent there could be no
harm.
It was certainly a good instinct that
prompted maiden to choose her knight for
q twelvemonth and her knight if 4 Bayard
was complimented bysher choice, and all
the more ready to draw in her defense.
The days of knighthood have passed, but
chivalry remains and there are few chosen
valentines even in these prosaic days who
viii not honor the sentiment that leads
man to defend woman and encourages
woman TO rely upon him as her protector.
-
In the spirit of fairness nothing can be
more proper than the prominence given
woman in the coming exposition at Chicago.
America owes much to two women if not to
three Columbus had mother, wife and
q patroness, and to the last two he owed
his success as discoverer. A woolcomber
by trade, who can say that in the quiet
home evenings his mother did not interest
herself in her boys studies and proudly
encourage his efforts at chart-making7
Who can doubt when at the age of thirty
four he married Miss Palestrello he had not
found in her a sympathetic listener, and
that she, as well as he, knew the value of
the dover she brought him IN the charts,
journals and memoranda of her father, an
italian navigator in the service of Portugal,
then the most advanced country il naval
enterprise. His wife is said to have been
woman of fine education, of brain and am
bitiou
1t is easy then to believe that in all the
encouragement that came to her husband
the wife upheld him and, with that IN
daunted spirit common to women, she IN
fused hope when defeat seemed inevitable.
Every child knows that when men turned
deaf ear to his arguments, when he was
jeered at and turned away from the courts
Of Portugal.and of Genoa, Isabella of Spain
became his benefactress, even pawning. her
jewels for means necessary to small
equipment
Women are justly interested in the
Columbian exposition not only because that
for the first time they have distinct rec
ognition in the arrangement for exhibits,
but also because America owes much to
those noble women who enabled Columbus
in October, 1892, to plant the cross upon
the island of San Salvador.
Observation teaches that in business
there is a marked difference between men
and women, and to the latter's disadvan-
tage Men go into business as a game of
Skill and look upon the winner as holding
the better hand or knowing better how to
use it. Neither do men cherish luminosity,
but, as IN other games of chance, after the
tight is settled they meet on friendly
grounds.
Women in business, as a rule, cannot oil
vest themselves of personal prejudice if
not resentment. If they lose, some one is
70 UldLIG OJu6f tNdu lnSuS6ANSS- anu eHeo
one incurs their dislike. They do not re-
strict their displeasure to the individual or
10 the transaction, but dispense it literally
and persistently.
This Characteristic manifests itself in So
cial life aud has given rise to many quip
and Jest at womau's expense. This is capt
tally illustrated in a sketch by John Leech.
A quar6ette are playing cards, the two men
opposed are shown in splendid hnmor, in
fact, immensely amused at the fury of their
respective partners, whose glances do not
need the malicious utterances as interpre-
tstion.
Until women learn to bear defeat without
malice and success without arrogance they
can never hope to equal men in business
methods, for pers onal likes or dislikes can
never be agents of success.
human nature is prone to overestimate
that which is difficult to secure, and the
valuation put upon money is no exception
In q sense, money is power, but the