The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1895-08-07
A SWEET PLACE.
Erasse Is One of the Fairest Gardens In
All Europe.


All Europe.
To speak literally, one OF the
sweetest places in all Europe Is
Grasse, the garden Of Provence and,
after Paris, the most extensive man.
ufactory of perfumery in France: A
writer says of it that the air, half
sea and half mountain air, is scented
with the fragrance of roses and
orange flowers, and whithersoeyer
one goes not a bare patch of ground
is to be seen. No fruit tree that
will grow or sweet scented Hover
which can be made to yield up Its
essence is neglected here.
AS all the best roses are gathered
in the early morning before the sun
has touched them, tits only in pri-
vate gardens that one should look
for roses later in the day. Chief
among them is the lovely little yell
low rose, which flowers in a profu-
sion uni1nagined by jewellers in the
north. It filings one flower laden
spray over another until one might
bury the arm in clusters Of cool
roses to the depth of a third OF q
yard.
Everything fourishes at Grasse.
"I shall not stay here" said a young
German gardener, who had gone
south to study his occupation under
new conditions. There is nothing
to learn here. Nature works with
you. shall go to England"
Grasse has for some centuries been
celebrated for perfumes, for scented
oils and soaps. Many process has
to be gone through before either
soaps, perfumes OF. toilet waters re-
ceive a being. Little can be seen of
the gathering unless it be that of
the orange blossoms, when men and
women work their way into the
densest part of the closely growing,
round topped trees and stay there
as if they had been capriciously
stuck in by some powerful enemy
and left there.
The orange scent produces some
thing like hay fever, except that it
is more serious. The pollen also acts
as sort of poison, and, though the
odd, broad bonneted figures look as
if they were so firmly wedged into
the trees that nothing could dislodge
them, they frequently startle the
bystanders by falling fainting to the
ground.
When the sacks of flowers reach
the mandatory, they are weighed,
and their contents are tumbled out
on long tables, where they lie in
heaps nearly yard high. The floor,
too, is covered, leaving narrow foot
paths for the work people. Here at
the table the townspcople sit pick
ing off petals and laughing and talk
ing, for they are paid by weight and
so are allowed such. liberty of be-
havior.
When the rose leaves have passed
from their hands, they are shot down
through a trapdoor at the other end
of the building and thrust into cal
drons Of boiling lard, There the per-
fume, the soul of the flower, is
} caught and imprisoned.
, Most of the perfumes are made by
laying freshly gathered flowers in a
glass case, tie lid of which is spread
with coating Of lard half an inch
thick. This, in the course Of 10 or
; "a hours, absorbs all the essential
oil. &C.
The lard requires many relays OF
flowers before it is sufficiently i'm.
; pregnated with perfume. Sometimes
the supply is changed five or six
times, or again as many as 80. The
| lard is finally melted and mixed
with spirit, which, combining with
the volatile oil, rises to the top and
is captured and filtered.
, There is a probability that Grasse
will lose its picturesque beauty
through being improved" for the
eye of the winter visitor. Queen
: Victoria's recent visit has given it
an impetus, and now it longs for
boulevards and villas such as make
Cannes so prosperous and so COM
monplace. -Longman's Magazine.