Middletown transcript., 1912-09-28
FASHIONS IN PERFUMES

flowers, though many people prefer
the smell of spices, new mown hay,
the breath of pines and balsams, or that
indescribabIe Whit OF Summer essence
that comes on breezes that blow over
fields of bayberry, sweet fern and the
innumerable growing things which help
to make up the bouquet of delicious frag-
rance which one breathes ecstatically,
say in August on the Coast of Maine,
and in many other delightful places.
Memory and Perfumes
It is curious that familiar odors
stimulate memory more than taste or
touch. This has been ascribed to the
fact that the olfactory nerve connects
directly with the centre of the brain,
where Galen, first and afterward Des
Cartes, located the soul. However this
may be, history is filed with proofs of
the influence that perfumes exercise on
man.
The incense burner and bearer are
important and oft recurring figures on
the mural remains that picture the life of
Egypt, Greece and Rome, in the heyday
of their civilization.
The sails of Cleopatra's barge were
scented, we are told, so that "The winds
we're love sick with them," and the
medicinal value of sweet odors was
attested when, in Athens, Hippocrates
rid the city of the plague by using per-
fumes after every other means had
failed.
The Verdict To Day
To day the proper use of good perfumes
is recognized as not only great pleasure,
but legitimate part of civilized life,
and my ady's toilet is not complete with
out touch of the dainty odor she affects
in perfume, sachets, powder and toilet
water. Nor is the enjoyment of this
luxury confined to the women of society,
for men are often accused of using the
handy bottle on the wife's dresser, and
latest news from London states that
English dandies are using scents as their
grandfathers did as we'll as cultivating
side whiskers and strapping their
trousers under their boots in styles dat
ing back to the same period.
Modern physicians recognize the
therapeutic value of perfumes, as a safe
guard against contaglon, but most people !
use perfume because they like it, though
people of refinement never overdo this
use, but confne it to a delicate perceptlble
fragrance that never offends as do gross
common scents.
The Dainty Woman of Fashion
The dainty woman selects a special
perfume aud uses this only in all her
toilet articles, and it is becoming fad |
with young girls to select the odor of
some flower that corresponds with their |
favorite color. Say a girl chooses the
essence of Violet, Clover or Heliotrope. |
and has her sachets, perfume, toilet
water, powder and soap to correspond. |
her room done up in chintz with the /
flower pattern, and all her pretty frocks
and belongings in some of the flower
colors, including the dull grees of leaf
ana stem. Few, perhaps, haruonize to
this extent, and many women prefer
synthetic scents as more assertive and |
distinctive, but no crude mixing of per
fumes is tolerated. If any change is
made it includes everything on the dress
ing table, for Madam La Mode DEGREES
that only one favored scent is permissible
for each individual.
American manufacturers now turn out
these line matching lines of toilet goods
IN forms that appeal to fastidious society
women, at prices far less than one paws
for as satisfactory imported products,
because these latter have to pay an
enormous duty of something like sixty
cents on the dollar.
Cheap, coarse, amateur perfumes,
lndiscriminately mixed, AID use in pro-
fusion, are relegated to the sort of people
who do not understand that while a little
of really fine essence is delightful,
Of cnnrsa alcnhnlin mixtnras
is disgusting to any sensitive nostril.
Modish saehets
Sachets of all sorts are very much used,
from large padded Innings for shelf,
drawer or wardrobe, to smaller and more
sachets that are tucked into the !
bodice, or hidden in the leaf of the satin
corsage flower SO generally worn.
In the light of present usage any of
these sweet scented appurtenances of the
dressing table make pretty, and most
presents, if only care is taken
10 secure the perfume used by the