THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND. SUNDAY HORsviNG. JULY 'l 9, 1903
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'5 THERE an ideal kiss? If so, what
is it?
Do the wild waves whisper its de
scription at the seashore resorts? Does its
'inspiring spirit linger amid mountain fast
ness est
"Every kiss is ideal," you may declare,
"if the kisser or kissee is the ideal one.
There can be nothing new nor more ideal
'about osculatofy manifestations of love than
Mother Eve doubtless discovered and her
descendants have welcomed with increasing
1 favor through all the ages."
Then why have new kisses come into
vogue of late? Why have recent amatory
demonstrations on the concert and theat
rical stage caused such widespread sensa
tions and been so generally discussed?
, Are the new kisses better than the old?
Is that bestowed by Mary Garden upon
Dalmores in one of the tense moments of
"Louise" different in form and structure,
bliss and blessing, from those yielded by
'the Puritan mnideH-PriseUla to th-eager
lips of longing John Alden?
8
A lonr, long kiss kiss of youth
and love. Byron.
MART GARDEN'S
kisses differ in one
way they are
doubtless longer in
their ecstatic duration.
But can there be a new
kiss? you ask. You thought
there was only one kind I
There have been many forms
of kissing since kissing was
invented, devised or origi
nated. For instance, there is the
platonic kiss. It was known
in the days of the old Greek
philosophers, and has been
overworked, lately, by "affini
ties." There are the kiss of
friendship, the religious kiss,
the parental kiss, the stolen
kiss, the passionate kiss, the
sincere kiss, the flirtatious
kiss. Not to speak of the
60ul kiss! One could go on
some time with a category of
kisses.
It is a pity .perhaps, that
for the sake of the future
historian of osculation the
Mary Garden kiss has never
been caught by the coldly
calculating eye of the camera
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-t Wit. not for. general circuUtion and con
msption. Thii new kiu is the legitimate iucceor of
etter ft moos luaaea. auch at th "Emma Abbott
Lis,' th "Carmen kin," th "Stpho kiss"
otly tb xw exposition of Lp-to-ljp blin y
curb fcrgrr. . 3kfary Gar Jen adopted it lait e
ca ia .Loui.T It Uited twmty-eitht aecond.
ing sylph, anyway. Softly, cautiously, her
face beaming with anticipation, she steals
upon him she is back of him and her
arms envelop him, tighten and close about
him. Book falls to the floor. The lover
gives himself up to bliss. And The Kis3
goes on.
Several bars of melody of soft,
languishing, expiring melody pulse from
the orchestra. The Kjss doesn't stop.
From the street comes a faint rumble of
cabs' and the toot of automobile horns.
Inside, excepting the music, breathless
silence. IVople lean forward, gasping.
The Kiss continues. Slips of girl.-s look
at one another wonderingly. Older iniawes
regard their escorts with undisguised re
proof, and still older matrons seem in
clined to sniff. Stil the music creeps
through the darkeneu auditorium. There
are visible signs of nervousness. The
kiss is like that which Tennyson de
scribes :
O love! O flrp! one he drew
With lone long kiss mv whole soul through
My Hps as sunlight drlnketh dew.
Sophie Brandt seized on to it in the "Valtz
Dretm" for forty-five seconds. The kiss of
Netiersole, which used to make a aensation,
lasted only twenty seconds.
Som one has saiu that the new kiss will
not-rrmain popuJar t-ecaue of iu length; wom
en might like it, but men wouldn't, being too
busy. This remark is on a par with Lady
Montagu's address to her husband, "Be plain in
dress and oLr in your diet; in ahort, my
dearie, kiss me, and be quiet." When it cornea
to kissing, there are mighty few men who cara
to limit it by the watch
In Act III of "Louise," Dalmore, the tenor,
is seated on the stage reading. . Enter Mha
Garden, the dainty Louie, auch a kiasahla look-
"The kiss looks natural of course;
to le successful, even a stage kiss must be
natural," declared Dalmores. "The recep
tion of the kiss by the audience is most
satisfactory. They sit in perfect silence.
Otherwise it would appear ludicrous. The
kiss comes, and, as it is prolonged, the au
dience feels the same sensafions felt by
the characters portrayed on the stage."
A long kissf Miss Garden thinks it
isn't so very long. "It's as long as we can
make it, however," she said, "and we kiss
as long as we can and keep our cues with
the music But if the New York audience
thinks thia is a long kiss well, maybe next
year IU show them the Aphrodite kiss."
And the laughed. There waa a threat in
her words. Tis whispered that the "Aphrodite
kiss" is tremendouf-r longer!
Is this stage kis but a reflection of the sen
timent of the beholden; is it what they would
like to do themselves I Is the most popular kisi
to become longer and still longer of duration I
Now, in the "WaVi Drejm" tbey-trtehed
it rut for fnrtv-fiV MKvnd. and Knnhio Ftrnndt
anil Edward Johnson, tb participant, are ra- lire.
quired to prolong the kiss as long as the kissing
music continues. That takes forty-five seconds.
What made the "Merry Widow" such a suc
cess, the owaltz or the kiss? In such questions
of psychology it is difficult to tell. But after
the delicious waltz the audience just hung on the
seemingly interminable kiss of Ethel Jackson
and Donald Brian.
People gasped again when they saw the 'Ho
tel Clerk," for Eugeno MacGrcgor and Jeanette
Bagoard kissed so passionately, so intensely, so
furiously, forsooth, that it seemed like a real
"cat-'em-alive caressT
Then came tho "Gay Musician," and Broad
way thrilled when Amelia Stone sank back in
the arms of debonair Walter Percival, and, as
their lips met, even tho most blase railbird3 sat
up, electrified, staring.
Next season, stage managers whisper, there
will be more kisses. The public has found, and
wants to see, its ideal kiss, they aver.
The conventional kiss, you know, is fleet
ing, brief, a mere touch of the lips, and a timid
flying apart for fear some one might see. Young
lovers usually kiss like Taolo and Francesca
seizing one drop of nectar in the stolen seconds
and then trembling for fear lest it be discovered.
Many still maintain it is the ideal kiss. It
does not scar the heart nor wound the soul. It
is not tho kiss of Carmen, which sends men's
blood rioting in their veins ready to do murder.
When Olga Nethersole delineated this kiss on
the stage some ten years ago its fame spread
broadcast. Years before Emma Abbott pio
neered the enduring kiss in "Faust" and made
a million. Whenever a kiss was prolonged in
definitely on tho stage, strangely, the play was
usually a success.
Ihere are some kisses about which there is
no question of public disapproval. There is the
diseased, unhealthy kiss which shocked even New
Yorkers in "Salome." There was the scene of
i Salome demanding the deatli of John in reward
for her dance before the dissolute Herod; of
Herod's reluctant assent, and of Salome finally
seizing the charger handed from the cistern, in
which the imprisoned John was beheaded, and
raising the severed head to her lips, exclaiming:
"Ah, thou wouldst not suffer me to kiss thy
mouth, Jokanaan! Well,' I will kiss it now!"
This was the kiss of death'. It caused "Sa
lome" Ao be withdrawn from the opera house.
It certainly was not considered ideal.
To the contrary, the new kiss of Miss Gar
den was hailed with enthusiasm. Dalmores and
Mary Garden received pay for their kiss at
about $6.87 per; a rate of $989.28 an hour.
When it comes to the price of kisses, possi
bly the cheapest record price was that set by a
jury in Newark, N. J, in 1902. A young woman
asked for $300 damages for a stolen kiss. The
defendant proved by witnesses that, after it waa
over, the fair lady forgave him. Then the jury
awarded the lady six cents.
Sometimes the price is very high. A stolen
kiss was appraised at $200 by Recorder Walcott,
of Little Falls. N. Y. A court in Wisconsin,
some years ago, assessed five kisses at $15,000,
or $3000 apiece.
There are few men. indeed, who s re not
grateful for any kind of kiss. In 1794 tho
charming duchess of Gordon secured 1000 re
cruits for the Gordon Highlanders by offering
a guinea and a kiss to every recrait. Men
sprang tr the .front, and. after securing this re
wsrd, in the straggle with France 250 lost thei