The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-14
VALENTINE DAY TO-DAY
AN ALL-RoUND REDUCTION IN
 PRICE BOOMS THE TRADE.

Some Characteristic Specimens of the Val entine Foot This Year--C Comic Valentines With Bicycles and Their Riders New Feature-Costly and Elaborate Varieties New Haven Letter Carriers Bracins Up for To-day's Hurd Labor.
 The letter carriers of the city are grooming in spirit in contemplation of the huge loads of letters, largely com sisting of valentines, which they will have to carry about town to-day. The dealers in valentines report that far from dying out, the call for valentines, particularly of the tender sort, is still very large and the sales, both of these and of the comic ones. have been large and on the whole pecuniarily protita- ble. Some of the styles this year of the valentines inspired by Cupid are quite novel. On the subject of the valentine in general the New York Evening sun last night remarked:
 Whether or not Valentines day has anything to do with one or other of the several saints named Valentine is a matter of small import in this age. Ills torians confidently proclaim that the legends recorded of the various Valen- tines in the Acta Sanctorum reveal no allusion to the customs commonly asso- ciated with February 14 Not one Of the saints called Valentine has seen fit to lay claim to the festal day, and thls alone is sufficient indorsement for the historians. Where is the saint or sin ner who would not be proud to say that our thanks for Valentines day were due to him?
 The modern custom appears to be an offspring of a graceful sympolic festival which obtained in England, Scotland, and parts of Europe-particularly LOT raine and Maine in France-during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and has continued ever since in varied forms. Numbers of young folk would assemble in those days on the eve of St. Valentine. A drawing would then be held, and each selected paper lottery wise from some receptacle. The papers which the women drew bore men's name and vice versa. Then the courtly knight sought out the merry maid whose name he had drawn and declared himself her humble seryitor for the ensuing year. She was known as his Valentine, and so for whole year the bachelor re- mained bound to the service of his Val entine, somewhat after the fashion of the mediaeval knight of romance to his lady love- The fifteenth century saw this custom prevalent among the up- per classes and in nearly every court of Europe, and in Charles IFS time married as well as single persons could be chosen which gave rise to many of the entanglements, differences and fam fly feuds so much the rage in those good old days.
 Several hundred years ago things changed for the better. The women ceased giving presents to the men, or drawing for them, and the responsibil- ties of gallantry were thrown entirely upon mems shoulders, where they have reposed to this day The ardent lover of to-day does not, however, sit up all night devising amorous poetry or paint ing tender pictures, as did his antetype of old. Nowadays he simply saves up a 5 few cents, or few dollars, as his pas sion may warrant, and sallies forth to
  and purchases his gentle pleadings ready made. The business of supply ing valentines for such young men as this is one of the most interesting and extraordinary that the land affords.
 Three large publishing firms, one in New York and the others in New Eng land, practically monopolize the valen- tine trade of the whole country. The J h,r aP 1, is enormous and widespread. A repre- sentative of one of the firms discussed the valentine interest:
 'Our factory over in Brooklyn" said he, "is al work on valentines all the year round, and the accumulated sup ply of twelve months has never yet equalled the demand of a single Febru- ary A. The trade annually commences in October, when the western orders be- gin to arrive and shipments are at once made One day last October we load ed a whole canal boat at our Brooklyn nanufactory, and sent it to Chicago by the canals and lakes. That cargo con- sisted entirely of valentines for the western trade, and was worth in the neighborhood of S25,O0O. The business this year has been better than ever be- fOre III our eXperl6nce. It Tell OTt per- ceptbbly in the last three or four years of financial depression, Out has now re- vived with unexpected vigor.
 we include all sorts of valentines in our regular output, the traditional lace paper affairs with bleeding hearts and smiling cupids, the perennial comics which lead the race in numbers sold, and the pretty little devices that we Know as novelties These last are made up generally of an imported chromo card, bedded in a mat of soft cardboard, and bound about with deli cately tinted ribbons. A neat paste board box protects the whole, and such an offering cannot fail to carry it's mes sage straight into a receptive feminine heart. The number of handsome lace paper valentines and novelties sold this year is largely owing to an all- round reduction in price, brought about, not by competition, but by improved facilities for manufacture and better arrangements for distribution and ad- vertisement. Valentines have to be boomed on the road just like any other commercial commodity. Our drummers start out early each fall to arouse en- thusiasm in the western territory. They take along a trunk Of samples, and, beginning out near the Paciflc, Work