Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1884 — THE LITERATURE OF KISSING. [ARTICLE]

THE LITERATURE OF KISSING.

Gleaned From Hlstony, Poetry, Fiction, aud Anecdote. Georgiana, Duc\iess of Devonshire, gave Sleet, the butcher, a kiss forGiisi vote nearly a century since ; and another equally beautiful, woman, Jane, DuclieS of Gordon, recruited *her regiment in a, similar manner. Ducan Mackenzie, a veteran of Waterloo, who died at Elgin, Scotland, in 18flt>, delighted in relating how he kissed the Duchess in taking a shilling from between her teeth ? to become one of her regiment, the Gordon Highlanders, better known as the Ninety-second. The old Scottish veteran of ’B7 has not left one behind him to tell the same tale about kissing the blue-e.ved Duchess in the market-place of Dutkill. An American naval officer who had spent some considerable time in. China narrates an amusing experience of the Chinese maiden of the custom of kissing. Wishing to complete a conquest he had made of a young mei jin (beautiful lady) he invited her—using English words—to give him a kiss. Finding her comprehension of his request somewhat obscure, he suited the actioif to the word, and took a delicious kiss. The girl ran away into another room, thoroughly alarmed, exclaiming, “Terrible man-eater. I shall be devoured.” But in a moment, finding herself uninjured, she returned to him saying: “I would learn more of your strange rite. Kees me.” He knew it wasn’t right, but he kept on instructing her in the rite of kee-es me, until she knew how to do it like a native Yankee girl. And after that she suggested a! second course, remarking, “Kee-es me some more, seen jine, Mee-lee-kee!” (Anglice-American), and the lesson went on until her mamma’s voice rudely awakened them from their delicious dream. Tom Hood once asked whether Hannah More had ever been kissed—that is to say bv a man. It is almost impossible to imagine such a thing, and yet it has been asserted by the author of “Rejected Addresses.” But to think of her being kissed on the sly and in churchtime. Horace Bmith distinctly affirms that on a certain occasion: “Sidney Morgan was playing the organ, While behind the vesiry door Horace Tvviss was snatching a kiss \ From the lips of Hanna More.” Little Em’ly didn’t care a bit. She saw me well enough, but instead of turning round and calling after me, ran away laughing. This obliged me to run after lier and she ran so fast that we were very near the cottage before I caught her. . “Gh, it is yon, is it?” said little Em’ly. “Why, you knew who is was,” said David.

“And didn’t you know who it was?” said Em’ly. I was going to kiss her, but she covered her cherry lips with her hand and said she wasn’t a baby now, and ran away, laughing more than ever, into the house.— David Copperfield. “I could not be sure that it was he, so strange he looked,” continued the child, “else I would have run to him andjoid him kiss me now before all the people, even as he did yonder among the dark old trees. What would the minister have said, mother? Would he have clapped his hand over his heart, and scowled on me and bid me begone ?” “Whit should he say, Pearl!” answered Hester, “save that it was no time to kiss, and that kisses are not to be given in the market-place? Well for thee, foolish child, that thou didst not speak to him.”— Scarlet Letter. “Ah, sad ave they that know not love, But far from passion's tears and smiles Britt down a moonless sea beyond The -ilvery coasts ot fairy isles And sadder they whose longing lips Kiss empty air, and never touch The dear, wurm mouth of those they love, Waiting, wasting, snlforing Anch." —Aldrich. ———“tu — AFTEB DEATH KISSES. I believe if I should die And you should kiss my eyelids where Hie . Gold, dead, and dumb to all the world contains. The folded orbs would open at your breath; And from its oxile in the isles oh-death Life would come gladly back along my veins. —Later'* Creed. - . , "Gone to sleep with the tender smile Froze on tier silent lips’, By the farewell kiss of the angel Death, Like the last fair hud of a faded wreath Whose bloom the white frost nips. “In rain he weeps, in rain hi si hs, Her cheek is cold as ashes, Nor love's own kiss shall awake those eyes < *' To lift their silent lashes.” » Campbell. “Life’s autumnal blossoms fall And earth's brown clinging lips impress The long cold kiss that waits us’toll. ” “That hall wed ground—where mourned an 1 missed, The lips repose our love has kissed.” Campbell. -