AN AMERICAN FAD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2700, 3 January 1910, Page 4

AN AMERICAN FAD.

THE LATEST NOTION OF HEALTH REFORAIERS. There are glum faces amongst the young men ot lowa and mischievous smiles amongst- the girls. The Government of that American State has been most, energetic in its efforts to stamp out kissing, and recently had printed 100,000 artistic signs, with blue and pink ribbons, reading, “Don’t kiss me,” one of which is sent- to every household as soon as the arrival of a new baby is registered, with instructions to attach the sign to the neck of the infant. Furthermore, lowa has employed a lecturer, Dr Edward Kepford, who, during what is described as a “'whirlwind tour,” has secured.the active assistance of 2000 lady teachers in bis crusade against kissing. Thus, when invitations are issued to moonlight picnics, lawn fetes, or dances, these health reformers send each invited guest a notice reading somewhat as follows : “Do not expose one you love to the germs that lurk in kisses.” KISSING AS A CURE FOR INDIGESTION. A pupil reported to be courting receives by the next post a printed admonition that he “may hold her hand, hut must not kiss her.” Dr Kepford is now arranging prizes of £2O each for all unkissed girls of fifteen, with an added £5 for every year she remains unkissed. The younger generation of lowa, he proudly declares, will be brought up “unkissed and unkissing.” This is all very well for the gins, who are sweetly smiling in anticipation of the frills and' furbelows they will be able to buy with those prizes; but- what of the poor young men who are hunger, mg for osculatorv practice? In Yankee parlance, they have also got a “move on them.” They have persuaded another medical authority to declare that “in the act of kissing we encounter onlv beneficial organisms,” and that “tke'advantages of kissing outweigh its infinitesimal risk, for it provides us with microbes useful for digestion.” AIUST NOT KISS ON THE BEACH. Thus we shall have Edwin asking Angelina, when .she resists his chaste sain* ,on the ground that she wants to urn a £5 prize, whether it is worth •while risking her digestion for such a sum. And with the love-light reflected m each others eyes, it will be odds wants U getnns aU tlle hisses he lowa, however, has not yet followed the example bf Atlantic Citv, New beach' ') Wlere ** ne . s f< >r kissing on the beach have been instituted. There is flirtation den i to ° muc h promiscuous ? sP°°“ l ag on the beach, saj the authorities. Several offenders d a n £ 3 each. One de?S W hS S d was °»I.T kissed their honeymoon. The* Reorder,’'howthe bEach

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