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Story
December 26, 1899
The Sun
New York, New York County, New York
What is this article about?
Apartment resident describes puzzling air currents that distribute cooking smells oddly within hallways, experiencing roast turkey at one end and oyster pie at the other, while another detects only oyster pie.
Clipping
OCR Quality
95%
Excellent
Full Text
AIR CURRENTS IN FLATS.
Agreeable Odors of Cooking Curiously Borne About the Building.
"A flat mystery that I have never been able to unravel," said a flat dweller, "though I suppose that any man of science who should look the ground over thoroughly could easily clear it up, is the mystery of the air currents as revealed by the odors of the cooking going on in the building. I don't refer now, at all, to the pleasing odors met on one floor and another as one descends to the street.
"That long ago gave rise to the familiar story of the man who dined on his way to his own apartment, encountering on the first floor, as he came in from the door, a delightful odor of soup; striking stratum of fish on the second floor, and getting the benefit of a fine roast on the third, and a satisfying sniff of dessert on the fourth; so that when he reached his own top floor, all he needed to complete the repast was a cup of black coffee: a course dinner at once economical and non-dyspeptic. I don't refer to these floor-to-floor odors at all, but to the curious odor currents that may exist in the same flat.
"It is a simple fact that in a hall bedroom at the front or street end of the long, private hall in my own flat, I have smelled, and by no means unpleasantly, the odor of the cooking going on in my own kitchen at the rear of the house, when these same odors were not perceptible in the connecting hall. I don't undertake to account for that, and I doubt if I could if I should try; but it seems to me to be curious and interesting. But here is something more curious still. A member of my household coming along the hall from the rear toward the front softly ejaculates:
"What a delightful oyster pie somebody's going to have!" that odor, it seems, being plainly perceptible in that end of the hall; but I, starting a moment later from the front toward the rear of the house, encountered in the front end of the long hall a distinct odor of roast turkey, well-browned, from somewhere, and I say, as I advance:
"No, it isn't oyster pie; it's turkey." But, continuing on, and coming in a moment into the rear end of the hall, I encounter there unmistakably the oyster pie: the hall was roast turkey at one end, and oyster pie at the other. This, to me, is a mystery.
Agreeable Odors of Cooking Curiously Borne About the Building.
"A flat mystery that I have never been able to unravel," said a flat dweller, "though I suppose that any man of science who should look the ground over thoroughly could easily clear it up, is the mystery of the air currents as revealed by the odors of the cooking going on in the building. I don't refer now, at all, to the pleasing odors met on one floor and another as one descends to the street.
"That long ago gave rise to the familiar story of the man who dined on his way to his own apartment, encountering on the first floor, as he came in from the door, a delightful odor of soup; striking stratum of fish on the second floor, and getting the benefit of a fine roast on the third, and a satisfying sniff of dessert on the fourth; so that when he reached his own top floor, all he needed to complete the repast was a cup of black coffee: a course dinner at once economical and non-dyspeptic. I don't refer to these floor-to-floor odors at all, but to the curious odor currents that may exist in the same flat.
"It is a simple fact that in a hall bedroom at the front or street end of the long, private hall in my own flat, I have smelled, and by no means unpleasantly, the odor of the cooking going on in my own kitchen at the rear of the house, when these same odors were not perceptible in the connecting hall. I don't undertake to account for that, and I doubt if I could if I should try; but it seems to me to be curious and interesting. But here is something more curious still. A member of my household coming along the hall from the rear toward the front softly ejaculates:
"What a delightful oyster pie somebody's going to have!" that odor, it seems, being plainly perceptible in that end of the hall; but I, starting a moment later from the front toward the rear of the house, encountered in the front end of the long hall a distinct odor of roast turkey, well-browned, from somewhere, and I say, as I advance:
"No, it isn't oyster pie; it's turkey." But, continuing on, and coming in a moment into the rear end of the hall, I encounter there unmistakably the oyster pie: the hall was roast turkey at one end, and oyster pie at the other. This, to me, is a mystery.
What sub-type of article is it?
Curiosity
Mystery
What themes does it cover?
Nature
What keywords are associated?
Air Currents
Cooking Odors
Flat Mystery
Oyster Pie
Roast Turkey
Where did it happen?
Flat
Story Details
Location
Flat
Story Details
A flat dweller observes mysterious air currents in his apartment that carry cooking odors unevenly through the hallway, with different smells perceptible at each end and varying between individuals.