Ah-h-h! Two-Hour "Soul" Kiss

1915

"Her Lips Met Mine and I Couldn't Get Away," Says Rich Lawyer

NEW YORK, Dec. 16. — "Soul kisses" that lasted for more than two hours were described by Everett P. Ketchum before Supreme Court Justice Blanchard in testifying in the suit for separation brought against him by Mrs. Ada Brown Ketchum on the ground of cruelty.

Ketchum told how, when he was first introduced to his wife, she was described to him as "a girl who had never been kissed before in her life."

"She said," he testified, "that a kiss was such a sacred thing that she had saved it all her life for the man whom she was going to marry. I thought it a very beautiful idea."

Ketchum said he proposed exactly five days after they had been first introduced.

"Tell us about that first kiss she gave you, Mr. Ketchum," said Mr. Levy of Mr. Ketchum's counsel.

"Well," said the witness, "it was like this. We were seated on the sofa in the parlor. She put her arms around my neck and drew me to her and said: 'Everett, darling, this is what they call a soul kiss. This is because of my extraordinary love for you. I never knew before that a kiss lasted so long. I don't know how the ability to kiss came to me, but—'

"She leaned into my arms. Her lips met mine. She grabbed me. I tried to take my head away because I could not breathe, but—"

"How long did that kiss last?" asked Mr. Levy.

"Two hours," was the reply. "I could not get away."

Singular New Disease — "Soul Blindness"

1906

Man Afflicted with "Soul Blindness" Cannot Bead or Recognize Pictures

Berlin. — The latest thing in the line of diseases is soul blindness, the name having been devised by Prof. Schuster, of Berlin. It appears that the professor lately had a patient under his care suffering from a lack of mental association. The man was educated and spoke coherently, but could not read; the printed characters conveyed no meaning to his mind. His senses all appeared normal, and there was no indication of physical disease.

He could recognize and name all the objects around him; but printed words, or sketches of the simplest objects, he was utterly unable to name; in fact, to quote the words of the professor, "He could not tell a boat from a tree or a house."

The theory advanced by Prof. Schuster to account for this peculiar condition is, that the connection between the eyes and that particular portion of the brain concerned in the association of ideas has been severed in some manner, and until that connection is restored, the condition will continue.

From what he has seen of the patient, he considers it extremely doubtful whether this important junction will ever be effected.

The Looks of Literary Women

1874

Some one having revived the lamentable truism that literary women are seldom beautiful; that their features, and especially their foreheads, are more or less masculine, a recent writer points out some exceptions, among them Miss Landon, whose forehead was essentially feminine, and who was exceedingly pretty. Mrs. Stanton, likewise, is a pretty woman, but Miss Anthony and Mrs. Livermore are both plain. Maria and Jane Porter were women of high brows and irregular features, as was also Miss Sedgwick. Anna Dickinson has a strong masculine face; Kate Fields has a good looking, though by no means a pretty one, and Mrs. Stowe is thought to be positively homely. Alice and Phoebe Gary are both plain in features, though their sweetness in disposition added greatly to their personal appearance. Margaret Fuller had a splendid head, but her features were irregular. Charlotte Bronte had wondrously beautiful dark brown eyes and a perfectly-shaped head. Julia Ward Howe is a fine-looking woman. Laura Holloway resembles Charlotte Bronte. Neither Mary Booth nor Marion Harland can lay claim to handsome faces, while Mary Clemmer Ames is just as pleasing in features as her writings are graceful.


Man as a Leaf

Man is no better than a leaf driven by the wind until he has completely mastered his great, lonely duties. If he has no habit of retiring from all that is worldly, and of conversing face to face with his inner man, if he does not draw down upon his soul "the powers of the world to come," then he is no man yet; he has not found the life of man, nor the strength of man; he is a poor, unhappy man, sporting only with shadows, and affrighted before the real and the eternal. He owns a great house, a wonderful house, but it is shut up, and he lives outside with his fellow-cattle; the inside is wholly unknown to him, and he has lived outside so long that he is afraid of the inside. Think, my good brothers and sisters, of the great, high serene world, in which you might live and move and have your being.