RANDOM READINGS.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 113, 30 December 1918, Page 3

RANDOM READINGS.

SHOE ORNAMENTS.- "Y From early times women have paid a good deal of attention to ornaments for their shoes. The Roman ladies decorated their sandals with costly embroideries. and jewels, which no doubt gave them a very rich and expensive* appearance; and now that, shoes are made of plainer leather such' items as rosettes and buckles are‘resorted to to relieve the plainness. Rosettes, indeed, appear to have been first worn as decoration for the shoes, and men were, it would seem, far more extra-, vagant than women in this respect.: The great size of the rosettes on their shoes was no doubt in some instances 1 meant to serve a double purpose —to hide the shape of their feet as well as for ornamentation of their shoes. The shoe buckle dates back only to the seventeenth century, and was first worn to replace the rosette. Very elegant and beautiful were these buckles, and diamonds were used in great profusion on them. Shoe ties of ribbon were used about the time of Charles 11., and were of various colors, red, and blue predominating. WORLD’S PERFUME CENTRE. The history of perfumes is a part of the history of civilisation itself. From the perfumed sails that wafted Cleopatra down the Nile to the violetscented bath ©f milk that. was daily enjoyed by the Empress J°‘ sephine, or the sweet-smelling fountains in the royal palace of St, Peteisburg to-day, the essence of the flowers has been indispensable to luxurious existence. The perfume centres of the world at the present time is the quaint old French town of Grasse, in the Maritime Alps. In ascending to the town of Grasse from the picturesque little station the visitor finds his path lying through beautiful terraced plantations of jasmine and the lovely Province rose, and past orchards of olive trees, in the shade of which violets are cultivated. The area devoted to flower-culture covers one hundred and fifteen thousand acres.

During April, May, June, and July the fields are alive with sunny-faced men, women, and children, gathering the fragrant harvest. * They pick the blossoms by hand and carry them in baskets to the factories where they are divided and sorted. * '*+•'

As the women come in from the adjoining fields they empty their loaded baskets out on the floor until it is kneedeep in flowers, arid to walk across it would mean the crushing of thousands of roses. In one season a single establishment uses nineteen hundred tons of orange blossom, nine hundred and thirty tons of roses, one hundred and forty-seven tons of violets, and one 'hundred and twenty-seven tons of jasmine, to say nothing of great quantities of scented woods. After the sorting, which is done at benches by scores of white-capped girls, the flowers go to the distillery. Some yield their perfume after distillation with water or steam; others undergo what is called maceration. In this process the flowers are steeped in heated fat, where they are left until all their fragrance is extracted. Next, they are drained off into wooden trays, and fresh flowers are added to the fat. The fat that has absorbed the essence of the flowers is called pomade, and is sent in this form to the perfumers all over the world, who, by means of alcohol, extract its sweetness. After the perfume is removed they make the pomade into cakes of soap. The jasmine, tuberose, and violet are so delicate that they scarcely give out any essence by distillation, and have to be subjected to enfleurage. The workmen use trays of glass framed with wood about three inches deep. Over these trays they spread about half an inch of cold fat, which they sprinkle with freshly-gathered flowers. The blossoms must be renewed every morning, and great care must be taken to prevent evaporation of the odour. After a time the pomade is scraped off the glass, melted at a very low temperature, and strained. It takes about three pounds of jasmine to perfume one pound of fat. > The most expensive perfume is attar of roses, for it requires no less than forty-eight pounds of rose-leaves to make one gramme of oil.