VULGAR VALENTINES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1006, 22 February 1882, Page 2

VULGAR VALENTINES.

(To the Editor Wairarapa Daily.) Sir,—This time honored festival, taking its mime from a priest of Eome put to death in the third century, has again passed. Many writers have endeavored to trace the origin of the notions and practices to which this day has for centuries been wholly given up; but, whatever may have been conjectured in this respect, it is certain that the Human martyr had no connection with the customs of the present. We read that this day waa especially devoted to the business of Cupid and Hymen, and that llm paltry frivolities of tho present time cannot be compared with the observances of St Valentine's Day at no remote period. Misson has written, " ridiculous letters were then unknown, and if letters of any kind were sent they contained only'a courteous profession of attachment from Borne voung man to some young maiden, honied with a few compliments to her variouß. perfection's and expressive of a hope that his love might meet with some return." This custom, however, it now almost everywhere-degenerated, thp only observance of any note consisting in the sending of anonymous letters by way of a practical joke. The approach of the day is heralded by the appearance in the various shop windows of vaßt. numbers of so called "valentines," consisting of.a single Bheet of paper, on which is'seen Borne ridiculous colored caricature of the male and female figure, with a few burlesque verses below. But were this all that one has to hear, aud that only once a year, I .would .Burely: not complain, but when for several days after, that in question anonymous letters reach us, bearing in i disguised hand writing the production

of some base mind, at once vulgar and insulting insinuations, it is high time that some voice: at least be raised in the matter. This practice wherever it is found .remains au intrinsic mark of littleness of mind, and may not long go unpunished, lam, bo,'-- " : Dmta..:;