Hugging and Embracing.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 269, 14 October 1902, Page 4

Hugging and Embracing.

1 Hugging is a comparatively jmodern institution. Oar ancestors never hugged. They calmly ami demurely embraced. There’s a big difference between a hug and an embrace. The hug is an earnest, quick, I impetuous contraction of the j muscles of the arms and chest when ;the object to be hugged lies within | the circle bounded by the arms, ;while the chest is the goal or final ■point of the hug. The warmth of the hug is determined by the extent of the muscular contraction. But the hug is not, so anatomists assert, terminated when the object is brought in contact with the chest. On the contrary, the sweeping in is but the shell of the operation. The kernel is reached when the space between the hugger and ithe huggee is ‘annihilated, and the I blade of a knife could scarcely be inserted between both surfaces. I This is. perhaps, the most dangerous ;stage of the operation. A pound, Inay, a fe w ounces of extra pressure, !may result, if not in the displace|ment of a rib, at least in the burstling of a corset-string, with the almost inevitable destruction of bangs, monlagues, waves, pud's, land such like head-gear, j The release, if not skilfully imanaged, is attended with danger, land should be as gradual as the 'elementary pressure, j Expressions of anguish on the |park of the huggee may,*as a rule, ibe regarded as hypocritical, and should have no effect in inducing |the hugger to diminish the presjsuiO. In like manner ail danger signals in regard to the arrival of a !third party on the scene should be jinvestigated by the party of the |first part before receiving the attention the genuine arrival of a parent or guardian might command. This may be done by a quick glance over the shoulder, and this rapid change of the direction of the head may be accomplished by a little practice without making any relaxation of pressure necessary.

If the warning should prove to be without foundation the deceit may be punished by from two to three pounds of additional pressure, but so gradual that none of the ornaments of the person hugged may suffer. These accidents ruin the temper and embitter the memory of the operation. The small affairs of the toilet are not accomplished easily, and the female mind is ruffled by the destruction of the laborious embellishments of the morning hours. The embrace is merely the throwing out and partial contraction of the arms, without any special attention to the objective point. Near relatives should be embraced and not hugged. An especially young and pretty aunt may be excepted, and cases are known where an extremely juvenile and goodlooking stepmother has been the occasion of the merging of the embrace into the hug. But this is rarely done, particularly if the embracer is dependent on the purse of the old man for the necessities as well as the luxuries of life. To embrace a mother-in-law is a hollow raockeiy, and should be attempted only when some important object has to be attained, and even then it is hardly excusable.