Judge — July 13, 1912 — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

It Will Not Work. HIS is an age of new devices. Some of them are good. But theories do not count. It is the practical that ap- peals. This is also an age of microbes. For- merly people knew nothing whatever about microbes, and were happy in their ignorance, while they also seem to have been healthy. Now almost everybody is afraid of mi- crobes, and the scientists and quasi-sci- entists play to their own credit and profit upon that fear. The doctors of Milwaukee have just met, and, with the solemnity that char- acterizes conventions of such persons, listened to a dozen papers on the subject of kissing, said documents all being in the negative. After hearing these pro- found disquisitions, the Milwaukee doc- tors resolved to prepare a bill, to be in- troduced into the Wisconsin Legislature, to put a ban upon the osculatory habit within the precincts of that State. More than this, these sober and reform- ing persons denounced kissing as ‘‘a blot upon civilization’? and ‘‘a menace to health and decency.” A snapshot of these doctors would be perused with interest by men, young and old, suffering from the kissing habit and kissable and kissing women and girls. Jupce doesn’t think much of this convention pending an opportunity to study the faces and general habit of its component parts as a photograph might reveal them. To cap impertinence with absurdity, these doctors recommended as substi- tutes for kissing a rubbing of the noses and foreheads of the parties most in in- terest. As though any such common- place prescription could be enforced upon persons of opposite sexes ina kiss- ing mood upon opportunity! Rubbing of noses and foreheads is al- ready in vogue as a mere incident of kissing. Without the kiss, youth would lose its flavor and matrimony would be- come obsolete. Life with this omission would be stale, flat and unprofitable. There are many kinds of kisses—kisses of affection, of reverence, of submission, of forgiveness. But the greatest of kisses is the kiss of love. It is a dic- tate of Nature and a joy to existence. Even the wind kisses the trees, and, as Tennyson sang, “Rose, rose and clematis Trail and twine and clasp and kiss.’" What fools these doctors be! Whipping. Corporal punishment is going out of fashion in some families, while other families continue the correction of chil- dren in ancient ways and by primitive means. Whipping for ages has been justified by Biblical precept, but modern domes- tic philosophy has found corrective means that leave no scars or ill-feeling. Reward for well-doing and deprivation for ill-doing are just as effective as blows, from which ill consequences often come. Many achild is open to convic- tion, and argument is better than force. Jupce notes that a mother in Cali- fornia broke her hand the other day while spanking her daughter. The daughter must have suffered in this particular contact, but the lesson should not be lost—and probably will not be lost—upon the mother, who in the cir- cumstances ought to realize the pain in- flicted as well as the injury sustained. The birch rod and the ferule used to be associated with implements of educa- tion, and the maternal slipper and the paternal strap have long inspired fear. That they are slowly but surely grow- ing obsolete in exercise does not mean that childhood is less well disposed than it used to be. One Problem. The high cost of living complicates a domestic problem that is always crying for solution. In New York the other day, Mrs. Julian Heath, discussing the economic side of housekeeping, de- plored the ignorance of many young married women as to marketing and cooking. ‘The idea,’ said she, “of a girl who can make fudge thinking that’s a sufficient requisite for a good hausfrau!’’ There a finger was pointed at anda tongue described one of the most serious of household problems. It is essentially a problem of the city. The country housewife knows what to do, has her own sources of supply, and teaches her daughters something of the science of housekeeping as she was taught by our own mother. In the city the supply is different, and the daughters—or too many of them—boast only a knowledge of sweet-tooth catering. Domestic re- forms, as they relate to the high cost of living, should begin at home. Youth is buoyant and unmindful of matters that later lead to serious things. The young married man for a time will be satisfied with anything his bride sets before him at table as the work of her own hands. In fact, a young married couple for some time after wedding are totally oblivious of the pleasures of the table. But the honeymoon wanes, and too often dyspepsia intervenes, while the Fates weave their fabric of the threads of dissatisfaction and disap- pointment. Domestic discord, physical misery flow from households where the housewife knows neither how to market nor what to do with the things within her pecuniary reach the market affords. divorce and even comicbooks.com