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Show a " Good Morrov? To You, My Valentine!" TVTANY curious old charms are said " to be potent on St. Valentine's eve all, like most charms ever invented, invent-ed, connected with the procuring of husbands. Even before surplus woman dawned on the scene, this seems to have been a subject of much anxiety. Five bay leaves, pinned respectively to the four corners and the center of the pillow, are said to bring certain dreams of the future partner, if the sleeper has gone to bed without eating or speaking. Another infallible spell was to write the names of admirers on separate pieces of paper, enclose them in clay balls and throw them into water. The one which came to the surface first contained the name of the fated spouse. It is a sign of great good luck If the swain you favor should be the first man seen on February 14. The modern mod-ern girl who does not pin her faith entirely to signs and omens, can always al-ways practice the ruse of a shrewd maiden of long ago, who, knowing where her heart had gone, "lay a-bed and shut my eyes all the morning till 'he' came, for I would not have seen another man before him for all the world." She was far-seeing and lucky. But If she had set eyes first on the wrong man, she would have wedded him, so a poet tells us : "Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind Their paramours with mutual chirpings find, . . . Afield I went, amid the morning dew, To milk my klne (for so should housewives house-wives do), Theo first I spied, and the first swain we see. In spite of fortune, shall our true love be." Some of us wish that a quaint old custom practiced in the time of Pepys was still prevalent the rule that a man must give a present to the first woman he saw on February 14. Pepys, gay old rascal that he was, much bewailed be-wailed himself that his own tribute had to be offered to his wife a proceeding pro-ceeding he considered very dull, when there were plenty of pretty young girls at the light-hearted court of Charles If. Old people still remember the time when valentines were as popular as Christmas cards, and the postman groaned under his load on the morning of the 14th. Tills Is still ihe case in the United States, but the Idea of courtship Is no longer much connected with these bright cards. Nowadays Shakespeare's greeting: "Good morrow, 'tis St. Valentine's day, All the morning betime. And I a maid at your window, To be your valentine," simply reminds us of the passing of a delightful old custom. Christianity brought the custom of placing each feast day under the patronage of a saint, and so St. Valentine, Val-entine, who never married himself, became be-came the patron saint of lovers. The Lady's Companion. |