“EAU DE COLOGNE”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 16 June 1932, Page 10

“EAU DE COLOGNE”

THE ROMANCE OF ITS ORIGIN Who complained of the odoriferous state of Cologne, “with its seventy distinct and different smells?” In the days of Louis XV, when Cologne was occupied by the French, General Lefevre, who was in command, complained so bitterly of the “fearful smells” which continually assailed his nostrils that, through the Burgomaster, he ordered a thorough cleansing of the city. When the Burgomaster reached his home on Christmas Eve he was surprised to find a nun, tall and distinguished in appearance, seated beside his wfie, who introduced her guest as “Sister Maria Clementine Martin,” and added that she had brought him a bottle of perfumed water as a Christmas gift. “Perfumed water!” exclaimed the Burgomaster, as he uncorked the bottle. Ho was assured that the water was made by the nun, who alone knew its ingredients. “Some years ago.” she said, “a poor sick Italian woman found her way to the nunnery, and was taken in. Her name was Paula Feminis. and the night before she died she drew an old “receint” from a little hag she had carefully guarded and handed it to me, asking me to accept the only thing she had to give or to leave behind her. It had been given to her hv her dying father, Paul Feminis, who, she said, had worked it out whilst.in a prison dungeon, hut when released his strength had failed him; and he had been unable to do anything more with it. ‘I therefore give it to you, my sister,’ she said, ‘to make what use you like of it. _ Its perfume is both refreshing and healing.’ .I look it. not from greed; bill from pity for the poor dying woman. But, as the complaints of. the French have reached the nunnery, I have made some and brought it lo you, in the hope that it might he of use.” , The astonished and delighted Bureo? master rushed with his prize to the French general. At first, fearing it might ho poison, the soldier refusod to touch the hott-le, hut when it was uncorked the perfume of its contents made him declare that it had conic from Heaven.. .

The first, bottle of the now famous “water” thus meant a happy Christmas for the Rhine city, and the nun was kent busy making the famous nerfume, which, by command of the French general.' was at first known as “oau do Paris.” The money thus earned by Sister Maria, who made the French pay well for the perfume, was all given to the poor. As long as she lived she worked alone and -gave the money to charity, fhotxrh she was laid to rest, lone before the French had left Cologne. After her death the “receipt” passed into the pos. session of the nunnery, and a laboratory was built for the manufacture of “eau de Paris,” which gave employment to many members of the Carmelite order. An agent opened a sbon for the sale of “Paris water,” and the perfume became known and popular all over the world. The name was finally changed to “eau do Cologne,” or, as it is in German, “Koclnisches Wasser.” Then an Italian, named Johann Maria Farina, arrived on the scene. He claimed lo lie tlie discoverer of the famous "Cologne water.” ns he had shared the, dungeon of Paul Feminis, and had given the “receipt” to him, j Though (he Bisters told M. Farina that Paula had declared on her deathbed that her lather was tho inventor of j the famous essence, Johann Maria ' Farina opened a shop and put his name, with the well-known flourish, on the bottle of wliat was always held lo be “the original eau de Cologne.” The only thing Hint is not disputed, however,- is that the recipe came from Italy and, though first made in Germany, was not a German discovery.