The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-02-17
WAR INTERPRETERS WITH BUSINESS OF THE GOOD
 SAINT VALENTINE

While St. sVa1eptine has not been put out of business, and the gi1ded.
 be-laced and ibe-ruffled paper and
 celluloid confections which bear his
 name are to be found in abundance at the shops, the observant puchaser
 will not that the up-to-dates va1en-
 tine of the 1915 vintage is quite diff
 ferent from those of previous years. The, explanation of this change is that
 the heather god Mars has seriously interfered with the German shops de- voted to the service of the patron
 saint of lovers. Made in Germany is a trade slogan which appears on but few of. the tender nissfves on sale this year, whereas in the past a large proportion of s.vaieJ14iness' sold
 Teuton origin.
 The 41915 valentine is a Made in
 America. product, and, while prices
 may range little higher than for
 the German article, good Judges of
 valentines declare that the domestic
 article is superior to the imported. For many years. Germany in gen. eral, and Bavaria in particular. has 1 been the headquarters of St. Va1en- l tine. While there were numerous
 workshops devoted to the valentine l industry-if one may use so utilitar- I ian a word industry in connec- l ton with so romantic a traf1c-the l principal factories were in Nurem-
 berg, Bavaria. That city was the | real center of the trade until the war l put an end to it. Most of the work
 CTS employed were girls, but, with the l failing off of the export trade, it is
 unlikely that many of them have had
 employment in the last few months. 1 Nurenbergs principal rival for
 valentine honors is Brooklyn, and
 now that the German competition is
 no longer to be met the Brooklyn
 factories have enjoyed a great boom | Of course, there are dozens of con cerns in many cities of the United | States and Canada which manufac- 1 ture valentines, but with most of
 these the trade is but a, side-1ne. The l Brooklyn workshops make valentines the year round, and more than a l thousand people are engaged in the l industry. Perhaps two-thirds of these workers are women and girls. The
 experts who do the hand-work on the
 more elaborate valentines receive l large salaries. Brooklyn has one fac l tory which alone turns out millions of valentines annually. the product
 retailing at from five cents to as
 many dollars. | gone great changes in recent years The o1d-time valentine with little 1 Cupids and bleeding hearts and | verses so silly, as to sicken any but an 1npaSSlOnedz 1OVer-WhO probably l thought the language used was toe l cold and reserved-have all but had
 their day. The 1915 valentine ie I more artistic and more dignided- l and also more expensive, as a rule I The atrocious ''conicss' which once l enjoyed so wide a. vogue, are now sell | dom to be seen, although they are l still on the market. The coarse and | often obsence vulgarity of the verses 1 on these caricatures has been toned | down. A
 l There has been a tendency of late years to substitute for valentines dainty gift books, boxes of confec-
 tions, and flowers, and jewels when 1 such are appropriate. This is not ar
 innovation, but a, return to ethe St
 Valentine observance of an earlier l day. The gossip Pepys wrote tn l 1868: This evening my wife did with great pleasure shew, me hel l stock of jewels, increased by the l ring she hath had lately. my valen- | tines gift this year, a Turkey stone | set with diamonds Of another lady l he wrote: ''The Duke of York, being 1 once her valentine, did give her g 1 jewel of about 800 pounds; and my l Lord Vaudeville; her valentine this
 year, a ring of about 800 pounds" Ii ] is understood, of course, that this refers to the value, not the weight l of the jewels.