Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-02-06
VALENTINE DAY
HERE NEXT WEEK

night on which YOU need not go to
the door if you hear "A stern rappinS
or if the bell is loudly tangled. 1t
will not be an officer with Jury
summons nor your long expected nm
Gle from the east. 1t will be small
boy who has Slipped Il comic valen-
tine" under the door and hidden in
the darkness to hear YOU murmur
forbidden things when you open it.
That is the form which Valentines
| day appears to be taking more and
more strongly each year. II is no
longer a day dedicated to lovers on
which to- exchange lacetrimmed tok-
ems breathing undying affection.
True. some of that still goes on. but
its volume is growing less with the
passing years. Like many another
holiday. the feast of ST. Valentine is
gradually becoming desecrated and
getting farther and farther away
from it's original purpose.
Dealers in the lace paper confec-
tons assert that the condition of the
trade indicates this beyond question.
There is practically no call nowadays
for the expensive form of valentines
which once sold by the thousand on
the days Immediately preceding the
14th of February. Twenty years ago
the girl who did not receive half a
dozen exquisite valentines. some of
them hand painted on satin. with
CupidS and flowers and things scat
tered over the surface and Senti-
ments of affection delicately penciled
amid the roses would feel herself
deeply hurt. Valentines costing any
where from 81 to S25 were on the
market in those days and found
ready sale. The day was second only
to Christmas as a time for the eX-
preston of n lovers devotion by the
sending of costly gift. Every ZEN
gagged young man was expected To
blow himself for big valentine,
carefully put up in box and express
ing all the things he would like to
say to his inamorata if only he had
the courage and the gift of express
sion.
But year after year this custom
faded in it's extent. of course, in the
aggregate. there are stH many hun
dreds of thousands of valentines sent
through the mails and the postman
runs no risk of letting the day pass
without marking its arrival. but the
great majority of the cards and val
cntincs these degenerate years are
cheap little affairs. sent by children
to their little swectheartS and school
friends by those who still cling to
the sweet old traditions of the day.
The call for costly valentines is very
small and the output of these affairs
is corrcspondingly limited compared
to what il once was.
On the other hand. the growth in
the trade in caricaturCs or comic
valentines" as they are called by the
children. has been phenomenal. I'm
in color printing have
not only chcapened these little daubs.
hut have enabled the manufacturers
to turn out far better looking work
than was the case years ago The
frightfuI pictures are no less start
ling and the person who receives one
of the modern creations * likely to
be fully as sure" and spend as much
time trying to figure out who sent it
as was the case with the little square
comics" printed on cheap paper in
the old days. But the displays in the
windows of the little school stores
and confectionery shops are not
quite so distressful to the eye.
Most of the comics" sold on the
local market are made in New York.
but where the manufacturers get the
vile and insulting verse which ac-
them is one of the secrets
of the trade. 1t is likely that some
"hack" writer. driven
by poverty to turn his pen to any
thing which will keep the pot boiling.
is hired by the makers of these things
To turn out hundreds of the doggerel
verses which accompany the pictures.
Whoever he is, he has the satisfaction
IF knowing that he has made many a !
sore heart i'm his time and brought
MANY Il tear to the eyes of the SEN
sitive folks who have had his descrip- !
lion of their alleged failings thrust at
them through the medium of a
comic valentine" These verses are
rarely humorous, but are usually
brutal. the customary style being
like this:
You silly. seuSeless. gaping ilirt.
With TOASTED head and scanty skirt;
Why don't YOU let the men alone,
And get husband of your own2
OF course this sort of thing does
not hurt the recipients feeling unless !
the cap happens to fit to some eN-
tent Then il is that the girl who re-
,eive, il is incunsolabIc and suspects !
at least a dozen cnvious rivals of haV-
ing shot the poisoned dart. Most of
the comics" are too silly TO war
rant attention. but many young |
heart has been sorely bruised by the |
folded paper Slipped under the door
~, N,Iop4ipr's. ui,rbt