KISSING—ITS COMEDY AND TRAGEDY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 211, 22 September 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

KISSING—ITS COMEDY AND TRAGEDY.

"Til,? amiable practice of kissing was utterly unknown in England till the fair Princess Rowcna, the daughter ot King Henigus ot Er.esland, pressed the beaker with her lipkins and saluted the amorous Yortigorn with a bus-ken. ' So wrote a Saxon chronicler : n a longdead century; but with all respect to the venerable scribe, one has a shrewd suspicion that the pleasant art of kissing was practised and appreciated in England long before Rowena pressed her pretty lips on the British prince's beaker, as a sign that she was by uo means indifferent to him. We know on unmpeaehable authority that kissing was so favoured by the early Christians, a century before Row ena was cradled, that the Council ot Carthage was gravely perturbed, and issued a decree, forbidding its practice between the sexes; and we also knowthat, in much earlier days, this was Jacob's greeting to Kachael at the well Beyond a doubt kissing is as old as humanity, and will endure as long as men have hearts and women have lips ENGLAND FAMOUS EOR KISSING But a true > to such ancient history. Let us come down to more recent tunes, and we find ki-siug enough to satisfy the most exacting ui our own England of four centuries ago. It was the one Englsh custom over which Erasmus waxed most eloquent. Read what ne wrote to his friend, Faustus: "Just to touch one thing out of many here, t ere are lasses with heavenly faces kind, obliging, and you would far prefer them to your muses. There is, besides, a practice never to be sufficcntly commended. If you go to any place, you are received with a kiss by all; if you depart on a iouriley, you are dismissed with a kss: you ivturn, kisses are exchanged. '! hoy come to visit you, a kiss the Hive thing: they leave you, you kiss them all round. Do they meet you anywhere, kisses : n abundance. Lastly, wherever you move, there is nothing but kisses. And if you. Faustus, had /lilt once ta>ted thorn ■ how soft they are, how fragrant—on my honour you would not wish lo reside here for ten years onlv, but tor life '.''

Sucli was England in the days when she v>;is rightly railed "Alorrie'' —days when no swain would d;vam of loading a lady out t;> the dance without claiming the tribute ni' a salute from her lips; and anotJier when the dance \vas ended. So recognised and un : versal was the habit that, we are told, "when the fiddler thinks the young couples have had music enough, he makes ills instrument squeak out the notes which all understand to say "Kiss mo.' : ' In mio dame, ind.ced, known as the "Brawl," '•tin' gentlemen wilutod all the ladies in turn, and his fail partner em h gentleman, the ligure continuing until cverv p.rr ha 1 followed th. example >et them." It i.- small wonder that such an agree. able dance should become so popular Una, we are told, "it spread Jrom land to land : and everywhere, from Court to K.ttage. was eiithus : astica!!v welcomed." SHOCKING THE PrKTTAXS. But, of course, in those days, as in these, there were mar-pleasures who turned disapproving eyes on such "indecent behaviour." The Puritans ot Cromwell's day "set their faces" (metaphorically and not actually) against the pernicious habit; and one of them. Stubbes, poured the vials of h : 6 wrath on the habit, which he referred to disgustedly in the words— '••what capping, what culling, what kissing and bussing of onr another!'' Nor had England any monopoly if

kissing; it was in just as high favour on the Continent; and in this connect on an amusing story is told of Cardinal John of Lorraine, who not only enjoyed, but expected such salutes as much as any man of lesser degree When tho Cardinal was once presented to thJ Duchess of Savoy, and, nstead ot offering her lips, she extended her hand to be kissed, his Eminence broke oat indignantly, "How, nmlame! am I to be treated in this manner? I kiss the Queen, my mistress, who is the greatest queen in the world; and shell 1 not kiss you, a dirty I'ttle duchess? i would have you know I have kissed as handsome ladies, and of as great or greater family than you!" And with the words lv placed one hand on each side of the duchess's face, drew it towards him, and gave her a salute of three hearty smacks on the lips.

TOO GOOD TO LAST. Unhappily, for some obscure reason tho practice seems to have fallen into some disfavour in England by the eighteenth century, for we find Rustic Sprightly grumbling bitterly in the "Spectator" because, forsooth, on once entering a room full of young ladies not cne of than presented her lips to '%> k'ssed, whereas "previously he had been accustomed, on entering a room, to salute the ladi.es all round. However, that the kiss still had a magic all its own we know from the stories of the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire, who won many a vote for Charles James Fox, at Westminster, by the bribery of her lips: and of equally lovely Lady Gordon, who qu'ckly filled the gaps n the Scottish regiments by placing the recruiting striking between her red lips and tempting the boys to remove ; t with their own.

Xo Prince was ever more partial to kissing than the Duke of Clarence, our fourth King William of later year's, of whom the .following amusing story is told. Once, in his young days, while traveling in Vermont, lie called at a villa"," barbers to be shaved The operation ov.t, lie was about to depart when the barber s wife, a pretty woman chanced, to enter the shop; and the Prince, in a frolicsome mood, put hi*, arm round her waist and stob a kiss ivith the remark, "Thore, now, you can tell your co.itrywomen that the son tt the King of England has given a royal kiss to a Yankee barber's wife." Sconce ly, however, had he uttered the words when the barber so'zed the too audacious young man, bundled him out of the shop, and with a larewell kicli sei.t Irm out into the street. " There, now, ' the knight of the razor shouted before slamming the door on the bewildered Duke, "go and tell your countrywomen that the Yankee barber Ins given a royal kick to the sou of the King of England '.'''

COLD-BLOODED HUSBANDS. Xo leas amusing are the followiii?; stories told, one of a very haughty, cold-blooded English Duke, the other )1 a Scotch minister of ascetic v : ews. The Duke, who had recently married his third wife 1 , was one day entering the draw ng-room, dressed for some State ceremonial, when, to his amazement, the Duchess thr.ew her arms around Ins neck and gave him a hearty kiss. "Madam." he said, in his iciest tones, when 1/3 had recovered a little from ttw indignity, "my first wife was a Howard, my second was a Pembroke, and, madam, neither of them ever dared t> attempt such a liberty." Tlv Reverend John Colquhoun, i l.eith, was a man of "extreme solemnity of demeanour," with a more than puritanical regard for the sanctity it the "Sawbath." One one Sacrament Sunday morning Ins wife, desirous having him nicely riggvd out for tin* occasion, had his coat well brushed, ins shirt white as snow, and his bands hanging handsomely on Irs breast; and when she surveyed her gudemau she was so pleased with his comely appearance that in her pleasure, she put her arms round his neck and k : ssed lnm.

"Madam," said the lleverend John, drawing irmself up austerely as soon as lis could disengage himself. " there are oeeas'ons on winch a kiss is permoesib'e; but it is a carnal act and no' for the Sawbctli. As ye lmve sinned, how. ever innocently, I must debar you from the Sacrament the day!" Happily the Reverend John Coiquhoun has not many disciples, and jt is refreshing to turn our backs on Irm to pay homage to Lieutenant Hobsou, the hero of the Merrimae, whose name was Oil all lips not many years ago. Alter his famous exploit in the Span-ish-American war, the l'cutenant had for reward such an orgy of kissing as probably no other man has ever onloyed in the world's history. Wherever i:e went ho was received by idolatrous crowds of women adn girls, all dott-m----'ned to honour the hero with the homage of their lips. At Kansas City he bad to run the gauntlet of more than .i thousand fair admirers, each of. whom insisted on an embrace and a salute* at Topeka Staron five hundred were in waiting, and the train was not allowed i.i proceed until the hist of them had paid her tribute; and before his osruI itory career at last cam.' to an end it wah estimated that he had received and ietuin:'d more than half a million k : ss?s as re ward for his bra verv.

Hut there is another side to this pleasant picture. Like most other tielights, kissing has its dangers, as many a man has found to his cost. As long :>;.:<> ::s 10*50 we read that Jacob Marline and Sarah Tuttle w.oiv prosecuted and puirshcd for "setting down on a che-'te tnegthor, his amies about her waste and her arme upon his shoulder or about his neck and continuing m that sinful po.s : tion about half an hoti' - , in which time he kysMed her. and si:.-' kyssed him, or thev kvssed one another." ■ '

_T.,?ss than half a century later in 1 ~o:{—a stolon kiss was the direct cause ill' a il sa-irous war. While travelling in a neighbouring State, Ferdinand of Bavaria, we are told, mot a beauVi'n! frirl in the garden of the palace ;ii which hr was a guo-t, and on the impulse of the moment put his arm around hot naist and kissed her on the cheek. It was not long, however, '.ofore he had cause to regret his indiscretio*!. The unknown lYrone prove! to he a royal Princess, nice,' of Ferdinand's host, and he found himself c!ia'longetl by hei fiance to a duel : n which. he was severely wounded. Diplomat ■■■ relations between the two States were sever.od, and before Ferdinand had re. cevre-! from his wounds his army was engaged :n a iieree war, in which t':e sloleii s:iiiit" was paid for in the blood oi hundreds of his soldiers.