The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-26
CHANCE FOR HOBSON
Might Start a Kissing School
For Crooks.
A Rare and Radiant Example Of Youthful In
nocence Discovered in Wicked
Chicago.

The statement by Professor Algie B.
Crook, of the Northwestern University
Chicago, that he has never kissed wo-
man. has never INDUCED in a swear
word" taken a drink or used tobacco, has
called forth comments incredulous, sar-
castle and plying in all parts of the
country Professor Crook is only 81 and is
said to be quite good looking, and it has
been suggested that he ought to be in
museum. A late dispatch from Chicago
represents him as explaining that while
he had never kissed girl he did not
mean to say that none of them had ever
kissed him.
Commenting on Professor Crooks orig
inal statement, Senator Chauncey M.
Depew is quoted as expressing the hope
that a missionary movement would be
started to rescue the Professor. Pretty
missionaries, airtatious girls with Eissable
lips, he says, must save the unfortunate
Crook for the sake of the sex. Professor
Crooks statement to a class of under
graduates at the Northwestern Univer-
sity, in Chicago, last month that he had
never "chewed, smoked used a profane
word, drank liquor or Rugged or kissed
a girl" has aroused the deepest commits
Grafton Of the Senator.
And he says he's 81" said the Sena-
tor "Well, it is not too late. Still he can
never know the exquisite joy, the thrill,
the bliss of a boys first kiss. Poor fell
low!
81 have read about Professor Crook
with the deepest concern for a misguided
fellow-man. He always brings me back
to a doctrine which for many, many
years l have been trying to get away
from-the Calvinistc doctrine of total de-
pravity.
Just to think that for thirty-seven
years a fellow being has existed, with
heaven all about him on every side, the
portals all open and inviting, and that
he has not entered in once! I've either
got to believe the fellow is not telling the
truth, or what is worse, go back to the
total depravity doctrine.
"Why, worlds couldn't buy the men,
DRY Of my first kiss, there on the river at
Peekskill, in the moonlight! l remember
it yet with an exquisite thrill | can feel
the brush Of her curls against my cheek,
feel the thrill of her touch, see her blush
and her roguish eyes before me now.
Pity pity the poor creature who has
never enjoyed an experience like that!
when ] was a boy in my teens | was
a great oarsman, and ] was often on the
Hudson in my boat. This night my little
bright-ey sweetheart was with me. The
moon was shining. Have you ever seen
the big round moon shining on the Hud-
son at .Peekskill on a June night? If you
have you know what it is for boy to be
out alone with his sweetheart in that
moonlight.
81 remember how pulled out into the
silvery stream, her mischievous eyes
upon me. A king on his throne was never
happier and never had half the right to
be. A young fellow with pretty sweet
heart who likes him just a little bit and
loves to be in the moonlight with him is
the most blessed of mankind.
"Wen, we talked. After a while we let
the boat drift, I rather think. Maybe the
pretty eyes drew me nearer to her. May
be her loose curls touched my cheek.
Maybe we were saying tender nothings.
Maybe l touched her hand.
"Then it happened. 1t is the touch that
does 1.-THE electric thrill. A young fell
low could no more help it than he could
stop a storm, and the girl couldn't either.
quiet, there is the pretty girl daring him,
there is the young fellow-then there's
kiss"
The Senator was blushing rosy red,
and he laughed loud and heartily at the
delicious memory. Don't ask me just
how it did happen, and that is one of the
sweetest memories of my life. All, what
pretty girl she was, and how her eyes
stirred something in me!
1T was the old story of Eve and the
apple. 1t always is. The right sort of
young fellow can't resist the forbidden
fruit, and Eve doesn't want him to.
THE conditions and the prOvoCation
must be right for a kiss. The girl must
like the fellow a little 1t must be moon
light or something like it. 1t never hap
pens in broad open sunlight. never, UNI
less it is at a picnic in the woods. They
got out alone together, and he tells her
she's just the divinest creature in the
world, and means it every word His eyes
show he means it and his manner shows
it. And her dancing, mischievous eyes
show that she likes it, whatever she may
say. Then there is the touch-and the
kiss. Every fellow can tell you about it
if he will-that is, everyone besides
Crook
ct is very late for Crook 10 begin. He
can never come the way of bliss that
every other man has come. He can never
enjoy the challenge from the roguish eye
of youth Now he must be the aggressor
Still it is not too late for even a sinner
like Crook to repent and reform.
"He must be saved. The girls must do
it, They owe it to the sex to wipe out
the stigma of this man getting up and
proclaiming that in a life of thirty
years he has never once Rugged or kissed
a girl. 1t is direct reflection on all the
women Crook has ever known. Even now
the portals of heaven are open to him
81 have heard of men abstaining from
tobacco and whiskey because their pa
rents, maybe, had been horrible exam
pies of their effects. They have seen the
rheumatism, govt, worthlessness, poverty,
that have come from these and have wise
ly abstained But how man can deliber-
ately obtain from huggins and kissing
pretty girl is more than human man
can understand
yes the girls must save Crook. He's
lost valuable time, but it is never too late
4