The Elk Mountain pilot., 1917-02-08

or saucy documents of lighter import, like the
sugary rhymes of our grandmothers time nor the
flowers and gloves of today. Instead they were
real human beings whom destiny paired for the
space of n twelvemonth
1t the duty of the Roman youth on the day
of the feast of Lupercalla, which. according to
ancient chronclers, comedies with our st. Vaen-
tines day, TO repair to the Sacred urn in search
of n sweetheart. In the We're the names of
the maidens of the neighborhood. written on slips
of parchment. The Roman youth thought
of shrinking from the ordeal. Any attempt on
his part go around by the back streets on his way
to business or to spend the day on the golf links
instead of doing his duty as n man and n citizen
would have marked him out as Il man with no
sporting blood in his veins. So assuming an air
of gay Indifference. he took his place in the line
called upon the gods for succor and boldly
plunged his hand into the Sacred urn.
Then like the historic Horner, he pulled out let
us hope not plum. hut in the modern language
of admiration, peach. If so, his face lighted de-
1ightfully and he hurried out to buy an unusually
rich and varied assortment of sacrifices for the
altar of Venus, Cupid and the rest of the really
important divinities. If, however, fate had gone
against him and he had drawn an undesirable
maiden from the bowl, striking his ceuched fist
fercely upon his brow, he strobe in silence from
the place of doom.
But he never thought of demanding a second
helping No. the gods had willed it. and so 1t
was to be. He had acquired sweetheart for
year, and he stuck by her until next st. valen-
tines day gave him the opportunity to break the
engagement.
1t was in the year 496 that Pope Gelnsius
noting with pain the ancient method of observing
the feast of Lupercaa. which took place on
February 10 decided that something would have
to be done about It, As the youths of the time
seemed to be strangely addicted to the practice
of pulling the names of young women out of the
Sacred urn. It decided that It would not do
to deprive them altogether of this payf-' diver
sion. Instead they could he led by easy stages
away from the heathenish portent of the game
Go.
the scheme of permitting the Sacred urn to per-
form on its usual day, but the names of saints and
martyrs substituted upon the papers which
the youths picked out of this receptacle for those
of maidens in the community. Then reasoned the
reform leaders, the youths could consider that the
saints whose names they drew out their
patron saints and could pattern their lives by
those of these worthy persons. This would be
quite exciting picking out the name of ones
next seasons girl.
And to make the transformation of this day of
pagan rites into n Christian festival complete, it
decided by the reform element that the day
should henceforth he known st. Valentines
day and that it should he February II in
honor of the fact that in go a. D. the good bishop,
afterward st. Valentine, beheaded by the
prosecutors of the early Christians because he
had performed the remarkable miracle of making
his jaiers blind daughter see.
The Day of Lovers.
st. Valentines day February IA indeed became,
but alas for human frailty, although the name was
changed the spirit of the day remained as before.
Down to own time ii is still the day of lovers
the world over. The names of the saints which
came our of the Sacred urn instead of those of the
pretty girls of old Rome powerless to turn
the thoughts of young men away from love and
happiness toward self-Sacrifice and pety. The
ancient usages persisted and thus originated the
incongruous situation whereby an ecclesiastic of
ascetic life and pious history has given his name
for all time to festival devoted to the impas-
stoned sentiment of lovers.
In later days when valentines had come to be
delicate mssives in which lovers expressed their
ardor in their own verses, the duke of Orleans
was one of the many great personages who thought
the nditing of valentine verses not too small
goal for his poetical ambitions It after
Charles was taken prisoner at the battle of Agin
court in 1915 that he did the greatest amount of
his valentine poetizinC He composed the first
written valentine which now exists. As he was a
nr,soner of England for % years he had plenty OF