Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-26
DECLINE OF THE KISS.
Declared Dangerous by the Doctors and
Lapsed Into Desuetude.
What Writers Have Said About It-CandOr
COmpels the Statement that Majority
OF Them Voted Aye.
Chicago Inter Ocean.

tlo Il SIauCo at lli0 pOOtSJ oAOICAI dHN
modern, will show.
The fact of the matter is, it is not good
form to kiss any more. The bridal kiss
was tabooed long ago much against min
isteriaI protest, ana weddings are as IN
osculatory as funerals. AT receptions,
at homes, carpet parties, and kettle
drums, where the kiss of peace went
round, one has to be content with a lit
tie hand clasp, in which pair of kid
gloves intervene as sort of non-cOn-
conductor to the tremulOus, vibTatorY
touch that thrills and aweS and is so full
of meaning to the student.
The medical profession is credited with
the decline of the practice, and it is said
there is ample evidence in its literature
to prove that promiscuous kissing is an
admirable means of spreading disease.
4 kiss is noun, but beyond saying
this there is a remarkable lack of unan-
Unity in defining the little word. Phil
osophers have called it the soul OF affec-
ton, the stamp of love, the door that
opens the citadel of the heart, loves ar
tIlleTy, contact ecstatic, OF. the wild leap
ing flame of loves enthusiasm.
De L 'encIos defined g kiss as Gan aims
which enriches him who receives without
impoverishlng her who gives. - OpitZ
called ''kisses the messengers Of love, y
and to the well trained lips Of Rousseau
kisses were electric, transcendant and
enervating. - Byron found Leach kiss
q heart quake - "reckOned its strength
by its length - and wished ''that
wOmankird had but one rosy mouth,
to kiss them all from north to south. -
Othello considered 1t ''an excellent cour-
tesy' to be well kissed, but he mist
have been an Unsuitable monster, for
Desdemona sand she kissed hard - as if
he plucked up kisses by the roots that
grew upon her lips. Charles Kingsley
had an abnormal taste for kisses, for
after one he wanted another and another.
Romeo and Juliet ''sealed with a
righteous kiss q dateless bargain; - to
Dante Gabriel ROsetti Il kiss was ''culled
sweetness Pindar in one of his Odes
calls it ga delicious thing lost IN the
moment won;' Homer found magic
in q kiss, - and Pope "some mysterious
virtue - Milton s Linked sweetness
long drawn out, - descriptive of ely
dian airs married to immortal verse, -
is by common consent the most compre-
hensiye definition of a kiss in the Eng
lsh language. To Goodwin there was
"rapture in the kiss Of honest love-
dren - ''The kiss of a virtuous woman
was sWeeter than honey to DOdsley,
and like the perfume Of Arabia TO
Addison.
Walter Savage Landor's delight was to
kiss the eYelashes of love, and Charles
Lamb knew only the tasteless kiss of
lips. - Bovee, in his anaIy-
sis OF kisses, wrote: ''It is the passion
III kiss that gives it its sweetness and
affection that sanctities 1t. - Swift de-
spised responsive kisses, and would not
kiss again girl who claimed Il partner
ship in the lip exercise. Litus was
another antiquarian who dotted on one
sided kisses and "submissiYe lips. -
Petrarch had a wonderful endurance,
and gave Laura a standing invitation to
- kiss him forever with eyes so blue and
true hands like the leaf of rose and lips
of nectar breath.
The most boisterous kiss on record was
at the ''Shrews' - wedding, when
He took the BRIDE about the neck,
And kissed her lips with such clamorous smack,
That, at the parting all the church did echo.
In ''Richard H. the poet calls:
Their lips, four red roses on a stalk,
That in their summer beauty, kissed each other. |
Coriolanus carried into captivity ga
Troilus prefaced his kisses with "I'u |
take that winter from thy lips.
Parthenia 5 kisses were Gas full of |
sanctity as the touch of holy bread. -
George Eliot IS kisses were "honeyed |
by oblivion. - Crashaw called kisses |
: 'love's great artillery. - Elizabeth |
Barrett Browning ''wore troth-kiss on !
her lips she could not give away. -
Joaquin Miller had little taste for the |
vulgar lip athletic, and allows his he
roes to kiss girl any place but on the !
In his "Isles of the AmaZon' |
the Sierra poet sings:
kiss your eyes,
| kiss your hair in my delight:
kiss nay hand, and say goodnight.
Howells young. men kiss their best |
girl on the temple; James has them fold !
the girl to their Iapely but says nothing !
about OSCILLATION, and in her "'First |
Love- Gail Hamilton omIts even the |
folding operation. The author of F'Queen |
Money! makes her characters anti-kiss-
srs, and Blanche Willis in cone Sum
ner' has but a single ''trembIing little
liss' deposited on both eyelids of the I
Dig man.
Tenuyson and his cousin Amy used to
ships, - and their "spiTts rushed to-
yether at the touching of the lip. - An
)ther time he voices q heroine $ ''dream
ielirium - IN this red-hot fashion:
80 love, o fire! once he drew
With one long kiss my whole soul through my
As sunshine drinketh dew ~
Henry Y. could not kiss unless he was
n the humor; Aspasia INDUCED inf' hot
md constant kisses; - Princess Josephine
would be awakened with warm
lisses;" and Ella Wheeler Wilcox simply
asks for "dewY lips to kiss her eyes to
leep'' after exhausting herself IN 'Iong
polling kisses that seem ''drawing her
oul through her senses.
In "Lesbia, John G. SAKE showed
IN omniverous appetite for kisses when
le wrote:
"Give me kisses! Nay tits true
am just rich you,
And for every kiss owe
can pay you back, you know,
Kiss me then. Every moment and again.
Anthea couldn t have had any lips left
Herrick got all he wanted. In his
-postrophe to her he wrote:
Give me kiss. and to that kiss a score:
Then to that twenty add an hundred more:
A thousand to that hundred; so kiss on,
To make that thousand up million;
Treble that million, and when that is DONE
Let S kiss afresh, as when we first Begin. -