Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-09
FOR SAINT VALENTINES DAY
MEMBER OF BROKEN HEARTS
SUPPLIES PROPER MISSIvES.
"Comics" by No Means Neglected.
New Verses and Some That
Are Old.


hearts and the healer of lovesick human
ity. will send a detachment of his corps
of cupids to Washington next Friday to
supervise the distribution of affectionate
missives. With the cupids will come fun
ny Brownies. who will attend to the
comics and see that those men and
women OF uncertain age and still greater
uncertainty as to nuptial possibilities re-
ceive valentines of the roasting, royster-
ing variety.
In anticipation of the coming of the
cupid corps the storekeepers of this city
have provided their establishments with
| an infinite variety of valentines, ranging
in cost from two tor-a-penny to several
dollars each. In design they descend from
the sublime TO the ridiculous.
The fancy and sentimental kind of val
entines represent the highest perfection
of color work. and comprise a vast va
tine subjects. Included is the latest nov
city, the 1903 valentine postals."
Of Materialistic Tone.
There are many Of the quaint colonial
figures in rich colorings on the better
class of remembrances. and heart shapes
are predominant. The materialistic tone
Is shown I'm valentine which pictures a
hungry little pig roofing in a barrel.
Beneath the pig are the soulful lines:
Two little pigs in pen
Are happy all day long.
They eat from the selfsame trough;
Life is one grand, sweet song.
And this I'll be If you to me
Vou>hsafe your heart divine.
/ need a mate to share my pen;
oh, be my valentine"
I, az If r.
trio valentines. and others in paper lace,
and still others with golden doves. cupids
and rOsebuds the homely old hand-writ-
ten valentines of the grandmothers and
place. Still there is a venerable couple
in Washington who always take look
backward February Il of each recurring
year to the days of their youth when
they were beau and sweetheart Once
more they are in the atmosphere of their
youthful affection away back in the
heart -to-heart time of the good old-fash-
Toned days.
mo Knife and ''Roses Red"
And on every St. Valentines day they
indite with pen and ink the simple senti-
ments of"the early days of the past CEN
fury:
IF you love me
AS I love you.
No knife can cut
Our love in tow.
Or that other quaint reminder Of grand
mas. schoolgirl days:
Roses red.
Violets blue.
Sugars sweet
And so are you.
But the up-to-date creations are very
different affairs from those Of the hazy
past and the 1908 youths and maidens
have wide range of novelties from which
to select their tokens of "affectionate re-
gard" a sentiment of these advanced
times which has taken the place of the
courtships and real lovemaking or the
olden time.
There are big baskets of trailing cupids.
dressed up in forget-me-nots and sprinkled
over with rosebuds. wounded hearts and
frolicsome little girls with maybe. a big
heart opening like q Christmas tree orna-
ment and disc losing its innermost depths.
red and bleeding, to the sympathetic gaze
of a recipient of few decades ago. Per-
chance this tender rhyme was the pas
sionate sentiment under the tinsel and pa
per flowers:
Earth holds TO other like thee,
Or, If It does, in vain for me!
Nature Of the Adornments.
Some of the verses are worse than the
fury valentines are adorned with pigs.
bears of all sorts and conditions. cats and
monkeys. Strange. too, that in most of
the St. Valentines missives woman rep
resented in song and story of other days
as the pursued, in the new valentines al
most grovels and seems to wait the pleas
ure Of man.
One type of the 1908 valentines as seen
in the Washington shop windows is fam
ciful design labeled Good Enough to
Eat" A sly but elegant-appearing fox
is pictured contemplating the anatomy of
a fine, plump hen and making violent
love to the fowl. Then there is Tommy
cat, attired in suit Of velvet and silk,
with cunning expression of the eyes,
playing its banjo in the light of the moon
to a demure little birdie up in tree. The
bird is prettily attired in poke bonnet and
a gown of filmy lace, while the foxy
Thomas cat sings:
Come, little birdie, come with me;
Come, and my little birdie be-
Valentine Postal Cards.
Some of the valentine postal cards give
pictures of American. Irish. Spanish.
Scotch. English girls and those of other
nationalities. Then there is colored girl
sitting demurely on heart; true love
knot binding two hearts together; (which
will it be- true little wife or selfish bach
elor life?" and many others.
Other valentines are cut-out mechanical
novelties, including butterflies and birds.
and one thousand and one designs that
have taxed the artistic skill of engravers.
photographers, printers. toymakers and
others to the limit to satisfy the esthetic
tastes of Valentines day. 1908.
An inspection of the stocks in the Wash
ingtOn shODS will he in the nature of a