The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-06-03
The True Ministry of the Kiss.

VI Ine great needs OF American
home life to-day, hearty, ncere, and
frequent manifestation of affection
stands at the head. Thousands of fam
lilies there are in which never kiss is
exchanged The day is begun and
ended by all, from the father to the
five-year-old, in the same heartless
fashion. No wonder the years rapidly
hide their faces in the "long ago."
Yet what can stay SO many SORROWS
as the hearty kiss of true affection
Does mammals kiss possess such won
derlul curative power for the baby, and
the child's have no power of healing
for the mother?
Boys, kiss your mothers. 1t won't
break the heart that has endured the
strain of ceaseless vigil and care
through all the years of your infantile
tenderness, and the later years of your
happy, headlong, heartless helpless
ness. Try it some day. Many boy
has risen to noble renown by the self
denying toll of widowed mother. She
is proud of your success, and asks no
other reward for the heavy struggle
than the hearty affection of an appreci-
alive soul. Don't deprive her of that
slight recompense, my boy. Should
the cloud become so heavy rs to take
her from your sight, you will never
have another mother. The law may
give a man a dozen wives; heaven can
give him but one mother. The boy
that is too big to kiss his mother is too
small to kiss anybody else. Girls, be-
ware of him. Such boys fairly pant
with anxiety TO attend every occasion
that may afford them opportunity TO kiss
some butterfly, whose chief accomplish
ments may be little waist (no reference
to economy and big bustle-not of USE
full activity, but of paper.
L know, my boy, your mothers voice
may lack the low melody of your last
fame" but it will ring with the music
of unselfsh affection long after your
flames" has been lost amid the ashes
of selfishness. Your mother may not
be able to vie with some girl you know
in coddling, with a wealth of atfectionate
adjectives and languishing attitudes, a
pet pug-nosed dog or rabbit-tailed cat.
But with arms and body rising superior
to the pain and ache that tortured her
frame, she carried you night and day
in the lingering sickness of your in
fsncy; she pressed you to her heart and
covered with kisses your face, even
while made so repulsive with foul dis
ease that your fair charmer, who daily
divides her affections between you and
her dog, would have turned away in
disgust. But, then, her arms have
borne q nobler burden, her heart is
filled with holier love, her mind occu
pied with loftier ideal, else you would
not be where you are to-day. Then kiss
the dear old face, deeply scanned with
care for you. Don't wait till that loving
smile, stereotyped by death, can only
be impressed upon your heart forever.
The noblest and highest ordeal of
your future is embodied in your mother,
my boy.
Girls, kiss your fathers. Make them
glad every day that their patient toll
has such atfectionate reward. Show,
each one of you, that you appreciate
your father. His tremulous hand may
not be as fair and smooth as the oily"
hand OF the dude seeking your smile.
His aged form may not be as erect AZ
he brainless fop who impatiently waits
permission to take you to new home,
there TO surround you with every lux
1ry-at your fathers expense. His
handwriting may not be as roundly reg
nlar as that of your last correspondent;
tut that rawing signature on the cor
ner of an old envelope will drain more
money out of the bank in minute,
than your admiring Adonis' copper
plate, written all over spotless page
Of foolscap, can in ten years.
Then, each kiss imprinted on that
whitening brow may help you to re-
member that your parents won't be
with you forever. The rapidly revolv-
ng hand is completing the circuit of
iife's dial; each passing day brings
nearer the season for fight; each grow
ing infirmity is pluming of the wings
oy-and-by the mellow dusk of life's
autumn will lure the gentle spirit from