The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-12-27
WHERE KISSING IS COMPULSORY
odd Customs of English Villages

Odd Customs of English Villages
 Grateful Austrian Maidens.
 The charming country town of Hungerfor, in Berkshire, has an an nual kissing day each April, when it celebrates it's HocEtide festival. Then certain duly appointed officials hold a i court, collect the tithes and claim a kiss from the woman of each house they have to visit during the ceremony The two fortunate officials thus ap- pointed are known as "tutty men," or 1.-the men, and usually there is no small competition for the honor among the eligibles of Hungerford. The custom is hundreds of years old and neither husband nor wife, as a rule to the advent of the tutty men, with the inevitable result.
 Once every five years the good town i of Newcastle on Tyne has been in the i habit of holding a festival known as barge day" on which day the Mayor | and Corporation go down to the ri- yer in fine state barge to claim the town to certain dues at an appointed spot. Then the procession returns up the river to a well known stone, where the Mayor selects any women he likes from the large crowd generally there and kisses her before the assembled company, and-let it be said softly before the good Mayoress herself. His Worship then gives the favored woman soverign as a present, while the Mayoress, to show that there is no ill feeling, adds a gift of her own, such as a satchel, purse or other app | propriate article.
 Not only is it the duty of the Mayor to do the kissing in this fashion but the appointed Sheriff, not willing to be left out in the cold on such occas- ions, also duly carries out similar privilege. He chooses another lady, and after saluting her gravely-or otherwise he also hands to her a useful present. This curious ceremony, which is supposed to take place quin- quennially, was last performedI be- i lieve, in the year 1901 But of course it alays rests with the Mayor for the time being whether it shall be per- formed.
 When the pretty Thames town of Maidenhead takes it into it's head to have a beating of the bounds" the steward appointed for the purpose is always accompanied by a large crowd of curious people. These help him or think they do, when he has to climb saL ;,, 1,te or to get through windows under which the bounds pass. Also when the party meets any man by chance dur ing it's progress it proceeds gravely to bump that individual; but if the person met should be lady, she is given the choice as to whether she will be bumped" or kissed.
 Nor is our own country the only one with such compulsory kissing cere- monies Halmagen, in Austria, has an annual fair on St, Theodore's Day, at at which every man present has the right to claim one lady and kiss her without her having any right to ob- ject This strange custom is the out come of a raid which was once made on the town by Turkish brigands. But band of men travelling in the district chanced to meet the captors and for ced them to give up their victims, who were then kindly escorted to their homes and friends. Tn grateful remem brance of the day the maidens of Halmagen annually offer their lips modestly and freely to the strangers who frequent the town during the fair of St. Theodore. From the London Answers.