St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-14
HEARTS, DOVES AND CUPIDS
WILL TODAY SUBORDINATE THE
POSTAL SERVICE TO ARTIST
10 LOVE MAKING
WHILE THE SMALL Boys PENNY
Will Make Misery for His Big Sis
ter,s Fellow and Others Who
Have WrOnged Him.


ing a heart-shaped missive Of blue
paper bearing ROBERT in gold let
tiers. very pretty, every ward would
quote, in gasping horror, from Chin
ME Fadden." But only a few years
ago-in 1667-Samuel Pepys, far more
dignified than an American mayor, be-
ing sort Of assistant secretary Of
the navy under Charles H., took a
staid and respectable pleasure in re-
cording that he had received such g.
remembrance from a lady friend, whose
valentine" he was. Nor did that fact
arouse the jealousy OF Mistress Pepys.
She, instead, had her valentine, a
young gentleman condescendingly
known as little Will Moore" Twelve
months later says Pepys, 81 am this
year my wife's valentine, and it will
cost me five pounds. But" added the
sagacious Samuel, that amount I
must have laid out, even if we had
not been Valentines What a triple
triumph, unknown to modern degen-
eracy, Of flirting romance, connubiaI
harmony, and discreet economy! Val
entine's day was then observed by
universal lottery, wherein pert
misses and majestic grandmothers,
hungry school boys and retired gen
erals, confessed that the felicity of
love-making atoned for it's faulty. In
every social circle the men and wom-
en- would draw lots.
Each sex would draw the names
Of the other. He would be her val
entine, she his. But, although the
courtesy was equal, and each person
had thus two valentines, the secret
of double life' had not yet been
solved by Chicago. Rather than have
two lady loves, a man would cling to
the one whose name he had drawn
himself. The obligation was aften as
expensive as the unsolicited honors'
OF him who falls nowadays into 1.-The
hands Of his friends" Mistress Stew
art once became the valentine Of the
Duke of York, whereupon he sent her
ring valued at $4,000. Even that
prudent lover Pepys, again becoming
his wife's valentine in 1868 presented
her with ring displaying turkey
stone set with diamonds" But, OBJ
serves that model husband, Its fit
the wretch SHOULD have something to
console herself with"
Yet since Ben Franklin'S patriarchal
almanac has been supplanted by the
g1ddy creations Of Aver and Hostetter
since Shakespeare can see no wives not
porn In Paris, husbands have ceased
to IND their valentines at home. The
district telegraph boy now conducts an
all the year lottery much more alluring
than that Of the venerable Roman
saint, who was beheaded in the third
century, and who never saw chorus
girl In his life. The decadence Of the
old-time valentine customs probably
dates from Feb. IA, 1779 On this day
jovial feast was celebrated in the
Sandwich islands. The nut brown
1o6 n y, +
entine as sweet and handsome as he
was good and brave. His name was
Capt. Cook, and his blushing valentines
received him with open mouths and
titillated palates. He was served as a.
roast in his own gravy
Since then the insignia of the day
have become more anatomical. The
valentine offerings during the present
century abound with blood and cica-
trices. For many years no valentine
has evolved emotion which did not
show forth roses Of the deepest scarlet,
gladiatoral short swords effectively
penetrating the right auricle and the left
ventricle of hearts swollen to the point
OF fatty degeneration. The notices
accompanying these cory exhibits
might all have been translated from a
first Latin book, and that historic con-
jugation wherein every little boy and
every small girl asserts that they love
the world and are loved in all possible
situations, by the remainder of the uni
verse.
Of recent years attempts have been
made to improve upon the Sandwich
Island Romulus and Remus valentine
Manifold layers Of stiff paper cut to
shreds and ready to rip down the mid
die before a love lorn sigh have been
offered to young persons with queer
sensations as !'art valentines" of Pa
risian lace paper" The stores dispose
of them at incredible prices-almost 81
apiece-and the recipients look at the
they've got a valentine But gilt
paper with pepper box holes, bare
legged Cupids with green hair, lack
the old time slaughter-house effect
The anaemic cannot be amorous, even
in this end Of the century. And the
successful valentine for first expert
ments in love is as far removed from
the art affair on lace paper as from that
disgusting distortion of sweet ro-
mantle custom, the so-called comic val
entine. A fashion founded on the
poetic conviction that twas in Feb
ruary that each little wood bird select
ed his mate may be gradually sup
planted by the recent custom of floral
gifts on Feb. IA, but 1T can never give
way before the ambition of those I'M
romantic outcasts who send to a CO.
quettish maid the awful Autograph of
a Mrs. Lease, imbibing beer above this
Tennysonian couplet:
'Young woman, your inclination to be fast
Will bring you to just grief at last
JOHN p. GROGAN KILLED.