Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1894 — HOW TO CELEBRATE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOW TO CELEBRATE.

A Day for Kind Deeds as Well as for Mirthful Sentiment.

festival of “St. V* I ’Valentine "s Day” I suggests to the h:storical student an apt illustration of the wa y which tho fathers of the Chris'dfln tian Church were accustomed to deal isJBJjl, with such pagan in--1 stitutions as they Ja. found 'it impossible ) wholly to eradicate. / Their policy was to A let the institution I && stand, but to give it j \§F a new meaning suita/ able to the new reRoman days there

had been a practice upon the feast of the Lupercalia, which took place in the month of February, of indulging in a social game not unlike a modern “necktie party.” The names of a certain number of young maidens were placed in an urn by a corresponding number of young men. Then each young man drew forth, as chance directed, a maiden’s name, and she was accounted in the sport his sweetheart for the ensuing year. How often that which began in jest continued in earnest history dees not tell. Sometime during the fourth century there lived at Romo a bishop or presbyter—exactly what priestly office he bore is matter of dispute—by the name of Valentine. He was renowned throughout the church ’for deeds of charity and for loveliness of character. Soon after his death he was canonized, and it was apjxnnted that the anniversary of his birth, tho 14th of February, should be henceforth known as St. Valentine’s day. Naturally and easily the old frolics of the'Lupercalia were transferred to this new festival, but in the change there came to bo a more generous, thoughtful and earnest meaning. Historically, therefore, this 14th of February that has returned onoe more is a day for kind deeds as well as for mirthful sentiments connected with the tender passion. It Is a pleasure to observe that a ro-

rival to some extent of this more refined significance seems to be taking place. Year by year the “valentines" offered for sale become more tasteful, even artistic. There are fewer of the once common specimens of what is grotesque, if not offensive. Yet there will always beat least a lingering of the original idea, and tho ecmic side of the day will probably never quite go out of mind, certainlV not so long as people continue to re a a “Pickwick" and to laugh over the celebrated trial on Feb. 14 of Mrs. Bardell’s breach of promi-e suit and to sympathize with Mr. Samuel Weller’s efforts at inditing a love letter to accompany his pictorial representation of Cupid piercing a heart with love’9 arrow. There is an immemorial idea to the effect that birds choose their mates on St. Valentine’s day, and Tennyson may have had in mind both the human and the feathered race in their relations to the tender passion, whon he wrote: Iu the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove: * In the spring a youiig man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.