New-York tribune., 1906-07-01

OF their favorite foods rhould cling 60 them
much in the same mann ar that the smell Of
garlic fingers about the person OF a laboring man
from the south OF France or from sunny Italy
Much the same reasoning applies to the
japanese. In fact, their perfume is even more
pungent than that Of the Chinese. This is due
to the fact that their tastes run IN the direction
OF the same kind Of food and TO the lack OF
cleanliness OF their garments. The latter are
rarely changed, and never washed. The people,
it is true. bathe every day. mostly in water
heated to a temperature that would parhoil any
ordinary civilized human being. But on emerg-
ing from the bath they resume the same old silk,
woollen and cotton garments which not only
they themselves but also their ancestors, even
to the third and fourth generations, may have
worn without interruption. Heavy silks and
woollen clothes, though durable. likely to re-
quire cleansing after some twenty or thirty
years Of constant use, especially in a tropical
climate Hence it is not altogether surprising
that the people OF Japan should present power
ful contrast to their flowers, which latter, by
reason OF some popularity Of the soil. abso-
lutely without trace Of perfume. So searching
is this 'parfum du Japon" that white people who
have occasion to spend any time in the do
minions of the Mikado become impregnated
thereby to such an extent that it is not until
years after their return to their homes in
America or in Europe that they are able to rid
themselves and their effects Of the odor.
To be informed by Orientals that we exhale a
disagreeabIe perfume appears preposterous to
those Of us who have had occasion to sample
the extraordinary variety OF the smells OF the
Far and of the Near East. Anything comparable
TO the stenches Of the towns of Cochin China, Of
AMMAN and of Siam, where offal is cast into
the street until it reaches the window sills, being
kept in state of ferment by liquid sewage
have never encountered. And to those whose
ofactory nerves in search of new and
piquant sensations I would recommend ride
in the neighborhood of an Egyptian cemetery at
the time of the year when the Nile flood con-
verts the soil Of the Delta into a species of
soaped sponge. Moslem graves are very shallow.
Sometimes they are not even below the surface
Of the ground, but merely bricked over with a
single layer of bricks. which are constantly dis
turbed by the jackals, the hyenas and the
ghoulish wild dogs so that there is plenty Of
atmosphere. Moreover. it is only those who have
been cooped up in a stuffy tent with Bedouin
sheiks, arrayed in their heavy and thick blanket
like burnouses. on a tropical night who can ap-
preciate the true meaning of the familiar
preston Of the perfumes of Araby the Best.'
Even still more Objectionable to is the odor
Of the various Negroid races of Africa, resulting
as it does from the consumption Of the most
disgusting kinds Of food. from the use of camel
and other manure fuel and as the plaster for
their habitations, and also from their preference
for anointments with oils and with lard to the
use of soap and water. AS for the smell of the
red Indians, due to a horror for any kind Of
cleanliness, it is apt to evoke memories Of the
utterance Of General Sherman. when he pro-
claimed the fact that there was no good Indian
but dead Indian.
Whereas. in the Orient perfumes may be de-
scribed as national in the sense that each coun-
try has it's own particular odor, it is fact that
in America and Europe smells more indi-
vdual in their nature. We are often able to
distinguish blindfolded the class to which peo-
pie belong by the perfume which they affect
Thus no Of any breeding would ever
dream Of making use of powerful scents, being
content with merely the faintest suspicion of
some delicate, barely perceptible perfume, while
the man who resorts to adventitious aids of this
kind TO bring himself into good odor among
his fellow men writes himself down, ipso facto
a bounder. Indeed. perfumes, like every
thing else, become extremely vulgar when loud,