The first Valentine (1870)
-
-
In this piece from The Graphic, the author writes of a young girl's excitement on receipt of her first Valentine card. The first Valentine is like the first baby, a delight when it comes, a wonder and a thing of joy, but fated to be eclipsed by the second, although that second may not be nearly so pretty.
The little maiden in our sketch has received her first Valentine, a matter of as serious import to her as it would be to any "grown up" young lady, but as the latter would not care for such a missive unless she knew the sender, so the delight of our young friend would be incomplete without the attendant mystery.
It is a thing of lace paper, gilding, pretty flowers, sweet scents, and far different from what children's Valentine's used once to be; but as some people remark, children are not children now, they are sophisticated, even in their amusements; that primitive exercise of the skipping-rope which used to be simplicity itself, has been perverted, and now requires three persons for due performance.
Location: The Graphic (1870) Vol.1, p. 247. Archives and Heritage BF052
