The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1878-12-12

Oclnk tnht Dhilic pdlhlss ~ may ne
that be Is not OF kin to the wretches In
the towns Of the south OF France, who
despoil the stranger; wrong and cheat
him with so much unetion, and this Is
all the more probable as the boast Of
that section is, that they have much
Greek blood in their veins, and their
conduct proves 1t. But these peasants
are probably mixture of Burgundian,
French and Goth and original Gael.
When the roses were weighed, and a
tall Vencian. standing beside the pro-
prletor, with his hand full of c)ppers,
had paid everybody his sous, the tlow-
ers were repacked in baskets by the
three handmaidens of the establishment
and taken below. Here were vas half
filed with warm oil in some instances,
and In others with warm grease, made
by mixing lard and beef suet, most care
fully prepared and cleaned in the winter
months. 10 every three curees, or vats,
was man armed with wooden paddle
and as the girls poured the rOse-blos-
SONS into the oil and grease, they stir
red about until the whole was one hid
eOus, wretched paste of a dirty brown
color. The men who manipulated the
grease had warm time of it, for 1t
offered considerable resistanbe to the
paddle, and the perspiration fairly
poured down their brows as they work
their spatules. Twenty-four hours the
leaves remained soaking, and then they
are packed into coarse linen bags and
put under a powerful press, which
squeezes the perfumed oil into a stone
gutter, from which it pours by a pipe
into a strainlng vat. To warm the oil
and grease, precautions have to be ia
ken. They are not placed in ccmmuni-
cation with the fire, but are lodged In
huge copper boilers, half filled with
water, fixed in range, which occupies
one entire end of the apartment. When
warmed to blood heat the oil and grease
are poured into their respective cuUees,
and the operation with the paddle Is re-
peated with fresh roses. Twenty-Five
times are the roses poured into the watts
before the oleaginous matters are sufll-
GENTLY saturated to be sent TO the great
perfumers and chemists as mdtiereS pre-
mieres' For orange flowers from ten to
twenty-five infusions are necessary, ac-
cOrding TO the quality demanded. The
violet demands at least thirty, but for
the n,dtiereS premiereS Of the jessamine
and the tuberose there is an immense
diversity of range. The best qualities,
however, demand sixty intusions, but
when perfumer wants the best that
can possibly be made, there is no limit,
and the operation OF infusion Is repeated
as long as blossoms can be procured. |
asked the proprietor if the oil would
still absorb the perfume, and he said
yes, for jessamine and tuberoses. The
strong odors OF the orange flower and
the rose render fewer infusions neces'
sary, and indeed, for some low grades
of orders there are not so many infusiOns
even as ten. Then again the warming
of the oil draws out the perfume much
faster, but the delicate character . che
jessamine and the tuberose is opposed
to such course, and for them there is
a different procedure. Numerous shal
low trays are used which are provided
with a wire grating over which a coarse
cotton cloth is stretched, which has been
previously stepped In cold oil. The
flowers are then delicatley placed upon
the cloth and renewed day by day, and
sometimes If the blossoms come in fast
enough, twice a day. am glad to
think that the beautiful star-like bios
SONS of the Jessamine are not plunged
into the dark-hued, greasy mass that
looks exactly like boiling sugar, for 1t
was destructive of all romance to see
the fate of the roses. But the manner
in which the jessamine is cultivated is
not what one would call picturesque.
Instead of trailing over some protecting
tree as In India, or upon summer
house or long wal, as with us, 1t Is cut
down like vine, and is restricted to a
number of shoots which send out sprays
thickIy covered with flowers. This
murderous process makes the plant so
very sensitive, that 1t has TO be covered
with earth from October TO the end Of
March.