The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-12-20

Romeo and there was no doubt about
the fact that she wished to be kissed.
What the women thought about this
when it was all over is a hard question,
but there was at least one little woman
who sat down and Wept cOpiOuSly be-
cause she had been kissed against her
will. From the way in which the most
of them invited the salute there is no
reason to suppose that there was a
great deal of donning of sack-cloth and
ashes when the affair was ended.
1t was not often that the brave lieu
tenant receive a rebuff
When he put his arm about a woman
it was usually a foregOne conclusion
that that particular woman was going
to be kissed. But once or twice there
was a failure, and one of them was
particularly emphatic. OF course, she
was pretty. She had exacted an auto
graph from Hobson, and, as a matter of
course, he started to exact the penalty.
But she would have none of it, and
struggled so hard that the lieutenant
finally gave it up, and asked:
Don't you want it?''
And in reply to this came an emphatic
mol" that startled the lieutenant more
than anything else that happened dur
ing the afternoon. But someone said
that the girl had come there with her
best fellow, and that it was all a grand
stand play on her part.
Was Her Hero.
She was a high school girl of perhaps
Is, beautifully dressed and with her
school books under her arm. Admira-
tion was beaming from her eyes. AS
the lieutenant bent to kiss her, she just
simply threw her arms about his neck,
exclaiming:
you're awfulIy pretty and as she
nestled close on his breast, land you're
my hero
Miss Nellie Crandan, the society
editress of the Times, was in line. After
it was over she said:
The Hobson kiss is not a Neither
sole,' but it is a mighty good imitation
of ha n 10
tiOn that if the audience were not quite
so given to the rubberneck habit and
if the electric light current were to fail
for about three minutes, the Neither
sole" would be laid out cold and dead.
1t brought forcibIy to mind a little
ditty beginning:
He gave her kisses one, kisses one,
He gave her kisses one, kisses one,
He gave her kisses one, she said they'd
just begun,
So he kept a-kissing on, kissing on.
and ending something like this:
He gave her kisses ten, kisses ten,
He gave her kisses ten, kisses ten,
He gave her kisses ten, she said Lets
begin again,
So they kept a-kissing on, kissing on.
But before the writer had time to re-
mind Mr.. Hobson of it the unrestrained
n1irth of the newspaper reporters re-
minded her that there is a limit to the
nerve even of a newspaper woman She
took her autograph card-that proof of
having received genuine HobSon-
brand kiss which she will always cher
ish-and made way for the next kiss.
Lieutenant Hobson has a deep rooted
objection to kissing through wells, and
he passed these by in quick succession,
with sort of an apOlogetic expression
on his face. But he has an eye for
beauty and is evidently a cOnnoisseur
on the matter of lips-he ought to be
and there was once when this rule
proved the exception. She was an ex-
ceedingly handsome girl but she had
on one of those black dotted wells. Hob
son gazed through it moment, and
then, seeing that there was something
expected of him, he drew her to him
and imprinted a kiss upon the veil
somewhere in the vicinity of the mouth,
but he did not release the girl at once.
ThOughtfuIly he said:
You are far too pretty a. girl to wear
a veil,'' and he added, with a smile,
land it isn't hardly fair, is it?''
The girl blushed, hesitated for a mo-
ment and then, as if she had made up
her mind to defy the world removed
her veil. Then there was trouble and
loud applause.
Lieutenant Richmond Pearson Hobson
is before anything else a man. That is
the first, the ineradicable impression he
gives one on first sight. He is tall and
inclined to be slender, although his
frame is wen knit and muscular. His
face is peculiarly engaging. His eyes
are of a dark gray, deep set and with a
heavy overhanging upper lid which re-
minds one very much of the Bismarck
eye, but that it is much more attrac-
tive. Dark shadows underline his eyes,
giving his features a particularly
gloomy look when in repose. His nose
is aquiline and connects with a project
ing brow which is massive and high.
His law is heavy and firm, and would
lead to an imputation of harshness or
perhaps brutality We're it not for the
peculiarly tender lips, ruddy and full
which go far toward softening the
sternness of his other features. A heavy
mustache, light brown in color. wells
them, and the general opinion as to his
being a brunette is dissipated when it
becomes known that his hair is of a
very light brown, and sad to relate, he
is beginning to show signs of badness
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