Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-10-07
Going to Grasse


town itself, the roadway corkscrew-
ing itself around tall houses of many
stories Of stone, with weathered
roofs of tiles of orange and rose,
with here and again lonesome
pasha's palm punctuating this land
scape of a perpetual springtime,
natural greenhouse that resembles
nothing in its setting If not the
white walled towns of Mediterranean
Africa.
Still up through narrow streets
past the circle of moyendge ramparts
and the crest of Grasse is reached at
the quantity named Jeu de Ballon.
Grasse to-day is much as it was
centuries before the secrets Of per-
fumes were developed, it is said, for
the service of Louis XIV, who re-
fused to battle his royal person, pre-
ferring that essence of jasmine,
roses and lilies should take the
place of mere plebeian water rites.
There are villas on the garden
garlanded slopes and not a few big
hotels, but the factory chimneys adj
monish the touring visitor to the
effect that Grasse, the Perfume Cap
ital, is hive of busy industry
and not merely shrine of gayety
like it's sister cities down by the
shores of azure.
Perfume secrets are guarded jeal-
ously here, handed down In families.
as ships go out to sea under sealed
orders. Entrance to the most holy Of
holes Of the laboratories, even to
observe the transmutation of the
spirits Of flowers, Is denied most
folk. Occasionally one of the uSineS,
or factories, will open its doors as
policy Of business astuteness which
realizes the value thereof.
Thus it is that insistent hordes Of
winter visitors migrate like birds to
this enchanted Mediterranean coast
of blue and endless sunshine, all in
to be found.
Synthetic perfumes. like coal tar
dyes, are cutting in on the trade of
the genuine article but not with
those Of discriminating taste. Moth
ing has really happened, or Is likely
to happen, to discount the distilled
product Of the flower fields OF
France whose head center is here in
this warm little corner of the Med
iterranean shore, the benign climatic
virtues Of which were known to the
Romans when they invaded Gaul in
the seventh century. Perfumes are
supposed to be as old as the Pyra-
mids; those OF Grasse are at least
as old as the Romans.
At one of the biggest of these
Grasse establishments we were
obligingly given a welcome by per-
haps the most popular maker of all.
You are shown into a large room
where the blossoms are heaped up
high OH broad tables. 1t all de-
ponds upon the season as to which
flowers will be most in evidence, the
white orange blossoms of early
spring, the red roses of high sum-
mer or the violets of midwinter
From here one passes into the lard
ing rooms Little pigs and fine
flowers" Yes, that is the astonish-
ing blend of beauty and the beast
1t is from this combination of ele-
ments that are born the essential
oils and essences of fine perfumes.
1.-THE best and healthiest of young
porkers is the first requisite for the
extraction of perfumes" your cice-
rome will assure you, land then only
the fatty slab sides are used"
The white lard is carefully stripped
from the lean, resembling white
tissue paper
These white tissues of lard are
laid in great, shallow pans and over
them are sprinkled the petals OF
flowers, each variety distinct unto
itself. These traylike pans are then
taken to the rooms where, lined up
In rows, are the copper alambics
with their snaky coils and all the
mysterious apparatus of laboratory
of the old time alchemist for distilling
his potions, these only a trif1e more