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We stood ankle deep in the letters which came through the slit in a continuous shower until

the baskets overflowed on the floor and there were valentine parcels and valentine hammers.

Half of the valentines are really dainty tasteless things.

Many were decoratively printed on satin with fine lace bordering and little golden thread

tassels but at least one fourth were coarse and offensive too much so for descriptions.

Happy valentines day everybody.

Those are the words of a post office clerk who is remembering the late Victorian period

which is in some ways the heyday I would say of valentines day.

Tom are you a great enthusiast for valentines day?

Not normally and the simple reason for that is that Sadie my beloved wife is very hostile

to displays of commercialized sentimentality and so she gets very cross if I give for a valentines

day card or do anything like that although excitingly I am taking her out tonight.

Oh that's nice.

So that's good.

However I think being lovely on valentines day is all well and good but you were saying

in that that a quarter of the cards were coarse and offensive as well.

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