IS KISSING BECOMING UNPOPULAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8832, 19 January 1907, Page 3

IS KISSING BECOMING UNPOPULAR.

A Eiss T_at Bro„ff_t a Fortune. (English Magazine.) . The recent statement of Sir William Treloar, that he hoped his predecessor in the Lord Mayoralty of London would not allow himself to be kissed by the ladies of France during his State' visit to Paris, reminds one of an amusing story which illustrates the different at-titudes-'of French and English women to the amiable practice of osculation. During the reception of Queen Victoria at Boulogne, in June, 1855, a number of English ladies, in their anxiety to get a good view of their 5 -oung "Sovereign, pressed so energeticaly against the French soldiers who were keeping the line that, at some points the latter were compelled to give way. The officer in command, seeing the condition of things, shouted out: "One roll of the drum— and if they don't fall back: kiss them all." At the threatened signal the ladies beat a precipitate retreat amid the laughter of the onlookers, one of whom remarked, "If they' had been French they would have remained." And so, no doubt, they would; for at this period the art of kissing was as familiar to the ladies of France as that of handshaking; and their kisses were charmingly promiscuous. " Elderly ladies," said a French writer, recently, " can remember the time when, on returning to favourite hotels. Monsieur le Patron would welcome them with a chaste salute. Among old-fashioned folks- the kiss -still does duty for the more prosaic English handshake. Not only are relations and friends, but acquaintances, clients^ and dependents, thus greeted. Iknew an old chatelaine who used to kiss all her humbler neighbours — day labourers or peasant farmers—on her name-day or special occasions." But, as history teaches us, in early times kissing was a matter of etiquette. During the reign of Louis XIII. every gentleman was expected to kiss every high-born/ dame to whom he was formally introduced. We shall probably never know who was the first to introduce into England •the kiss, which has been variously and inadequately defined as the " nectar of Venus," " the balm of love," and, surely by a dyspeptic and disappointed man, as "an insipid and tasteless morsel, which only becomes delicious and delectable as it is flavoured with love." There are others who think differently. Cynics declare that the pioneer among csculators was some _ ancient British savage, who devised it as a means of discovering whether his wife or dauglj.ters had been indulging in liquids ! stronger than water ; just as Macheath, in " fhe Beggar's Opera," after saluting Jenney Diver witli a lriss, exclaims, "One may know by your kiss that your gin is excellent. " Sweeter it is to accept the legend which attributes its first inspiration to the beautiful Rowena, who, after touching with her dainty lips the loving-cup, transferred them to the astonished and, no doubt, delighted Vortigern. As an ancient chronicler says: " The pleasant practice of kissing was utterly unpractised in England till the fair Princess Rowena, the daughter of King Hengius of Friealand, pressed the beaker with her lipkins and saluted Vortigern with a buskin." At any rate, this, practice, once initiated, grew rapidly in favour until it attained the gratifying proportions described so enth_si6aticaily by Erasmus. So popular was it even in remote country districts in the eighteenth oen- ; tury that, in the " Spectator," we find "Rustic Sprightly" complaining bitterly that since the arrival of a young courtier who was content with bowing no young gentlewoman had been kissed, although he had always been in the habit, on entering a room, of kissing the ladies all round. In these days, too, the kiss had a wide range of activity quite apart from social or amorous uses. We all remember how the beautiful Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, 'wooed the electors for Charles James Fox in the famous contest for Westminster, in 1784, by the witchery of her pretty lips; and how she purchased the vote of an "impracticable butcher" by a kiss — an example which is said to have been successfully followed by_ Lady Salisbury for Fox' 6 opponent, Sir Cecil Wray. And do we not also recall the Duchess of Gordon's historic kisses, each of which secured a gallant Highland recruit P I The innocent practice, by .the way, once got William IV., when Duke of Clarence, into trouble. The Duke, during a visit to Canada, crossed over into the State of Vermont, and called at a 1 barber's shop to be shaved. The barber's wife chancing -to look in just as the Prince was rising from the operating ohair, ho greeted her with a hearty, sailor-like kiss, remarking to the astonished lady, "There! Now tell your countrywomen that the son of the King of England has given a Royal kiss to a Yankee barber's wife." Whatever solace this information brought to the lady's ruffled feelings, her husband did not appreciate the honour accorded to | his spouse. Seizing the Duke by the | shoulders, with the adroit assistance of a number nine boot he bundled him out of the shop, with the parting /hpt : "There! Now you can go and tell [ your countrywomen that a Yankee barber has given a Royal kick to the son of the King of England." It was another Duke, his Grace of Bedford, wlio is credited with h|-ving made the kiss an essential part of the ceremonial at the Dublin Vice-regal Court. Certainly, before his time the Lord-Lieutenant had given .the ladies a labial salute at the New Year levees ; but it was a oold, paternal, even patronising kiss on the forehead — an insipid morsel." This by no means was the Duke of Bedford's idea of how the thing ought to be done. What man, Viceroy or peasant, could pass by a pair of bewitching lips when he had the privilege of pressing them? Certainly not his Grace of Bedford, who gave eaoh lady a hearty smack on the fips — once, we are told, if 6he were medieeyal and homely, and three or four

timea if she were young and fair to, look upon. Thus was a cherished precedent established; and when a recent Viceroy wished to return to the more restrained form of salute of earlier days, a beautiful young lady pursed up her lips and presented them to his coy Lordship. What could the poor man do? But every man does not enjoy a Lord-Lieutenant's privileges and opportunities, as a certain Indian major found to his cost a dozen years ago. This officer, in a moment of indiscretion, asked a married lady for a kiss, which she emphatically refused. The major apologised to the lady's husband, who accepted the apology, but reported the incident to the Governor. The result was that the major was called on to resign his commission under pain of dismissal ; ahd, in spite of all his efforts, this verdict has never been cancelled. Seldom, perhaps, has a man paid a heavier price for a moment's imyulse so promptly regretted. An Australian recently fared still worse than the Army man. Yielding to the fascinations of a pretty face, he kissed the owner. He was taken before the magistrate and heavily fined; the girl's brothers then added a horsewhipping; his wife worried him into brain-fever; and, to crown his punishment, the clergyman of the parish made the incident a text for a sermon on the iniquity of kissing. More satisfactory was the issue of a similar adventure on the part of a Sydney man not long ago, who, after kissing a girl, paid for the indulgence by a heavy fine. The affair was made the most of by the papers, one of which fell into the hands of a Sydney solioitor, who for years had been looking for the next-of-kin to a wealthy man who had died intestate. In the victim of misguided osculation he recognised the missing heir, who thus romantically found a fortune in a kiss.