A frowning man wears a red waistcoat and a green frock coat. The valentine mocks the recipient for being large and deficient., Text: Believe me when I say I've always thought / That you were simply nothing -- a big naught; / I'd like to know what 't'is you want a wife for, / For she would nothing gain except a cypher., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The valentine shows an elephant ice skating (and smoking). He wears a blue jacket and green pants and carries a walking stick. The sender rejects the recipient because of his weight., Text: I've heard fat men singing, / I'm told of their swimming, / I've seen them in various states -- / I've known of their dancing, / And ogling and glancing, / But ne'er have I seen one on skates. / I always am laughing, / When fat men I'm chaffing, / Who think that it will be my fate -- / It sets me tee-heeing, / A Valentine being, / To an elephant trying to skate., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man holds out his empty pockets., Text: So bad your name for paying up, / That I believe that when / Grim death shall come for "nature's debt," / You'll tell him to "call again.", Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man holds his hands to his heart. He wears a frock coat, bow-tie, and thin trousers. His hair is curled., Text: Quit your tricks, my young man, and quickly to wed, / Lead some charming young damsel to church; / No delight, you'll then take, our poor hearts to break / Then leave us alone in the lurch., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man with a pig's head reads a poster, which states, "GREAT VALENTINE DEPOT/ THE FAT HOG," and has a picture of a hog on it. He carries a walking stick with a man's head carved on the top., Text: You are the very antidote to love! / A man of taste undoubtedly you prove; / But 'tis of dinners, Hog, and that you know full well, / And if a wife you choose, 'twill be-- a dinner bell(e)? / Upon my word, I'd give a dollar bill, / To know the jade that sent this Valentine; / The saucy minx, she says I'm sour as swill, / She won't be good for a pig's head like mine., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man with disheveled hair sits at a table with his chin resting on one hand. In the other hand, he holds a handkerchief., Text: O! you sigh for a wife-- how funny / No a girl must be flat indeed, / Unless you had mints of money, / To take up such a broken reed., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The valentine shows a large-chested man walking in a field. He holds a top hat., Text: You conceited old fogie, with face of Brass, / By nature intended for an ass; / But ape the Biped of two-legged kind, / With stomach, all a bag of wind. / Seek for thy wife in Afies clime, / And be her faithful Valentine., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A young man wears a stove-pipe hat, red jacket, and boots, marking him as a Bowery B'hoy, or young working class man from the Five Points neighborhood in New York City. He stands in front of another male figure who smokes a pipe and wears a stove-pipe hat. "Get the bag" means to be fired., Text: Each swollen eye, each dirty rag, / Of brawls and battles tell us; / You seek my heart -- you'll get the bag, / And won't get nothing else., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man has a hog's face and a large waistline. He has a bottle in his pocket. The sender references the Swedenborgian belief that one's mind shapes one's appearance in hell to suggest that the recipient is a hog., Text: If Swedenborgians tell us true, / When dead, our mortal selves appear, / When bad, like beasts to other's view, / So you will look as pictur'd here., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man with prominent teeth wears a frock coat, waistcoat, and trousers. "Loathsome weed" refers to tobacco., Text: There you stand with mouth all reeking / With the juice of loathsome weed, / Shocking every ear when speaking. / In all vileness taking the lead., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man stands with his fists raised to fight. The term "b'hoys" marks him as a young working class man from the Five Points neighborhood in New York., Text: In quarrels, and fights, are your only delights, / Or in making most hideous noise; / I'm sure you'll not doubt, when I say, you're about / The worst example, of one of the "B'hoys.", Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The rake wears fashionable clothes and carries a walking stick. He smirks and holds his hand to his mouth., Text: Your ruffled shirt bosom and gay flashy vest, / The tip of the mode in which you are dressed, / Your heaps of flash jewels, the strut that you take, / All prove you to be a most licentious rake., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A young man looks at a poster of an elephant. Behind him is a sign that reads "NOTICE GENTLEMEN FROM THE COUNTRY TAKEN IN," suggesting that the recipient is from the country and will be exploited in the city., Text: My tender sprout of cabbage head, / I would your young heart deceive; / So seek some more congenial bed / To flourish in, -- and now leave., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The machinist holds a hammer and pushes against a brace., Text: In the shop there's none so smart as you / At mending a boiler or making a screw. / Where is your means of supporting a wife, / And supplying her wants throughout her life? / Your wages are small, every one knows / The principal part to the port-house goes! / Faint hope to gain a woman's heart, / By one so well known as thou art., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The valentine shows a darkened man with facial hair, yellow legs that may be socks, and caucasian features. He wears a red loin cloth and carries a small ax. Nena Sahib played a prominent role in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, and the valentine uses racist and Orientalist references to critique the recipient's behavior and appearance., Text: Savage by nature, and savage by looks, / You scare chambermaids and frighten the cooks. / What a fate is hers that is linked to thine! / I'd rather have Nena Sahib for my Valentine., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The cavalryman sits on a much smaller horse and holds his sword out in front of him. The valentine mocks his gluttony., Text: With sword just like a carving knife / As I'm a living sinner / You look just like a hungry man / A charging on good dinner., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man is a bird, and a woman is a fish. He opens his beak over her head. The valentine mocks the recipient for trying to marry a younger woman., Text: No fool like an old fool. O! for shame; / Pretending to feel love's hold flame; / The ladies laugh at your ogling eyes, / And shut their ears to your pumped up sighs., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man sits in a chair. He wears fashionable clothing, smokes a pipe, and holds a drink., Text: You're a nice man to think of a wife, / With a phiz that we laugh at round town; / We girls know how you're spending your life, / With your drink and tobacco done brown., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
The valentine shows an old man wearing sleeping clothes and a headscarf. A bowl marked "gruel" is on the table behind him, and he stands near a pile of bedding. The term "granny" mocks the recipient for being both old and effeminate, and the sender ridicules the recipient for thinking he can find a young wife., Text: Gouty and toothless, one foot in the grave, / You would like a young wife to make her a slave; / If you've luck you may get one, and if so, so be it -- / But for me, my dear granny, I can not see it., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A large soldier wears a large plumed hat and a blue jacket decorated with flowers and a sash. He carries a sword., Text: What man is he that loveth not renown; / Out on him for a booby or a clown! / Fortune and women love the soldier brave, / But love not him who'd be a willing slave. / For me thou art the man brave soldier mine, / And I accept thee for my Valentine., "104", Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A young man wears boots, a red fireman's shirt, and a stove pipe hat, clothing typical of the Bowery B'hoys, or young men from the Five Points neighborhood in New York City. "De machine" refers to the b'hoys involvement in the city politics. "Mussy" means drunk, and "Gone into the lemons" may mean passed out after drinking alcoholic punch., Text: You know that you're one of the bo'hoys, / And bound to run with de machine; / You take up half of the walk, / And think every one must be green: / You always keep blowing 'bout something, / When you're mussy, you make such a noise, / There's no peace in the crib till you're gone, / Into the lemons--- with some of the bo'hoys., Cf. Valentine 8.9., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A young man smokes a cigar as he leans against a water pump platform. His attire and posture mark him as one of the Bowery B'hoys from the Five Points area of New York City. "De machine" refers to the b'hoys involvement with city politics. "Mussy" means drunk, and "Gone into the lemons" may mean passed out after drinking alcoholic punch., Text: You know that you're one of the bo'hoys, / And bound to run with de machine; / You take up half of the walk, / And think every one must be green: / You always keep blowing 'bout something, / When you're mussy, you make such a noise, / There's no peace in the crib till you're gone / Into the lemons-- with some of the bo'-hoys., Cf. Valentine 8.10., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
A man has very long mutton chops and a moustache., Text: You think your style is just the thing / To raise a great commotion; / Get the ladies on a string, / And use them to your notion; / But ladies cannot stomach now, / Such senseless-headed noodles, / They all with one accord avow, / They find more sense in poodles., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
