WHAT STOLEN KISSES COST

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 293, 5 December 1908, Page 4

WHAT STOLEN KISSES COST

While the majority of us may echo the sentiments of the old-time poor, there arc not wanting those—apart from grumpy bachelors, woman-luiicr-and medical faddists, who see lurking in one sweet kiss enough microbes to fill half-a-dozen hospitals with patients —who, were the inventor of kissing alive to-day, would be seeking him out with war whoop and hatchet, lor, alls, they have found that stolen kisses, so farfrom being sweetest, are sometimes very bitter fruit.

-She was so pretty and fascinating I that 1 could not help kissing her," was the novel ami gallant plea put forward a short time ago by a Birmingham youth, charged with Kissing a girl in one of the parks against her will. " Two pounds or fourteen days," replied the hard, unfeeling .magistrate. " You must learn to keep your admiration of th" opposite sex within proper liouuds"; and sorrowfully and sadly this youth, who found a pair of pretty lips so irresistible, paid over the forty shillings. It was a rather dear price to pay for a little oscillatory practice, but a man who was charged with a similar ofFen-e at a seaside resort last year, and mulcted to the extent of JCS. jauntily replied that the kisses were cheap at the price and he would not object to another £5 worth. But he also had to pay fo r his flippancy, the magistrate taking such a serious view of his unrepentant attitude and behaviour in court that he added another £3 to the fine for contempt of Court.

Exactly how much this worked out at per kiss it is impossible to say, as no information as to the number of kisses stolen was furnished. A commercial traveller, however, who snatched a single kiss from the chambermaid of a Manchester hotel was fined X.± and costs, amounting in all to Jt!3 2s (id. The value of a stolen kiss, however, seems to vary according to the view taken by the judge of the offence. Sometimes the delinquent has been let off with a caution, while iu other cases, where a. girl has struggled and hurt herself in her efforts to avoid the unwelcome attention, the offender has boci fined as much as ClO, and the writer recalls one case in which a man was sent to prison for three weeks, without the option of a fine, for trying to kiss a girl against her will, and assaulting her because she resisted.

If every stolen kiss had to be paid for at such rates as these, what a source of revenue osculation would be to the country! Fortunately lor lov.;stricken swains, no fine is attached to a kiss, whether stolen in public or otherwise, if the girl has no objection to risking the microbes. It is not so in all countries, however.

There is an old l'uritan law in Massachusetts (U.S.A.) which prohibits kissing in the street, and some mouths ago a newly-married couple were arrested and lined for breaking this law. whi.-h has never been repealed. Anti-kissing crusades are strong an I numerous in the States, and last year several couples at Xew Jersey were fined for kissing on the beach. " The.-c is too much promiscuous flirtation and spooning going on," said the Recorder,, when inflicting the lines, "and this kissing and cooing must be broken up."

Livers iu New York. too. must., in the. words of the song, "lie verv. vei v careful what they do." It is'not so long ago since a man was lined :tdols. for kissing and hugging ;l girl on the doorstep. He appealed against the judge's decision, however, and the appeal was upheld, although he was advised to do his billing and cooing jV doors.