St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-14
TRY 1T YOURSELF.
How to Make Woman Put Out
Hcr Tongue.

The new discovery is quite, says the
New York Sun, as much matter of
contemporaneous human interest as the
red-haired girl and the white horse
miracle, but affects the fair sex alone.
1t is embodied in the question: 'sWhy
do women moiSten their lips when they
are locked at?' The subject is usually
brought forward in the shape of a posi-
tive declaration, some men going SO far
as to declare that they and their friends
have been experimenting for over
year upon the unconscious ladies of the
city, and that the test never fails.
"Al you have to do says one of
these, lis to sit opposite lady in car
or bus and look at her intently with
out rudeneSS, and, as sure as you do so,
out will come her tongue and she will
moisten both her lips. She must be
some one you are not acquainted with,
and when she catches you looking at
her 1t had better be with slight eX-
preston of interest or curiosity. Gazing
with admiration upon her is not a sure
way, because if it is done at all badly
she reSents it and will simply look away,
but II you seem to be curious about her,
as you were studying something about
her hair or eyes or hat. or as if you were
trying to see who she was like, she will
be positively certain to perform this
queer operation"
Apparently thousands. in ever WIDEN
ing circles, who have heard positive
statements of this sort. are devoted to
investigating the phenomenon. They
pursue the subject in the streets, Office,
elevators, hotel parlOrS, churches, and
wherever ladies are to be found. Those
who have yielded to the influence of the
queer study declare it to be very fasci-
mating. Ihey are mainly young men.
Ihey say 1t IS like form of hunting OF
fly fishing. A man singles out lady of
attractive face and figure, dressed to the
| supreme notch of fashion, and evidently
enjoying complete satisfaction with
herself as she arranges her drapery and
seats herself in horse car. If any one
were to tell her that the man across the
car had made up his mind to bend her
to his will, and oblige her to perform
| an undignified act while she sat
suggestion as preposterous. And
yet, ten to one, she would project her
tongue, and roll her lips inward to
moisten them on its surface as soon as
she looked over to the stranger to petrify
him with an indignant l0ok-at least so
| these impolite eXperimenters assert.
But she would know nothing about it.
and would get out her pocketbook, find
what change she needed for the con-
ductor, and once again settle herself as
ladies and birds are accustomed to do,
all Oblivi0uS of the fact that the gaze of
a man opposite is concentrated upon
her face with look of quick, curious
| interest. 1t Will not be many minutes
before she does perceive this by reason
of that subtle influence that is said to
enable us to awaken men and women
| from deep sleep by fixing our eyes
upon them. Then she Will look up and
| meet the mans gaze. 1t will startle
| her, and if the rule be true, she will in
| dulge in the peculiar performance ac-
credited to her sex.
The action of the lips and tongue is
not mysterious. 1t is merely one of
score of ways in which human beings,
especially the more Self-consciouS ones
among us, testify to momentary embar-
| rassment, and make an involuntary me-
| chanical movement i'll reaSSerting our
self-posseSsion. An equally familiar
and more noticeable unconscious trick
of the same kind is that which Euro
pean peasant men and women have and
bring to this country with them-a
movement Of the back OF the hand
across the mouth. Another action OF
the sort is the biting of the under lip.
Men who are taken by surprise by some
ones staring at them often throw their
eyes upward to the sky or ceiling. and
the trick of casting the eyes down is
credited by poets, noyeistS and actors
to shy young country maidens. But
whether the New York club men who
are practicing with their lady fellow
citizens know all this or not, they don't
care.