1912 was the year when medical doctors were trying to get kissing outlawed. Not for religious reasons, but because they felt that kissing was gross. Since no one was in favor of outlawing kissing, they tried to convince the population to get health checks and view the other person’s health certification before agreeing to a kiss, as in the newspaper article below.
Good Bye, Kissing
It was a moonlit night in fair Milwaukee, the band played soft and low as the shades of evening safely sheltered the cooing pair sitting there on the park bench.
The ardent swain begged tremulously, aye, even despairingly.
“Give, oh, give to one who loves you better than life itself, one tiny, little kiss?”
Did the sweet young Milwaukee maiden bestow the desired bliss upon the pleading suitor? Ah, here is the answer:
“Have you your health certificate here with you?”
He had it not, and likewise the smack he bestowed not. For such is the way they propose to run kissing in Milwaukee, if the doctors have their way about it.
“No kissing without a health certificate,” they demand. “Down with promiscuous osculation” is their battle cry. Most of the docs are married.
[Source: The Day Book (Chicago, Illinois newspaper). July 01, 1912.]
