{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_19392/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_19392","id":"gutenberg_19392","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19392","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Poetry","Category: Travel Writing","Tea"],"text":"[Cover illustration]\n\n[Illustration of Boswell and Johnson at the Mitre]\n\nTHE LITTLE TEA BOOK\n\nCOMPILED BY\nARTHUR GRAY\n\n_Compiler of Over the Black Coffee_\n\nILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE W. HOOD\n\n[Illustration of tea kettle]\n\n\n\nNEW YORK\n\nTHE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY\n33-37 EAST 17TH ST., UNION SQ. NORTH\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT, 1903, BY\nTHE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY\n\n\n_Published, October, 1903_\n\nThe Crow Press, N.H.\n\n\n\n     Thou soft, thou sober, sage, and venerable liquid! Thou\n     innocent pretence for bringing the wicked of both sexes\n     together in the morning! Thou female tongue-running,\n     smile-soothing, heart-opening, wink-tipping cordial\n     to whose glorious insipidity I owe the happiest\n     moments of my life.\n         --COLLEY CIBBER.\n\n\n\n_INTRODUCING THE LITTLE TEA BOOK_\n\nAfter all, tea is _the_ drink! Domestically and socially it is the\nbeverage of the world. There may be those who will come forward\nwith _their_ figures to prove that other fruits of the soil--\nagriculturally and commercially--are more important. Perhaps\nthey are right when quoting statistics. But what other product\ncan compare with tea in the high regard in which it has always\nbeen held by writers whose standing in literature, and recognized\ngood taste in other walks, cannot be questioned?\n\nA glance through this book will show that the spirit of the tea\nbeverage is one of peace, comfort, and refinement. As these\nqualities are all associated with the ways of women, it is to them,\ntherefore--the real rulers of the world--that tea owes its prestige\nand vogue.\n\nFurther peeps through these pages prove this to be true; for\nnearly all the allusions and references to the beverage, by male\nwriters, reveal the womanly influence that tea imparts. But this\nis not all. The side-lights of history, customs, manners, and\nmodes of living which tea plays in the life of all nations will be\nfound entertaining and instructive. Linked with the fine\nfeminine atmosphere which pervades the drinking of the beverage\neverywhere, a leaf which can combine so much deserves, at least,\na little human hearing for its long list of virtues; for its\npeaceful walks, talks, tales, tattle, frills, and fancies which\ngo to make up this tribute to \"the cup that cheers but not\ninebriates.\"\n\n\n\n_THE ORIGIN OF TEA_\n\nDarma, third son of Koyuwo, King of India, a religions high\npriest from Siaka (the author of that Eastern paganism about a\nthousand years before the Christian era), coming to China, to\nteach the way of happiness, lived a most austere life, passing his\ndays in continual mortification, and retiring by night to\nsolitudes, in which he fed only upon the leaves of trees and\nother vegetable productions. After several years passed in this\nmanner, in fasting and watching, it happened that, contrary to\nhis vows, the pious Darma fell asleep! When he awoke, he was\nso much enraged at himself, that, to prevent the offence to his\nvows for the future, he got rid of his eyelids and placed them on\nthe ground. On the following day, returning to his accustomed\ndevotions, he beheld, with amazement, springing up from his\neyelids, two small shrubs of an unusual appearance, such as he\nhad never before seen, and of whose qualities he was, of course,\nentirely ignorant. The saint, however, not being wholly devoid\nof curiosity--or, perhaps, being unusually hungry--was prompted\nto eat of the leaves, and immediately felt within him a wonderful\nelevation of mind, and a vehement desire of divine contemplation,\nwith which he acquainted his disciples, who were eager to\nfollow the example of their instructor, and they readily\nreceived into common use the fragrant plant which has been\nthe theme of so many poetical and literary pens in succeeding ages.\n\n[Illustration of Dr. Johnson's chair]\n\n\n\n          _TEA_\n\n          By FRANCIS SALTUS SALTUS\n\n          From what enchanted Eden came thy leaves\n              That hide such subtle spirits of perfume?\n              Did eyes preadamite first see the bloom,\n          Luscious nepenthe of the soul that grieves?\n\n          By thee the tired and torpid mind conceives\n              Fairer than roses brightening life's gloom,\n              Thy protean charm can every form assume\n          And turn December nights to April eves.\n\n          Thy amber-tinted drops bring back to me\n              Fantastic shapes of great Mongolian towers,\n                  Emblazoned banners, and the booming gong;\n          I hear the sound of feast and revelry,\n            And smell, far sweeter than the sweetest flowers,\n                  The kiosks of Pekin, fragrant of Oolong!\n\n\n\n_LITTLE CUPS OF CHINESE AND JAPANESE TEA_\n\nAlthough the legend credits the pious East Indian with the\ndiscovery of tea, there is no evidence extant that India is really\nthe birthplace of the plant.\n\nSince India has no record of date, or facts, on stone or tablet, or\never handed down a single incident of song or story--apart from\nthe legend--as to the origin of tea, one is loath to accept the\nclaim--if claim they assert--of a people who are not above\npractising the \"black art\" at every turn of their fancy.\n\nCertain it is that China, first in many things, knew tea as soon as\nany nation of the world. The early Chinese were not only more\nprogressive than other peoples, but linked with their progress\nwere important researches, and invaluable discoveries, which\nthe civilized world has long ago recognized. Then, why not add\ntea to the list?\n\nAt any rate, it is easy to believe that the Chinese were first in\nthe tea fields, and that undoubtedly the plant was a native of\nboth China and Japan when it was slumbering on the slopes of\nIndia, unpicked, unsteeped, undrunk, unhonored, and unsung.\n\nA celebrated Buddhist, St. Dengyo Daishai, is credited with\nhaving introduced tea into Japan from China as early as the\nfourth century. It is likely that he was the first to teach the\nJapanese the use of the herb, for it had long been a favorite\nbeverage in the mountains of the Celestial Kingdom. The plant,\nhowever, is found in so many parts of Japan that there can be\nlittle doubt but what it is indigenous there as well.\n\nThe word TEA is of Chinese origin, being derived from the\nAmoy and Swatow reading, \"Tay,\" of the same character, which\nexpresses both the ancient name of tea, \"T'su,\" and the more\nmodern one, \"Cha.\" Japanese tea, \"Chiya\"--pronounced Ch\u00e2.\n\nTea was not known in China before the Tang dynasty, 618-906\nA.D. An infusion of some kind of leaf, however, was used as\nearly as the Chow dynasty, 1122-255 B.C., as we learn from the\nUrh-ya, a glossary of terms used in ancient history and poetry.\nThis work, which is classified by subjects, has been assigned as\nthe beginning of the Chow dynasty, but belongs more properly\nto the era of Confucius, K'ung Kai, 551-479 B.C.\n\nAlthough known in Japan for more than a thousand years, tea\nonly gradually became the national beverage as late as the\nfourteenth century.\n\nIn the first half of the eighth century, 729 A.D., there was a\nrecord made of a religious festival, at which the forty-fifth\nMikado---\"Sublime Gate\"--Shommei Tenno, entertained the Buddhist\npriests with tea, a hitherto unknown beverage from Corea,\nwhich country was for many years the high-road of Chinese\nculture to Japan.\n\nAfter the ninth century, 823 A.D., and for four centuries\nthereafter, tea fell into disuse, and almost oblivion, among the\nJapanese. The nobility, and Buddhist priests, however, continued\nto drink it as a luxury.\n\nDuring the reign of the eighty-third Emperor, 1199-1210 A.D.,\nthe cultivation of tea was permanently established in Japan. In\n1200, the bonze, Yei-Sei, brought tea seeds from China, which\nhe planted on the mountains in one of the most northern provinces.\nYei-Sei is also credited with introducing the Chinese custom\nof ceremonious tea-drinking. At any rate, he presented tea\nseeds to Mei-ki, the abbot of the monastery of To-gano (to\nwhom the use of tea had been recommended for its stimulating\nproperties), and instructed him in the mystery of its cultivation,\ntreatment, and preparation. Mei-ki, who laid out plantations\nnear Uzi, was successful as a pupil, and even now the tea-growers\nof that neighborhood pay tribute to his memory by annually\noffering at his shrine the first gathered tea-leaves.\n\nAfter that period, the use of tea became more and more in\nfashion, the monks and their kindred having discovered its\nproperty of keeping them awake during long vigils and nocturnal\nprayers.\n\nProm this time on the development and progress of the plant are\ninterwoven with the histories and customs of these countries.\n\n\n\n          _ON TEA_\n\n          The following short poem by Edmund Waller is believed\n          to be the first one written in praise of the \"cup that\n          does not inebriate\":\n\n          Venus her myrtle, Phoebus has her bays;\n          Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise.\n          The best of Queens, and best of herbs, we owe\n          To that bold nation, which the way did show\n          To the fair region where the sun doth rise,\n          Whose rich productions we so justly prize.\n          The Muse's friend, tea does our fancy aid,\n          Repress those vapors which the head invade,\n          And keep the palace of the soul serene,\n          Tit on her birthday to salute the Queen.\n\n          Waller was born in 1605, and died in 1687, aged eighty-two.\n\n\n\n_SOME ENGLISH TEA HISTORY_\n\nTea was brought into Europe by the DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY,\nin 1610. It was at least forty, and perhaps forty-seven,\nyears later that England woke up to the fascinations of the\nnew drink. Dr. Johnson puts it at even a later date, for he\nclaims that tea was first introduced into England by Lords\nArlington and Ossory, in 1666, and really made its debut into\nsociety when the wives of these noblemen gave it its vogue.\n\nIf Dr. Johnson's statement is intended to mean that nothing is\nanything until the red seal of the select says, \"Thus shall it be,\"\nhe is right in the year he has selected. If, on the other hand, the\nDoctor had in mind society at large, he is \"mixed in his dates,\"\nor leaves, for tea was drawn and drunk in London nine years\nbefore that date.\n\nGarway, the founder of Garraway's coffee house, claimed the\nhonor of being first to offer tea in leaf and drink for public sale,\nin 1657. It is pretty safe to fix the entrance of tea into Europe\neven a few years ahead of his announcement, for merchants in\nthose days did not advertise their wares in advance.\n\nHowever, this date is about the beginning of TEA TIME, for in\nthe _Mercurius Politicius_ of September, 1658, appeared the\nfollowing advertisement:\n\n          That excellent and by all Physitians approved China drink,\n          called by the Chineans, Tcha, by other nations, Tay, or\n          Tea, is sold at the Sultana's Head, a Copphee House,\n          in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London.\n\nLike all new things, when they have fastened on to the public's\nfavor, tea was on everybody's lips and in everybody's mouth. It\nwas lauded to the skies, and was supposed to be good for all the\nills of the flesh. It would cure colds and consumption, clear the\nsight, remove lassitude, purify the liver, improve digestion,\ncreate appetite, strengthen the memory, and cure fever and ague.\n\nOne panegyrist says, while never putting the patient in mind of\nhis disease, it cheers the heart, without disordering the head;\nstrengthens the feet of the old, and settles the heads of the\nyoung; cools the brain of the hard drinker, and warms that of the\nsober student; relieves the sick, and makes the healthy better.\nEpicures drink it for want of an appetite; _bon vivants_, to\nremove the effects of a surfeit of wine; gluttons, as a remedy for\nindigestion; politicians, for the vertigo; doctors, for drowsiness;\nprudes, for the vapors; wits, for the spleen; and beaux to\nimprove their complexions; summing up, by declaring tea to be\na treat for the frugal, a regale for the luxurious, a successful\nagent for the man of business, and a bracer for the idle.\n\nPoets and verse-makers joined the chorus in praise of tea, in\nGreek and Latin. One poet pictures Hebe pouring the delightful\ncup for the goddesses, who, finding it made their beauty\nbrighter and their wit more brilliant, drank so deeply as to\ndisgust Jupiter, who had forgotten that he, himself,\n\n          \"Drank tea that happy morn,\n          When wise Minerva of his brain was born.\"\n\nLaureant Tate, who wrote a poem on tea in two cantos,\ndescribed a family jar among the fair deities, because each\ndesired to become the special patroness of the ethereal drink\ndestined to triumph over wine. Another versifier exalts it at the\nexpense of its would-be rival, coffee:\n\n          \"In vain would coffee boast an equal good,\n          The crystal stream transcends the flowing mud,\n          Tea, even the ills from coffee spring repairs,\n          Disclaims its vices and its virtues shares.\"\n\nAnother despairing enthusiast exclaims:\n\n          \"Hail, goddess of the vegetable, hail!\n          To sing thy worth, all words, all numbers, fail!\"\n\nThe new beverage did not have the field all to itself, however,\nfor, while it was generally admitted that\n\n          Tea was fixed, and come to stay.\n          It could not drive good meat and drink away.\n\nLovers of the old and conservative customs of the table were\nnot anxious to try the novelty. Others shied at it; some flirted\nwith it, in tiny teaspoonfuls; others openly defied and attacked it.\nAmong the latter were a number of robust versifiers and\nphysicians.\n\n          \"'Twas better for each British virgin,\n          When on roast beef, strong beer and sturgeon,\n          Joyous to breakfast they sat round,\n          Nor were ashamed to eat a pound.\"\n\nThe fleshly school of doctors were only too happy to disagree\nwith their brethren respecting the merits and demerits of the\nnew-fangled drink; and it is hard to say which were most bitter,\nthe friends or the foes of tea.\n\nMaria Theresa's physician, Count Belchigen, attributed the\ndiscovery of a number of new diseases to the debility born of\ndaily tea-drinking. Dr. Paulli denied that it had either taste or\nfragrance, owing its reputation entirely to the peculiar vessels\nand water used by the Chinese, so that it was folly to partake of\nit, unless tea-drinkers could supply themselves with pure water\nfrom the Vassie and the fragrant tea-pots of Gnihing. This\nsagacious sophist and dogmatizer also discovered that, among\nother evils, tea-drinking deprived its devotees of the power of\nexpectoration, and entailed sterility; wherefore he hoped\nEuropeans would thereafter keep to their natural beverages--\nwine and ale--and reject coffee, chocolate, and tea, which were\nall equally bad for them.\n\nIn spite of the array of old-fashioned doctors, wits, and lovers of\nthe pipe and bottle, who opposed evil effects, sneered at the\nfinely bred men of England being turned into women, and\ngrumbled at the stingy custom of calling for dish-water after\ndinner, the custom of tea-drinking continued to grow. By 1689\nthe sale of the leaf had increased sufficiently to make it politic\nto reduce the duty on it from eight pence on the decoction to\nfive shillings a pound on the leaf. The value of tea at this time\nmay be estimated from a customhouse report of the sale of a\nquantity of divers sorts and qualities, the worst being equal to\nthat \"used in coffee-houses for making single tea,\" which, being\ndisposed of by \"inch of candle,\" fetched an average of twelve\nshillings a pound.\n\nDuring the next three years the consumption of tea was greatly\nincreased; but very little seems to have been known about it by\nthose who drank it--if we may judge from the enlightenment\nreceived from a pamphlet, given gratis, \"up one flight of stairs,\nat the sign of the Anodyne Necklace, without Temple Bar.\" All it\ntells us about tea is that it is the leaf of a little shoot growing\nplentifully in the East Indies; that Bohea--called by the French\n\"Bean Tea\"--is best of a morning with bread and butter, being\nof a more nourishing nature than the green which may be used\nwhen a meal is not wanted. Three or four cups at a sitting are\nenough; and a little milk or cream renders the beverage smoother\nand more powerful in blunting the acid humors of the stomach.\n\nThe satirists believed that tea had a contrary effect upon the acid\nhumors of the mind, making the tea-table the arena for the\ndisplay of the feminine capacity for backbiting and scandal.\nListen to Swift describe a lady enjoying her evening cups of tea:\n\n          \"Surrounded with the noisy clans\n          Of prudes, coquettes and harridans.\n          Now voices over voices rise,\n          While each to be the loudest vies;\n          They contradict, affirm, dispute,\n          No single tongue one moment mute;\n          All mad to speak, and none to hearken,\n          They set the very lapdog barking;\n          Their chattering makes a louder din\n          Than fish-wives o'er a cup of gin;\n          Far less the rabble roar and rail\n          When drunk with sour election ale.\"\n\nEven gentle Gay associated soft tea with the temper of women\nwhen he pictures Doris and Melanthe abusing all their bosom\nfriends, while--\n\n          \"Through all the room\n          From flowery tea exhales a fragrant fume.\"\n\nBut not all the women were tea-drinkers in those days. There\nwas Madam Drake, the proprietress of one of the three private\ncarriages Manchester could boast. Few men were as courageous\nas she in declaring against the tea-table when they were but\ninvited guests. Madam Drake did not hesitate to make it known\nwhen she paid an afternoon's visit that she expected to be\noffered her customary solace--a tankard of ale and a pipe of\ntobacco.\n\nAnother female opponent of tea was the _Female Spectator_,\nwhich declared the use of the fluid to be not only expensive, but\npernicious; the utter destruction of all economy, the bane of\ngood housewifery, and the source of all idleness. Tradesmen\nespecially suffered from the habit. They could not serve their\ncustomers because their apprentices were absent during the\nbusiest hours of the day drumming up gossips for their mistresses'\ntea-tables.\n\nThis same censor says that the most temperate find themselves\nobliged to drink wine freely after tea, or supplement their Bohea\nwith rum and brandy, the bottle and glass becoming as necessary\nto the tea-table as the slop-basin.\n\nAlthough Jonas Hanway, the father of the umbrella, was successful\nin keeping off water, he was not successful in keeping out tea.\nAll he did accomplish in his essay on the subject was to call\nforth a reply from Dr. Johnson, who, strange to say, instead of\nvigorously defending his favorite tipple, rather excuses it as\nan amiable weakness; confessing that tea is a barren superfluity,\nfit only to amuse the idle, relax the studious, and dilute the\nmeals of those who cannot take exercise, and will not practise\nabstinence. His chief argument in tea's favor is that it is\ndrunk in no great quantity even by those who use it most,\nand as it neither exhilarates the heart nor stimulates the palate,\nis, after all, but a nominal entertainment, serving as a pretence\nfor assembling people together, for interrupting business,\ndiversifying idleness; admitting that, perhaps, while gratifying\nthe taste, without nourishing the body, it is quite unsuited to the\nlower classes.\n\nIt is a singular fact, too, that at that period there was no other\nreally vigorous defender of the beverage. All the best of the\nother writers did was to praise its pleasing qualities, associations,\nand social attributes.\n\nStill, tea grew in popular favor, privately and publicly. The\ncustom had now become so general that every wife looked upon\nthe tea-pot, cups, and caddy to be as much her right by marriage\nas the wedding-ring itself. Fine ladies enjoyed the crowded\npublic entertainments with tea below stairs and ventilators\nabove. Citizens, fortunate enough to have leaden roofs to their\nhouses, took their tea and their ease thereon. On Sundays,\nfinding the country lanes leading to Kensington, Hampstead,\nHighgate, Islington, and Stepney, \"to be much pleasanter than\nthe paths of the gospel,\" the people flocked to those suburban\nresorts with their wives and children, to take tea under the trees.\nIn one of Coleman's plays, a Spitalfield's dame defines the acme\nof elegance as:\n\n          \"Drinking tea on summer afternoons\n          At Bagnigge Wells with china and gilt spoons.\"\n\nLondon was surrounded with tea-gardens, the most popular\nbeing Sadlier's Wells, Merlin's Cave, Cromwell Gardens, Jenny's\nWhim, Cuper Gardens, London Spa, and the White Conduit House,\nwhere they used to take in fifty pounds on a Sunday afternoon\nfor sixpenny tea-tickets.\n\nOne D'Archenholz was surprised by the elegance, beauty, and\nluxury of these resorts, where, Steele said, they swallowed\ngallons of the juice of tea, while their own dock leaves were\ntrodden under foot.\n\nThe ending of the East India Company's monopoly of the trade,\ncoupled with the fact that the legislature recognized that tea had\npassed out of the catalogue of luxuries into that of necessities,\nbegan a new era for the queen of drinks destined to reign over\nall other beverages.\n\n[Illustration of woman]\n\n\n\n          _O TEA!_\n\n          In the drama of the past\n          Thou art featured in the cast;\n                  (O Tea!)\n          And thou hast played thy part\n          With never a change of heart,\n                  (O Tea!)\n          For 'mid all the ding and dong\n          Waits a welcome--soothing song,\n          For fragrant Hyson and Oolong.\n          . . .\n          A song of peace, through all the years,\n          Of fireside fancies, devoid of fears,\n          Of mothers' talks and mothers' lays,\n          Of grandmothers' comforts--quiet ways.\n          Of gossip, perhaps--still and yet--\n          What of Johnson? Would we forget\n          The pictured cup; those merry times,\n          When round the board, with ready rhymes\n          Waller, Dryden, and Addison--Young,\n          Grave Pope to Gay, when Cowper sung?\n          Sydney Smith, too; gentle Lamb brew,\n          Tennyson, Dickens, Doctor Holmes knew.\n          The cup that cheered, those sober souls,\n          And tiny tea-trays, samovars, and bowls.\n          . . .\n          So here's a toast to the queen of plants,\n          The queen of plants--Bohea!\n          Good wife, ring for your maiden aunts,\n          We'll all have cups of tea.\n                  --ARTHUR GRAY.\n\n\n\n          _TEA TERMS_\n\n          JAPANESE\n\n          Ori-mono-ch\u00e2 . . . Folded Tea\n          Giy-\u00f4ku-ro-ch\u00e2 . . . Dew Drop Tea\n          Usu-ch\u00e2 . . . Light Tea\n          Koi-ch\u00e2 . . . Dark Tea\n          T\u00f4-bi-dashi-ch\u00e2 . . . Sifted Tea\n          Ban-ch\u00e2 . . . Common Tea\n          Yu-Shiyutsu-ch\u00e2 . . . Export Tea\n          Neri-ch\u00e2 . . . Brick Tea\n          Koku-ch\u00e2 . . . Black Tea\n          Ko-ch\u00e2 . . . Tea Dust Broken Leaves\n          Riyoku-ch\u00e2 . . . Green Tea\n\n          CHINESE\n\n          Bohea . . . \"Happy Establishment\"\n              So called after two ranges of hills, Fu-Kien or Fo-Kien\n          Congou . . . Labor\n              Named so at Amoy from the labor in preparing it.\n          Sou chong . . . Small Kind\n          Hyson . . . Flourishing Spring\n          Pe-koe . . . White Hair\n              So called because only the youngest leaves are gathered,\n              which still have the delicate down--white hair--on\n              the surface.\n          Pou-chong . . . Folded Tea\n              So called at Canton after the manner of picking it.\n\n          Brick Tea--prepared in Central China from the commonest sorts\n          of tea, by soaking the tea refuse, such as broken leaves,\n          twigs, and dust, in boiling water and then pressing them into\n          moulds. Used in Siberia and Mongolia, where it also serves\n          as a medium of exchange. The Mongols place the bricks,\n          when testing the quality, on the head, and try to pull\n          downward over the eyes. They reject the brick as worthless\n          if it breaks or bends.\n\n[Illustration of Japanese woman]\n\n\n\n_TEA LEAVES_\n\nBY JOHN ERNEST MCCANN\n\nAccording to Henry Thomas Buckle, the author of \"The History\nof Civilization in England,\" who was the master of eighteen\nlanguages, and had a library of 22,000 volumes, with an income\nof $75,000 a year, at the age of twenty-nine, in 1850 (he died in\n1860, at the age of thirty-nine), tea making and drinking were,\nor are, what Wendell Phillips would call lost arts. He thought\nthat, when it came to brewing tea, the Chinese philosophers\nwere not living in his vicinity. He distinctly wrote that, until he\nshowed her how, no woman of his acquaintance could make a\ndecent cup of tea. He insisted upon a warm cup, and even spoon,\nand saucer. Not that Mr. Buckle ever sipped tea from a saucer.\nOf course, he was right in insisting upon those above-mentioned\nthings, for tea-things, like a tea-party, should be in sympathy\nwith the tea, not antagonistic to it. Still, not always; for, on one\nmemorable occasion, in the little town of Boston, the greatest\ntea-party in history was anything but sympathetic. But let that\npass.\n\nEmperor Kien Lung wrote, 200 years or more ago, for the benefit\nof his children, just before he left the Flowery Kingdom\nfor a flowerier:\n\n\"Set a tea-pot over a slow fire; fill it with cold water; boil it long\nenough to turn a lobster red; pour it on the quantity of tea in a\nporcelain vessel; allow it to remain on the leaves until the vapor\nevaporates, then sip it slowly, and all your sorrows will follow\nthe vapor.\"\n\nHe says nothing about milk or sugar. But, to me, tea without\nsugar is poison, as it is with milk. I can drink one cup of tea, or\ncoffee, with sugar, but without milk, and feel no ill effects; but\nif I put milk in either tea or coffee, I am as sick as a defeated\ncandidate for the Presidency. That little bit of fact is written as a\nhint to many who are ill without knowing why they are, after\ndrinking tea, or coffee, with milk in it. I don't think that milk\nwas ever intended for coffee or tea. Why should it be? Who was\nthe first to color tea and coffee with milk? It may have been a\nmad prince, in the presence of his flatterers and imitators, to be\nodd; or just to see if his flatterers would adopt the act.\n\nThe Russians sometimes put champagne in their tea; the Germans,\nbeer; the Irish, whiskey; the New Yorker, ice cream; the English,\noysters, or clams, if in season; the true Bostonian, rose leaves;\nand the Italian and Spaniard, onions and garlic.\n\nYou all know one of the following lines, imperfectly. Scarcely\none in one hundred quotes them correctly. _I_ never have\nquoted them as written, off-hand--but lines run out of my head\nlike schoolboys out of school,\n\n          \"When the lessons and tasks are all ended,\n          And school for the day is dismissed.\"\n\nHere are the lines:\n\n          \"Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast;\n          Let fall the curtains; wheel the sofa round;\n          And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn\n          Throws up a steamly column, and the cups\n          That cheer, but not inebriate, wait on each,\n          To let us welcome peaceful evening in.\"\n\nIsn't that a picture? Not one superfluous word in it! Who knows\nits author, or when it was written, or can quote the line before or\nafter\n\n                  \"the cups\n          That cheer, but not inebriate\"?\n\n&&or in what poem the lines run down the ages? I tell you? Not I. I\ndon't believe in encouraging laziness. If I tell you, you will let it\nslip from your memory, like a panic-stricken eel through the\nfingers of a panic-stricken schoolboy; but if you hunt it up, it\nwill be riveted to your memory, like a ballet, and one never\nforgets when, where, how, why, and from whom, he receives\nthat.\n\nWhat a pity that, in Shakespeare's time, there was no tea-table!\nWhat a delightful comedy he could, and would, have written\naround it, placing the scene in his native Stratford! What a\ncharming hostess at a tea-table his mother, Mary Arden (loveliest\nof womanly names), would have made! Any of the ladies of the\ndelightful \"Cranford\" wouldn't be a circumstance to a tea-table\nscene in a Warwickshire comedy, with lovely Mary Arden Shakespeare\nas the protagonist, if the comedy were from the pen of her\ndelightful boy, Will. Had tea been known in Shakespeare's time,\nhow much more closely he would have brought his sexes, under\none roof, instead of sending the more animal of the two off\nto The Boar's Head and The Mermaid, leaving the ladies to\ntheir own verbal devices.\n\nShakespeare, being such a delicate, as well as virile, poet,\nwould have taken to tea as naturally as a bee takes to a rose or\nhoneysuckle; for the very word \"tea\" suggests all that is\nfragrant, and clean, and spotless: linen, silver, china, toast,\nbutter, a charming room with charming women, charmingly gowned,\nand peach and plum and apple trees, with the scent of roses,\njust beyond the open, half-curtained windows, looking down\nupon, or over, orchard or garden, as the May or June morning\nbreezes suggest eternal youth, as they fill the room with\nperfume, tenderness, love, optimism, and hope in immortality.\nCoffee suggests taverns, caf\u00e9s, sailing vessels, yachts,\nboarding-houses-by-the-river-side, and pessimism. Tea suggests\noptimism. Coffee is a tonic; tea, a comfort. Coffee is prose; tea\nis poetry. Whoever thinks of taking coffee into a sick-room?\nWho doesn't think of taking in the comforting cup of tea? Can\nthe most vivid imagination picture the angels (above the stars)\ndrinking coffee? No. Yet, if I were to show them to you over the\nteacups, you would not be surprised or shocked. Would you?\nNot a bit of it. You would say:\n\n\"That's a very pretty picture. Pray, what are they talking about,\nor of whom are they talking?\"\n\nWhy, of their loved ones below, and of the days of their coming\nabove the stars. They know when to look for us, and while the\ntime may seem long to us before the celestial reunion, to them it\nis short. They do not worry, as we do. We could not match their\nbeautiful serenity if we tried, for they know the folly of wishing\nto break or change divine laws.\n\nWhat delightful scandals have been born at tea-tables--rose and\nlavender, and old point lace scandals: surely, no brutal scandals\nor treasons, as in the tavern. Tea-table gossip surely never\nseriously hurt a reputation. Well, name one. No? Well, think of\nthe shattered reputations that have fallen around the bottle. Men\nare the worst gossips unhanged, not women.\n\nIn 1652, tea sold for as high as \u00a310 in the leaf. Pepys had his\nfirst cup of tea in September, 1660. (See his Diary.) The rare\nrecipe for making tea in those days was known only to the elect,\nand here it is:\n\n\"To a pint of tea, add the yolks of two fresh eggs; then beat\nthem up with as much fine sugar as is sufficient to sweeten the\ntea, and stir well together. The water must remain no longer\nupon the tea than while you can chant the Miserere psalm in a\nleisurely fashion.\"\n\nBut I am not indorsing recipes of 250 odd years ago. The above\nis from the knowledge box of a Chinese priest, or a priest from\nChina, called P\u00e8re Couplet (don't print it Quatrain), in 1667. He\ngave it to the Earl of Clarendon, and I extend it to you, if you\nwish to try it.\n\nJohn Milton knew the delights of tea. He drank coffee during\nthe composition of \"Paradise Lost,\" and tea during the building\nof \"Paradise Regained.\"\n\nLike all good things, animate and inanimate, tea did not become\npopular without a struggle. It, like the gradual oak, met with\nmany kinds of opposition, from the timid, the prejudiced, and\nthe selfish. All sorts of herbs were put upon the market to offset\nits popularity; such as onions, sage, marjoram, the Arctic\nbramble, the sloe, goat-weed, Mexican goosefoot, speedwell,\nwild geranium, veronica, wormwood, juniper, saffron, carduus\nbenedictus, trefoil, wood-sorrel, pepper, mace, scurry grass,\nplantain, and betony.\n\nSir Hans Sloane invented herb tea, and Captain Cook's companion,\nDr. Solander, invented another tea, but it was no use--tea had\ncome to stay, and a blessing it has been to the world, when\nmoderately used. You don't want to become a tea drunkard,\nlike Dr. Johnson, nor a coffee fiend, like Balzac. Be moderate\nin all things, and you are bound to be happy and live long.\nModeration in eating, drinking, loving, hating, smoking,\ntalking, acting, fighting, sleeping, walking, lending, borrowing,\nreading newspapers--in expressing opinions--even in bathing\nand praying--means long life and happiness.\n\n\n\n_WIT, WISDOM, AND HUMOR OF TEA_\n\nTea tempers the spirits and harmonizes the mind, dispels\nlassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents\ndrowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears the\nperceptive faculties.--CONFUCIUS.\n\nThank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?--how\ndid it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.--SYDNEY\nSMITH.\n\n\"Sammy,\" whispered Mr. Weller, \"if some o' these here people\ndon't want tappin' to-morrow mornin', I ain't your father, and\nthat's wot it is. Why this here old lady next me is a drown-in'\nherself in tea.\"\n\n\"Be quiet, can't you?\" murmured Sam.\n\n\"Sam,\" whispered Mr. Weller, a moment afterward, in a tone of\ndeep agitation, \"mark my words, my boy; if that 'ere secretary\nfeller keeps on for five minutes more, he'll blow himself up with\ntoast and water.\"\n\n\"Well, let him if he likes,\" replied Sam; \"it ain't no bis'ness of\nyourn.\"\n\n\"If this here lasts much longer, Sammy,\" said Mr. Weller, in the\nsame low voice, \"I shall feel it my duty as a human bein' to rise\nand address the cheer. There's a young 'ooman on the next form\nbut two, as has drank nine breakfast cups and a half; and she's a\nswellin' wisibly before my wery eyes.\"--_Pickwick Papers_.\n\nBooks upon books have been published in relation to the evil\neffects of tea-drinking, but, for all that, no statistics are at\nhand to show that their arguments have made teetotalers of\ntea-drinkers. One of the best things, however, said against\ntea-drinking is distinctly in its favor to a certain extent. It is\nfrom one Dr. Paulli, who laments that \"tea so dries the bodies of\nthe Chinese that they can hardly spit.\" This will find few\nsympathizers among us. We suggest the quotation to some enterprising\ntea-dealer to be used in a street-car advertisement.\n\nOf all methods of making tea, that hit upon by Heine's Italian\nlandlord was perhaps the most economical. Heine lodged in a\nhouse at Lucca, the first floor of which was occupied by an\nEnglish family. The latter complained of the cookery of Italy in\ngeneral, and their landlord's in particular. Heine declared the\nlandlord brewed the best tea ho had ever tasted in the country,\nand to convince his doubtful English friends, invited them to\ntake tea with him and his brother. The invitation was accepted.\nTea-time came, but no tea. When the poet's patience was exhausted,\nhis brother went to the kitchen to expedite matters. There he\nfound his landlord, who, in blissful ignorance of what company\nthe Heines had invited, cried: \"You can get no tea, for the\nfamily on the first floor have not taken tea this evening.\"\n\nThe tea that had delighted Heine was made from the used leaves\nof the English party, who found and made their own tea, and\nthus afforded the landlord an opportunity of obtaining at once\npraise and profit by this Italian method of serving a pot of tea.\n--_Chambers's Journal_.\n\n[Illustration of two women]\n\n\n\n          _FATE_\n\n          Matrons who toss the cup, and see\n          The grounds of Fate in grounds of tea.\n                  --_Churchill_.\n\n\n\n_TEA MAKING AND TAKING IN JAPAN AND CHINA_\n\nThe queen of teas in Japan is a fine straw-colored beverage,\ndelicate and subtle in flavor, and as invigorating as a glass of\nchampagne. It is real Japan tea, and seldom leaves its native\nheath for the reason that, while it is peculiarly adaptable to the\nJapanese constitution, it is too stimulating for the finely-tuned\nand over-sensitive Americans, who, by the way, are said to be\nthe largest customers for Japan teas of other grades in the world.\n\nThis particular tea, which looks as harmless as our own importations\nof the leaf, is a very insidious beverage, as an American lady\nsoon found out after taking some of it late at night. She declared,\nafter drinking a small cup before retiring, she did not close\nher eyes in sleep for a week. We do not know the name of the brand\nof tea, and are glad of it; for we live in a section where the\nwomen are especially curious.\n\nBut the drink of the people at large in Japan is green tea,\nalthough powdered tea is also used, but reserved for special\nfunctions and ceremonial occasions. Tea, over there, is not\nmade by infusing the leaves with boiling water, as is the case\nwith us; but the boiling water is first carefully cooled in another\nvessel to 176 degrees Fahrenheit. The leaves are also renewed\nfor every infusion. It would be crime against his August\nMajesty, the Palate, to use the same leaves more than once--in\nJapan. The preparation of good tea is regarded by the Japs as the\nheight of social art, and for that reason it is an important\nelement in the domestic, diplomatic, political, and general life\nof the country.\n\nTea is the beverage--the masterpiece--of every meal, even if it\nbe nothing but boiled rice. Every artisan and laborer, going to\nwork, carries with him his rice-box of lacquered wood, a kettle,\na tea-caddy, a tea-pot, a cup, and his chop-sticks. Milk and\nsugar are generally eschewed. The Japs and the Chinese never\nindulge in either of these ingredients in tea; the use of which,\nthey claim, spoils the delicate aroma.\n\nFrom the highest court circles down to the lowliest and poorest\nof the Emperor's subjects, it is the custom in both Japan and\nChina to offer tea to every visitor upon his arrival. Not to do\nthis would be an unpardonable breach of national manners.\nEven in the shops, the customer is regaled with a soothing cup\nbefore the goods are displayed to him. This does not, however,\nimpose any obligation on the prospective purchaser, but it is,\nnevertheless, a good stimulant to part with his money. This\nappears to be a very ancient tradition in China and Japan--so\nancient that it is continued by the powers that be in Paradise and\nHades, according to a translation called \"Strange Stories from\nMy Small Library,\" a classical Chinese work published in 1679.\n\nThe old domestic etiquette of Japan never intrusted to a servant\nthe making of tea for a guest. It was made by the master of the\nhouse himself; the custom probably growing out of the innate\npoliteness and courtesy of a people who believe that an honored\nvisitor is entitled to the best entertainment possible to give him.\n\nAs soon as a guest is seated upon his mat, a small tray is set\nbefore the master of the house. Upon this tray is a tiny tea-pot\nwith a handle at right angles to the spout. Other parts of this\noutfit include a highly artistic tea-kettle filled with hot water,\nand a requisite number of small cups, set in metal or bamboo\ntrays. These trays are used for handing the cups around, but the\nguest is not expected to take one. The cups being without\nhandles, and not easy to hold, the visitor must therefore be\ncareful lest he let one slip through his untutored fingers.\n\nThe tea-pot is drenched with hot water before the tea is put in;\nthen more hot water is poured over the leaves, and soon poured\noff into the cups. This is repeated several times, but the hot\nwater is never allowed to stand on the grounds over a minute.\n\nThe Japanese all adhere to the general household custom of the\ncountry in keeping the necessary tea apparatus in readiness. In\nthe living-room of every house is contained a brazier with live\ncoals, a kettle to boil water, a tray with tea-pot, cups, and a\ntea-caddy.\n\nTheir neighbors, the Chinese, are just as alert; for no matter\nwhat hour of the day it may be, they always keep a kettle of\nboiling water over the hot coals, ready to make and serve the\nbeverage at a moment's notice. No visitor is allowed to leave\nwithout being offered a cup of their tea, and they themselves are\nglad to share in their own hospitality.\n\nThe Chinese use boiling water, and pour it upon the dry tea in\neach cup. Among the better social element is used a cup shaped\nlike a small bowl, with a saucer a little less in diameter than the\ntop of the bowl. This saucer also serves another purpose, and is\noften used for a cover when the tea is making. After the boiling\nwater is poured upon the tea, it is covered for a couple of\nminutes, until the leaves have separated and fallen to the bottom\nof the cup. This process renders the tea clear, delightfully\nfragrant, and appetizing.\n\nA variety of other cups are also used; the most prominent being\nwithout handles, one or two sizes larger than the Japanese. They\nare made of the finest china, set in silver trays beautifully\nwrought, ornate in treatment and design.\n\nA complete tea outfit is a part of the outfitting of every\n_Ju-bako_--\"picnic-box\"--with which every Jap is provided when on\na journey, making an excursion, or attending a picnic. The\nJapanese are very much given to these out-of-door affairs,\nwhich they call _Hanami_--\"Looking at the flowers.\" No wonder\nthey are fond of these pleasures, for it is a land of lovely\nlandscapes and heaven-sent airs, completely in harmony with\nthe poetic and artistic natures of this splendid people.\n\nTea-houses--_Ch\u00e2 ya_--which take the place of our cafes and\nbar rooms, but which, nevertheless, serve a far higher social\npurpose, are everywhere in evidence, on the high-roads and\nby-roads, tucked away in templed groves and public resorts of\nevery nature.\n\nAmong the Japanese are a number of ceremonial, social, and\nliterary tea-parties which reflect their courtly and chivalrous\nspirit, and keep alive the traditions of the people more, perhaps,\nthan any other of their functions.\n\nThe most important of these tea-parties are exclusively for\ngentlemen, and their forms and ceremonies rank among the\nmost refined usages of polite society. The customs of these\ngatherings are so peculiarly characteristic of the Japanese that\nfew foreign observers have an opportunity of attending them.\nThese are the tea-parties of a semi-literary or aesthetic character,\nand the ceremonious _Ch\u00e2-no-ya_. In the first prevails the easy\nand unaffected tone of the well-bred gentleman. In the other are\nobserved the strictest rules of etiquette both in speech and\nbehavior. But the former entertainment is by far the most\ninteresting. The Japanese love and taste for fine scenery is\nshown in the settings and surroundings. To this picturesque\noutlook, recitals of romance and impromptu poetry add intellectual\ncharm to the tea-party.\n\nFor these occasions the host selects a tea-house located in\nwell-laid-out grounds and commanding a fine view. In this he lays\nmats equal to the number of guests. By sliding the partition and\nremoving the front wall the place is transformed into an open\nhall overlooking the landscape. The room is filled with choice\nflowers, and the art treasures of the host, which at other times\nare stored away in the fire-proof vault--\"go down\"--of his\nprivate residence, contribute artistic beauty and decoration to\nthe scene. Folding screens and hanging pictures painted by\ncelebrated artists, costly lacquer-ware, bronze, china, and other\nheirlooms are tastefully distributed about the room.\n\nStories told at these tea-parties are called by the Japanese names\nof _Ch\u00e2-banashi_, meaning tea-stories, or _Hiti-Kuch\u00e1_--\"one\nmouth stories,\" short stories told at one sitting. At times\nprofessional story-tellers are employed. Of these there are two\nkinds: Story-Tellers and \"Cross-Road Tradition Narrators,\" both\nof whom since olden times have been the faithful custodians\nand disseminators of native folk-lore and tales.\n\nThese professionals are divided into a number of classes, the\nmost important being the _Hanashi-Ka_, members of a celebrated\ncompany under a well-known manager, who unites them into\ntroops of never less than five or more than seven in number.\nSuch companies are often advertised weeks before their arrival\nin a place by hoisting flags or streamers with the names of\nthe performers thereon. Their programme consists of war-stories,\ntraditions, and recitals with musical accompaniment. During\nthe intermission, feats of legerdemain or wrestling fill in\nthe time and give variety to the entertainment.\n\nThese are the leading professional performers. The other classes,\nwhile not held in as high regard by the select, nevertheless have\na definite place in Japanese amusement circles. One of the latter\nis the _Tsuji-k\u00f4-sh\u00e2ku-ji_. This word-swallower does not\nbelong to any company, but is a \"free-lance\" entertainer. A sort\nof \"has been,\" he does not, however, rest on his past laurels, but\ncontinues to perform whenever he can obtain an audience--on\nthe highways, to passers-by, in public resorts and thoroughfares.\n\nAlthough the Chinese are not so neat in their public habits as\nthe Japs, still their tea-houses and similar resorts are just as\nnumerous and popular as they are in the neighboring country.\nPerhaps the most interesting caterers in China, however, are the\ncoolies, who sell hot water in the rural districts. These itinerants\nhave an ingenious way of announcing their coming by a whistling\nkettle. This vessel contains a compartment for fire with a\nfunnel going through the top. A coin with a hole is placed\nso that when the water is boiling a regular steam-whistle\nis heard.\n\nPlentiful as tea is in China, however, the poor people there do\nnot consume as good a quality of the leaf as the same class in\nour own country.\n\nEspecially is this the case in the northern part of China, where\nmost of the inhabitants just live, and that is all. There they are\nobliged to use the last pickings of tea, commonly known as\n\"brick tea,\" which is very poor and coarse in quality. It is\npressed into bricks about eight by twelve inches in size, and\nwhenever a quantity of it is needed a piece is knocked off and\npulverized in a kettle of boiling water. Other ingredients,\nconsisting of suit, milk, butter, a little pepper, and vinegar, are\nadded, and this combination constitutes the entire meal of the\nfamily.\n\nTea in China and Japan is the stand-by of every meal--the\nnever-failing and ever-ready refreshment. Besides being the\ncourteous offering to the visitor, it serves a high purpose in the\nhome life of these peoples; uniting the family and friends in\ntheir domestic life and pleasures at all times and seasons. At\nhome round the brazier and the lamp in winter evenings, at\npicnic parties and excursions to the shady glen during the fine\nseason, tea is the social connecting medium, the intellectual\nstimulant and the universal drink of these far-and-away peoples.\n\n[Illustration of Japanese garden]\n\n\n\n_TEA-DRINKING IN OTHER LANDS_\n\nWhile tea-drinking outside of Japan and China is not attended\nwith any \"high-days and holidays,\" still there are countries\nwhere it is just as important element of the daily life of its\npeople as it is in the Land of the Rising Sun.\n\nAmong the Burmese a newly-married couple, to insure a happy\nlife, exchange a mixture of tea-leaves steeped in oil.\n\nIn Bokhara, every man carries a small bag of tea about with him.\nWhen he is thirsty he hands a certain quantity over to the\nbooth-keeper, who makes the beverage for him. The Bokhariot, who is\na confirmed tea-slave, finds it just as hard to pass a tea-booth\nwithout indulging in the herb as our own inebriates do to go by\na corner cafe. His breakfast beverage is _Schitschaj_--tea in\nwhich bread is soaked and flavored with milk, cream, or mutton\nfat. During the daytime he drinks green tea with cakes of flour\nand mutton suet. It is considered a gross breach of manners to\ncool the hot tea by blowing the breath. This is overcome by\nsupporting the right elbow in the left hand and giving an easy,\ngraceful, circular movement to the cup. The time it takes for\neach kind of tea to draw is calculated to a second. When the can\nis emptied it is passed around among the company for each\ntea-drinker to take up as many leaves as can be held between the\nthumb and finger; the leaves being considered a special dainty.\n\nAn English traveller once journeying through Asiatic Russia\nwas obliged to claim the hospitality of a family of Buratsky\nArabs. At mealtime the mistress of the tent placed a large kettle\non the fire, wiped it carefully with a horse's tail, filled it with\nwater, threw in some coarse tea and a little salt. When this was\nnearly boiled she stirred the mixture with a brass ladle until the\nliquor became very brown, when she poured it into another\nvessel. Cleaning the kettle as before, the woman set it again on\nthe fire to fry a paste of meal and fresh butter. Upon this she\npoured the tea and some thick cream, stirred it, and after a time\nthe whole. Was taken off the fire and set aside to cool. Half-pint\nmugs were handed around and the tea ladled into them: the\nresult, a pasty tea forming meat and drink, satisfying both\nhunger and thirst.\n\nM. V\u00e1mb\u00e9ry says: \"The picture of a newly encamped caravan in\nthe summer months, on the steppes of Central Asia, is a truly\ninteresting one. While the camels in the distance, but still in\nsight, graze greedily, or crush the juicy thistles, the travellers,\neven to the poorest among them, sit with their tea-cups in their\nhands and eagerly sip the costly beverage. It is nothing more\nthan a greenish warm water, innocent of sugar, and often\ndecidedly turbid; still, human art has discovered no food,\ninvented no nectar, which is so grateful, so refreshing, in the\ndesert as this unpretending drink. I have still a vivid recollection\nof its wonderful effects. As I sipped the first drops, a soft fire\nfilled my veins, a fire which enlivened without intoxicating. The\nlater draughts affected both heart and head; the eye became\npeculiarly bright and began to glow. In such moments I felt an\nindescribable rapture and sense of comfort. My companions\nsunk in sleep; I could keep myself awake and dream with open\neyes!\"\n\nTea is the national drink of Russia, and as indispensable an\ningredient of the table there as bread or meat. It is taken at all\nhours of the day and night, and in all the griefs of the Russian\nhe flies to tea and vodka for mental refuge and consolation. Tea\nis drunk out of tumblers in Russia. In the homes of the wealthy\nthese tumblers are held in silver holders like the sockets that\nhold our soda-water glasses. These holders are decorated, of\ncourse, with the Russian idea of art.\n\nIn every Russian town tea-houses flourish. In these public\nresorts a large glass of tea with plenty of sugar in it is served at\nwhat would cost, in our money, about two cents. Tea with\nlemon is so general that milk with the drink, over there, is\nconsidered a fad.\n\nThe Russians seem to like beverages that bite--set the teeth on\nedge, as it were.\n\nThe poor in Russia take a lump of sugar in their mouths and let\nthe tea trickle through it. Travelling tea-peddlers, equipped with\nkettles wrapped up in towels to preserve the heat, and a row of\nglasses in leather pockets, furnish a glass of hot tea at any hour\nof the day or night.\n\nThe Russian samovar--from the Greek \"to boil itself\"--is a\ngraceful dome-topped brass urn with a cylinder two or three\ninches in diameter passing through it from top to bottom. The\ncylinder is filled with live coals, and keeps the water boiling hot.\nThe Russian tea-pots are porcelain or earthen. Hot water to heat\nthe pot is first put in and then poured out; dry tea is then put in,\nboiling water poured over it; after which the pot is placed on top\nof the samovar.\n\nWe all know about tea-drinking in England. It is not a very\npicturesque or interesting occasion, at best. To the traditional\nEnglishman's mind it means simply a quiet evening at home,\nattended by the papers, and serious conversations in which the\nhead of the house deals out political and domestic wisdom until\nten o'clock. During the day, tea-taking begins with breakfast\nand rounds up on the fashionable thoroughfares in the afternoon.\nHere one may see the Britishers at their best and worst. These\nplaces are called \"tea-shops,\" and in them one may acquire the\nlatest hand-shake, the freshest tea and gossip, see the newest\nmodes and millinery, meet and greet the whirl of the world. An\ninteresting study of types, in contrasts and conditions of society,\nworth the price of a whole chest of choice tea.\n\nWe are pretty prosaic tea-drinkers in America. Is it because\nthere is not enough \"touch and go\" about the drink, or that we\nare too busy to settle down to the quiet, comfort, and thoughtful\ntea-ways of our contemporaries? Wait until a few things are\nsettled; when our kitchen queens do not leave us in the \"gray of\nthe morning,\" and all of our daughters have obtained diplomas\nin the art and science of gastronomy.\n\nHowever made or taken, tea at best or worst is a glorious drink.\nAs a stimulant for the tired traveller and weary worker it is\nunique in its restful, retiring, soothing, and caressing qualities.\n\n\n\n          _THE TEA-TABLE_\n\n          Tho' all unknown to Greek and Roman song,\n          The paler hyson and the dark souchong,\n          Tho' black nor green the warbled praises share\n          Of knightly troubadour or gay trouv\u00e8re,\n          Yet deem not thou, an alien quite to numbers,\n          That friend to prattle and that foe to slumbers,\n          Which Kian-Long, imperial poet, praised\n          So high that, cent per cent, its price was raised;\n          Which Pope himself would sometimes condescend\n          To place commodious at a couplet's end;\n          Which the sweet Bard of Olney did not spurn,\n          Who loved the music of the \"hissing urn.\"\n          . . .\n          For the dear comforts of domestic tea\n          Are sung too well to stand in need of me\n          By Cowper and the Bard of Rimini;\n          Besides, I hold it as a special grace\n          When such a theme is old and commonplace.\n          The cheering lustre of the new-stirr'd fire,\n          The mother's summons to the dozing sire,\n          The whispers audible that oft intrude\n          On the forced silence of the younger brood,\n          The seniors' converse, seldom over new,\n          Where quiet dwells and strange events are few,\n          The blooming daughter's ever-ready smile,\n          So full of meaning and so void of guile.\n          And all the little mighty things that cheer\n          The closing day from quiet year to year,\n          I leave to those whom benignant fate\n          Or merit destines to the wedded state.\n          . . .\n          'Tis woman still that makes or mars the man.\n          And so it is, the creature can beguile\n          The fairest faces of the readiest smile.\n          The third who comes the hyson to inhale,\n          If not a man, at least appears a male.\n          . . .\n          Last of the rout, and dogg'd with public cares,\n          The politician stumbles up the stairs;\n          Whose dusky soul nor beauty can illume,\n          Nor wine dispel his patriotic gloom.\n          In restless ire from guest to guest he goes,\n          And names us all among our country's foes;\n          Swears 'tis a shame that we should drink our tea,\n          'Till wrongs are righted and the nation free,\n          That priests and poets are a venal race,\n          Who preach for patronage and rhyme for place;\n          Declares that boys and girls should not be cooing.\n          When England's hope is bankruptcy and ruin;\n          That wiser 'twere the coming wrath to fly,\n          And that old women should make haste to die.\n\n          Condensed from a poem published in _Fraser's Magazine_,\n          January, 1857, and ascribed to Hartley Coleridge.\n\n\n\n_LADIES, LITERATURE, AND TEA_\n\nIn spite of the fact that coffee is just as important a beverage as\ntea, tea has been sipped more in literature.\n\nTea is certainly as much of a social drink as coffee, and more of\na domestic, for the reason that the teacup hours are the family\nhours. As these are the hours when the sexes are thrown together,\nand as most of the poetry and philosophy of tea-drinking\nteem with female virtues, vanities, and whimsicalities, the\ninference is that, without women, tea would be nothing, and\nwithout tea, women would be stale, flat, and uninteresting. With\nthem it is a polite, purring, soft, gentle, kind, sympathetic,\ndelicious beverage.\n\nIn support of this theory, notice what Pope, Gay, Crabbe,\nCowper, Dryden, and others have written on the subject.\n\n          \"The tea-cup times of hood and hoop,\n          And when the patch was worn\"\n\n--wrote Tennyson of the early half of the seventeenth century.\n\nWhat a suggestive couplet, full of the foibles and follies of the\ntimes! A picture a la mode of the period when fair dames made\ntheir red cheeks cute with eccentric patches. Ornamented with\nhigh coiffures, powdered hair, robed in satin petticoats and\nsquare-cut bodices, they blossomed, according to the old\nengravings, into most fetching figures. Even the beaux of the\nday affected feminine frills in their many-colored, bell-skirted\nwaistcoats, lace ruffles, patches, and powdered queues.\n\nDryden must have succumbed to the charms of women through\ntea, when he wrote:\n\n          \"And thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey,\n          Dost sometimes take counsel, and sometimes tay.\"\n\nFrom the great vogue which tea started grew a taste for china;\nthe more peculiar and striking the design, the more valuable the\ntea-set.\n\nPope in one of his satirical compositions praises the composure\nof a woman who is\n\n          \"Mistress of herself though china fall.\"\n\nEven that fine old bachelor, philosopher, and humorist, Charles\nLamb, thought that the subject deserved an essay.\n\nIn speaking of the ornaments on the tea-cup he says, in \"Old\nChina\":\n\n\"I like to see my old friends, whom distance cannot diminish,\nfiguring up in the air (so they appear to our optics), yet on terra\nfirma still, for so we must in courtesy interpret that speck of\ndeeper blue which the decorous artist, to prevent absurdity, has\nmade to spring up beneath their sandals. I love the men with\nwomen's faces and the women, if possible, with still more\nwomanish expressions.\n\n\"Here is a young and courtly Mandarin, handing tea to a lady\nfrom a salver--two miles off. See how distance seems to set off\nrespect! And here the same lady, or another--for likeness is\nidentity on tea-cups--is stepping into a little fairy boat, moored\non the hither side of this calm garden river, with a dainty,\nmincing foot, which is in a right angle of incidence (as angles\ngo in our world) that must infallibly land her in the midst of a\nflowery mead--a furlong off on the other side of the same\nstrange stream!\"\n\nThe _Spectator_ and the _Tatter_ were also susceptible to the\nfemale influence that tea inspired. In both of these journals there\nare frequent allusions to tea-parties and china. At these\ngatherings, poets and dilletante literary gentlemen read their\nverses and essays to the ladies, who criticised their merits.\nThese \"literary teas\" became so contagious that a burning desire\nfor authorship took possession of the ladies, for among those\nwho made their debut as authors about this time were Fanny\nBurney, Mrs. Alphra Behn, Mrs. Manley, the Countess of Winchelsea,\nand a host of others.\n\nOne of the readers of the _Spectator_ wrote as follows:\n\n\"_Mr. Spectator:_ Your paper is a part of my tea-equipage, and\nmy servant knows my humor so well that, calling for my breakfast\nthis morning (it being past my usual hour), she answered,\nthe _Spectator_ was not come in, but that the tea-kettle\nboiled, and she expected it every minute.\"\n\nCrabbe, too, was a devotee of ladies, literature, and tea, for he\nwrote:\n\n          \"The gentle fair on nervous tea relies,\n          Whilst gay good-nature sparkles in her eyes;\n          And inoffensive scandal fluttering round,\n          Too rough to tickle and too light to wound.\"\n\nWhat better proof do we want, therefore, that to women's\ninfluence is due the cultivation and retention of the tea habit?\nWithout tea, what would become of women, and without women\nand tea, what would become of our domestic literary men and\nmatinee idols? They would not sit at home or in salons and\nwrite and act things. There would be no homes to sit in, no\nsalons or theatres to act in, and dramatic art would receive a\nblow from which it could not recover in a century, at least.\n\n[Illustration of woman and cat]\n\n\n\nIn the year 1700, J. Roberts, a London publisher, issued a\npamphlet of about fifty pages which was made up as follows:\n\n          Poem upon Tea in Two Cantos . . . 34 pages\n          Dedication of the poem . . . . . . 6  \"\n          Preface to the poem . . . . . . .  2  \"\n          Poem upon the poem . . . . . .. .  1  \"\n          Introduction to the poem . . . . . 4  \"\n          To the author upon the poem .  .   1  \"\n          Postscript . . . . . . . . . .. .  3  \"\n          Tea-Table . . . . . . . . . .  . . 2  \"\n\nThe poem--_pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance_--which is by one Nahum Tate,\nwho figures on the title-page as \"Servant to His Majesty,\" is an\nallegory; and although good in spots is too long and too dry to\nreproduce here. \"The poem upon the poem,\" \"The Introduction,\"\nand the \"Tea-Table\" verses will be found interesting and\nentertaining.\n\n\n\n          _ON OUR ENGLISH POETRY AND THIS POEM UPON TEA_\n\n          See Spanish Curderon in Strength outdone:\n          And see the Prize of Wit from Tasso won:\n          See Corneil's Skill and Decency Refin'd;\n          See Rapin's Art, and Molier's Fire Outshin'd;\n          See Dryden's Lamp to our admiring View,\n          Brought from the Tomb to shine and Blaze anew!\n\n          The British Laurel by old Chaucer worn,\n          Still Fresh and Gay, did Dryden's Brow Adorn;\n          And that its Lustre may not fade on Thine,\n          Wit, Fancy, Judgment, Taste, in thee combine.\n          Thy pow'rful Genius thus, from Censure's Frown\n          And Envy's Blast, in Flourishing Renown,\n          Supports our British Muses Verdant Crown.\n          Nor only takes a Trusty Laureat's Care,\n          Lest Thou the Muses Garland might'st impair;\n          But, more Enrich'd, the Chaplet to Bequeath,\n          With Eastern Tea join'd to the Laurel-Wreath.\n                 --R. B.\n\n\n\n          _TO THE AUTHOR ON HIS POEM UPON TEA_\n\n          Let Rustick Satyr, now no more Abuse,\n          In rude Unskilful Strains, thy Tuneful Muse;\n          No more let Envy lash thy true-bred Steed,\n          Nor cross thy easy, just, and prudent Speed:\n          Who dext'rously doth bear or loose the Rein,\n          To climb each lofty Hill, or scour the Plain:\n          With proper Weight and Force thy Courses run;\n          Where still thy Pegasus has Wonders done,\n          Come home with Strength, and thus the Prize has Won.\n          But now takes Wing, and to the Skies aspires;\n          While Vanquish'd Envy the bold Flight admires,\n          And baffled Satyr to his Den retires.\n                  --T. W.\n\n\n\n          _THE INTRODUCTION_\n\n          Fame Sound thy Trump, all Ranks of Mortals Call,\n          To share a Prize that will enrich 'em All.\n          You that with Sacred Oracles converse,\n          And clearly wou'd Mysterious Truths rehearse;\n          On soaring Wings of Contemplation rise,\n          And fetch Discov'ries from above the Skies;\n          Ethereal TEA your Notions will resine,\n          Till you yourselves become almost Divine.\n\n          You statesmen, who in Storms the Publick\n          Helm Wou'd Guide with Skill, and Save a sinking Realm,\n          TEA, your Minerva, shall suggest such Sense,\n          Such safe and sudden Turns of Thought dispense,\n          That you, like her Ulysses, may Advise,\n          And start Designs that shall the World surprise.\n\n          You Pleaders, who for Conquest at the Bar\n          Contend as Fierce and Loud as Chiefs in War;\n          Would you Amaze and Charm the list'ning Court?\n          First to this Spring of Eloquence resort:\n          Then boldly launch on Tully's flowing Seas,\n          And grasp the Thunder of Demosthenes.\n\n          You Artists of the AEsculapian Tribe,\n          Wou'd you, like AEsculapius's Self, Prescribe,\n          Cure Maladies, and Maladies prevent?\n          Receive this Plant, from your own Phoebus sent;\n          Whence Life's nice Lamp in Temper is maintain'd,\n          When Dim, Recruited, when too fierce, restrained.\n\n          You Curious Souls, who all our Thoughts apply,\n          The hidden Works of Nature to descry;\n          Why veering Winds with Vari'd Motion blow,\n          Why Seas in settled Courses Ebb and Flow;\n          Wou'd you these Secrets of her Empire know?\n          Treat the Coy Nymph with this Celestial Dew,\n          Like Ariadne she'll impart the Clue;\n          Shall through her Winding Labyrinths convey,\n          And Causes, iculking in their Cells, display.\n\n          You that to Isis's Bark or Cam retreat,\n          Wou'd you prove worthy Sons of either Seat,\n          And All in Learning's Commonwealth be Great?\n          Infuse this Leaf, and your own Streams shall bring\n          More Science than the fam'd Castalian Spring.\n\n          Wou'd you, O Musick's Sons, your art Compleat,\n          And all its ancient Miracles repeat,\n          Rouse Rev'ling Monarchs into Martial Rage,\n          And, when Inflam'd, with Softer Notes As swage;\n          The tedious Hours of absent Love beguile,\n          Charm Care asleep, and make Affliction smile?\n          Carouse in Tea, that will your Souls inspire;\n          Drink Phoebus's liquor and command his Lyre.\n\n          Sons of Appelles, wou'd you draw the Face\n          And Shape of Venus, and with equal Grace\n          In some Elysian Field the Figure place?\n          Your Fancy, warm'd by TEA, with wish'd success,\n          Shall Beauty's Queen in all her Charms express;\n          With Nature's Rural Pride your Landscape fill\n          The Shady Grotto, and the Sunny Hill,\n          The Laughing Meadow, and the Talking Rill.\n\n          Sons of the Muses, would you Charm the Plains\n          With Chearful Lays, or Sweet Condoling Strains;\n          Or with a Sonnet make the Vallies ring,\n          To Welcome home the Goddess of the Spring?\n          Or wou'd you in sublimer Themes engage,\n          And sing of Worthies who adorn the Age?\n          Or, with Promethean Boldness, wou'd aspire\n          To Catch a Spark of the Celestial Fire\n          That Crowned the Royal Conquest, and could raise\n          Juverne's Boyn above Scamander's Praise?\n          Drink, drink Inspiring TEA, and boldly draw\n          A Hercules, a Mars, or a NASSAU.\n\n\n\n          _THE TEA-TABLE_\n\n          Hail, Queen of Plants, Pride of Elysian Bow'rs!\n          How shall we speak thy complicated Pow'rs?\n          Thou Won'drous Panacea to asswage\n          The Calentures of Youths' fermenting rage,\n          And Animate the freezing Veins of age.\n\n          To Bacchus when our Griefs repair for Ease,\n          The Remedy proves worse than the Disease.\n          Where Reason we must lose to keep the Round,\n          And drinking others Health's, our own confound:\n          Whilst TEA, our Sorrows to beguile,\n          Sobriety and Mirth does reconcile:\n          For to this Nectar we the Blessing owe,\n          To grow more Wise, as we more Cheerful grow.\n\n          Whilst fancy does her brightest beams dispense,\n          And decent Wit diverts without Offense.\n          Then in Discourse of Nature's mystick Pow'rs\n          And Noblest Themes, we pass the well spent Hours.\n          Whilst all around the Virtues' Sacred Band,\n          And list'ning Graces, pleas'd Attendants, stand.\n\n          Thus our Tea-Conversation we employ,\n          Where with Delight, Instruction we enjoy;\n          Quaffing, without the waste of Time or Wealth,\n          The Sov'reign Drink of Pleasure and of Health.\n\n\n\n          _DR. JOHNSON'S AFFINITY_\n\n          DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON drew his own portrait thus:\n\n          \"A hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who for twenty years\n          diluted his meals with the infusion of this fascinating plant;\n          whose kettle had scarcely time to cool; who with tea amused the\n          evening, with tea solaced the midnight, and with tea welcomed\n          the morning.\"\n\n\n\n_EARLIEST MENTION OF TEA_\n\nAccording to a magazinist, the first mention of tea by an\nEnglishman is to be found in a letter from Mr. Wickham, an\nagent of the East India Company, written from Japan, on the\n27th of June, 1615, to Mr. Eaton, another officer of the\ncompany, a resident of Macao, asking him to send \"a pot of the\nbest chaw.\" In Mr. Eaton's accounts of expenditure occurs this\nitem:\n\n\"Three silver porringiys to drink chaw in.\"\n\n\n\n_AUSTRALIAN TEA_\n\nIn the interior of Australia all the men drink tea. They drink it\nall day long, and in quantities and at a strength that would seem\nto be poisonous. On Sunday morning the tea-maker starts with a\nclean pot and a clean record. The pot is hung over the fire with a\nsufficiency of water in it for the day's brew, and when this has\nboiled he pours into it enough of the fragrant herb to produce a\ndeep, coffee-colored liquid.\n\nOn Monday, without removing yesterday's tea-leaves, he repeats\nthe process; on Tuesday da capo and on Wednesday da capo, and\nso on through the week. Toward the close of it the great\npot is filled with an acrid mash of tea-leaves, out of which\nthe liquor is squeezed by the pressure of a tin cup.\n\nBy this time the tea is of the color of rusty iron, incredibly bitter\nand disagreeable to the uneducated palate. The native calls it\n\"real good old post and rails,\" the simile being obviously drawn\nfrom a stiff and dangerous jump, and regards it as having been\nbrought to perfection.\n\n\n\n_FIVE-O'CLOCK TEA_\n\nThere is a fallacy among certain tea-fanciers that the origin of\nfive-o'clock tea was due to hygienic demand. These students of\nthe stomach contend that as a tonic and gentle stimulant, when\nnot taken with meat, it is not to be equalled. With meat or any\nbut light food it is considered harmful. Taken between luncheon\nand dinner it drives away fatigue and acts as a tonic. This is\ngood if true, but it is only a theory, after all. Our theory is that\nfive o'clock in the afternoon is the ladies' leisure hour, and that\nthe taking of tea at that time is an escape from _ennui_.\n\n\n\n_TEA IN LADIES' NOVELS_\n\nWhat would women novelists do without tea in their books?\nThe novelists of the rougher sex write of \"over the coffee and\ncigars\"; or, \"around the gay and festive board\"; or, \"over a\nbottle of old port\"; or, \"another bottle of dry and sparkling\nchampagne was cracked\"; or, \"and the succulent welsh rarebits\nwere washed down with royal mugs of musty ale\"; or, \"as the\nstorm grew fiercer, the captain ordered all hands to splice the\nmain brace,\" _i. e._, to take a drink of rum; or, \"as he gulped\ndown the last drink of fiery whiskey, he reeled through the\ntavern door, and his swaying form drifted into the bleak, black\nnight, as a roar of laughter drowned his repentant sobs.\" But the\nladies of the novel confine themselves almost exclusively to\ntea--rarely allowing their heroes and heroines to indulge in even\ncoffee, though they sometimes treat their heroes to wine; but\ntheir heroines rarely get anything from them but Oolong.\n\n[Illustration of Old Russian Samovar]\n\n\n\n_SYDNEY SMITH_\n\nOne evening when Sidney Smith was drinking tea with Mrs. Austin\nthe servant entered the crowded room with a boiling tea-kettle\nin his hand. It seemed doubtful, nay, impossible, he should\nmake his way among the numerous gossips--but on the first\napproach of the steaming kettle the crowd receded on all\nsides, Mr. Smith among the rest, though carefully watching the\nprogress of the lad to the table.\n\n\"I declare,\" said he, addressing Mrs. Austin, \"a man who wishes\nto make his way in life could do no better than go through the\nworld with a boiling tea-kettle in his hand.\"--_Life of Rev.\nSydney Smith_.\n\n\n\n_DR. JOHNSON AGAIN_\n\nThe good doctor evidently lived up to his reputation as a\ntea-drinker at all times and places. Cumberland, the dramatist,\nin his memoirs gives a story illustrative of the doctor's\ntea-drinking powers: \"I remember when Sir Joshua Reynolds, at my\nhome, reminded Dr. Johnson that he had drunk eleven cups of tea.\n'Sir,' he replied, 'I did not count your glasses of wine; why\nshould you number my cups of tea?'\"\n\nAt another time a certain Lady Macleod, after pouring out\nsixteen cups for him, ventured mildly to ask whether a basin\nwould not save him trouble and be more convenient. \"I wonder,\nmadam,\" he replied, roughly, \"why all ladies ask such questions?\"\n\"It is to save yourself trouble, not me,\" was the tactful\nanswer of his hostess.\n\n\n\n     _A CUP OF TEA_\n\n     _From St. Nicholas, December, 1899_.\n\n     Now Grietje from her window sees the leafless poplars lean\n     Against a windy sunset sky with streaks of golden green;\n     The still canal is touched with light from that wild, wintry sky,\n     And, dark and gaunt, the windmill flings its bony arms on high.\n     \"It's growing late; it's growing cold; I'm all alone,\" says she;\n     \"I'll put the little kettle on, to make a cup of tea!\"\n\n     Mild radiance from the porcelain stove reflects on shining tiles;\n     The kettle beams, so red and bright that Grietje thinks it smiles;\n     The kettle sings--so soft and low it seems as in a dream--\n     The song that's like a lullaby, the pleasant song of steam:\n     \"The summer's gone; the storks are flown; I'm always here, you see,\n     To sing and sing, and shine, and shine, and make a cup of tea!\"\n\n     The blue delft plates and dishes gleam, all ranged upon the shelf;\n     The tall Dutch clock tick-ticks away, just talking to itself;\n     The brindled pussy cuddles down, and basks and blinks and purrs;\n     And rosy, sleepy Grietje droops that snow-white cap of hers.\n     \"I do like winter after all; I'm very glad,\" says she,\n     \"I put--my--little--kettle--on--to make--a cup--of--tea!\"\n        --HELEN GRAY CONE.\n\n[Illustration of landscape]","title":"The Little Tea Book","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":12227}