St. Valentine's Day

ft [MONO the days spccially honored in the calendar with namesof their own is that of St. ! V a 1 e n t i n e, alI though history fails to inform ua why the 14th of Peb, ruary should be j honored as St. Val entine's Day. No ' connection of the day with any of the legenda of saints of that name is found in the " Arcta bactorum," but so it is, and long-establlshed usage has confirmed its right to the title, though its observance is fast beooming a thing of the past. We have in Kir day no fcast of St. Valentine, as did the merry people of anclent times in the old country. Jubilan t occasions for the youth of thosedays they must have been! How the interest must have culminated in the drawlng of the Valentines, when to each participant in the game was awarded by lot the name of some person of the opposite sex, w$o was then regarded aa hls or her valentine for the ensuin? year. : Suitable g-ifts, such as sweetmeats, bonbons, trinkets and the like were interchanged, and to each brave lad belonged the privilege of escortinjr bis fair valentine to the various gatherings, festivities and merry-makings which should intervene for a twelve-month. Certainly in those times St. Valentlne's I Day held favors not to be disrogarded, and since human nature remains pretty mpch the same the world over, it may b surmised that the valentine drawing must have boon attended with considerable anxiety, and, perhaps, even a little harmless stratagem may have been resorted to in mating the Valentines. Gone are the old-time bachelors and maidens, the valentinos of other days, but in memory of them still lingera the pretty sentiment of valentine gifts or favors, as witness the thousand and ono charming devices, valentinos so-called, which begin to throng our shop windows and counters soon aftcr the holiday season, roplacing the beautiful Christmas and New Year"s cards and leaflets. In these days when, as some one has satirically observed, referring to the almost universal craze for decoration, "even our almanacs and calendara are works of art," it is n wonder we have valentinos of the very daintiest sort and design. The sending of the valentine is, of course, shrouded in mystery, and this iact is of ten alluded to in the inscription, as: "A message of love froin the heart oí a friend, On Valentine's Day I venture to send. The name of the sender a secret Ehall be, Unless thine heart's whisper reveal it to thee." Many of the inscriptions are imitations in sentiment and orthography of the old-time valentinos, as the following, which may be a preservation of some quaint old lines and have done a similar duty scores of years ago: "O Ladye faire, before thy shryne Behold this doubting heart of myne ! If hope of myne Meet wish of thyne, I pray thee for my valenttoe." And so on, ad infinitum, run their greetings, and not to be forg-otten in this connection are tho comic valentinos. Vr'ho lias not at some time recoived one of the two-penny sheets, hideous with daubs of color and doggerel rhyme? What perfect delight in their startling array of pictorial talent is afforded the miscnievous school-boyl He has only to make a choice and select the victim. Yet harmi. ;s fun after all and innocent amusement is that invokod by St Valentine.