Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1910-02-09
Why Love
St. Valentines
= Day .
Because 1t Helped Me In My
Courtship and to Get the
Girl l Wanted.
BY ARTHUR CRAY.
Copyright, 1910. by American Press
Association.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A hundred years ago, when there
were but few million people in the
| United States, our progenitors fell In
| love In the old fashioned natural way
and, being once in love, married as a
matter Of course, very few Of them
| considering what they would live on
in the married state. One reason for
this, or cause, whichever one chooses
to consider it. was that they fell In
love and married young.
The reason why appreciate st. Val
entine's day is that 1t had great deal
| to do with my present domestic happi-
ness A valentine began 1t, yalen-
tine furnished means Of keeping 1t up,
| and valentine settled It
| Effie Winston at seventeen was at
| the exact age her mother married
married for love-married without any
| provision for the future. But Mrs.
| Winston married much later than a
| hundred years ago, when getting a liv
| ing was easier and not SO much was
required. Consequently she didn't find
IlSh iliC az WAL iLihss as ~ III
have been had Effie's father had a for
tune or at least an income common
surate with the requirements Of an in
creasing family. Therefore. RS might
be expected. the lady did not propose
that her sons should take wives until
they could support them or that her
daughters should marry men who were
not prosperous.
This was sensible, but when sensi-
BILE idea Is carried too far 1t ceases to
be sensible. To come to the point.
Mrs. Winston determined that her
daughter Efie, in whom l came to be
interested, should marry none other
than a rich man. / wanted Effie, and
hadn't cent. Ergo, Mrs. Winston
was very stupid and a very obsti-
nate woman. This was my boyhood
reasoning. and since have grown to
middle age / have not, in my case,
seen any reason to change It. con-
fess, however, that my daughter Ellie
shall not marry pauper.
l made Eff1e's acquaintance at dane
ing school. / asked her to dance with
me twice in one Of our afternoon dane
ing school meetings. st. Valentines
day came along soon afterward. and
she sent me valentine. This was
the beginning of it. Indeed, the pretty
little missive was my first intimation
that a member of the opposite sex saw
in me something more than In the
other boys Of her acquaintance. l
didn't stop to consider that she might
have sent one to dozen other boys.
II had the heavenly flower Of love
might have been nipped in the bud. !
knew Fife had sent me the valentine.
for, fearing might be mistaken with
regard to it, she scrawled her name
on it. assumed that the verses print
ed on it had been laid down there by
the printer for the express purpose Of
letting me know that Effie loved me.
Many verse, many a letter, has
been penned by woman who intends
to tell Of the love she bears man
that have not in them q 1.-THE Of the
| pure sentiment that came to me in
those lines, which had been slung of
in thousands by pressman in a dirty
apron. ! dreamed over my valentine,
and / dreamed of Effie. She is now
very necessary to me, but she is in
capable of inspiring me with any of
that delicious feeling which welled up
within me like waters fitted to be
quaffed by angels. l carried 1t to
/ school with me and at recess stole
away from the other children to look
at it. l had it with me in my room
| when went to bed and studied it till
/ knew every flower, every vine. every
cupid. 1t was the last thing thought
Of before going to sleep and the first
after awaking in the morning.
| Where was /? l remember-I was
abusing my future mother-in-law for
being so stupid as to refuse me her
/ daughters hand. This was long after
| had received the valentine, for Ellie
| was nineteen and l was twenty. Eff
| fie was as stupid, thought, as her
mother about the matter, for although
! she declared she would never marry
any one but me. she demurred at be-
(, coming my wife, l being in posses
sion of an income Of nothing a year.
| At any rate, she told me that, her
mother having forbidden her from re-
ceiving or communicating with me,
she would obey. Indeed, she was
| forced to obey | couldn't take care
of her as my wife. and had no right
to be dangling about her keeping de-
sirable suitors away.
l accused her of heartlessness and
| other unattractive traits till l drew
tears, then called myself brute, then
kissed her goodby and then went
away determined to put myself In a
position to earn enough to marry on.
| 1 worked like Trojan. l did not
only my own work, but every one
else's In the Office where was en-
ployed. While other boys who had no
such spur as l had thought only of
| getting holiday now and then or Of
Sinking what work they didn't fancy
1 I WAS thinking only of Effie and A tinv