Life — August 5, 1897 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

“NOT VERY WELL AS YET. The Suppression of Osculation. TTCHE regular meeting of the Ad- vanced Mothers’ Hygienic Club was in full progress. The subject for discussion, as an- nounced by the speaker, a bespectacled, lean-visaged female from Boston, was “The Dangerous Transference of Germs by the Process of Osculation,” “I tis asin!" she declared emphatic- ally, suddenly bursting forth from her preamble with a force of well-rounded Emersonian elocution, that caused her listeners to fix on the speaker a startled and fascinated gaze. Then, having the full attention of her hearers, she continued: ‘It is a posi- tive, an awful and appalling sin, to force upon our little ones, who in their igno- rant helplessness know not of the dan- gers they are incurring, the kiss which the careless, heedless, wicked mother in her selfishness forces upon them. It is kiss, kiss, kiss—fondle, bend over, “HOW IS YOUR BROTHER GETTING ALONG NE IS PLAYING ‘HAMLET’ NOW, BUT WE HOPE TO breathe into the face of the child, inflict upon it those caresses which a grown person would refuse and resent. “Not content with kissing her own child and exposing it to her germ-laden breath, and that of all the adoring rela- tives to whom baby is held up to be kissed, and who are accounted cold and unfeeling if they refuse, she must in- flict upon other children—your children, my children” (her voice sinking to a deep, pathetic tone)— ‘this disease- carrying kiss. he will meet you in the street, and with rapturous exclamations kiss your child again and again, dealing it, per- haps, its death blow.” Her eagle eye swept the audience, and guilty mothers quailed beneath her awful glance. There was the soft applause of gloved hands as she made her final period and stepped from the platform. The members clustered around her, HIM A VARIETY PART NEXT SEASON."* and there was a confusion of earnest, excited voices, It was a great day for the Advanced Mothers’ Hygienic Club. “Yes, Lam exceedingly fond of chil- dren,” she said, as they passed out of the créche they had been visiting. “This is really a great institution. Sce—I have taken notes. I shall lec- ture on certain phases of its manage- ment when I return to Boston. It really is excellent.” She wiped her glasses thoughtfully. “Bless the tots!" she cried, a smile illuminating her face. “I could fairly cat them, every one.” There was a troubled look in the eyes of her hostess as they passed up the avenue. The lecturer on the ‘Dangerous Transference of Germs by the Process of Osculation” had kissed each one of the thirty-seven babies in the créche. Harriet Caryl Cox. comicbooks.com