Evening star., 1928-12-11
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES f. TRACEW ELL.

| them. Keep themselves ever so clean,
however, they cannot fool another cat.
n 4
| Such powers of smell probably would
be anything but pleasant to human
being. There are some persons, oil
course. who are better endowed In this
respect than others.
One cat owner declares that he can
smell a can of salmon being opened in
the kitchen before the cat on his lap
does. He processes to have SO scored in
several instances. The one occasion
upon which the cat beat the man was
due to the cats ears, the man asserts,
the feline being adept at detecting the
sound made by can opener.
The olfactory margin OF most hu-
man beings, however, is not very high.
There has to be a lot of smoke before
they can smell 1t at all. At the far ex-
treme Is the man who has lost en-
tirely the sense of smell. Certain dis
eases cause this lack Whether such a
man is to be envied or pitied is the
question. He misses many unpleasant
smells, no doubt, but also he fails to
enjoy the charming odor OF fresh lilacs
the sharp tang of seashore air the de-
lightful aroma of sizzling beefsteak.
All In ALL this would be a somewhat
lesser world without the sense of smell
Obnoxious smells may be obviated large
ly, but no power can make up for the
inability to smell the true fragrances.
In chemical world such as this,
wherein the Creator has made both
things to be Smelled and the instru-
ments with which to do the smelling.
he would be an migrate who would
not take advantage of this kindly curl
Gus provision.
The unusual feature of the provision
| Is that so many odors are pleasant,
some to one, some to another, but hum
| dreds upon which all men unite in
praise. We have given few. Who in
| the world does not rejoice at the odor
of a lilac bush in bloom? When the
| dew drips from the blossoms, and the
! fragrance fills the air, we have one Of
| life's most charming smells. 1t may
appeal to some more than to others, tut
| the truth of its beautiful freshness re-
mains unchanged through the ages.
| There is the smell of burning Au-
| tumn leaves, quite different, but COM
ing. gratefully to the nose of man,
woman and child. The exact proportion
of course, must be very carefully kept;
too close to the smoke, it becomes
acrid; just the right distance away, it Is
better than any SWeetiSh incense ever
burned in pot. Maybe these odors
smell sweetest in memory. There Is q
strange affinity between memory and
sweet smells. Every Morn Send Thee
Violets' The smell of violets faded a
| quarter of a century ago comes back as
easily as that detected in the florists
shop yesterday.
All good and gracious smells redole1t
of fine living, of health, of beauty, stir
in the mind and heart conjuring up
visions at once bitter or sweet, no one
| but the secret eyes can see or the hid
den heart tell. There is loveliness to
sweet smells sending fragrance over
literature from the sad song of Ophelia,
naming over her flowers, to the high
lights of sacred history, redolent with
| fir and balSam.
Mankind would be the poorer without
the delicate apparatus with which he
| greets the keenness of a Winters moln-
| ing, or salutes the aroma arising from
| the supper table. Let us rejoice that
we do not have to possess the cats
ability to enjoy the good things OF Oh
factory life.