The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1890-09-19
KISSES FOR A QUARTER.
How Good Looking Young Ladies' Made
Money In New Jersey.
New York Star,

Some of the prettiest girls on Long
Island were ready to be kissed at twenty
five cents a head on Monday, but the Long
Island railroad company was not aware Of
the fact, otherwise special trains might
have been run for the occasion. When it
was too late, the members of the Presby-
terrain church at Mattituck saw that in
81 I'D of adding a paltry 5000 to their
fund they might have raised money enough
to build new church.
When the womcn's sewing society of
this church resolved last winter that any
lady who had attained the age of sixteen
years should be eligible for membership,
conservative people predicted that some
thing was going to happen. Gossips de-
clared that 70 sewing society which did
not fix the age limit at least twenty years
higher could he relied upon to conduct
itself in thoroughly decorous manner.
In spite of these doleful predictions the
sewing society remained about as dull as
usual until the project of a fair was brought
to the attention Of the members.
1t was decided by an overwhelming ma
jorty that fair ought to be held, and
that the proceeds thereof should be de-
voted to the purchase of material to be
worked up into winter clothing for the
local INDECENT and benighted heather.
The committee on arrangements chosen
TO plan the details of the undertaking
proved themselves progressive. Early in
their deliberations they concluded that
the methods of extortion hitherto in
vogue at religious fairs were PLAYED out.
The Youngest member of the committee,
a pretty girl of nineteen, solved the prob
lem. She argued that if all the incest
young ladies in the parish would stand
ready to accept the osculatory salutes of
the gentlemen for consideration, the
latter would simply tumble over each
other in their efforts to get rid of their
money, and the cause Of charity would
get tremendous boom.
Prudish objections put forward by
elderly ladies who were not likely TO be
called upon to do any of the kissing, were
ultimately overruled, and it was decided
to run the new feature in separate tent
as sort Of annex.
When Monday evening came the lawn
where the fair was held contained, among
other things, tent which bore the sign,
"Admission 5 cents, to kiss the baby %
cents" Investigation proved that the
baby was plural, and that its ages ranged
from sixteen to nineteen years. Within
half an hour the men had formed line
which reached half way around the
grounds. Each man as fast as he left the
tent fastened to secure a place Mt the
other end f2he line SO as to get in again.
The news of what was going on spread
rapidly, and delegations began to arrive
from neighboring villages. Finally bust
ness at all other booths was suspended in
order to give the lucrative kissing bee
full swing. When the receipts of the fair
were counted the amount was found to be
$780, OF this $l79 had been taken in at
the Baby" tent.
The only painful features of the enter
tainment, in addition to the failure to ad-
vertise it extensively, was the fact that
several nice young MEL "hose best girls
occupied prominent positions in the tent
made disturbance when they heard about
it. As a consequence. several prominent
Mattituck affairs are "off." Moreover
the rial parish i'll the village, the Meth
odist, proi eses to be Mortified at tao
methods q. !oyed hy the Prcsbyterians
to reap pecnniary gain and its pulpit is
expected to thunder upon the subject on
Sunday ext at 1890 o'clock.