ACCIDENTAL FRIENDSHIPS

The happenings of daily life are those we least expect,
And often these experiences are joyous in effect.

The friends we make by accident are frequently the best;
We cling to them in fond regard because they meet the test.

A friend I met by accident while on an errand bent
Has played her part as perfectly as though by heaven sent;
A heart as pure, a life as clean, as fancy can conceive,
With not a word, or look, or thought o'er which to ever grieve.
True friendship has its boundaries, its limited domain;
At most it is a luxury, a phase of social gain;

And my good friend by accident has proved a friend indeed,
Enlarging thought, enriching life, conserving special need.
Therefore to me the happenings which come as a surprise
Are apt to be the welcomest-God speed them in their rise!
Should other friends by accident gain places in my heart,
I'll own the unexpected is of bliss the greater part.

FRIENDLY GREETINGS

Modes of salutation, or inquiries after health, take many forms, but there is hardly a nation without one of its own.

The Americans, English, French, Germans, Italians, Russians, and Spanish all shake hands and say something, if nothing more than "How d' ye do?"

Some peoples on meeting give each other a vigorous slap on the shoulder, some prostrate themselves, while others make only a slight obeisance, like lifting the hat.

One form of salutation would seem very odd to everybody, were it not so common-that of the kiss. Whoever first thought of saluting another person in that strange way?

Some of the rude races have substitutes for kissing. The Mongols smell of the head, especially parents in meeting their

children. This recalls blind Isaac's method of making sure that Jacob was his son: "He smelt the smell of his raiment, and blessed him."

The Samoans salute by juxtaposition of noses, accompanied not by a rub, but by a hearty smell.

The Burmese apply the lips and nose to the cheek, and make a strong inhalation.

Kissing the hand is a custom more ancient than kissing the lips. In remote times men saluted the sun, moon, and stars by kissing the hand, and persons were considered atheists who would not do this on entering the temple.

Anciently, kisses had meanings: one on the beard meant respect; on the cheek, friendship; on the eyelids, devotion; on the neck, reconciliation; on the knee, subjection; on the foot, servitude; on the lips, love.

The handclasp means peace and friendship. The custom of removing the glove before shaking hands with a woman began in the days of chivalry, when the glove was a steel gauntlet and might inflict pain. The habit of extending the right hand, which was the weapon hand, came about as a required security against treachery.

THE KISS

A scientific theorist has suggested that Nature is the author of human kissing, and that men and women aped the apes in licking each other's lips. This is to make the monkey a more ingenious discoverer of delight than man.

A classic writer thinks that possibly kissing originated with the young Greek shepherdess who found an opal on one of the hills of Greece, and, wishing to give it to a youthful shepherd, whose hands were occupied with his flock, she let him take it from her lips with his own.

The first kiss on record dates back thirty-seven hundred years: "Come near now and kiss me, my son; and he came near and kissed him.”

The next recorded kiss had a tear in it: "And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept." Whether he wept because he kissed, or because he kissed but once, the writer does not say.

In the ancient poetry the kiss of love is depicted: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine." Modern poetry has not improved much on that.

Kissing is alleged to have been introduced into England by royalty. The British monarch Vortigern gave a banquet in honor of his Scandinavian allies, at which Rowena, the beautiful daughter of Hengist, "after the manner of her people," to the surprise of all, saluted the delighted sovereign with a kiss.

The kiss then became instantly popular. A knight who visited the field of the cloth of gold, on being invited to a local castle, was addressed by "the kynde ladye" in this style:

"Forasmuch as in England ye have such a custome as that a man may kysse a woman, therefore I will that ye shall kysse me, and ye shall also kysse these my maidens."

"Which thing," adds the old historian, "ye knyghte straightway did, and rejoyced greately thereat."

Perhaps the most noted kiss of modern history was that given by Queen Margaret of France, in the presence of her