Brooklyn Today for January 30
Good morning. Today is the 30th day of the year. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Jan. 30, 1881, carried an article about the custom of sending valentines. Everywhere you went in Brooklyn in those days, the unnamed Eagle writer said, you saw Cupids and hearts in store windows. He traced the custom to the Middle Ages in France, where, he said, young men and women chose their sweethearts for the coming year by throwing names into a hat.
During the late 19th century, according to the Eagle, Valentine’s cards were often accompanied by rhymes. Here’s an example of such a poem:
“All that I hear
“All that I see
“Is a magic mirror
“That shows only thee.”