The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-13
Little Is Known of the Saint
Himself Save that He Was
anAbused Priest Of Ancient
Rome-0rigin of the Day
and Its Celebration.
Tomorrow is st. Valentines day
All in the morning betime,
And I q maid at your window
To be your valentine"


at the window. Perhaps they never
| did. Ophelia, you know, was craZed
| when she sang that snatch Of song.
Here in st. Paul, at any rate, the val
| entine comes in at the front door, dis
| guised in prosaic brown paper wrap
pings and stamped with Uncle Sans
unsentimentalloo die. Or else it
is hidden in a florists box, carried by
Skeptical urchin.
If St Paul merchants are to be be-
| lieved, st. Paul girls are going to re-
J ceive their share Of both varieties to-
morrow morning. Valentines may
| differ in outward semblance, but all
express pretty much the same senti-
ment. For instance, cook tomorrow
| may receive beautiful paper lace af-
| fair, brilliant with purple and blue and
! green Cupids and aglow with skewered
crimson hearts, and the young woman
| of the family may receive merely a
| bunch of violets-St. Paul florists say
| these are the most fashionable valen-
1 tines this year-but each recipient will
not fail to understand that by one, at
! least she is beloved. No valentine of
| whatsoever description can convey a
| stronger assurance. No valentine
worthy of the name should attempt to
convey less.
Cooks valentine will have poetry
concealed some place about it. Perhaps
IF you'll be mine, I will be thyme,
And so good morrow. Valentine"
which is very much to the point, at
| least, if lacking in those tender exag-
| gerations which delight the feminine
SOUL But higher education, by which
| the St. Paul girl has profted, has
| taught her to despise the Cupids,
| hearts and verses and to value only
! flowers or a book, perhaps, or a heart
shaped needle cushion, or some trif1e
! for her writing desk, for st. Paul mer-
| chants say that all these things are be-
ing purchased this year for valentines.
Little Known of ST. Valentine.
Little is known Of the saint who Is
! responsible for st. Valentines day.
| Hardly more of him is known than
| that he was a priest in ancient Rome
| a town DIN which priests were looked
| upon somewhat as friarS are looked on
| in the Philippines today. For being a
| priest he was taken into the lots, In
| continently Whacked with clubs, and
then beheaded. What was left of him
| after the gentle citizens of Rome were
! through was preserved, and is at this
| moment resting in the church Of St.
| Praxedes in Rome, where one of the
| old city gates was long called the Porta
| Valentine. Now, what had this worthy
old man to do with the practice of
I sending love letters on one day of the
year that were more expensive than
those dropped into the mails on other
| days those involving subsequent
breaches Of promise excepted? Moth
| ing. The chances are that he never
sent such a thing in his life. May be
that was the reason they killed him.
But in February they celebrated the
feastS of Pan and Juno, the high jfnks
| that are called the lupercalia, and in
/ t1nc, Irsr1 -
| common box the names of young WOm-
: en-, who were supposed thereupon to
| pair with them. When the early Chris
| tians came into power they knew that
! the cOmmonerS would not take kindly
to sudden change, so they softened the
| transition from pagan to Christian
| thought and manner, and they organ
| lied a new feast to take the place of
the lupercalia, emitting the ceremonies
| and privileges that had made that oc-
| caSiOn one of wild interest, and the
! new doings, which were a sort of Sun
day school festival and church fair
| happened on st. Valentines day.
The first valentines were written;
! indeed, all of them were until the last
century. In 1926, however, the prac-
tice of sending them had grown so
| general that 200,0 900 more letters than
| the average passed through the Lon
| don postoffice on St Valentines day.
| And London was not so much in those
| days.
First Valentine in United States.
| The Oldest of these missives in the
| United States is IN Cleveland, Ohio,
| and was addressed to Miss Sarah
has one almost like It, in the hand of
| the same tickle youth who affected to
| admire Miss Brett. 1t is a sheet a foot
! in dimension, folded into squares of
four inches, sealed with a red heart,
| and in pale ink are these lines around
1t:
When you hear this harte. behold,
| Twill break as you these lines unfold.
| The power Of envy cannot pretend
TO say L have falls verses pend.
For on the inside, sweet turtle dove,
I've wrote the morals of my love.
| Thou art the maid and only maid
That has my honest harte trapad.
This was your average valentine
till 1925, when they invented some in
England that did not require so much
| brain sweat. Now you merely sweat
your pocketbook to tell your story. But
printed ones wouldn't go with the
Yankees. They lacked sentiment to a
| degree that made them seem even i'm
proper because the printer read what
| you were going to say.
Miss Rowland Started 1t.
i However, In 1849 Miss Esther How
| land added to the stock of her fathers
bookshop in Worcester, Mass, a few
valentines. She cut out the now cheap
and common Autograph pictures and
! pasted them on common letter sheets
| Scolloped the edges, got a young broth
| er to copy verses in a round hand and
so started the valentine business in
America. She had just come out of
| HoIyoke college, and who shall saw
| that college education is not a good
| thing for women? These things were
snapped up, they were sent to New
York by the dozen and demands came
for thousands. Miss Howland's father
| ordered pictures and embossed paper.
four girls were installed in his house.
who were kept busy tying ribbons and
frills and cutting out sheets, and the
Kid brother became a drummer and
| prOSpered exceedingly. Enamel MIC
lures from Germany were imported.
then the cutting, which had been done
| laboriously with scissors, was done
| quickly with dies, and before Miss
| Rowland knew what had happened. she
| was making $4,000 a year. She had
| discovered a want and had made a
trust of herself.
Then an enterprising business man
Of her town bought out her business
and that of two or three houses which
had started up in New York, and he
| continues the making of valentines
| right where they started His com.
| pany was incorporated in 1894. He has
400 people working for him, and covers
$4,000 feet of floor space with ma
| chinery appliances and working room
! He is continually enlarging his prem
ises, and has not room enough vet. for
as the nation grows, orders for his
wares become more frequent. He nuts
out millions a year and cannot All oII