St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-25
HISTORY OF OSCILLATION.
KISSES OF ALL COUNTRIES AND OF
ALL: TIMES.
Men Who Kiss and Their Reasons for Such
.saJutations-I7.e Ne,o Fashion of
LaJiaL Notwithstanding
Ground AnsonD the Dudes.

The researches of laborious delivers in the
mine of usual information have made it no
longer doubtful that the art of OSCILLATION is
of an antiquity very remote indeed. Nc
doubt the term designating this charm pro-
cess is one of somewhat s'learned length, u
and of sibilant, if not of laundering sound.
But il is susceptible Of easy translation. II
is a noun, and very proper one, generally
speaking; but even if sometimes a little
naughty, it is always nice. Holy Writ is re-
plete with records bearing on the 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 Genesis to
kissing. In the affair Of Joab and Amasa,
recorded in H. 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 and the hen
smote him in the fifth rib Labal salutation
appears also to have been interchanged by
Joab and Rachel; Laban and his sons and
daughters; Moses and Aaron; Orpha and
mirable dictu-her mother-in-law! A goo
girl that Orphal
illusions to the practice of kissing in classic
literature are comparatively few, and those
mostly Of a contcmptuous character. 1t is
well known that the Greeks and Ro-
mans-espccially the latter-had no toler-
ance for effimminacy in any form and per-
haps, 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 flashing the
giant vices of their time, and gave no heed
to trifes. Whether kissing prevailed to any
! great extent dnring the Dark Ages is ques-
ton involved in an obscurity as profound as
its importance.
The dawn was some time in breaking, but
about the beginning of the Fifteenth century
the long-hidden sun-god burst forth in all his
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 re
verberation from indies to the Polel
In 144S, Lorenzo the Magnificent reigned
in Florence. He was the most munifcent
patron of learning all kinds-including the
science and art of kissing-since M9cenas.
During the three centuries following Loren
zo's reign other choice spirits bore sway in
high places. They were nearly all-male and
female-devoted and assiduous patrons of
the one art of kissing. Contemporary litera-
ture is full of it, Shakespeare overfows with
moving delineations of this absorbing pas
time. There is hardly one of his dramas
tragic or comic-in which there is not re-
ference to kissing. The term s'kiss' appears
one hundred and forty-nine (49) times in
| no Mo iscip cd in
eighty-two instances, making grand aggre-
gate of two-hundred and thirty-one (23D
times in which the bard recurs to a soul-ab-
sorbing exercise in which, no doubt, he was
him self proficient.
At the court of Lorenzo the form Of kiss
ing was most decorous. Henry VIII. kissed
in sort of catch-as-ca tch-can fashion; so did
| Catherine II. of Russia. In Spain the art
was brought to very high point of refine
ment, as indeed might be expected from the
chivalric character of Spain's sons and the
beauty of her daughters. The Spanish kiss
is described as passionate and prolonged.
These conditions, too, were to be expected,
for we have it on high poetic authority-one
of the ''boss'' bussers of his age-that:
The Spanish girl is no coquette,
Nor joys to see a lover tremble; ~
| And if she love or if she hate, =
| Alike she knows not TO QlSSemDle.
1t was in France, however, that the kiss
bloomed into the full flower of perfection.
Mesdames Pompadour and Maintenon have
! given names to the forms of the salute both
have been described as cOurtly, but not frigid.
| Ninon de l'Enclos, who preserved her charms
up to her death at 80, would be embalmed in
the amber of history on the same account If
upon no other. The kiss la de PEnclos was
IL
and decided disposition to ''stick.'
The poets of the Restoration in Euglahd-
sad dogs most of them-were never tired of
descanting on the kiss, with variations not
fit for the ears polite of our day. After them
like worthless. Everybody knows what the
authors of .'Tom jones' and Roderick Ran
dom" were, and so there's an end ont.
Richardson, the virtuous author of Clarissa
Harlowe," was, of course. too good man to
speak OF such naughty subject save in a
| cold, Minerva-like way.
1t should have been said that the Puritans
of the Cromwellian period were somewhat
addicted to kissing, but after a most discreet
! fashion. In fact quaint author of the peri
cd, who probably had "been there,n COM
pared the chaste salute of Puritan maiden
to the thrust of woodpecker's bill.
Passing the Georgian and Victorian eras,
during which Byron sang ssThe FIRST Kiss of
Love-" and Tom Moore struck his harp and
warbled like nightingale of ''bowers,"
"smiles, - "wine,'' ''ksses,'' and cognate
subjects, one comes to new phase of the
momentous kissing question, and at this
point it becomes necessary to dwell a little
on the character dadus Aapericanas, or great
American dude-the latest product of our
''society'' and civilization. AS sort of ZOO
logical title has been bestowed on the dude
it is proper to remove any false impression
that he is not an ass-that is not in form or
feature. In fact, he has none Of the quail
ties of that noble animal-none of his grit,
obstinacy or staying powers The dude
hasn't even the redeeming quality of bad
temper, like that other noble animal 'with-
out pride of ancestry or hope of posterity'-
the mule A dude may be described in the
main as the combined product of tailor, a
shoemaker and halter. at his birth silli-
ness marked him for her own. Insipidity
took him in tow at an early age and will hold
him fast astern through life. The dude-if,
indeed, that nature had any particular de-
sign in giving such being animate exist
ence-is probably designed to furnish cas-
ual paragraph for the newspapers and to sup
ply an occasion for mirth to all persons who
have not taken leave of their senses.
One would have thought that the absurdi-
ties of this abnormal creature, in dress and
department, had reached climax long ago;
but no. The latest ''wrinkIe'' among the
dudesque fraternity is that they have taken
to kissing-not some other fellows sister or
wife; oh, no that would involve some risk,
but to kissing one another. Careful investi-
cation proves this to be a fact. When two
of our metropolitan dudes meet now, whet-
her in public or private, they forthwith en-
brace and then the osculatory operation is
performed. It is the proper thing, you
| know bv iovei