Show m cA1ieJroJ1Jc11I tu J1J T VALENTINES Day perhaps Is tho least understood S un-derstood of all the days of the year that have special spe-cial significance It Is popular It Is observed Swains a legion make It n 1 the occasion for sending tokens to their ladyloves lady-loves yet not many know why Everybody knows what Christmas means or Independence In-dependence day Thanksgiving day Easter but tho origin of St Valen tines day or oven Its meaning Is a rlddlo but few havo solved It Is ono of the oldest of the holidays holi-days Only Christmas and Easter go further back Into antiquity These days have been observed ever since there was religion But all the rest of the holidays are but Infants beside the February occasion when bclaccd befringed and bellowered love tokens aro sent on their sentimental journeys Jour-neys St Valentinos day began somewhere some-where about tho opening of tho third century It Is a quaint combination of religion and sentiment It represents repre-sents tho dual worship of a great man of the church and cupid tho mischievous mis-chievous patron and saint of love It was a queer beginning for a II great holiday that people should have united on the same day to honor St Valentino and Cupid No moro dissimilar dis-similar deities could be found St Valentino was an early day martyr mar-tyr He died for tho church and in commemoration of his goodness and piety the Holy Sec set aside February 14 as the day on which tho faithful should do honor to his memory On this day It became tho custom to hold a lovo feast which became known as tho Feast of Luporcalla It was at first a peculiarly religious observance ob-servance modeled somewhat on tho I love feasts that are still held In many I churches in which members of the congregation break bread with each other as a sign of peace and good fellowship Eventually the young folks passed from tho purely religious feature of the holiday and began to give it a somewhat secular tone From loving your sister as a fellow believer in tho tenets of the church was not a far step from loving her with the sort of sentlmelft that usually leads to tho altar So in placo of merely breaking bread together according to tho simple sim-ple form of old the young men Inaugurated In-augurated the custom of sending beautiful gifts to tho women of their hearts It was easy to do this without with-out fear of reproof for custom proscribed pro-scribed that no one could of right refuse re-fuse that which came on St Valentines Valen-tines day with all the gentle sentiments senti-ments of lovo and Christian brotherhood brother-hood that the festival Inspired Thus In a gradual way Cupid had como to usurp the place that St Valentino Val-entino had onco held all alone and what was originally a time of prayer gradually transformed itself Into the season when lovo sent out Its messengers mes-sengers and pleas The wise old fathers of tho church fought this merging of the religious I with the secular but tho idea had I taken a firm hold on the people and was not to bo easily abolished For u long time the worship of tho day was fairly divided between St Valentino and Cupid First tho people peo-ple would send up a prayer for the martyr Then this duty discharged they would assemble In the public squares tho maids forming in line and youths standing by In laughing eagerness Ono by ono the girls would file up to a huge wooden box affixed to a pole and drop In tho opening a slip of paper with her name written thereon When every girl had deposited her slip the youths would file up and draw each one a slip With palpitating palpitat-ing hearts would they read the names drawn for to the maiden thus given to them by good St Valentine they must bo faithful for ono year Frequently the girl thus drawn known as a valentine became tho wife of tho man to whoso lot she had fallen before the expiration of the year of service Tho custom lasted through many centuries St Valentino gave the excuse for these sentimental exchanges but Cupid Cu-pid reaped tho actual profit In point of antiquity Cupid was far tho senior of St Valentine though tho latter Is also pictured In the dignity of a graybeard gray-beard while Cupid Is a mere sprite of a boy with bow and arrows St Valentines era was some 20 centuries back Cupid reaches Into tho dimmest dim-mest mist of the antiquities In fact thero never was time when Cupid did not exist The little god himself sent tho first valentine of which there Is any record rec-ord though It wasnt tho kind of missive mis-sive that now comes through tho malls In a big square envelope Tho first valentine was a rather crude sort of lovo message for It gave pain but Cupid had an excuse He lacked other means of reaching the affections of the obdurate Psyche and when maidens resist a zealous suitor they must expect summary treatment Cupid was the son of Venus herself the goddess of love hence by Inheritance Inheri-tance ho had a right to expect to I know all about the tender passion Put while Venus was queen of love she alto had all tho power of experiencing experi-encing to tho full that other passion hat so frequently comes with love Jealousy The green monster was stirred In her breast by tho acclaim that greeted greet-ed tho youngest daughter of a certain king and queen a maiden known as Psyche All men raged to possess tho hand of this beautiful young girl and Vonus unable to ecu her complete dominion do-minion oven disputed called to her aid Cupid My son she sold punish that beauty Give thy mother revenge Infuse In-fuse In her bosom a lovo that shall bo unrequited so that her eventual mortification may bo as great as her triumph now Thus it was that Cupid set out to woo Psyche not with real lovo not with a right motive but animated by the base desire to feed a mothers hatred In Venus gardens were two fountains foun-tains ono of sweet tho other of bit tor water From these Cupid filled two amber vases and suspending them from his quiver hastened to the chamber ot Psycho whom ho found asleep Ho poured a few drops of the I bitter liquid on her lips then touched her with his arrow In the side Love has queer ways of working out Its destiny and even tho god of love was not exempt from its perils Psyche awoke and In his eagerness to escape Cupid slightly wounded himself with his own arrow Instantly ho himself became stirred with tho throbblngs of tenderness and knowing only the motive to repair re-pair the damago ho had done ho I poured all of tho sweet water over tho startled maiden and being invls Iblo himself was able to escape bo foro she could compreohnd what n had happened The two waters and the touch with tho quiver may be accurately termed tho first Valentino of which history affords record The valentine of today to-day represents the desire of the suitor to win the lady of his love so did tho waters and arrow of Cupid That his first motive was base makes little difference for afterwards ho clime to love Psyche with genuine loyalty and against tho wishes of his mother married her Cupid being a god and Psycho only a mortal It was not possible that the union should ho of the earthly kind Psycho went to the mountain conducted by the Zephyr and was sot down at tho palace of Cupid Then ho came to her in tho darkness dark-ness proclaimed her his wlfo and fleeing always before tho dawn of day so maneuvered that while Psycho was filled with lovo of him and the joy of his presence site had never been able to see him Her envious sisters played on her feelings told liorHhat tho husband of her choice whom site had never seen might bo some dangerous monster who having fattened her to his liking would eventually feed upon her So they persuaded Psycho to the plan of stealing upon him as ho slept and knife In hand for protection to gaze upon his features Psycho followed out this program but Just as she discovered that her husband was no monster but the most beautiful of gods she was unfortunate un-fortunate enough to spill a drop of oil from the lamp It fell upon his shoulder and awakened him Saddened Sad-dened and angered Cupid after rebuking re-buking her for her curiosity vanished van-ished Psyche wandered alone and forlorn for a long tlmo but eventually Jupiter Jupi-ter made her Immortal and sho was united to Cupid for all time |