New-York tribune., 1919-05-11

can really" frowned Sir Francis
raune aghast at such levity in his
court.
gut kissing, declares writer in
.prbe Saturday Review" is no laugh
4 mo matter. In fact, most of the
;mnortant events in the world, re-
l;oious, moral, legal, are the conse-
onence OF kiss" 1t is in the fol-
lowing manner that this writer
classifes the kisses which more or
less make the world go round:
First and foremosy, in class all by
itself. there is the kiss of Judas Is
cariot. Horace Walpole has white
washed Richard III; H. B. Irving has
vbitewssbed Judge Jetfreys. More
daring than either, De Quincy has at
.smnted to whitewash Judas Iscariot,
who according to his theory, was not
. traitor, but miscalculating politi
e;sn. Iscariot was Jewish National
;st who wished Christ to be arrested
IN order that the Jewish mob might
rise. and the Roman government, after
,bs usual futtering between coercion
and couciliation. be driven to grant
! bone rule. He never believed that the
magistrate would allow his prisoner to
he crucifed and the event so confound
"a him that he committed suicide.
Such Is De Quincey's theory. But what
has always puzzled us about the story
is why it should have been necessary
for the Scribes and Tharisees to hire
Iscariot with thirty pieces of silver
(which De Quincy tells US were the
equivalent Of ninety guineas) to iden-
tify the person of Christ. We should
have thought His person was as we'll
known to the Jewish leaders in Jeru
salem as Parnells appearance in Dub
lin or Lloyd Georges in London, if
we may say so without irreverence.
Whether Judas Iscariot was the black
est of traitors or q misguided patriot
we will not attempt to determine. One
thing is indisputable, that the kiss de-
cided the religious destiny of man
kind. The Judas kiss has passed into
proverb of turpitude.
Happily, this black and bitter oscu-
lation stands in category by itself.
The more pleasant, and less consequent
tial, oscs2ations may be divided into
three Classes, viz: i. The amatory kiss.
\ .. The ceremonious kiss 3. The per-
functory kiss.
Il. Of amatory kissing there is no
end in the poets. The choice
and master kisser of his age, indeed of
all ages, is Romeo. He begins by kiss
ing Juliet in the ballroom, which the
young lady does not seem to mind, for
she says, pertly enough, You kiss by
the book But the real kiss, the one
that mattered, is reserved for that ex-
quisite night scene on the balcony:
FareweH, farepeU, one kiss and
I'll descend.
"And then Shakespeare, in one of the
highest and most daring reaches of his
art, uses the kiss to close the tragedy
Of the tomb.
Eyes look yoa1r last!
Arms take yoaw last embrace,
And lips, O you
The doors Of breath, seal qv;th
righteous kiss
A dateless bargain 10 emgross-
ing DEATH
Thus auth kiss ! die.
Very different, we may be sure, were
+ the kisses that passed between Antony
and Cleopatra. Antony was the regu-
Lar woman's man, the great hulking
soldier, who would lose an empire for
kiss, and who thought himself repaid
FOR the rage and shame Of Actium by
' the lgypsy's lips. In the middle Of his
railing and pathetic reproaches,
Egypt, thou knoac'st too 4oeu,
Ny heart Dos to thy y71dder tied
i0lth strings,
And thou shouldst tom me after.
10 breaks off with a laugh, and says,
Tive ne kiss; even this repays me-
on the embraces of the hotter hours
anregister'd In vulgar fame we need
not dwell They are the one universal
past'me Of the men and women of all
uationalties
Z. The ceremonlous kiss Is like to
W Ailed by the manners Of democracy.
Siss the hand, noble lady or air. was
.as Common form OF greeting in South
Hernany and Austria by an inferior to
superior Probably in these times
'ae masnates Of Hungary will kiss the
oana Of the Bolahevik peasant. But it
"'perhaps, not known that In the eigh-
eshSh century Engiishmen Of rank and
'ssnsen greeted one another with a
~'ss N each cheek. Bentham, a
'H'cs.e-elass man OF letters, was aston-
'saeo On arriving at Bowood to be
%'ssee oy Lord sshelburne. Writing tc
a's A.eld Wilson, the philosophe,
s1norcosly naryates that when my
.s'a came IN, he ran up to me, ane
sas''sd one og my cheeks with his, ane
syn tns other. / was even satisfied
@''e ~, tince he meant IL kindly, ane
ss sneh, l suppose, is the fashion
~ ! shonld have been still better sat
.'sse II ne had made either OF ths
.~.les lls pxoxy., This clock touchinf