The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-12-01
Why Kisses Are Sweet.

St. Pauls. of London, deyotes page to
the sonewha, sentimental subject of kiss
| ing. A kiss, says the writer, USED 10 De
| the ordinary saiutaton amongst country
| folk IN England, and it Is not unusuai even
now IN some districts for rustic 10 say
"Buss me" to an acquaintance But as
| tribute to rank 1t is unknown in England,
except in the case of reigning sovereign.
! To the Queen alone is accorded Ene Daise-
main, and on occasions Of ceremony only
| Her hand is kissed by the ministers, am
| bassadors, and great officers or state on
| their appointment; by bishops on their
| preferment; by peers and peeresses on sue
| cession; and by 'the general company at
| drawing rooms. When the throne IS occu-
| pied by a king, he is the donor instead OF
/ the recipient in the case or the presenta-
| ton of ladies'. The lord lieutenant OF Ire
! land. in his capacity Of royal representa-
| tive, bestows a kiss on the brow OF eacn
| lady presented to him.
| But in some foreign countries, notably
| in Austria and Russia. the rule of hand
| kissing is very strictly and generally OBJ
| served. In Russia il IS the custom for ser
| wants to kiss their mistress hand IN the
morning and at night; the right hand Is
| therefore reserved for interiors, and the
| left for the salutes of friends and equals
! The reigning sovereigns of most European
| countries, whether kings or queens, receive
| the basement from all their subjects
| The German fashion of saluting always
\ on the lips is to be deprecated, since II re-
| duces the whole art OF kissing 10 one
| dead level. In England we are colder
| hammered, and while We bow 10 the un-
written law which ordains that we should
kiss, for the sake of politeness. many peo-
pie to whom we are Indifferent, We reserve
1 af in
| tations to those for whom We cherish sem
t.ments of regard, affection, love and de-
| votion. There is our kiss indiscrim.nately
| bestowed on new connections, our cousins
| wives, or our aunts' husbands; our par
| ents' old friends, who because they have
| held us in their arms during our infancy,
4 or known us when we were so hign, claim
some more personal mark of attention than
| the ordinary hand-shake; on the relations,
| near and distant, of our husbands, or our
| wives, and on a host of other people for
| whom we are absolutely levoid OF senti-
( nent.
The kiss social, though a shade more
| voluntary, is of the same order as this last,
and it consists of the slightest, shortest
| brushing of the lips against the cheek or
| brow of the recipient. There is the kiss
| poLtic, which we persistently offer TO some
disag agreeable relative whom. for reasons,
| frequently mercenary ones, we wish to pro-
| pitiate; or to a friend with whom we are
| not on good terms, and whom we are anx-
ious to conciliate.
| Then there Is the kiss platonic; and this
| is seldom mutual, nor are the results there
| of measurable. 1t may be offered from
/ an impulse that is indefinite, yielded from
| kindly or pitiful motive; given or taken
| from a transient feeling of idle apprecia-
ton or admiration; it is but brief, and Of
| ten is not repeated, yet the memory may
| survive in one heart only, and, like ray
of sunshine on a folded blossom, may ex-
| pand the petals of affection into the full
| blown flower of love- Wherefore men
and youths, matrons and maids, beware of
the danger lurking in the plausible guise
of the kiss platonic, !,
For kissing cynicism who can rival Mr.
Rudyard Kipling-notably in his "Maxims
| of HafiZ," when he says:
My son, if a maiden deny thee, and scuf-
fingly bid thee give o'er.
| Yet lip meets with lip at the iastward-get
outi She has been there before.
| They are pecked or the ear, and the chin,
and the nose, who are lacking in lore"
But it remains forN George Meredith. the
Browning of our prose, "the greatest, If
the least ineligible. of our living novel
| ISIS" to invent or describe an unique Mss,
when in Lord Ormont and his Aminta ne
contrives that his heroine and her scholarly
lover should exchange and seal their first
mutual confession of love by the contac;
of lip TO lip under the sea. A -nomentary
simultaneous dive, when Aminta, swira-
ming toward the shore, has led him ire
sistibly to follow her, and the Rubcon is
passed, II would need expert swimming
and diving TO ensure its speedy and sue
cessful accomplishment.
Truiy has kissing been called the key
to the reat of life! Robert Browning con-
socrates one of mis- last and most exquisite
of sonnets TO it's praise-and surely the
wings of the brooding genius of Love must
have fiuttered and brushed the poets hand
as he wrote these words.
"All the breath and bloom Of the year II
| the bag of one bee,
! All the wonder and wealth Of the mine
| in the heart of one gem,
In the core of one pearl all the shade an6
| the shine of the sea-
| Breath and bloom, shade and shine won
der. wealth and how far above them,
| Truth that's brighter then gem, trust
that's purer than pearl.
Brightest truth. purest truth in the uni
| verse, all were for me,
In the kiss Of one girl"