Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-02-19
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- A Preacher
Among the People. :.
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VALENTINES DAY.

esting custom that attends it. Brands
Popular Antiquities" gave the most
account of the day that l was
able to find; but it was not entirely
He quotes Wheatley who
said st. Valentine was a man of most |
parts, and so famous for his |
love and charity that the custom of |
choosing valentines upon his festival
took its rise from thence" Upon this |
statement Brand comments as follows:
81 know not how my readers will be
satisfied with this learned writer's ex-
plication. He has given us no prem
ises, in my opinion, from which we
can draw any such conclusions Were
not al 1.-The saints supposeu to be fam
Gus for their love and charity? Sure
ly it does not mean that we should un-
derstand the word love here as imply
ing gallantry!"
Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia
makes the statement that, "The GUS
tom OF sending valentines, sentimen-
tai or comic love messages, is a very
ancient one Some tell us that on this
day the birds select their mates; others
trace the custom to the Roman Luper-
calia when similar practices were OBJ
served. Traces of the custom have
been detected among the observances
of the northern pagans of Europe" ;"
If this is true it is not at all prob
able that the tradition ascribing the
origin of the interesting custom that
attends Valentines Day to commem-
Grafton of the loving and the charit-
able disposition of St. Valentine indi-
Gates its true origin.
Francis Douce, an English antiquar-
ian, says that, Ito abolish the heather
lewd superstitious custom of boys
drawing the names of girls, in honor
of their goddess, Februata Juno, on the
18th of February, several jealous pas
tors substituted the names of saints
in billets given on that day"
1t seems evident that st. Valentines
Day is the result of an effort to Chris
ten a heather custom the real origin
of when is lost in the "mists of antiq-
uity."
But however obscure its origin, the
day is widely observed and has had a
place in literature for years. Anent
the idea that birds choose their mates
on the fourteenth of February, Chau-
GER wrote, For this was seynt Valen-
tines day, whene every bird cometh
there to chese his make"
In the Hesperides of Robert Herrick,
an English poet, who was born in 1891,
there is to be found the following
verse:
Oft have heard both youth and vir-
gins say,
Birds choose their mates and couple
too, this day;
But by their flight, l never can uivine
When l shall couple with my valen-
tine"
Herrick's experience should serve as
a warming to over diffident young men.
Instead of cultivating the affections of
some worthy damsel, he devoted too
much time trying to divine from the
flight of the birds when he should
couple with his valentine, and so died
unmarried. In his "Travels' in Eng
land" Nilsson relates the following:
On the eve of the 14th of February,
st. Valentines Day, a time when all
living nature inclines to couple, the
young folks in England and Scotland
too, by an ancient custom, celebrate a
little festival that tends to the same
end. An equal number of maids and
bachelors get together, each writes
their true or some felgned name upon
separate billets, which they roll up and
draw by way of lots, the maids taking
the mems billets, and the men the
maids; so that each of the young men
lights upon girl he calls his valentine
and each of the girls upon a young
man which she calls hers. BY this
means each has two valentines; but
the man sticks faster to the valentine
,hat has fallen to him than the val
entine to whom he is fallen. Fortune
having thus divided the company into
SO many couples, the valentines give
balls and treats to their mistresses,
wear their billets several days upon
Cheir bosCms or sleeves, and this little
sport often ends in love. This cere-
mony is practiced differently in differ
ent countries, and according to the
freedom or severity of Madam Valen-
tine. There Is another kind of valen-
tine, which is the first young man or
woman that chance throws in your
way on the street or elsewhere on that
day."
No doubt John Gay had this latter
conception in mind when he wrote:
Last Valentine, the day when birds of
hind
Their paramours with mutual chirp-
ings find
[ early rose, Just at the break OF day,
Before the sun had chas'd the stars
away;
A-field went, amid the morning dew,
TO milk my kline (for so should house
wives dO)
Thee first spied, and the first swain
we see,
In spite of fortune, shall our true love
he"