Show 0 of the dear demon A str active customs of saint valentines en tines festival Is here with the gay ribbons the abo brocaded brocades broc bro adea cades and tinsel and the silken rowers flowers of tho the louises that are prevalent in our house and dress decorations has como come a recrudescence of sentiment for the modern maid whose latest nickname the little creature smacks of the early victorian tor for her of the ruffled skirts shirts and the love locks have returned tho the burning hearts the arrows of cupid the altar and the garlanded rings the paired doves nesting in lace see paper all the sweet passionate sym bym holism and the lilting rimes that wooed and won the damsels beruf flod and becu ried od great these will be hers here to receive and give it she follows the old old rules of the game the slim modern youth with the slightly romantic air induced by his hia byronic haircut will not disdain to send his bis love a realistic aortic conflagration fla gration it if he knows sho will not laugh at it happily too they may both cease thinking of good saint valentine merely as a pious substitute for the do wicked Luper calla or even as a sort of philandering gray bearded amorous cousin to saint nicholas for there is a delightful secret sebret concerning him a pathetic bit of gossip 1 the tha handsome valentine of rome belonging to one of the leading early christian families was an ambitious young presbyter reputed austere lie was cruelly opposed by that Im impossibly pagan person governor calmur ulus who hurled valentine into prison and all that sort of thing and finally had him be headed on the Flamin tan way anns anno domini but there Is the gossip which I 1 will let my informant give la in her own words 1 I have by me A very old nook book which has the following account of valentine being confined at rope home on account of his religion and committed to the care of a man ilan whose daughter was blind whom valentino valentine restored to sight and from that time the girl became enamored of him nor did he treat her affection with contempt but after a long imprisonment he was ordered tor for execution on the uth of february while in prison being deprived of books he bo used to amuse himself with cutting curious devices in paper on one of which he be wrote some pious exhorts lions and assurances of love and sent to the keepers daughter the morning of execution and being concluded in the words your valentine thare Is great teaser tor for supposing that to be the origin of the besent custom thus mistress diana mason in the introduction to kern hem annual and universal valentino valentine writer for 1797 after reviewing evAng the variants of this legend oa as submitted by aless mason of clapham Clap bom bam and john of bury the compiler of the annual thus delivers himself wo we give it as our opinion that the first brat appears to bo be of most genuine orl origin tin it la Is a pity that you cannot fo fieo the long lone lisping cases they are so cheerfully convincing withal it Is pleasing thus to bo be ablo able to conceive conc elyo of the saint as a young lover the initiated of hymen as aa charles lamb named him removed in the early stages of a mounting passion to bo be the patron of all truo lovers and to inspire forever the daintily Benti sentimental mental endearingly naive over over decorated hu human man documents we call valentines tho the pretty customs ot of tho the lovers lover festival have flourished for centuries on the european continent in england and nd scotland and even in america to some extent cut but ceremonial ol of valentine choosing which Is actually an adaptation of the blind lottery of the roman Luper calla Is now unused mission the traveler gives given this seventeenth century account of the ritual an equal number of maids and bachelors their names dames upon sop eop arato billets bl lleta which they roll up and draw by way of lots the malda maids taking the mens billets and the men the maids so BO that each of the young men lights upon a girl that he be calls his valentine and each of the girls upon a young man whom she bho calls here dy by this means each has two valentines but the roan man sticks faster to tho the val antino to whom ho he had fallen fortune having thus divided the company compan into so eo many couples the valentines give balls and treats to their mis tresses wear their billets several adayr upon their bosoms or sleeves and this little sport often ends lalovi la irv lovo |