The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-02-10

or saucy documents, of lighter import. like the
sugary rhymes of our ~grandmothers' time nor the
flowers and gloves of today. Instead. thew were
real human beings whom destiny paired for the
space OF n twelvemOnth.
1t was the duty of the Roman voutb on +ho d.
OF the feast of Lupercalia, which, according 20
ancient chroniclers, comedies with our ST. yoIen-
tiheS gay to repair to the Sacred urn in search
Oh a sweetheart. In the urn were the names of
NE haluehs OF the neighborhood. written on sims
OF parchment. The Roman youth never tborcbt
oL shrinking from the ordeal. ANY attemnt IN
his part to go around by the back streets ON his vov
TO business or TO spend the day on the golf links
instead OF doing his duty as a man and a citizen
would have marked him out as a man with no
sporting blood in his veins. So. assuming nm air
o gay indifference he took his place in the line,
called upon the gods for succor and boldly
plunged his hand into the Sacred urn.
1heh' ike the historic HOrner, he pulled ont. let
u ; nope NOT a plum, but, in the modern language
OF admiration, a peach. If so. his face lighted do.
ngntlully and he hurried out to buy an unusually
rlch ana varied assortment of sacrifices for tba
aItar OF Venus, Cupid and the rest of the reoIv
important dtvinitieS. If, however, fate had gopa
against him and he had drawn an undesirable
maiden from the bowl, striking his clenched fst
n'rceIN upon his brow, he strobe in silence from
the place of doom.
But he never thought of dauondi,c
helping. No. the gods had willed if. and "a ~
was to be. He had acquired a sweetheart for a
year. and he stuck by her until next ST voIan,
tne'S day gave him the opportunity to break the
engagement.
1t was in the year 400 that Pope Gelosius
noting with pain the ancient method of observing
The feast of LupercaIia. which took pIace on
fepruarE To- decided that something would have
to be done about it. As the youths of the time
seemed 10 he strangely addicted to the practice
OF pulling the names of young women out of te
Sacred urn, it was decided that it would NOT do
to deprive them altogether of this playful diver
SION instead, they could be led by easy stages
away from the heathenish portent of the game.
so the leaders OF the reform movement hit upon
me scheme OF permitting the Sacred urn to per
form on its usual day, but the names of saints and
martyrs were substituted upon the papers which
the youths picked out of this receptacle for those
OF maidens in the community. Then. reasoned tbe
reform leaders, the youths could consider that the
saints whose names they drew out were their
patron saints and could pattern their lives bv
those of these worthy persons. This would be
quite as exciting as picking out the name of ones
next seasons girl.
And to make the transformation of this day Of
pagan rites into a Christian festival complete II
was decided by the reform element that the day
should henceforth be known as st. Valentines
day and that it should be set on February IA in
honor of the fact that in go \. D. the good bishop
afterward st. Valentine, was beheaded bv the
prosecutors of the early Christians because he
had performed the remarkable miracle of making
his jailer's 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 our own time it is still the day of lovers
the world over. The names of the saints which
came out of the Sacred urn instead of those of the
pretty girls of old Rome were powerless to turn
the thoughts of young men away from love and
happiness toward self-sacrifce and piety. 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 a festival devoted to the impas.
stoned sentiment of lovers.
In later days, when valentines had come to be
delicate missives in which lovers expressed their
ardOr in their own verses, the duke of Orleans
was one of the many great personages who thought
the inditing of valentine verses not too small a
goal for his poetical ambitions. II was after
Charles was taken prisoner at the battle of Agin-
court, in 1415, that he did the greatest amount OF
his valentine p~oetizing. He composed the first
written valentine which now exists. AS he was a
of England for % years, he had plenty of
time to polish up these dainty epistles. and he left
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