The background: In February 1898, The Atlanta Journal received a letter from an old society lady of Atlanta, Mrs. Kingsberry, who was disturbed by “the latest fad in the Gate City=kissing”. Repeating 2 rumors she had recently heard about Atlanta girls allowing boys to kiss them, Mrs. Kingsberry wrote: “This fad of kissing is simply horrid!”
The letter was widely distributed and mocked in newspapers across the country, leading the Journal to ask prominent Atlanta citizens for their own opinions on kissing, which were published in a February 8, 1898 article titled “Is There a Kissing Craze? And If So, What About It?” Always good for a quip, G.L. Norrman offered his own kissing commentary.
Norrman’s remarks:
“Judging from my own experience, there is not much kissing going on in Atlanta. I stand in with the young ladies pretty well, but they never give me any chance at it, so I believe The Journal‘s correspondent is wrong in her opinion about Atlanta society. If the lady who made these statements will give me some pointers, I will investigate the matter, and if she is right I will be able later to tell you something about it.”
“Abroad they are very strict in the highest society. I find that the world is the same everywhere in the same social circles. It was common among the Romans to kiss a lady to tell whether she had been drinking. They had such an abhorrence of drinking, especially among women, that it was customary to salute the women to make sure that they had not been drinking. As the origin of kissing, I cannot speak advisedly. They tell me that it is a very good thing, and may have originated with Adam and Eve, so far as I know.”