In a climate of political hostility, and with a general decline in civility, is the time ripe for the revival of the “vinegar valentine?”
Vinegar valentines were insult cards that enjoyed a surge in popularity for a little over a century, beginning in the 1840s. Their creation paralleled a rise in literacy and was abetted by the reasonable asking price of a penny (at their inception) or a nickel (at their twilight in the 1940s and ‘50s).
The tone of a vinegar valentine is invariably sardonic and usually mean-spirited, with garish caricatures and poison pen verse stabbing fun at an endless parade of types – the spinster, the floozy, the old maid, the dandy, the Romeo, the artiste. Needless to say, they generated a lot of bad feeling and often resulted in fistfights and shouting matches.
Compounding the hilarity, in the 1840s, recipients rather than the senders were the ones who paid for the postage – so the person on the receiving end actually paid for the privilege of being insulted by an anonymous “admirer.” This is how people entertained themselves before the immediate gratification of the internet.
It’s always refreshing to stumble across theses reminders that human nature never changes.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
More about vinegar valentines here: