St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-01
ABOUT OSCILLATION.
There Are Degrees in Kisses
as in Everything
Else,
And the Chap Who Wrote This
Seems to Have Taken
Them All.
A Liberal Education Such as
No American College Can
Afford.

Afford.
Master Godfrey in Detroit Free Press.
lndulgent reader, do you like to kiss
and be kissed? Do you like to take in
your arms a clean, sweet, chubby and
rosy faced baby, without regard to sex,
and impress paternal or maternal kiss
on its bright red lips? Do you like to
kiss the modest boy and the demure
and blushing little maid? Do you like
to pluck the cherries, if you are man.
from the pouting lips of pretty girl
whose cheeks are Suffused like the
blush of rose, whose breath is as
sweet as all the perfumes of Arabia,
whose whole air is one of eXpectant
rhapsody? Or, if you are young
woman, do you like to kiss the mus
tache-adorned mouth of some handsome
AdonniS? Do you like to kiss the gray
haired father or mother, grandfather or
grandmother? Do you like to kiss the
wife of your bosom? If so you may find
something in these silhouettes to inter-
est you. If you do not like to kiss, you
may as we'll turn yOnr attention else
where for amusement and instruction.
There is no substantially in kiss. 1t
is as intangible as the baSeless fabric of
vision. 1t is such stuff as dreams are
made on; ergo, any article based on the
kiss as subject must likewise be un
substantial and ephemeral.
49,
Blessed be the man who invented the
Ic
raised to mark his great benefaction to
humanity? We read of the kiss in the
Holy Bible. We hear of it as far back
as the beginning of the world. AL
though there is not on record the kisses
exchanged between Adam and Eve, yet
it is fair to presume that they did mott
to profit by their numerous opportunities.
There was no one nigh to interrupt
their felicitouS discourse. The poet
Milton writes in his Paradise LOST"
Adam, the COOLEST man Of men since born
His sons, the fairest of her daughters, Eve.
Grace was in all her steps, heaven In her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.
Two such persons would not long re-
main together in the garden of Eden
without indulging in an occasional kiss.
So that, although their initial kiss may
not be recorded, yet there is every rea-
son to believe that it was given and
that it was enjoyed with peculiar hap
piness.
No one can fix the beginning of the
kiss. 1t must have begun with the
world. 1t must have had an existence
in chaos, for so heavenly thing could
not have sprung from mere earthiness.
Orators have framed it in the most TO
tund and glowing periods. Poets have
sung about it, and immortalized it in
living rhyme. 1t has been the theme of
the lover, the celibate, the benedict,
the withered and the weary. Some say
that the world was brought into being
float an Chaos until Day kissed it and
Love sprang forth? If we cannot fix
the beginning of the kiss, we can at
least trace it to its carrier prac-
tees. The first recorded kiss is that
given by Jacob to his deceived father
Isaac. The next kiss and first kiss
noted between man and woman is the
kiss that Jacob gave to Rachel. which
is portrayed in the twenty-ninth chap
ter of Genesis. 1t must have been
cold and clammy and altogether SORROW
full affair because, we read in the elev-
enth verse of that chapter that Jacob
kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice
and wept." If there had been any Pc
culiar JOY in the encounter why should
he have wept? Why did he lift up his
voice? Was it because his joy was too
great to hold back and his voice per-
sisted i'll asserting itself?
All kisses are not of the exhilarant
kind. There are some that disgrace the
name. Judas Iscariot gave his master
kiss. 1t is pity that some other name
was not invented by the wise men Of
that period. The kiss is fraught with
too many sweet and tender memories in
the minds of every one possessing a
spark of sentiment. Its realm should
not be invaded by Judas IscariOt or any
of his ilk. This is the only kiss on
record which should be eXpurgated from
the category of kisses. 1t is foul out
rage upon the name-a beStial ravish-
ment of an act which is entirely
lovely and sincere. A kiss without
sincerity is like summer without sun
ity-a sort of dead sea fruit, that,
while pleasing to the eye outside, is
filled with fibre and fibre dust. lnsin-
cerity has no place in kiss. Happily.
the inventor of that delightful diver
sion so modelled the kiss that inSincer-
ity can be at once detected. There is
hollOWneSS about an inSincere kiss that
at once shows itself. The lips become
cold and dry and acrid. There is no
magnetism in them, and kiss of the
kind is not only flat, stale and unproft-
able, but it is positively blighting. A
sensitive nature feels one of those Oys-
ster-like kisses just as sensitive plant
feels the harsh wind.
*
There are degrees in kisses, just as
there are degrees in everything else.
We will take the kiss of Judas Iscariot
as the positive degree, the kiss of King
Solomon as the comparative degree,
and the kiss that Christopher Marowe
describes in his drama, DIR. Faustus."
as the superlative. L will not attempt
TO define that Judas kiss. 1t has won
its own eternal damnatiOn; for Judas
kiss is the meanest thing which the
human mind can comprehend. 1t is a
synonym for baseness, for perfidy, for
treachery, for everything that is false and
deceitfui. With these words we can dis
miss that kind of an OSCILLATION and be
done with it once for all. As an Illus
tration of the comparative degree of the
kiss we have only to turn to that eX
quiSite anacreontic, the ''Song of Solo
mon," to find it. That wise and pleas
ure-loving philosopher wrote:
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his
mouth: for thy love is better than wine
Chapter L, verse l.
Thy lips, oh, my spouse, drop as the honey |
comb; honey and milk are under thy tongue.
Chapter 4, verse IL.
His lips like lilies dropping sweet-smelling
myrrh. Chapter 3, verse Is.
SOlomon's kisses were of the inviting
character. otherwise he would not have |
oninuod thnrn co nnnnh Eunn in hic |