The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-15

worlds woe and make the worlds veal"
to paraphrase Holty-they are, In fact, The
business of life. But to define kss-ah,
that Is not so easy. Paul Verlaine has
called it "a fiery accompaniment on the
keyboard of the teeth to the sweet song
that love sings in the heart" But mani
testify this definition Is not wide enough
Il does not square with all the facts; in
truth Il only suits one variety-the kiss
of love 1t Is said that the French have
twenty words expressive of as many varie-
ties of Kisses and the German thirty. But
they can all be grouped In three or fcur
classes-the kiss loving, the kiss friend
ly and the kiss that comes under none Of
these heads.
Bacon might, perhaps, have said Kisses
serve for affection, for veneratiOn and for
affectation." And he would have foun,.
another Of his famous triplets in the neces-
sary conditions Of a kiss, which are de-
clared to be first, a kind of sucking
movement of the labial muscles, accom-
panied by a stronger or weaker noise;
second. a feeling of which the labal move
ment is the expression; thirdly, somebody
10 be kissed. Thus is "A kiss prdnuced,
but how 1t comes by It's taste is a mat
ter of much dispute. The old Mlnnesinger,
King Wenceslaus of Bohemia, after salut-
ing his sweetheart, delivered himself thus:
Like rose opening its cbalce to drink
In the dew, so reached Ane up 10 me Ter
sweet. fresh lips" A kiss must be sweet
that is the sene qua non from the maidcns
point OF view. And for sweetness. the
mustache is indspensable-the beardless
man Is no better than q clay wall. says the
Danish girls, who like a strong tasting
kiss, and do we not In England echo the
Dutch and German sentiment that "A kiss
without mustache is an egg without
salt"
Considered quantatively, II must be adj
mitted that lovers are extremely prOdsal
OF kisses, perhaps. because kiss Is some
thing not easily lost,O otherwise, because
the kiss a man steals. that he returns We
ell know the story of the maiden, who,
when her guardian hance suggested the
returning Of the love letters, improved on
tis suggestion by proposing to likewise
refund The kisses There Is a similar anec-
dote of a French student who took the
liberty of kissing a young lady and was
rewarded by '1mpudent fellOww Nay,
be not so cruel, mademoiselle," said he,
'if the kiss has annoyed you, pray give II
me again" Love kisses help to make
health and strength:
Doch wenn ich kusse Deinen Mund
So ward ich ganz und gar gesund.
says the poet, and did not Helne say some
thing about a burning sweetnessY'
But there is also a moral standpoint and
a legal one. and the professor tells story
OF an Englishman who brought an acton
for damages against a lady. He had kissed
her by force. and she had retaliated by
biting off a piece Of his nose. Judgment
for defendant "ff a man kiss a woman
against her will she Is quite justified in
biting off his nose" OF course, there are
kisses which express anything but an
erotic feeling. Faithful are the wounds of
a friend" says the Hebrew proverb but
the kisses of an enemy are pr0fuse." We
remember how Jacob put forth mis- night
hand and took Amasa, his brothers slayer,
by the beard 10 kiss him, but with MS left
drove the fatal dagger home--an act Of
treachery which reminds us of a Kiss
given in the garden OF Gethsemane Judas
kisses may be rare nowadays, but there
are certainly multitude OF OSCILLATIONS
that are nothing more than formal