The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1903-04-24
MODES OF GREETING.


CHARACTERISTICS SHOWN IN PHRASES.
1t has often been pointed out, some
what fanciful perhaps, that the modes
of greeting current in different coun-
tries are sometimes nationally or racial
ly characteristic. The Spaniard or
Italian says: GLOW do you stand?"
which may he referred either to state
illness or laziness. The Frenchman,
careful of department, asks, "How do
you carry yourself?' The Dutchman,
fond of the table, salutes you with
"May you eat hearty dinner while
the Englishman, the man of action,
says "How do you do?" More mark
edly characteristic are some of the
equivalent phrases used among non
European peoples. The peasant of
Southern China, for instance, asks,
tenderly, "Have you eaten your rice?"
and at Cairo they inquire sympathetic
cally, "How do you sweat?"
Our English "How do you do?' is a
direct translation of the medieval
French form of greeting, "Commsent le
faites vous?' and seems to have come
into common use toward the end of
the seventeenth century. Cnriously
enough, its general acceptance appears
to have coincided with the dying out
of the old mode of greeting ladies,
which was emphatically known as
saluting, and which seems to modern
ideas 80 extraordinarily familiar and
intimate-tbat is, by kissing. Eng
lishmen are sometimes inclined to re-
gard with rather a superior air the
more ELUSIVE methods Of salutation,
especially between men, common on
the continent; but for centuries Eng
land was the land of kisses. When a
man greeted woman, whether it was
for the first or the hundredth time, he
kissed her. Chaucer alludes to the
custom as existing in his day. In The
"Somppour's Tale," the Frere, when
the mistress of the house enters the
room where he and her husband are
sitting together
Aristh up full curstily,
And hire embraceth in his arms narwe,
And kisseth hire swete, and chirketh as
sparwe
With his lippes.
Two hundred years later Erasmus,
in one of his graphic letters from Eng
land, wrote very appreciately of the
custom. "If you go to any place." he
tells his correspondent, with reference
to English ladies, "you are received
with kiss by all; if you depart on a
journey you are dismissed with kiss;
you return, kisses are exchanged.
They come to visit you, a kiss the first
thing; they leave you, you kiss them
all around. Do they meet you any,
where, kisses in abundance" 1t was
no wonder that Erasmus told his friend
that if he had once experienced the
custom-"on my honor, you would
wish not to reside here for 10 years
only, but for life."
This mode of salutation continued
in fashion more or less through the
seventeenth century and into the eigh-
teenth, but occasionally there were
protests. Bunyan condemned it severe
ly in his "Grace Abounding," and
other serious writer's followed his lead.
Like other fashions, it died out gradu-
ally, first among the equality" as soci-
ETY. people we're then called in town,
and later among the country iolk.
In the Spectator for December 5th,
I'LL, there is an amusing letter from
country gentleman greatly perturbed
by the behavior of young exquisite
from London. The worthy young
squire lived on his own estate; was
hospitable, and, according to his own
account, was "ever reckoned among
the ladies of best company in the
world" II never came in public" he
continued, "but that l saluted them,
though in great assemblages, ,all around,
where it was seen genteely. I avoided
hampering my spurs in their petit
coats, while I moved among them;
and, on the other side, how prettily
they courtesied and received me, stand
ing in proper rows and advancing as
fast as they saw their elders or their
betters dispatched by me-" The good
man evidently kissed every lady in the
room. But change came over his
neighbors and friends, be complains,
by reason of the advent of a ''courtier
or town gentleman" This beau, fresh