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Show Kissing Termed Crime in Puritan New England Kissing is considered an unhealthful practice by some people. A few years ag6 the physicians of Milwaukee prepared pre-pared a bill for the absolute suppression suppres-sion of kissing, on the ground that the practice was hygienically dangerous. The bill did not become a law, or it would have made Milwaukee more famous, fa-mous, but somewhat similar laws existed ex-isted in Puritan New England. In 1056 Capt. Kemble of Boston was "set for two hours in the public stocks for his lewd and unseemly behaviour," which consisted in "kissing his wife publiquely on the Sabbath day, upon the doorstep of his house, when he had Just returned from an absence of three years." Twelve years later "Jonathan and Susannah Smith were each fined 5 shillings and costs for smiling on the Lord's day." The smile, it would appear, ap-pear, was only less heinous than the kiss itself. Detroit News. |