The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1884-04-15
STORY OF OSCILLATION.
Kisses for all Countries and Of all
Kinds and Times.
Men ard Women Who Kiss, and
Their Reasons for Such Sal
utatlon-The Dudes
Latest.


in the mines of useful information
save made it no longer doubtful that
The art of OSCILLATION is Of All antiquity
rery remote indeed. No dombt tie
term designating this charming pro-
,ess is one of somewhat learned length,
and of sbilant, if not of laundering
sound. But it is susceptible OF easy
translation. 1t is a noun, and very
proper one. generally sreaking : but,
even if sometimes a little naughly, it
is always nice. Holy writ is replete
with records bearing on this subject.
The practice is unquestionably of
Oriental origin, as in truth is that of
the race with which it came in TO stay.
There are several references in Gen
esis to kissing. In the affair of Joab
and Amasa, recorded in III. Samuel,
it is connected very intimately with
tragedy, for it is recorded that JOab
took Amasa by the beard with the
right hand to kiss him ami then smote
him in the fifth rib. Labia's solution
appears also to have been interchang-
ed by Jacob and Rachel Laban and
bis sons and daughters Moses and
Aaron Orpha and-mirabile dictC-
ler mother-in-law-a good girl that
orpha
Strange as it may appear at first
blush, the illusions TO the practice of
kissing in classic literature are COM
paratively few, and those mostly of a
contemptuous character. 1t is well
known that the old Greeks and Ro-
mans-especially the latter---has no
tolerance for effeminacy in any form
and perhaps, from their point of view,
kissing came under that ban.
So, too, among most of the great
Roman writer's. Persius and his
greater successor. Juvenal, had their
hands full In Iashin. the giant vices of
their time, and gave no heed to trifes
Whether kissing prevailed to any
great extent during the dark ages is a
question involved in an obscurity as
profound as its Importance.
The dawn was some time in break
ing, but about the beginning of the
fifteenth century the long hidden sun
dog burst forth in all bis effulgence.
The people of Europe, and for aught
that can be added to the contrary.
those of Asia, Africa and the islands
of the sea commenced to kiss. 1t was
one loud reverberation from Indies to
the pole!
In 144S, Lorenzo. the magnificent,
reigned In Florence. He was the
most magnificent patron of learning
of all kinds including the science
and art of kissing-since Mscenas.
During the three centuries following
LorenZo's reign other choice spirits
bore swav in high places. They were
nearly all-male and fe nale-devoted |
and assiduous patrons of tt e fine art of
kissing. Contemporary literature is
full of it. Shakespeare overfiOws
with moving delineations of this alb
sorbing pastime. There is hardly one
of his dramas-tragic or cOmIc-ln
which there is not reference to kiss
ing. The term kiss appears 10 times
in the PLAYS; kissed and kissing are
used in eighty-two instances, making |
a grand aggregate of 231 times in
which the bard recurs to a soul-ab-
sorbing exercise In which, no doubt,
he was himself proficient.
At the court of Lorenzo the form
of kissing was most decorous. Henry
VIII. kissed in a sort of catch-as-
catch-can fashion; so did Catherine of
Russia. In Spain the art was brought
to very high point of refinement,
as indeed light be expected from the
chivalric character of SPANS sons and
the beauty of her daughters. The
Spanish kiss is described as passionate
and prolonged. These conditions. too,
were 10 be expected, for we have 1T on /
high poetic authority-one OF the
boss hussers of his age-that:
The spanish girl is eoguette,
Eor i 20 see a lover tumble;
And = she love- or If she hate,
Alike she knows not To dissemDle.
1t was in France, however, that the
kiss bloOmed into the full flower of
perfection. Mesdames Pompadour
and Maintenou have given names to
the forms of the salute; both have