AN ANGLO-RUSSIAN ECHO.
[At Baku, on the Caspian, a Society has been formed to abolish hand-shaking and kissing, on the ground that bacilli are propagated by such personal contact. The ladies, however, have protested against this to the Governor-General.
Daily Telegraph.
Baku is a place that is pretty well Grundyfied,
Where the good folks have all frolic and fun defied,
Where I'd be shunned, if I'd
Play at Whit-Mondayfied
Games such as "Catch-can" and Kiss-in-the-ring!
For the greybeards, it seems, of this naptha-metropolis
(Really, their reason about to o'ertopple is)
All o'er the shop'll hiss,
Hollering, "Stop! Police!
Hi, there! hand-shaking the mischief will bring!"
And kissing, they think, only leads to diphtheria—
Well, I should say, such a dread of bacteria
Quite beyond query, amounts to hysteria!
No, it won't "wash"—they don't either, I fear!
But Sonia and Olga and Vera are mutinous,
Rightly, I think, at such nonsense o'erscrutinous.
"This rot take root in us?
No, keep salutin' us!"
Echo our Mabels and Mauds over here!