Show ST VALENTINE we welcome the first of the spring festivals it may not be one of the highest rank st valentine holy man that he was does not have his day associated with any ecclesiastical cy cle or with point of departure in the astronomical round of the year he comes in esthetically as it were as a holiday maker in the midst of more serious affairs lent Is close at hand its shadow precedes it we are al ready in the of the ecclesias eccle year and now just on the edge of the penitential period here Is the joyous celebration of st valentine s day we need not go back to prehistoric periods to find justification tor this celebration it has persevered to this day through all the iconoclastic in fluentes fluen ces of the later civilization it Is the day for the interchange of those expressions of mutual regard which J 1 perhaps carry more ot a serious intent than we imagine in the progress otlee seasons st valentines day holds a place all its own it marks a division of the year which while not notable in either temperature or weather Is yet readily recognizable we have passed the winter solstice the vernal equinox is close at hand here comes st val to warn us ot the change the back of winter Is broken let it snow or freeze on st valentines day we put winter behind us the sun is high and ranging higher day by day white as the landscape may be under its wintry shroud today we have promise of the revival of life hidden underneath and so we celebrate with the exchange of assurances ot affection of quips and cranks of jocose regard and sometimes of those of deeper meaning st valentine is not a back number even in these remote and as some say degenerate days love may laugh at locksmiths but he doean doesn t dare laugh at wedlock 1 1 A t |