The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-04-27
Frederick Haskin's Letter
especial Correspondents
SIGHT AND SCENT HARMONIES
Especial Correspondents

Washington, D. c., April 26.-is
your nose educated? Can you tell,
for instance, the difference between
lavender and garlic with your eyes
shut? If not, you had better begin
to give your nose daily setting-up
exercises, fer the long neglected
sense of smell is coming into rs
own.
Perfume concerts are the latest
contribution OF science to aestheu-
cism, and persons who have always
depended largely on convention to
tell them what to like and dislike
in the category of scents are said
to be at a loss when turned loose
among futuristic perfume harmon
les.
The perfume concert is recent
scientific experiment. 1t has long
been held by some scientists that
harmonies of color, scent, or taste,
are as capable of giving aesthetic
pleasure as harmonies of sound. II
we enjoy a series of musical chords,
they reasoned. why should we not
enjoy a series of perfume har-
monies, or a series of blended col
ors. A dress or painting may be
beautiful by reason of Its colors
alone But both color and perfume
have always been made to serve as
accessories. They have been ig
nored as aesthetic stimulantS. Yet
both can be fixed in a scale, sim
liar to the musical scale, scientists
find. Using these scales, harmon
ious or clashing chords and Sc
quences can be evolved. just as in
music. This, in general way, is
the theory of the scientists who
have experimental with perfume
and color.
So far as taste goes, it will be
remembered that Huysmans in one
of his novels, describes a liquor
organ. This was made up of a
scale of liquors in glasses, and
combinations were formed and
tasted by the operator. The symph-
ony of taste would seem to be
more far-fetched idea than the con-
cert of color or scent. 1t is espe-
cially far-fetched now in this coun-
try, for few aesthetics would be
able to rig out complete set of
liquid notes for an organ.
Scale of Soft STUFF.
More practicable, perhaps, would
be a soda fountain organ, with
scale running from strawberry to
vanilla. The difficulty is that one
sample at time of the soda clerks
skill at harmonies is enough for
most people. A complete symph-
ony, consisting of a succession of
allegros, adagfos, college delights.
and cherry whoops would knock al
most any patron of the arts into
transports of indigestion. The
American stomach will have to be
strengthened before the American
sense of taste can be very much
developed to appreciate the soft
drink concert.
The color organ presents fewer
difficulties. At least, it offers no
internal danger to those testing its
delights. It has been used for some
time as an interesting novelty.
The score for color composition
is generally written in advance, and
the colors are projected on a screen
in the combinations and order that
the score directs. The concert is
produced by an operator at an or
SdA-IlAc .IASti uu16uL Will d hey
board and stops which control diff
ferent light rays.
Almost any one who is not color
blind or who is not entirely devoid
Of feeling for beauty can get
some pleasure from a simple color
concert, it is claimed. Very subtle
harmonies require more sensitive
audience Of course. at any color
performance the person who is a
critic and a lover of colors can get
much more out of the display than
person who is Indifferent to the
appeal of the spectrum.
Civilized man is used to depend
ing on his eyes for information
more than on his ears, nose or fin
gers. For that reason, at least the
color organ has chance for popu-
larity. When it comes to the neg
lected nose, it seems likely that at
first only a few sensitive souls will
be able to enjoy fully the subtle