Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1878 — “The Kiss of Peace.” [ARTICLE]

“The Kiss of Peace.”

There was one use of ivory among the early Christians not often alluded to. In the early church it was customary at the end of public meetings to exchange the “kiss of peace.” This practice was, however, found to be attended with some inconvenience, because the osculations were not al ways devout—not always even platonic. So a flat piece of ivory was directed to be used for this purpose, and handed round instead of the old practice of salutation. Whether the change from the warm cheek of youth and beauty to the coldness of an ivory slab was a change for the better, might be very well left to the thoughts of those whom it concerned. Anyway, all further scandal ceased, and that, we might suppose, was the intention in the change introduced. —Boston Commercial Bulletin.

To some pungent remarks of a professional brother, a Western lawyer began his reply as follows: “ May it please the Court: Resting on the couch of republican equality as I do, covered with the blanket of constitutional panoply as I am, and protected by the segis of American liberty as I feel myself to be, I despise the buzzing of the professional insect who has just sat down, and defy his futile attempts to penetrate, with his puny sting, the interstices of my impervious covering. ”