Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1900-02-14
COMIC VALENTINES
ONLY FoRTY-EIeHT TOPICS TIC
WORK OVER.

IL Is Sometimes Hard to Get Good
Start, But After a Time Work Is
Turned Out Essliy-The Work of
Two Bright Men.
In Brooklyn, n. Y.,Sare two men who
have contributed more to the sum OF
human unhappiness than any other
two mortals since the days of Adam
and Eve. Every year they lampoon
and lambaste 100000 writing
Americans. fiaying each one separate
~. One OF these men designs comic
valentines and the other writes the
verses which add TO the pungency OF
the sheet Charles J. Howard makes
the pictures and his II can be seen on
every one OF the comic valentines.
william J. Rigney takes the picture.
glances at II, and dashes off the pep
perry paragraphs which follow it. That
IS, they are dashed of when he Is in
the mood and ia the rut.
Its hard TO find hot stuff TO say
when I begin" said he, but after the
season gets fairly started 1t comes
easier. It's a good thing, once in IL,
not 20 get out OF the groove. We have
among our subjects tradesmen OF
forty-eight different kinds. Against
some OF them, like the street car con-
ductor, or the motorman, or the tele-
graph messenger, the lawyer, doctor.
baggage smasher clearinghouse keep.
or, plumber, and so on, there's plenty
10 be said, for they are the butt OF
Tidicule generally. But when | try to
make "A comic valentine of carpen.
ter, or painter, or any other kind OF
commonplace workman, 1t taxes the
brain.
I'VE begin thinking in the fall. The
subjects which we Will use the fol-
lowing February are discussed and
decided upon as TO their general fea-
lures Then Mr.. Howard draws the
pictures and turns them over to me
for the verses. Along in October we
charter canal boats, and send whole
cargoes up TO Buffalo. where they are
transferred TO the ships and sent to
Chicago. the Western distributing
point, before navigation closes. Chica-
30 takes one-half OF our output OF 49,
900 900 year.
1.-TWO or three years ago one OF our
comics was the cause of lawsuit on
Long Island. The valentine was called
The Sanctlmonious Tippler.' or some
thing OF that sort, and il represented
n church deacon with a flask of whis-
Ky sticking out OF his pocket. Ii hap
pened that at that time there was
gplit-uD church in one of the Long
Island towns, and some one belonging
10 one OF the factions sent to this dea-
con, who was on the other side. this
valentine, with an inscription of his
own upon II, besides the printed
verses. The deacon was mad clear
through. and went to law about it, but
I am inclined to think the written ded-
ication had as much to do with his
anger as the part we supplied.
Sometimes old customers send in
special orders-give us ideas for local
hits The Elks once got from us lot
of comics made exclusively for them.
A space was left for the verses. which
their local poet supplied And out
OF the line of comics, man once
mailed us his photograph. and asked
10 have Il put in specially made val.
entine. and sent by us To the idol OF
his heart. so she would wonder how
he happened to know all about 1t.
valentines are printed nowadays
from presses, the same as other color
work, but they used to be made-and
not so very long aBo-Dy nanu, stem
ellis were cut for each color, and girls
applied the different colors with
brushes. The process wasn't as slow
as one would think. OF course. more
than one valentine was colored at a
time. each stencil plate being big
enough for q dozen or score of sheets"
my family had carved out mer-
camille career for me-" said Charles
J. Howard. who designs he comic val
entines II was put in n grocery at
Forty-second street and Sixth avenue,
and about all did was to cover all