The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-08-12
From the Charleston e. c. News.J

From Inc CnarNstOn IL. S.J Nc"s.j
Years ago, and not so many either, when
the tomato was called the "loye-apple,"
and cultivated as al object Of curiosity, the
idea of eating it was not entertained. lts
flavor to the natural taste was disagrecable
in the extreme. Yet now it IS universally
eaten, and is considered not only the most
deliobtful. bit one of the most wholesome
OF vegetables. $780,.
So with the oyster. Nothing can be more
disgusting to the eye. nothing more revolt,
inc to the stomacl-that is, the uneducated
owe and stomach. 1t was observed during
the late war that the men who came down
from the mountains to the coast could not
for \ long while be persuaded to touch oys-
TORS. or to eat out OF vessel in which they
had been cooked They even regarded
with distrust the people who did eat them,
looking upon them as unnatural beings with
deprayed appetites. And yet neither the
earth nor the air, nor the waters that cover
the earth, contain aught that in all respects
equals the oyster.
The generalization often drawn from the
tomato and oyster is, that acquired tastes are
by odds the strongest, and, III many cases,
the most beneficial to mankind. But the Ia
tent moral, discernible only by the phllo-
sophical eve, has never yet been unfolded to
a blind and uninquiring world. we an
pouncc it this morning. 1t is this:
Acquired tastes being the strongest ana
most beneficial, may it not be, nay, IS 1t not
certain, that mankind is losing great deal
bs not cultivating these tastes, and by not
searching about 70 find objects On which to
exercise them! The French are very hap
NV and industrious in pursuits Of this char
acter. and the result is that they can eat and
enioy ANYTHING on earth except buzzards.
But what do Americans say to the KISSING
of men as Il new, cheap, and permanent
source of deep enjoyment? We all fancy
we know what it is to kiss woman-a
Young and pretty woman. 1t IS SAID by
those who have tried it to be. rather good
thing. But the kissing OF grown man by
a grown man is something at which unen-
lightened epigastrium hcaves fearfully-in
this country. The French kiss, the Ger
mans kiss, and-do but read this:
"Osculation is practlccd somewhat pro-
misculously i'm Russia. Somebody writes ::
sThe Russian ceremony OF salutlng every
one upon Easter with the sentence Christ
is Risen and kiss. was carried out with
much pomp by the Emperor and his Court.
Precisely at midnight, the hour being an
nounced by cannon, the Car, his family,
and all the Court dignitaries, together with
y
went in procession into the church adj
Joining the Winter Palace. Here, at GER
tain stage Of the ceremonies, the Car gave
three kisses each to the State dignitaries,
the general, aids-de-camp,s and the COM
handing officers Of the guard. Mass was
then celebrated and the company dis
persed.'
So great q man as the Emperor OF all the
RuSsias, we may be very sure, would not
indulge in the above ceremony If it were so
very loathsome MS we Americans fancy.
Ours is q miserable delusion. Away with it.
We haven't doubt but that the kissing OF
men is as far. superior to the kissing OF
women as beef is to veal. Nothing can be
argued from the kissing OF old women, who
are a kind of beardless man, because no.
body kisses them often enough. II we per-
sisted rs one does with tomatoes and oysters
old women's kisses would in time become
delicious, but still not quite equal to the
kisses OF men. The moustache, we are as
sured, operates like black walnut catsup on
fish. -.. ....s.
Objections to tobacco, whiskey, Swiss
cheese, and perhaps onions, as inevitable
Accomplishments Of the male kiss, will be
urged by the opponents OF our views. The
objections have no particle OF weight. Frail,
delicate, refined women manage to worry
through long happy lives in spite of these
trifes, and we may do the same. Let us
hasten the era of high-favored masculine
kisses, and leave the tame insipid lips OF
women to school boys and preachers. We
have lost ages of. bliss by not doing it in
times past, and we cannot begin too soon.