The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-07
War on K ssing.
Especial to Baltimore Sum-

Especial to Baltimore Sum-
Richmond, Va, Dec. DIR. r. B. Ware,
physician and lawmaker of Amherst
county, has come out as an opponent of
the gentle art of kissing. He says it is
all wrong. Young people are fond of it,
he admits, as we'll as some who are old
enough to know better, just as some
people are fond of candy and other things
that are sweet to the taste, but regarded
as deleterious to health.
! Knowing that neither moral suasion
nor all the argument in the world will
prevent man from kissing a maid who
| is willing, he proposes to check the oscu-
| latory tendencies of Virginians as well
| as those of the strangers sojourning with
in her borders by peremptory prohibit
| tion of the practice. He proposes to use
| the whole power of the State to prevent
| it. and if he has his way the State will
say to man and maid:
Thou shalt not kiss-tnat is, unless
thou art able to produce thy certificate"
The man who draws his sweetheart to
| his breast, whose lips meet hers with
the yearning, soulful, clinging pressure
of ardent youth, thrilling the whole be-
| ing of each with indescribable bliss and
making all the world seem glorified will
be taken before an unfeeling police mag
| istrate and hear the harsh sentence,
Five and costs" And SO will the maiden
that is, if they are caught and have
no certificates.
| If Dr. Wares bill which he introduced
in the Virginia Legislature today becomes
law, such dialogues as these will be
whispered in a thousand dimly lighted
rarlors, in shady groves, on starlit
piazzas and by the sad sea waves
throughout the Old Dominion:
"Oh, darling; oh, my sweetheart; one
kiss, only one"
| oh, Charley, you ought not to ask me.
No; 1 cannot. You know 1 cannot"
Don't be cruel, darling. Please, just
one
You are so persistent! No, now don't;
you'll muss my hair. Please don't. Wait a
moment; let me go, please. Well, if you
must But wait--have you your certifi-
cate?
| Eyes, dearest, here it is. 1 got it today,
| but your eyes, your very presence made
me forget all about certificates You
have yours, of course?"
| "N-no, forgot to get it; didn't ex-
pect sou tonight.
| Great heavens! what disappointment
cannot kiss you now, for cannot break
the law"
| She sobs, he grabs his hat and rushes
out of the door, while the detective rises
| from beneath the window. Fooled again!"
/ he mutters as he disappears into the
might.
/ The reason for DR.. Wares anti-kissing
| measure is his desire to protect the
health of the people of the State. Be
| sides, he says, kissing Is a senseless habit
| anyway, What good can come of the
pressing of one pair of lips upon another?
1t is an unclean practice, he maintains,
and results in the spread Of disease of
| all kinds, so he proposes to stop all per-
| sens from kissing unless they can pro-
| duce certificate from a physician show
| ing them to be free from all kinds of
| contagious or pulmonary diseases.
| Under his law man may not kiss his
| sweetheart; she may not kiss her dear
| est enemy; a mother may not kiss her
| children; husband may not kiss his
wife or allow his wife to kiss him; he
may not even kiss his mother in law,
nor may a child kiss its mother, unless
| each has a clean bill of health from a
physician. The proposed law provides
as follows:
Whereas kissing has been decided by
the medical profession to be a medium
by which contagious and infectious dis
eases are transmitted from one person
TO another;
And whereas, the prohibition of such
an offense will be a great preventative
to the spreading of such diseases as pull
monary tuberculosis. diphtheria and many
| other dangerous diseases; therefore
"Be it enacted by the General Assem-
bly, of Virginia:
81. That it shall be unlawful for any
person to kiss another unless he can prove
by his family physician that he has not
any contagious or infectious disease
go. If physician testifies that per-
son has weak lungs, and such a person
! kisses another person, he shall be found
guilty of a misdemeanor and the same
penalty shall be imposed as if he had
some contagious or infectious disease
'9. Any person violating the provisions
| of the first and second sections of this
act shall be deemed guilty of a misde-
meanor and fined not less than 81 nor
more than SIS for each offense."
DR.. Ware, the patron or the bill is in
| earnest. and means to push the measure.
He will, however, have to stand the
brunt of the fight when it comes up for
discussion.