Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1888 — MOISTENING THE LIPS. [ARTICLE]

MOISTENING THE LIPS.

Women Accused of a Habit That Is, al Least, Liidigiiifiedi -<‘Why do women moisten their lips when they are looked at?” This subject is usually brought forward in the shape oi positive declaration, some men gdi»g«L far as to declare that they and their frieijd: have l>eem experimenting for over a yeai lipon the unconscious ladies _of_dhc_cilLand that the test never fails. “All you have to do;’’ said one of these", "is to sit opposite a lady in a car or a ’bus and look at her ‘intently, without rude ness, and as sure as you do so out will come her tongue and she will moisten both her lips. She must be some ope you are not acquainted with, and when she catchei . you looking at her it had better lie with a slight expression of interest or curiosity. Gazing wjth admiration upon her is not a sure way, because if it is done at all badty she resents it and will simply look away, but if you seem to be curious about her, as if you were studying something about her hair, or eyes, or hat, or as if you were trying to see who she was like, she will be positively certain to perform this queei operation.” Apparently thousands, in ever-widening circles, who have heard positive statements of this sort are devotded to investigating the phenomenon. They pursue the subject in the streets, office elevators, hotel parlors, churches, and wherever ladies are to be found. Those who have yielded to the influence of the queer study declare i, to be fascinating. They are mainly young .men. .They say it is like a form of hunt ing or flyfishing. Aman singles out a lady of attractive face and figure, dressed to the supreme notch of fashion and evidently enjoying complete satisfaction with herself as she arranges her drapery and seats herself in a horse-car. If any .one were to tell her that the man across the car had made up his mind tc bend her to his will, and oblige her to per form no undignified act while she sat there, she would hale the bare suggestion as prcpostcrous, And yet, ten to one, she -would project her tongue, and roll her lips inward to mosten them on its surface as soon ns she looked over to the stranger tc petrify him with an indignant glance— at least so these impolite experimenters as sort. 'An Imperial Printer. The Berlin Journal for Buchdruckcrkunst states that Emperor Frederick is a practical printer,-c-who in 1845 received regular instruction in type setting by an employe of Hand's • printing establishment. Herr Hand read the proofs and returned them corrected. The facts were testified to by the crown prince’s private secretary in 1871, in a letter to the Journal which is dow republished.