GENERAL NEWS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 1736, 24 January 1913, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS

KISSING MADE LAWFUL. The young People of Wheeling, West Virginia (»y» correspondent of the "Standard ) aro in hi"h gkw over a decision of hi localr&,s of Health that even in public is both pemissnble and safe from a hygienic point of vkj under certain condition* The onl.y restrictions suggested is that all «ho desire to show their affection in this manner must keep their lip* clean This decision is the result of a long and widespread controversy as to whether disease could he spread through kissing. The Board of Health finally settled matters by issuing an official hullotin stating that, while disease germs might be transmitted by osculation, the danger cor.ld be readilv averted by first carefully wiping the lip« with a pocket handkerchief.

APPRENTICESHIP DISPUTES 200 YEARS AGO. Old Sessions books aro an unfailing source, of amusement and instruc- , tiopjthey ; are entirely unaffected witnesses to many of the details ot the life of that period. Mr TV. JHardy's collections of Middlesex County Record* (says the "Westminster, Garotte") are perhaps peculiarly interesting on the subject of apprentices-, whose indentures could not be cancelled without an order of the Court. About two centuries ago we fijhd a boy released from -his apprenticeship to a surgeon, because he was not taught the mysteries- of .the j profession, but was compelled to be a ! "tumbler, rope-dancer, and jack-pud-ding." Another unfortunate a-spimnt to the same- art was borne away on hoard ship and turned into a cabinboy. But frequently the i'harges alleged were more'subtle, and hinged on religious and political ground's. Indentures wero cancelled because tiho master's wife prcsuadetl the boy to go to Mass at the Portuguese Ambassador's Chapel, and because an apprentice, brought up as a Catholic and bound to a master of the Mine faith, was converted to Anglicanism, whereupon his master, previously kind, began to ill-use him.