Waterbury Democrat., 1902-04-03
A CITY'S SMELL.

ssDid you ever smell New York;"
 Sir Philip Burne-Jones, the painter of "The Vampire" and the son of the great Raphaelite, propounds the question seriously. At first the ques- tion strikes one q little unpleasantly, perhaps, and then one answers with q grin, '.Yes, certain sections of it,
 "Ah. but I don't mean that, ! mean the great, blended order of the entire city, that is found in every section and in every house-that is the smell of New York city, not of any of it's parts. I am perfectly serious," the artist an- swers.
 .'Let me first state what yon have probably observed, if you have been in Europe" he said "and what you have read about anyway. London, Paris. Vienna, Venice, but most particularly London, have their peculiar odors, which one whose nose is sensitive to smells soon learns to know, and for ever after associates with the cities, never for an instant confusing one with the other. The smell of London is particularly pungent, and rather ull-
 
 It reaches you always within certain zone of the city, and does not leave you wherever you go in the city, until your nose has become habitued to it. Several writers, among them Henry James, if l am not mistaken, have ob- served it. The odor of Paris is entire ly different. and rather pleasant. The odor of Venice is again a distinct thing oil n;f <AFR 1,o < has peculiar flavor of the sea in it.
 New York has it's own characteris- tic smell just as much as London or Paris or Venice. As my steamer came up the bay. out of the weeks run in the Atlantic odor, my nostrilS sudden " filled with an entirely new smell. It was like nothing I had ever smelled before-at least it was not the samc thing I had ever smelled. I took deep inhalation and cried: An! new sensation! Here is New York: smell it: I shall always know it now.' and so far I have smelled the same odor in every part of the city that have visit ed. and in every house that I have en- tered.
 What is this. smell like2" the New Yorker asked.
 ' scribe it. It is not at all unpleasant. rather the opposite. It approximates q perfume, in fact. It is more like the smell of Paris than anything else I know-due to the clear atmosphere of both cities. the absence of smoke, presume. I don't detect the odor of cooking. which must play part in the final composition of this perfume that emanates from and saturates every part of your great, hiving city. Let some New Yorker take . long sea voy- age and then return to New York 5ay with his nose awake. 1 am sure that he will then smell what I mean"
 My grandparents lived in New Eng | land'' said the other man, thought fully, "and l recall vividly now that the village, and especially the houses in the village had a smell that was all their own, and that I have never smelled anywhere else. I remember now that when l was q boy the men tion of my grandmother's name or q picture of the old house always brought back that odor, pleasantly | musty, to my nose.
 Yes, said the artist, "every town [ has it's characteristic smell. as well as it's characteristic traits of architecture or conduct. I am going to Boston soon. l will watch for the New Eng [ land smell.-New York Tribune.