Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1919 — People Clung to Old Custom. [ARTICLE]

People Clung to Old Custom.

Pope Galesius stopped the last of the pagan orgies still associated with St. Valentine’s day in 496 A. D. Toward the end of the sixteenth century St. Francls de Sales set hitnself sternly to purge the saint’s day, even of its lovemaking notes, valentines and frivolities. For the nanips of the opposite sex drawn as “sweethearts ordained by fate for the coming year” he substituted the name of the martyr himself and others, and pittas mottoes replaced the amorous doggerel. But, as in the past, he "found the populace refused to T2pve up thei r mate choosing and merrymaking. So, after almost fifteen Centuries, St. Valentine still presides as the patron saint of springtime and mating, as did Juno and Pan for centuries before him. ‘