Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-21
TOWN AIRS AND GRACES.
Shirley Dare on the Perfumer's Art.
Fashions in Perfumes Costly Scents.
Terfumers Never Fail in Business-The Per-
fumes OF the Ancients-The Making
OF Choice scents.
rConvrighted.1

medicine, but the heartwoOd of the sa-
cred aloes tree. fragrant with enduring
and indispensable sweetness treasure
in which was paid the yearly tribute of
kings, and a perfume so exquisite and
esteemed that it was reserved for the use
of great potentares and holy temples, of
which neither trace nor knowledge seems
to exist in this country. The Eastern
women perfume their persons with the
smoke Of burning spices I'LL their flesh is
penetrated with odors for days afterward
"a practice kept up in seraglio practice
till the flesh of a harem favorite smells
like one Of those tablets of pressed per-
fumes familiar III every collection
of Turkish wares In later
times at coronation feasts and
civic triumphs like those which graced
the court OF Charles of Burgundy, foun-
tains of wine and of perfumes were part
of every show boon TO be thrice thank
full for, in times when the common people
were, as Erasmus calls them, unwashed,
'srammish clowns. - At the entrance of
Charles the Second into London, spray OF
perfumed waters was flung upon the null
ian nobility it was the custom to break
eggshelIs filled with perfume over the
heads of guests at dinner. The custom
has descended to our day in the perfumed
crackers Of French chemists, capsules OF
gelatine filled with scent and wrapped IN
brilliant papers, or silk comets.
With the increase of wealth and refined
personal habits in this country. the use Of
perfumes is no longer the mark of the
rich, but it is the necessity OF all except
the very poor. In the large fancy shops,
confectionery, cheap novels, not nSc9s.
sariIv poor ones, scent sacheUs and hands
kerchief perfumes rise with every season,
and there appears to be field for all OF
them in supplying this growing country
with scent for its handllerchiefs, sachets
for its cOrsageS and waistcOats and toilet
water for its baths. The writer
mas talked with all the lead
inc Derfumers of New York
and in their business no complaint OF
hard times is heard. East, West and
South are alike in appreciation of sweet
odors. OF course the demand for these
is the greatest in the centers OF popuIa-
ton. but the country is no way behind
in its craving for toilet luXuries, and it
makes I'D for its lesser population by
the high quality of soaps and essences
ordered For the family of the rich
farmer, rauchman or planter, no Paris
extracts or toilet articles are too costly.
Tho very choicest products are in demand
for the rich Southwest, Den
v-r and san Francesca. and nothing
les viii answer. Country druggists say
:.rt in the late war 7,hen a woman re-
c.!.ad her husband 5 bounty as a soldier
Ess HrSt purchases we're an outfit OF fresh
-,.'.s, perfumeTy aud cosmetics, things
yn.. had never been able TO compass in her
s.i.tCG lie before. She could and did
ot'ru work at sewing or photograph col
eng for a subsistence, but the available
money went for the minor luXuries which
often mean more to life than its coarse
necessities What Is life worth without
It's pleasant sights, sounds and OdOrs?
one of the most exquisite offices in
nature is that performed by scents of
flowers in purifying the air, and breath
ing ozone into it by their perfumes. Not
all sweet scented plants do this, or all
pleasant odOTs. The distinction is
marked between the sedative OdOrs and
the reviving ones. Lilies, jasmin,
tuberose, orange flower and acaia in
their natural form, borne on the winds
and mixed with many thousand times
their own volume of air are pleasant,
soothing to q healthy sense, though deli
cate nerves cannot enjoy them even in
their garden freshness.
Brought closer in clusters of blossom,
their odor is narcotic, depressing, so
that persons grow faint at smell of
them, and yet more concentrated their
effect is Supplying and deadly. Well
authenticated instances abound of per-
sons sent into heavy slumber as if
drugged, by the odOr of lilies or jes-
min, and the scent of orange flowers is
so depressing TO the action of the heart
that it is not safe for anyone with dis
ease of that organ to inhale it any length
of time. 1t is not at all Imagination
when nervous, susceptible persons COM
plain of discomfort from the powerful
scent of flowers or essences of any sort.
The reviving scents arise from herba-
ceous plants, largely from the odors tof
rose, mignonette, lavender, thyme and
lemon verbena, balsamic rosemary, and,
chief of all, the carnation family includ-
ing spicy stocks, wRllflOweT and pinks.
Not quite all sorts, for the fringed gar
den pink distils with its sweet spice q
breath of laurel ether like that of cherry
blossoms, which make the bees drunk in
their Overblown DOughs. The scent of
Glove carnations is one of nature s finest
stimulants, and garden border full Of
them is Gordon of delicate
disinfection rs faI as its odor
spreads. So far, however, the perfume
of the carnatlon proves iuimitable, the
most skinful perfume-s making their Ler-
fumes heavy by n base of jasmin added
to the Glove ether. The jasmin is Just
too much, and no sense seems delicate
enough TO discern what needs to accom-
pany the Glove Odor to resolve it into pure
carnation breath. This serves to illus
trate the difficulties which the perfumeT
has to meet. within his aerial, tantaliZing
chemistry. The,scaIe of odors is fixed as
a scale of m{Isic. Combine such
ana such notes and haT-
mony results, but The intervals
of the perfume octaves are sernitenes and
tones of infinite division and mortal sense
is seldom fine enough to seize them with
intelligent precision. The Swedish chem
ist Luudborg, who has given his name to
some Of the choicest perfumes of Ameri-
can make, was one of these natural al
chemists Trained in the careful study
of natural sciences common TO Swedish
universities, he ran away from home
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