Page:The art of kissing (IA artofkissing987wood).djvu/25

 against her will: the courts awarding damages to the girl varying from $750 in Pennsylvania and $2,500 in New York, to $1.15 in New Jersey. And while there are Anti-Osculation Leagues, with stern medical warnings of the danger of kissing, the custom shows no evidence of diminution. The kissing of children on the mouth, even by parents, is liable to be harmful; if the medicos are to be believed, diphtheria, malaria, scarlet fever, colds and pulmonary taints, blood poison, and at times death, lurk in the kiss. Let the children, then, remain unkissed, except for the cheek: but, with the proper girl, we would brave ten million germs for one taste of what the old Georgia farmer described as "sucking sugar."