CHINESE SMELLS IN ’FRISCO.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 144, 6 August 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHINESE SMELLS IN ’FRISCO.

I was solemn]}'- warned by American friends, when 1 announced my resolve to explore the penetralia of the Chinese quarter, that I had best take a phial of aromatic vinegar or some other disinfectant with me, to counteract the horribly offensive odours with which rn v nose would be assailed. 1 cannot help fancying that the olfactory organs of the A mermans are more sensitive than those of other people ; but on the other hand, it may be that, prejudice has something to do with tliis excessive keenness of smell. For example, in a very clever and observant little book, ‘ The Chinese in America,’ written by llie I!ev. 0. Gibson, f find the following curious summary of what may be called international odours : ‘The Fn.-uehmsii -mells of girlie: ih<I>ishiii;i.n smells of whisky and tobacco ; tioUerman suit:!!:-; of samuki mil. ami laager 1 err : the Englishman smells of roast, he f and ’arf-and-’ar f : the American snobs of .•orneako and jioik and beans. flic Chinos,smell is a mixture and a puzzle, a marvel and a wonder, a mystery and a disgust; but nevertheless you shall find it, a palpable fact. The smell of opium, raw and cooked, and in process of cooking, mixed with the smell of cigars and tobacco leaves, wet and dry, dried lish and, dried vegetables, and a thousand other indescribable ingiodients, all these toned to a certain degree by v. hat may be called a ‘sliippy ’ smell, produce a sensation upon the olfactory nerves of the average American, which, once experienced, will not soon be forgotten. ’

The reverend gentleman’s strictures should not, 1 venture to think, be taken without' considerable qualification, .‘jo far as personal observation entitles me to bo a judge, the very worst parts of China Town do not smell worse than do the Rue Mouffutanl and the Montague Ste. Genevieve in Paris, or the ‘ Coombe ’in Dublin. The seventy distinct stenches of Cologne have become matters of history ; but, pray, what do you think of the odour of most of the back streets in ‘ La Bella Venezia,’ and of some of the courts in the neighbourhood of our own Drury Dane ? And, again, it should in fairness ho remarked that it is only a small portion of China Town that can lie charged with having any disagreeable odour at all. —O. A. Sala, in ■ Tclog'auh.’