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Show 1ST. MTH'S DAY SP1TJS1I! Observance of Cuslom 1600 Years Old Is Growing- Less Each Year. DEVOTED TO LOVERS -ebruary 14 Is Anniversary of Date on- Which Patron Saint of Sweethearts Was Beheaded. St. Valentino's day will lc univcr-ully univcr-ully observed next Friday. For moro lian Ififli) years tho festival in com-U.Mir,jjj..ion!onition com-U.Mir,jjj..ion!onition of tlio patron snint of lov-j'RiWci's lov-j'RiWci's lias boon joyously observed, For il(''Hm8ny centuries prior to that time the f'J8l overs of ancient 3lomo observed, a simi-Miar simi-Miar fcsliva during the month of Pobru- r'iitft cspito its antiquity tho observance 7fffinC '10 cIaj' 38 vv'aniuCr' aiU year there k'fkijjrjro fower -who send valontinos to thoir llili Ip'octhcarts. Fewer sighs riso from the 111 : Shcarts of lovesick youths and scnti-pcntnl scnti-pcntnl maidens to be wafted by gentle rt,vi..y teepbyra to the bosoms of loved ones. tfr'i'Who custom is surely pnssing, as every :,!'' "jvondor of rcady-ma'do valentines will .'Jnttest. Linked hearts pierced by Cu- .l; ijlpid's darts aro no longer fnshionablo I i .a'ove knots for exchange on Valentine's I ''-J&iay. Tho modorn maid prefers an au- ,-?ifomobDo ride nnd a theater part', and t'jSSfche n0; displeased if she- is tho guest t:;,:Jaof honor on such occasions much oftener f '5haii on St. Valentine's day. ! ulNot Sentiment. A search of tho rocords of antiquity t, " Hk discloses no ovidenco that St. Valen-f;:ftine Valen-f;:ftine was in any way rosponsiblo for ;l(ho Mntimental obsorvunce of his fes-.r'fj fes-.r'fj ival. Tho only connection he appears ffi k have had -with the celebration -was ti'.f r-a that ho was put to death on February gifH. Tho popular notion has been that i'i 'l,e celebration of tho anniversary of '. 1; his death -was to comniomorate tho !j.'t bcautifu lovo and charity that were among tho saintly attributes of the i.-i i martyr. But thoro is no record of gal-sfs? gal-sfs? ;$!antry having been one of the saint's i ,; A ood qualities and as gallantry' seems to ti-Lis ac one essen"al parts of a S&'ii'l Valentine's day celebration, this notion ifjiiS .-seems to lack foundation. trS' St. Valentine was a. prosbj-fcer of the ? ;'tyl arly church. TTo is described by early ;klhurch biographers as a saintly man o'f t$ many good parts, a man eloquent in t-jiZl jrliscourso and zealous in the faith. Tlis x'$irr marked success in converting the heath-f-.Uf 1111 Romans to Christianity aroused, tho Jiliro of the Emperor Claudius, at whose 'l.'oa instance St. Valentino was cruelly mar- tyred, being first beaten with clubs and then beheaded. St. Valentine on February 14, 270 A. D. suffered martj'rdom by losing his head and his devotcos ever since have been suffering martyrdom by tho loss of their hearts, and sometimes, if tho colebration of St. Valentino's day falls on one's birthday, the observance may becomo boisterous' enough to occasion the loss of heads. A Roman Custom. The martyrdom of St. Valentine came at a time when pagan Rome was celebrating cele-brating tho Luporcalia, the feast of Februato Juno, the patron goddess of tho bachelor maids of I?ome. On February Feb-ruary 14 it was tho custom of adolescent adoles-cent Bomans to gather at afternoon and ovoning affairs and determine questions of matrimony by tho drawing of lots. The names of tho eligible bachelors wore placed in a helmet and those of the coy j-oung maidens in a baskot. The maids each drew a name from the helmet or tho boys from the basket. This ceremony cere-mony was sufficient to marry tho couples, cou-ples, the contracts as to property being made later. Now this custom of solving the matrimonial mat-rimonial problem simply and effectively was a popular pastime in Homo for centuries. The early Christian fathers found it easier to convert tho natrans to Christianity than to wean them entirely en-tirely away from the old Roman customs. cus-toms. With considerable wisdom they decided to appropriato many of the Roman celebrations and make them Christian feasts. So tho foast of lovo became a Christian feast. It appearod to bo convenient to commemorate the good St. Valentine by renaming the pagan festival in his honor. And 60 we have St. Valentino's day. St. Valentine's day has been colobra-ted colobra-ted in various fashions since, the celebration cele-bration always being associated with tho gentler sentiments. It comes at i tho beginning of a season when sti-ment sti-ment Is rampant. "In the springtime tho young mnn's fancy lightij turns to thoughts of love." Many protty stories are told of SU Valentine's day. One is that the good saint was very fond of -birds and when tho birds came north too early and tho snow and cold cave the winged chirpers a chilly reception the good saint scattered scat-tered crumbs and seeds for them. In commemoration of the kind deeds of the saint, the story runs, the birds chose his day as tho da' for mating and on that day each bird chooses his maid aud sings love songs to her. Celebrated in EnglanH. When gallantry was at its height in the fifteenth century and men lived and died for the. lovehght, in a maiden's ej'es everyone, especially in Ireland, was celobrating St. Calcntiuo's day. Each swain on the cvo of Valentine's day wrote a poem to an unknown lad- lovo. This he framed in appropriate lace and drawing of artistic design nnd deposited it in a basket. Blushing expectant maidens maid-ens drew out. the pocms and each was bound to marry the man whoso poem she drew. This method of choosing a spouse had its drawbacks, of course, but on the theory that all marriage was a lottery it worked fairlv well. The billets prepnrcd by the young men aro tho origin of our valentines as wo know thorn. It was discovered that it was cheaper to buy poetry than to write it, nnd the observance of the ancient and sentimontal custom beuamo commer-cialized, commer-cialized, which was tho beginning of the modem disregard of the day. Popular in 1476. Historians tell us that in 147b" tho custom of choosing 'brides by the lottery method on Valentino dav was widespread wide-spread and continued so ' until 1615, when the custom began to decline. Our Forefathers were astounded when a "ladyc of wit and qualitie" refused to abide by the decision of chance which on Valentine's day presented her with an undesirable husband. It was the spirit of some of these independent, maids that finally made the marriage lottery unpopular. By 1700 it became the cuslom when a youth was dissatisfied dissatis-fied with the voting lady who secured his billet to buy her a present as a sort ' of consolation prize. ; Tho sundini: of alleged comic valen- ; tines, often of an insulting nature, is , a recent custom which is proving short lived. Of recent vears the exchange of flowers on Valentino's dav ha becomo a pretty custom. The fnne'v, frilled val-entine val-entine appear to bo doomed, but so long as there aro lovers and sweet-haul! sweet-haul! Valentine's dav will be remembered remem-bered and so lou as there arc spring poets one may likewise expect the dav to bring forth bad verse. |