The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-07-20
A STUDY OF KISSES.
Prof. Lombroso Gravely Discusses a
Tender Subject.
Baltimore Sum

Baltimore SUM-
New York, July 1S.--Prof. Cesare
Lombroso. the Italian criminologist ana
alienist, has contributed an article, entl-
tied An Epidemic of Kisses in Amer
lea" to the Forthcoming August number
of the Pail Mall Magazine.
To Lieutenant Hobson the learned
Professor ascribes the inception of this
EPIDEMIC, and he finds this sudden ebulI-
ton so striking phenomenon as to call
for examination from pathological point
of view.
The Professor starts with misstate-
ment Of facts. Hobson's first experience
with kissing in public did not take place
at Nassar College, as the Professor as
serts. but at Long Beach. Again, the
Professor seems to have taken too seri-
ously exaggerated reports of HoDson
kissing bees. He says:
The doughty deed OF Lieutenant Hob
son, who scuttled the Merrimac III San
tiago harbor and freely risked his llte
in the bold project of locking the Span
iards III their own port, is fresh IN the
memory of all We are told that when
after the war the gallant sailor gave an
account of his exploit at Nassar College,
a lady who was at his lecture expressed
a wish to kiss the hero, and her exam
pie was followed by all the ladies pre-
sent. Hobson subsequently lectured in
all the leading cities of the United States.
and in the course Of his tour he was kiss
ed by no fewer than 10000 women.
Now, when we consider the reserve of
the Anglo-SaXon race in expressing its
enthusiasm. when we consider the modes
ty of its women, when, above all, we
consider the self-possession and nard-
headedness of the American citizens,
this phenomenon appears SO striking as
to c:l,4 for some examination from a
pathological standpoint.
I'm the case of Hobson'S 10000 kisses,
the strangeness and unconventionilty of
which We're heightened by their public
ity, the most striking fact is that he was
addressing crowd IF specially elite per-
SONS. The crowd is a domain iii which
the nicrobe of evil develops more readi
ly than the microbe of good, because the
good elements of the individual are elm
mated by numbers, or by the presence
even of a single morbid element. Dis
turbances arise mainly from the strong
er influences which the few deDraved
persons in a crowd exercise upon 1t, for,
being of an active nature. they oversway
the yirtuous, who are by nature more
passive.
This oaleful influence is yet more
marked in crowd of women, partly be-
cause it includes a large proportion OF
hysterical persons, who give and receive
suggestion more readily than others, and
partly because, aside from hysterical ten
denotes, women are more open to sugges-
ton. more inclined to run to extremes,
than men.
In a highly cultured race, in n crowd
where women preponderate, and under
conditions of the most justitiable entnu-
siasm, the outcome, at best no crime.
Was nevertheless breach of social de
corum. a violation Of that sense of mod
esty which is so keen in the Anglo-Saxon
for whom the price of a stolen kiss may
amount TO a heavy fine.
A subsidiary cause of this breach of
decorum may have been a sort of imper-
ialistic-military ardot kindled in the Uni
ted States by the infamies of Spain, with
its absurd and imDolitic result of the
conquest of the Philippines, SO contrary
to American feeling and tradition.
Few men are so worthy OF admiration
and enthusiasm as Hobson, whose Mer-
Tilnac exploit is one of the greatest deeds
of our own times, and the account of ii,
given by the hero himself, was bound to
foment the enthusiasm of his hearers,
who must have felt as if they had been
actually present. Under these circum-
stances the kissing phenomenon loses
much of its pathological aspect, more
especially as women are always warm
admirers of military yalor.
The very prosaism which permeates
OUT times, especially in America, makes
these exceptional deeds the more provo
catiye of admiration and enthusiasm. 1t
would augur well for the glory of the
great republic. ON which at this time the
gaze of the whole liberal world is fixed.
If in the flush of victory the military
ardor CT our American cousins had re-
stricted itself to this single act 1t would
augur well if, having set one people
Free they had refrained from girding on
the sword to force another into slavery"