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Title: All About Coffee

Author: William H. Ukers

Release Date: April 4, 2009 [EBook #28500]

Language: English

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_All About

Coffee_

[Illustration]

ALL ABOUT COFFEE

[Illustration: COFFEE BRANCHES, FLOWERS, AND FRUIT

SHOWING THE BERRY IN ITS VARIOUS RIPENING STAGES FROM FLOWER TO CHERRY

(Inset: 1, green bean; 2, silver skin; 3, parchment; 4, fruit pulp.)

Painted from life by Blendon Campbell]

_ALL ABOUT

COFFEE_

_By_

_WILLIAM H. UKERS, M.A._

_Editor_

THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL

[Illustration]

NEW YORK

THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL COMPANY

1922

COPYRIGHT 1922

BY

THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL COMPANY

NEW YORK

_International Copyright Secured_

_All Rights Reserved in U.S.A. and

Foreign Countries_

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

_To My Wife_

_HELEN DE GRAFF UKERS_

PREFACE

Seventeen years ago the author of this work made his first trip abroad

to gather material for a book on coffee. Subsequently he spent a year in

travel among the coffee-producing countries. After the initial surveys,

correspondents were appointed to make researches in the principal

European libraries and museums; and this phase of the work continued

until April, 1922. Simultaneous researches were conducted in American

libraries and historical museums up to the time of the return of the

final proofs to the printer in June, 1922.

Ten years ago the sorting and classification of the material was begun.

The actual writing of the manuscript has extended over four years.

Among the unique features of the book are the Coffee Thesaurus; the

Coffee Chronology, containing 492 dates of historical importance; the

Complete Reference Table of the Principal Kinds of Coffee Grown in the

World; and the Coffee Bibliography, containing 1,380 references.

The most authoritative works on this subject have been Robinson's _The

Early History of Coffee Houses in England_, published in London in 1893;

and Jardin's _Le Café_, published in Paris in 1895. The author wishes to

acknowledge his indebtedness to both for inspiration and guidance. Other

works, Arabian, French, English, German, and Italian, dealing with

particular phases of the subject, have been laid under contribution; and

where this has been done, credit is given by footnote reference. In all

cases where it has been possible to do so, however, statements of

historical facts have been verified by independent research. Not a few

items have required months of tracing to confirm or to disprove.

There has been no serious American work on coffee since Hewitt's

_Coffee: Its History, Cultivation and Uses_, published in 1872; and

Thurber's _Coffee from Plantation to Cup_, published in 1881. Both of

these are now out of print, as is also Walsh's _Coffee: Its History,

Classification and Description_, published in 1893.

The chapters on The Chemistry of Coffee and The Pharmacology of Coffee

have been prepared under the author's direction by Charles W. Trigg,

industrial fellow of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research.

The author wishes to acknowledge, with thanks, valuable assistance and

numerous courtesies by the officials of the following institutions:

British Museum, and Guildhall Museum, London; Bibliothéque Nationale,

Paris; Congressional Library, Washington; New York Public Library,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New York Historical Society, New York;

Boston Public Library, and Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Smithsonian

Institution, Washington; State Historical Museum, Madison, Wis.; Maine

Historical Society, Portland; Chicago Historical Society; New Jersey

Historical Society, Newark; Harvard University Library; Essex Institute,

Salem, Mass.; Peabody Institute, Baltimore.

Thanks and appreciation are due also to:

Charles James Jackson, London, for permission to quote from his

_Illustrated History of English Plate_;

Francis Hill Bigelow, author; and The Macmillan Company, publishers, for

permission to reproduce illustrations from _Historic Silver of the

Colonies_;

H.G. Dwight, author; and Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers, for

permission to quote from _Constantinople, Old and New_, and from the

article on "Turkish Coffee Houses" in _Scribner's Magazine_;

Walter G. Peter, Washington, D.C., for permission to photograph and

reproduce pictures of articles in the Peter collection at the United

States National Museum;

Mary P. Hamlin and George Arliss, authors, and George C. Tyler,

producer, for permission to reproduce the Exchange coffee-house setting

of the first act of _Hamilton_;

Judge A.T. Clearwater, Kingston N.Y.; R.T. Haines Halsey, and Francis P.

Garvan, New York, for permission to publish pictures of historic silver

coffee pots in their several collections;

The secretaries of the American Chambers of Commerce in London, Paris,

and Berlin;

Charles Cooper, London, for his splendid co-operation and for his

special contribution to chapter XXXV;

Alonzo H. De Graff, London, for his invaluable aid and unflagging zeal

in directing the London researches;

To the Coffee Trade Association, London, for assistance rendered;

To G.J. Lethem, London, for his translations from the Arabic;

Geoffrey Sephton, Vienna, for his nice co-operation;

L.P. de Bussy of the Koloniaal Institute, Amsterdam, Holland, for

assistance rendered;

Burton Holmes and Blendon R. Campbell, New York, for courtesies;

John Cotton Dana, Newark, N.J., for assistance rendered;

Charles H. Barnes, Medford, Mass., for permission to publish the

photograph of Peregrine White's Mayflower mortar and pestle;

Andrew L. Winton, Ph.D., Wilton, Conn., for permission to quote from his

_The Microscopy of Vegetable Foods_ in the chapter on The Microscopy of

Coffee and to reprint Prof. J. Moeller's and Tschirch and Oesterle's

drawings;

F. Hulton Frankel, Ph.D., Edward M. Frankel, Ph.D., and Arno Viehoever,

for their assistance in preparing the chapters on The Botany of Coffee

and The Microscopy of Coffee;

A.L. Burns, New York, for his assistance in the correction and revision

of chapters XXV, XXVI, XXVII, and XXXIV, and for much historical

information supplied in connection with chapters XXX and XXXI;

Edward Aborn, New York, for his help in the revision of chapter XXXVI;

George W. Lawrence, former president, and T.S.B. Nielsen, president, of

the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, for their assistance in the

revision of chapter XXXI;

Helio Lobo, Brazilian consul general, New York; Sebastião Sampaio,

commercial attaché of the Brazilian Embassy, Washington; and Th.

Langgaard de Menezes, American representative of the Sociedade Promotora

da Defeza do Café;

Felix Coste, secretary and manager, the National Coffee Roasters

Association; and C.B. Stroud, superintendent, the New York Coffee and

Sugar Exchange, for information supplied and assistance rendered in the

revision of several chapters;

F.T. Holmes, New York, for his help in the compilation of chronological

and descriptive data on coffee-roasting machinery;

Walter Chester, New York, for critical comments on chapter XXVIII.

The author is especially indebted to the following, who in many ways

have contributed to the successful compilation of the Complete Reference

Table in chapter XXIV, and of those chapters having to do with the early

history and development of the green coffee and the wholesale

coffee-roasting trades in the United States:

George S. Wright, Boston; A.E. Forbes, William Fisher, Gwynne Evans,

Jerome J. Schotten, and the late Julius J. Schotten, St. Louis; James H.

Taylor, William Bayne, Jr., A.J. Dannemiller, B.A. Livierato, S.A.

Schonbrunn, Herbert Wilde, A.C. Fitzpatrick, Charles Meehan, Clarence

Creighton, Abram Wakeman, A.H. Davies, Joshua Walker, Fred P. Gordon,

Alex. H. Purcell, George W. Vanderhoef, Col. William P. Roome, W. Lee

Simmonds, Herman Simmonds, W.H. Aborn, B. Lahey, John C. Loudon, J.R.

Westfal, Abraham Reamer, R.C. Wilhelm, C.H. Stewart, and the late August

Haeussler, New York; John D. Warfield, Ezra J. Warner, S.O. Blair, and

George D. McLaughlin, Chicago; W.H. Harrison, James Heekin, and Charles

Lewis, Cincinnati; Albro Blodgett and A.M. Woolson, Toledo; R.V.

Engelhard and Lee G. Zinsmeister, Louisville; E.A. Kahl, San Francisco;

S. Jackson, New Orleans; Lewis Sherman, Milwaukee; Howard F. Boardman,

Hartford; A.H. Devers, Portland, Ore.; W. James Mahood, Pittsburgh;

William B. Harris, East Orange, N.J.

New York, June 17, 1922.

[Illustration]

FOREWORD

_Some introductory remarks on the lure of coffee, its place in a

rational dietary, its universal psychological appeal, its use and

abuse_

Civilization in its onward march has produced only three important

non-alcoholic beverages--the extract of the tea plant, the extract of

the cocoa bean, and the extract of the coffee bean.

Leaves and beans--these are the vegetable sources of the world's

favorite non-alcoholic table-beverages. Of the two, the tea leaves lead

in total amount consumed; the coffee beans are second; and the cocoa

beans are a distant third, although advancing steadily. But in

international commerce the coffee beans occupy a far more important

position than either of the others, being imported into non-producing

countries to twice the extent of the tea leaves. All three enjoy a

world-wide consumption, although not to the same extent in every nation;

but where either the coffee bean or the tea leaf has established itself

in a given country, the other gets comparatively little attention, and

usually has great difficulty in making any advance. The cocoa bean, on

the other hand, has not risen to the position of popular favorite in any

important consuming country, and so has not aroused the serious

opposition of its two rivals.

Coffee is universal in its appeal. All nations do it homage. It has

become recognized as a human necessity. It is no longer a luxury or an

indulgence; it is a corollary of human energy and human efficiency.

People love coffee because of its two-fold effect--the pleasurable

sensation and the increased efficiency it produces.

Coffee has an important place in the rational dietary of all the

civilized peoples of earth. It is a democratic beverage. Not only is it

the drink of fashionable society, but it is also a favorite beverage of

the men and women who do the world's work, whether they toil with brain

or brawn. It has been acclaimed "the most grateful lubricant known to

the human machine," and "the most delightful taste in all nature."

No "food drink" has ever encountered so much opposition as coffee. Given

to the world by the church and dignified by the medical profession,

nevertheless it has had to suffer from religious superstition and

medical prejudice. During the thousand years of its development it has

experienced fierce political opposition, stupid fiscal restrictions,

unjust taxes, irksome duties; but, surviving all of these, it has

triumphantly moved on to a foremost place in the catalog of popular

beverages.

But coffee is something more than a beverage. It is one of the world's

greatest adjuvant foods. There are other auxiliary foods, but none that

excels it for palatability and comforting effects, the psychology of

which is to be found in its unique flavor and aroma.

Men and women drink coffee because it adds to their sense of well-being.

It not only smells good and tastes good to all mankind, heathen or

civilized, but all respond to its wonderful stimulating properties. The

chief factors in coffee goodness are the caffein content and the

caffeol. Caffein supplies the principal stimulant. It increases the

capacity for muscular and mental work without harmful reaction. The

caffeol supplies the flavor and the aroma--that indescribable Oriental

fragrance that wooes us through the nostrils, forming one of the

principal elements that make up the lure of coffee. There are several

other constituents, including certain innocuous so-called caffetannic

acids, that, in combination with the caffeol, give the beverage its rare

gustatory appeal.

The year 1919 awarded coffee one of its brightest honors. An American

general said that coffee shared with bread and bacon the distinction of

being one of the three nutritive essentials that helped win the World

War for the Allies. So this symbol of human brotherhood has played a not

inconspicuous part in "making the world safe for democracy." The new

age, ushered in by the Peace of Versailles and the Washington

Conference, has for its hand-maidens temperance and self-control. It is

to be a world democracy of right-living and clear thinking; and among

its most precious adjuncts are coffee, tea, and cocoa--because these

beverages must always be associated with rational living, with greater

comfort, and with better cheer.

Like all good things in life, the drinking of coffee may be abused.

Indeed, those having an idiosyncratic susceptibility to alkaloids should

be temperate in the use of tea, coffee, or cocoa. In every

high-tensioned country there is likely to be a small number of people

who, because of certain individual characteristics, can not drink coffee

at all. These belong to the abnormal minority of the human family. Some

people can not eat strawberries; but that would not be a valid reason

for a general condemnation of strawberries. One may be poisoned, says

Thomas A. Edison, from too much food. Horace Fletcher was certain that

over-feeding causes all our ills. Over-indulgence in meat is likely to

spell trouble for the strongest of us. Coffee is, perhaps, less often

abused than wrongly accused. It all depends. A little more tolerance!

Trading upon the credulity of the hypochondriac and the

caffein-sensitive, in recent years there has appeared in America and

abroad a curious collection of so-called coffee substitutes. They are

"neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring." Most of them have been

shown by official government analyses to be sadly deficient in food

value--their only alleged virtue. One of our contemporary attackers of

the national beverage bewails the fact that no palatable hot drink has

been found to take the place of coffee. The reason is not hard to find.

There can be no substitute for coffee. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley has ably

summed up the matter by saying, "A substitute should be able to perform

the functions of its principal. A substitute to a war must be able to

fight. A bounty-jumper is not a substitute."

It has been the aim of the author to tell the whole coffee story for the

general reader, yet with the technical accuracy that will make it

valuable to the trade. The book is designed to be a work of useful

reference covering all the salient points of coffee's origin,

cultivation, preparation, and development, its place in the world's

commerce and in a rational dietary.

Good coffee, carefully roasted and properly brewed, produces a natural

beverage that, for tonic effect, can not be surpassed, even by its

rivals, tea and cocoa. Here is a drink that ninety-seven percent of

individuals find harmless and wholesome, and without which life would be

drab indeed--a pure, safe, and helpful stimulant compounded in nature's

own laboratory, and one of the chief joys of life!

CONTENTS

A COFFEE THESAURUS

Encomiums and descriptive phrases applied to the plant, the berry, and the

beverage Page XXVII

THE EVOLUTION OF A CUP OF COFFEE

Showing the various steps through which the bean passes from plantation to

cup Page XXIX

CHAPTER I

DEALLING WITH THE ETYMOLOGY OF COFFEE

Origin and translation of the word from the Arabian into various

languages--Views of many writers Page 1

CHAPTER II

HISTORY OF COFFEE PROPAGATION

A brief account of the cultivation of the coffee plant in the Old World,

and of its introduction into the New--A romantic coffee adventure

Page 5

CHAPTER III

EARLY HISTORY OF COFFEE DRINKING

Coffee in the Near East in the early centuries--Stories of its

origin--Discovery by physicians and adoption by the Church--Its spread

through Arabia, Persia, and Turkey--Persecutions and

Intolerances--Early coffee manners and customs Page 11

CHAPTER IV

INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO WESTERN EUROPE

When the three great temperance beverages, cocoa, tea, and coffee, came

to Europe--Coffee first mentioned by Rauwolf in 1582--Early days of

coffee in Italy--How Pope Clement VIII baptized it and made it a truly

Christian beverage--The first European coffee house, in Venice,

1645--The famous Caffè Florian--Other celebrated Venetian coffee houses

of the eighteenth century--The romantic story of Pedrocchi, the poor

lemonade-vender, who built the most beautiful coffee house in the world

Page 25

CHAPTER V

THE BEGINNINGS OF COFFEE IN FRANCE

What French travelers did for coffee--the introduction of coffee by P.

de la Roque into Marseilles in 1644--The first commercial importation of

coffee from Egypt--The first French coffee house--Failure of the attempt

by physicians of Marseilles to discredit coffee--Soliman Aga introduces

coffee into Paris--Cabarets à caffè--Celebrated works on coffee by

French writers Page 31

CHAPTER VI

THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO ENGLAND

The first printed reference to coffee in English--Early mention of

coffee by noted English travelers and writers--The Lacedæmonian "black

broth" controversy--How Conopios introduced coffee drinking at

Oxford--The first English coffee house in Oxford--Two English botanists

on coffee Page 35

CHAPTER VII

THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO HOLLAND

How the enterprising Dutch traders captured the first world's market for

coffee--Activities of the Netherlands East India Company--The first

coffee house at the Hague--The first public auction at Amsterdam in

1711, when Java coffee brought forty-seven cents a pound, green

Page 43

CHAPTER VIII

THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO GERMANY

The contributions made by German travelers and writers to the literature

of the early history of coffee--The first coffee house in Hamburg opened

by an English merchant--Famous coffee houses of old Berlin--The first

coffee periodical and the first kaffee-klatsch--Frederick the Great's

coffee roasting monopoly--Coffee persecutions--"Coffee-smellers"--The

first coffee king Page 45

CHAPTER IX

TELLING HOW COFFEE CAME TO VIENNA

The romantic adventure of Franz George Kolschitzky, who carried "a

message to Garcia" through the enemy's lines and won for himself the

honor of being the first to teach the Viennese the art of making coffee,

to say nothing of falling heir to the supplies of the green beans left

behind by the Turks; also the gift of a house from a grateful

municipality, and a statue after death--Affectionate regard in which

"Brother-heart" Kolschitzky is held as the patron saint of the Vienna

_Kaffee-sieder_--Life in the early Vienna café's Page 49

CHAPTER X

THE COFFEE HOUSES OF OLD LONDON

One of the most picturesque chapters in the history of coffee--The first

coffee house in London--The first coffee handbill, and the first

newspaper advertisement for coffee--Strange coffee mixtures--Fantastic

coffee claims--Coffee prices and coffee licenses--Coffee club of the

Rota--Early coffee-house manners and customs--Coffee-house keepers'

tokens--Opposition to the coffee house--"Penny universities"--Weird

coffee substitutes--The proposed coffee-house newspaper

monopoly--Evolution of the club--Decline and fall of the coffee

house--Pen pictures of coffee-house life--Famous coffee houses of the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--Some Old World pleasure

gardens--Locating the notable coffee houses Page 53

CHAPTER XI

HISTORY OF THE EARLY PARISIAN COFFEE HOUSES

The introduction of coffee into Paris by Thévenot in 1657--How Soliman

Aga established the custom of coffee drinking at the court of Louis

XIV--Opening of the first coffee houses--How the French adaptation of

the Oriental coffee house first appeared in the real French café of

François Procope--Important part played by the coffee houses in the

development of French literature and the stage--Their association with

the Revolution and the founding of the Republic--Quaint customs and

patrons--Historic Parisian café's Page 91

CHAPTER XII

INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO NORTH AMERICA

Captain John Smith, founder of the Colony of Virginia, is the first to

bring to North America a knowledge of coffee in 1607--The coffee grinder

on the Mayflower--Coffee drinking in 1668--William Penn's coffee

purchase in 1683--Coffee in colonial New England--The psychology of the

Boston "tea party," and why the United States became a nation of coffee

drinkers instead of tea drinkers, like England--The first coffee license

to Dorothy Jones in 1670--The first coffee house in New England--Notable

coffee houses of old Boston--A skyscraper coffee-house Page 105

CHAPTER XIII

HISTORY OF COFFEE IN OLD NEW YORK

The burghers of New Amsterdam begin to substitute coffee for "must," or

beer, for breakfast in 1668--William Penn makes his first purchase of

coffee in the green bean from New York merchants in 1683--The King's

Arms, the first coffee house--The historic Merchants, sometimes called

the "Birthplace of our Union"--The coffee house as a civic forum--The

Exchange, Whitehall, Burns, Tontine, and other celebrated coffee

houses--The Vauxhall and Ranelagh pleasure gardens Page 115

CHAPTER XIV

COFFEE HOUSES OF OLD PHILADELPHIA

Ye Coffee House, Philadelphia's first coffee house, opened about

1700--The two London coffee houses--The City tavern, or Merchants coffee

house--How these, and other celebrated resorts, dominated the social,

political, and business life of the Quaker City in the eighteenth

century Page 125

CHAPTER XV

THE BOTANY OF THE COFFEE PLANT

Its complete classification by class, sub-class, order, family, genus,

and species--How the Coffea arabica grows, flowers, and bears--Other

species and hybrids described--Natural caffein-free coffee--Fungoid

diseases of coffee Page 131

CHAPTER XVI

THE MICROSCOPY OF THE COFFEE FRUIT

How the beans may be examined under the microscope, and what is

revealed--Structure of the berry, the green, and the roasted beans--The

coffee-leaf disease under the microscope--Value of microscopic analysis

in detecting adulteration Page 149

CHAPTER XVII

THE CHEMISTRY OF THE COFFEE BEAN

_By Charles W. Trigg._

Chemistry of the preparation and treatment of the green bean--Artificial

aging--Renovating damaged coffees--Extracts--"Caffetannic

acid"--Caffein, caffein-free coffee--Caffeol--Fats and

oils--Carbohydrates--Roasting--Scientific aspects of grinding and

packaging--The coffee brew--Soluble coffee--Adulterants and

substitutes--Official methods of analysis Page 155

CHAPTER XVIII

PHARMACOLOGY OF THE COFFEE DRINK

_By Charles W. Trigg_

General physiological action--Effect on children--Effect on

longevity--Behavior in the alimentary régime--Place in dietary--Action

on bacteria--Use in medicine--Physiological action of "caffetannic

acid"--Of caffeol--Of caffein--Effect of caffein on mental and motor

efficiency--Conclusions Page 174

CHAPTER XIX

THE COMMERCIAL COFFEES OF THE WORLD

The geographical distribution of the coffees grown in North America,

Central America, South America, the West India Islands, Asia, Africa,

the Pacific Islands, and the East Indies--A statistical study of the

distribution of the principal kinds--A commercial coffee chart of the

world's leading growths, with market names and general trade

characteristics Page 189

CHAPTER XX

CULTIVATION OF THE COFFEE PLANT

The early days of coffee culture in Abyssinia and Arabia--Coffee

cultivation in general--Soil, climate, rainfall, altitude, propagation,

preparing the plantation, shade, wind breaks, fertilizing, pruning,

catch crops, pests, and diseases--How coffee is grown around the

world--Cultivation in all the principal producing countries

Page 197

CHAPTER XXI

PREPARING GREEN COFFEE FOR MARKET

Early Arabian methods of preparation--How primitive devices were

replaced by modern methods--A chronological story of the development of

scientific plantation machinery, and the part played by English and

American inventors--The marvelous coffee package, one of the most

ingenious in all nature--How coffee is harvested--Picking--Preparation

by the dry and the wet methods--Pulping--Fermentation and

washing--Drying--Hulling, or peeling, and polishing--Sizing, or

grading--Preparation methods of different countries Page 245

CHAPTER XXII

THE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF COFFEE

A statistical study of world production of coffee by countries--Per

capita figures of the leading consuming countries--Coffee-consumption

figures compared with tea-consumption figures in the United States and

the United Kingdom--Three centuries of coffee trading--Coffee drinking

in the United States, past and present--Reviewing the 1921 trade in the

United States Page 273

CHAPTER XXIII

HOW GREEN COFFEES ARE BOUGHT AND SOLD

Buying coffee in the producing countries--Transporting coffee to the

consuming markets--Some record coffee cargoes shipped to the United

States--Transport over seas--Java coffee "ex-sailing vessels"--Handling

coffee at New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco--The coffee exchanges

of Europe and the United States--Commission men and brokers--Trade and

exchange contracts for delivery--Important rulings affecting coffee

trading--Some well-known green coffee marks Page 303

CHAPTER XXIV

GREEN AND ROASTED COFFEE CHARACTERISTICS

The trade values, bean characteristics, and cup merits of the leading

coffees of commerce, with a "Complete Reference Table of the Principal

Kinds of Coffee Grown in the World"--Appearance, aroma, and flavor in

cup-testing--How experts test coffee--A typical sample-roasting and

cup-testing outfit Page 341

CHAPTER XXV

FACTORY PREPARATION OF ROASTED COFFEE

Coffee roasting as a business--Wholesale coffee-roasting

machinery--Separating, milling, and mixing or blending green coffee, and

roasting by coal, coke, gas, and electricity--Facts about coffee

roasting--Cost of roasting--Green-coffee shrinkage table--"Dry" and

"wet" roasts--On roasting coffee efficiently--A typical coal

roaster--Cooling and stoning--Finishing or glazing--Blending roasted

coffees--Blends for restaurants--Grinding and packaging--Coffee

additions and fillers--Treated coffees, and dry extracts Page 379

CHAPTER XXVI

WHOLESALE MERCHANDISING OF COFFEE

How coffees are sold at wholesale--The wholesale salesman's place in

merchandising--Some coffee costs analyzed--Handy coffee-selling

chart--Terms and credits--About package coffees--Various types of coffee

containers--Coffee package labels--Coffee package economies--Practical

grocer helps--Coffee sampling--Premium method of sales promotion

Page 407

CHAPTER XXVII

RETAIL MERCHANDISING OF ROASTED COFFEE

How coffees are sold at retail--The place of the grocer, the tea and

coffee dealer, the chain store, and the wagon-route distributer in the

scheme of distribution--Starting in the retail coffee business--Small

roasters for retail dealers--Model coffee departments--Creating a coffee

trade--Meeting competition--Splitting nickels--Figuring costs and

profits--A credit policy for retailers--Premiums Page 415

CHAPTER XXVIII

A SHORT HISTORY OF COFFEE ADVERTISING

Early coffee advertising--The first coffee advertisement in 1587 was

frank propaganda for the legitimate use of coffee--The first printed

advertisement in English--The first newspaper advertisement--Early

advertisements in colonial America--Evolution of advertising--Package

coffee advertising--Advertising to the trade--Advertising by means of

newspapers, magazines, billboards, electric signs, motion pictures,

demonstrations, and by samples--Advertising for retailers--Advertising

by government propaganda--The Joint Coffee Trade publicity campaign in

the United States--Coffee advertising efficiency Page 431

CHAPTER XXIX

THE COFFEE TRADE IN THE UNITED STATES

The coffee business started by Dorothy Jones of Boston--Some early

sales--Taxes imposed by Congress in war and peace--The first

coffee-plantation-machine, coffee-roaster, coffee-grinder, and

coffee-pot patents--Early trade marks for coffee--Beginnings of the

coffee urn, the coffee container, and the soluble-coffee

business--Chronological record of the most important events in the

history of the trade from the eighteenth century to the twentieth

Page 467

CHAPTER XXX

DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREEN AND ROASTED COFFEE

BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES

A brief history of the growth of coffee trading--Notable firms and

personalities that have played important parts in green coffee in the

principal coffee centers--Green coffee trade organizations--Growth of

the wholesale coffee-roasting trade, and names of those who have made

history in it--The National Coffee Roasters Association--Statistics of

distribution of coffee-roasting establishments in the United States

Page 475

CHAPTER XXXI

SOME BIG MEN AND NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

B.G. Arnold, the first, and Hermann Sielcken, the last of the American

"coffee kings"--John Arbuckle, the original package-coffee man--Jabez

Burns, the man who revolutionized the roasted-coffee business by his

contributions as inventor, manufacturer, and writer--Coffee trade booms

and panics--Brazil's first valorization enterprise--War-time government

control of coffee--The story of soluble coffee Page 517

CHAPTER XXXII

A HISTORY OF COFFEE IN LITERATURE

The romance of coffee, and its influence on the discourse, poetry,

history, drama, philosophic writing, and fiction of the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries and on the writers of today--Coffee quips and

anecdotes Page 541

CHAPTER XXXIII

COFFEE IN RELATION TO THE FINE ARTS

How coffee and coffee drinking have been celebrated in painting,

engraving, sculpture, caricature, lithography, and music--Epics,

rhapsodies, and cantatas in praise of coffee--Beautiful specimens of the

art of the potter and the silversmith as shown in the coffee service of

various periods in the world's history--Some historical relics

Page 587

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE EVOLUTION OF COFFEE APPARATUS

Showing the development of coffee-roasting, coffee-grinding,

coffee-making, and coffee-serving devices from the earliest time to the

present day--The original coffee grinder, the first coffee roaster, and

the first coffee pot--The original French drip pot, the De Belloy

percolator--Count Rumford's improvement--How the commercial coffee

roaster was developed--The evolution of filtration devices--The old

Carter "pull-out" roaster--Trade customs in New York and St. Louis in

the sixties and seventies--The story of the evolution of the Burns

roaster--How the gas roaster was developed in France, Great Britain, and

the United States Page 615

CHAPTER XXXV

WORLD'S COFFEE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

How coffee is roasted, prepared, and served in all the leading civilized

countries--The Arabian coffee ceremony--The present-day coffee houses of

Turkey--Twentieth century improvements in Europe and the United States

Page 655

CHAPTER XXXVI

PREPARATION OF THE UNIVERSAL BEVERAGE

The evolution of grinding and brewing methods--Coffee was first a food,

then a wine, a medicine, a devotional refreshment, a confection, and

finally a beverage--Brewing by boiling, infusion, percolation, and

filtration--Coffee making in Europe in the nineteenth century--Early

coffee making in the United States--Latest developments in better coffee

making--Various aspects of scientific coffee brewing--Advice to coffee

lovers on how to buy coffee, and how to make it in perfection

Page 693

A COFFEE CHRONOLOGY

Giving dates and events of historical interest in legend, travel,

literature, cultivation, plantation treatment, trading, and in the

preparation and use of coffee from the earliest time to the present

Page 725

A COFFEE BIBLIOGRAPHY

A list of references gathered from the principal general and scientific

libraries--Arranged in alphabetic order of topics Page 738

INDEX

Page 769

[Illustration]

ILLUSTRATIONS

_Color Plates_

_Facing page_

Coffee branches, flowers, and fruit (painted

by Blendon Campbell) _Frontispiece_ v

_Coffea arabica_; leaves, flowers, and fruit

(painted by M.E. Eaton) 1

The coffee tree bears fruit, leaf, and blossom

at the same time 16

A close-up of ripe coffee berries 32

Coffee under the Stars and Stripes 144

Coffee scenes in British India 160

Picking and sacking coffee in Brazil 176

Mild-coffee culture and preparation 192

Coffee scenes in Java 200

Coffee scenes in Sumatra 216

Coffee preparation in Central and South

America 248

Typical coffee scenes in Costa Rica 336

Principal varieties of green-coffee beans,

natural size and color 352

Coal-roasting plant, New York 408

Coffee scenes in the Near and Far East 544

Primitive transportation methods, Arabia 640

Hulling coffee in Aden, Arabia 656

_Black and White Illustrations_

_Page_

Coffee tree in flower 4

De Clieu and his coffee plant 7

Legendary discovery of coffee drink 10

Title page of Dufour's book 13

Frontispiece from Dufour's book 15

Turkish coffee house, 17th century 21

Serving coffee to a guest, Arabia 23

First printed reference to coffee 24

An 18th-century Italian coffee house 26

Nobility in an early Venetian café 27

Goldoni in a Venetian coffee house 28

Florian's famous coffee house 29

Title page of La Roque's work 32

Coffee tree as pictured by La Roque 32

Coffee branch in La Roque's work 33

First printed reference in English 37

Reference in Sherley's travels 39

References in Biddulph's travels 40

Mol's coffee house at Exeter 41

Reference in Sandys' travels 42

Richter's coffee house, Leipsic 46

Coffee house, Germany, 17th century 47

Kolschitzky in his Blue Bottle coffee house 48

First coffee house in Leopoldstadt 50

Statue of Kolschitzky 51

First advertisement for coffee 55

First newspaper advertisement 57

Coffee house, time of Charles II 60

London coffee house, 17th century 61

Coffee house, Queen Anne's time 62

Coffee-house keepers' tokens (plate 1) 63

A broadside of 1663 64

Coffee-house keepers' tokens (plate 2) 65

A broadside of 1667 68

A broadside of 1670 70

A broadside of 1672 70

A broadside of 1674 71

White's and Brooke's coffee houses 78

London coffee-house politicians 78

Great Fair on the frozen Thames 79

Lion's head at Button's 80

Trio of notables at Button's 81

Vauxhall Gardens on a gala night 82

Rotunda in Ranelagh Gardens 83

Garraway's coffee house 84

Button's coffee house 84

Slaughter's coffee house 85

Tom's coffee house 85

Lloyd's coffee house 86

Dick's coffee house 87

Grecian coffee house 87

Don Saltero's coffee house 88

British coffee house 88

French coffee house in London 89

Ramponaux' Royal Drummer café 90

La Foire St.-Germain 92

Street coffee vender of Paris 92

Armenian decorations in Paris café 93

Corner of historic Café de Procope 93

Café de Procope, Paris 95

Cashier's desk in coffee house, Paris 96

Café Foy 97

Café des Mille Colonnes 99

Café de Paris 101

Interior of a typical Parisian café 103

Chess at the Café de la Régence 104

Types of colonial coffee roasters 106

Early family coffee roaster 106

Historic relics, early New England 107

Mayflower "coffee grinder" 108

Crown coffee house, Boston 108

Coffee devices, Massachusetts colony 109

Coffee devices of western pioneers 110

Coffee pots of colonial days 110

Green Dragon tavern, Boston 111

Metal coffee pots, New York colony 112

Exchange coffee house, Boston 113

President-elect Washington's official welcome

at Merchants Coffee House 114

King's Arms coffee house, New York 116

Burns coffee house 117

Merchants coffee house 119

Tontine coffee house 121

Tontine building of 1850 122

Niblo's Garden 122

Coffee relics, Dutch New York 122

New York's Vauxhall Garden of 1803 123

Tavern and grocers' signs, old New York 124

Second London coffee house, Philadelphia 127

Selling slaves, old London coffee house 128

City tavern, Philadelphia 129

Coffee-house scene in "Hamilton" 130

Coffee tree, flowers and fruit 132

Germination of the coffee plant 133

Brazil coffee plantation in flower 134

_Coffea arabica_, Porto Rico 135

_Coffea arabica_, flower and fruit, Costa Rica 135

Young _Coffea arabica_, Kona, Hawaii 136

Survivors of first Liberian trees in Java 136

_Coffea arabica_ in flower, Java 137

Liberian coffee tree, Lamoa, P.I. 138

_Coffea congensis_, 2-1/2 years old 138

Flowering of 5-year-old _Coffea excelsa_ 139

Branches of _Coffea excelsa_ 140

_Coffea stenophylla_ 140

Near view of _Coffea arabica_ berries 141

Wild caffein-free coffee tree 142

Coffee bean characteristics 142

_Coffea arabica_ berries 143

_Robusta_ coffee in flower 144

One-year-old _robusta_ estate 145

_Coffea Quillou_ flowers 146

_Quillou_ coffee tree in blossom 147

_Coffea Ugandæ_ 148

_Coffea arabica_ under the microscope 149

Cross-section of coffee bean 150

Cross-section of hull and bean 150

Epicarp and pericarp under microscope 151

Endocarp and endosperm under microscope 152

Spermoderm under microscope 152

Tissues of embryo under microscope 152

Coffee-leaf disease under microscope 153

Green and roasted coffee under microscope 153

Green and roasted Bogota under microscope 154

Cross-section of endosperm 156

Portion of the investing membrane 157

Structure of the green bean 157

Ground coffee under microscope 167

Coffee tree in bearing, Lamoa, P.I. 196

Early coffee implements 198

Cross-section of mountain slope, Yemen 198

First steps in coffee-growing 199

Coffee nursery, Guatemala 200

Coffee under shade, Porto Rico 201

Boekit Gompong estate, Sumatra 202

Estate in Antioquia, Colombia 203

Weeding and harrowing, São Paulo 204

Fazenda Dumont, São Paulo 205

Fazenda Guatapara, São Paulo 206

Picking coffee, São Paulo 207

Intensive cultivation, São Paulo 207

Private railroad, São Paulo 208

Coffee culture in São Paulo 209

Heavily laden coffee tree, Bogota 210

Picking coffee, Bogota 211

Altamira Hacienda, Venezuela 212

Carmen Hacienda, Venezuela 213

Heavy fruiting, _Coffea robusta_, Java 214

Road through coffee estate, Java 215

Native picking coffee, Sumatra 216

Administrator's bungalow, Java 216

Administrator's bungalow, Sumatra 217

Coffee culture in Guatemala 218

Indians picking coffee, Guatemala 219

Bungalow, coffee estate, Guatemala 220

Thirty-year-old coffee trees, Mexico 221

Mexican coffee picker 222

Receiving coffee, Mexico 223

Heavily laden coffee tree, Porto Rico 224

Coffee cultivation, Costa Rica 225

Picking Costa Rica coffee 226

Mountain coffee estate, Costa Rica 226

Mysore coffee estate 227

Coffee growing under shade, India 228

Coffee estate at Harar 229

Wild coffee near Adis Abeba 231

Mocha coffee growing on terraces 232

Picking Blue Mountain berries, Jamaica 233

Coffee pickers, Guadeloupe 234

Coffee in blossom, Panama 235

_Robusta_ coffee, Cochin-China 237

Bourbon trees, French Indo-China 238

Picking coffee in Queensland 239

Coffee in bloom, Kona, Hawaii 240

Coffee at Hamakua, Hawaii 241

Coffee trees, South Kona, Hawaii 242

Plantation near Sagada, P.I. 243

Coffee preparation, São Paulo 244

Walker's original disk pulper 246

Early English coffee peeler 246

Group of English cylinder pulpers 247

Copper covers for pulper cylinders 248

Granada unpulped coffee separator 249

Hand-power double-disk pulper 249

Tandem coffee pulper 250

Horizontal coffee washer 251

Vertical coffee washer 251

Cobán pulper, Venezuela 252

Niagara power coffee huller 252

British and American coffee driers 253

American Guardiola drier 254

Smout peeler and polisher 254

Smout peeler and polisher, exposed 255

O'Krassa's coffee drier 255

Six well-known hullers and separators 256

El Monarca coffee classifier 257

Hydro-electric installation, Guatemala 258

Preparing Brazil coffee for market 259

Working coffee on the drying flats 260

Fermenting and washing tanks, São Paulo 260

Drying grounds, Fazenda Schmidt 261

Preparing Colombian coffee for market 262

Old-fashioned ox-power huller 263

Street-car coffee transport, Orizaba 264

Coffee on drying floors, Porto Rico 264

Sun-drying coffee 265

Drying patio, Costa Rica 266

Early Guardiola steam drier 266

Indian women cleaning Mocha coffee 267

Cleaning-and-grading machinery, Aden 268

Drying coffee at Harar 269

Preparing Java coffee for market 270

Coffee transport in Java 271

Meeting of Amsterdam coffee brokers, 1820 291

Bill of public sale of coffee, 1790 292

Last sample before export, Santos 304

Stamping bags for export 304

Preparing Brazil coffee for export 305

Grading coffee at Santos 306

The test by the cups, Santos 306

New York importers' warehouse, Santos 307

Pack-mule transport in Venezuela 308

Coffee-carrying cart, Guatemala 308

Pack-oxen fording stream, Colombia 308

Coffee transport, Mexico and South America 309

Donkey coffee-transport at Harar 310

Coffee camels at Harar 310

Selling coffee by tapping hands, Aden 310

Packing and transporting coffee, Aden 311

Coffee camel train at Hodeida 312

Methods of loading coffee, Santos 313

Coffee freighter, Cauca River, Colombia 314

Coffee steamers on the Magdalena 314

Loading heavy cargo on Santa Cecilia 315

Unloading Java coffee from sailing vessel 317

Receiving piers for coffee, New York 318

Unloading coffee, covered pier, New York 319

Receiving and storing coffee, New York 320

Tester at work, Bush Terminal, New York 321

Loading lighters, Bush Docks, Brooklyn 321

New Terminal system on Staten Island 322

Motor tractor, Bush piers 322

Unloading with modern conveyor 323

Coffee handling, New Orleans piers 324

Coffee in steel-covered sheds, New Orleans 325

Unloading and storing coffee, San Francisco 326

Modern device for handling green coffee 327

Handling green coffee at European ports 328

New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange 329

Coffee section, Coffee and Sugar Exchange 330

Blackboards, Coffee Exchange 331

"Coffee afloat" blackboard 332

Well known green-coffee marks 339

Bourbon-Santos beans, roasted 343

Flat and Bourbon-Santos beans, roasted 343

Rio beans, roasted 343

Mexican beans, roasted 347

Guatemala beans, roasted 347

Bogota (Colombia) beans, roasted 348

Maracaibo beans, roasted 349

Mocha beans, roasted 351

Washed Java beans, roasted 353

Sample-roasting and cup-testing outfit 357

Modern gas coffee-roasting plant 380

Sixteen-cylinder coal roasting plant 382

Green-coffee separating and milling machines 384

English gas coffee-roasting plant 385

German gas coffee-roasting plant 386

French gas coffee-roasting plant 387

Jumbo coffee roaster, Arbuckle plant 388

Roasting plant of Reid, Murdoch & Co. 389

Complete gas coffee-plant installation 390

Burns Jubilee gas roaster 391

Burns coal roaster 392

Open perforated cylinder with flexible back head 392

Trying the roast 394

Monitor gas roaster 394

A group of roasting-room accessories 394

Dumping the roast 395

A four-bag coffee finisher 396

Burns sample-coffee roaster 396

Lambert coal coffee-roasting outfit 397

Coles No. 22 grinding mill 398

Monitor coffee-granulating machine 398

Challenge pulverizer 398

Burns No. 12 grinding mill 399

Monitor steel-cut grinder, separator, etc 399

Johnson carton-filling, weighing, and sealing machine 400

Ideal steel-cut mill 400

Smyser package-making and filling machine 401

Automatic coffee-packing machine 402

Complete coffee-cartoning outfit 403

Automatic coffee-weighing machines 404

Units in manufacture of soluble coffee 405

Types of coffee containers 411

Fresh-roasted-coffee idea in retailing 414

Premium tea and coffee dealer's display 416

Chain-store interior 417

Familiar A & P store front 418

Specialist idea in coffee merchandising 419

Monitor gas roaster, cooler, and stoner 420

Royal gas coffee roaster for retailers 420

Burns half-bag roaster, cooler, and stoner 421

Lambert Jr. roasting outfit for retailers 421

Faulder and Simplex gas roasters 422

Coffee roasters used in Paris shops 423

Small German roasters 424

Popular French retail roaster 424

Uno cabinet gas roaster and cooler 424

Educational window exhibit 425

Better-class American grocery, interior 426

Prize-winning window display 427

Americanized English grocer's shop 429

Famous package coffees 430

First coffee advertisement in U.S. 433

Coffee advertisement of 1790 434

First colored handbill for package coffee 435

Reverse side of colored handbill 435

St. Louis handbill of 1854 436

Advertising-card copy, 1873 437

Handbill copy of the seventies 437

Box-end sticker, 1833 438

Chase & Sanborn advertisement, 1888 438

A Goldberg cartoon, 1910 439

Copy used by Chase & Sanborn, 1900 439

An effective cut-out 442

How coffee is advertised to the trade 443

Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee 447

Magazine and newspaper copy, 1919 449

Copy that stressed helpfulness of coffee, 1919-20 450

Joint Committee's house organ 451

Introductory medical-journal copy 451

Telling the doctors the truth, 1920 452

Joint Committee's attractive booklets 453

More medical journal copy, 1920 454

Magazine and newspaper copy, 1921 455

Educating the doctor, 1922 456

Magazine and newspaper copy, 1922 457

Specimen of early Yuban copy 459

Historical association in advertising 459

Package coffee advertising in 1922 460

The social distinction argument 461

Drawing upon history for atmosphere 461

An impressive electric sign, Chicago 462

How coffee is advertised outdoors 463

Attractive car cards, spring of 1922 464

Effective iced-coffee copy 465

European advertising novelty, New York 465

Coenties Slip, in days of sailing vessels 466

First U.S. coffee-grinder patent 469

Carter's Pull-out roaster patent 469

First registered trade mark for coffee 470

Original Arbuckle coffee packages 471

Merchants coffee house tablet 473

Departed dominant figures in New York green coffee trade 476

"Their association with New York green coffee trade

dates back nearly fifty years" 477

Green coffee trade-builders who have passed on 478

"Their race is run, their course is done" 479

112 Front Street, New York, 1879 480

At 87 Wall Street, New York, years ago 480

Wall and Front Streets, New York, 1922 481

Front Street, New York, 1922 483

In the New Orleans coffee district 486

Green coffee district, New Orleans 487

California Street, San Francisco 488

San Francisco's coffee district 489

Pioneer coffee roasters, New York City 493

Oldtime New York coffee roasters 495

Pioneer coffee roasters of the North and East, U.S. 500

Pioneer coffee roasters of the South and West, U.S. 504

Ground coffee price list of 1862 507

Organization convention, N.C.R.A., 1911 510

Former presidents, N.C.R.A. 512

Earliest coffee manuscript 540

Song from "The Coffee House" 555

Dr. Johnson's seat, the Cheshire Cheese 567

Original coffee room, old Cock Tavern 568

Morning gossip in the coffee room 569

"His Warmest Welcome at an Inn" 571

Alexander Pope at Button's, 1730 577

Dutch coffee house, 1650 (by Van Ostade) 586

White's coffee house, 1733 (by Hogarth) 588

Tom King's, 1738 (by Hogarth) 589

Petit Déjeuner (by Boucher) 590

Coffee service in the home of Madame de Pompadour

(by Van Loo) 590

Madame Du Barry (by Decreuse) 591

Coffee house at Cairo (by Gérôme) 592

Kaffeebesuch (by Philippi) 593

Coffee comes to the aid of the Muse (by Ruffio) 593

Mad dog in a coffee house (by Rowlandson) 594

Napoleon and the Curé (by Charlet) 595

Coffee, a chanson (music by Colet) 596

Statue of Kolschitzky 597

Betty's Aria, Bach's coffee cantata 598

Café Pedrocchi, Padua 599

Coffee grinder set with jewels 600

Italian wrought-iron coffee roaster 600

Seventeenth-century tea and coffee pots 601

Lantern coffee pot, 1692 602

Folkingham pot, 1715-16 602

Wastell pot, 1720-21 603

Dish of coffee-boy design, 1692 603

Chinese porcelain coffee pot 604

Silver coffee pots, early 18th century 604

Silver coffee pots, 18th century 605

Pottery and porcelain pots 606

Silver coffee pots, late 18th century 607

Porcelain pots, Metropolitan Museum 608

Vienna coffee pot, 1830 609

Spanish coffee pot, 18th century 609

Silver coffee pots in American collections 610

Coffee pot by Win. Shaw and Wm. Priest 611

Pot of Sheffield plate, 18th century 611

Pot by Ephraim Brasher 611

French silver coffee pot 612

Green Dragon tavern coffee urn 612

Coffee pots by American silversmiths 613

Twentieth-century American coffee service 613

Turkish coffee set, Peter collection 614

Oldest coffee grinder 616

Grain mill used by Greeks and Romans 616

First coffee roaster 616

First cylinder roaster, 1650 616

Historical relics, U.S. National Museum 617

Turkish coffee mill 618

Early French wall and table grinders 618

Bronze and brass mortars, 17th century 619

Early American coffee roasters 619

Roaster with three-sided hood 620

Roasting, making, and serving devices, 17th century 620

English and French coffee grinders 621

Eighteenth-century roaster 621

Original French drip pot 621

Belgian, Russian, and French pewter pots 622

17th and 18th century pewter pots 623

Count Rumford's percolator 623

Drawings of early French coffee makers 624

Early French filtration devices 624

Early American coffee-maker patents 625

French coffee makers, 19th century 625

First English commercial roaster patent 626

Early French coffee-roasting machines 627

Battery of Carter pull-out machines 628

Early English and American roasters 630

Early Foreign and American coffee-making devices 632

Dakin roasting machine of 1848 633

Globe stove roaster of 1860 634

Hyde's combined roaster and stove 634

Original Burns roaster, 1864 635

Burns granulating mill, 1872-74 636

Napier's vacuum machine 637

German gas and coal roasting machines 638

Other German coffee roasters 639

Original Enterprise mill 640

Max Thurmer's quick gas roaster 640

An English gas coffee-roasting plant 641

French globular roaster 642

Sirocco machine (French) 642

English roasting and grinding equipment 643

Magic gas machine (French) 644

Burns Jubilee gas machine 644

Double gas roasting outfit (French) 645

Lambert's Victory gas machine 646

One of the first electric mills 647

English electric-fuel roaster 648

Ben Franklin electric coffee roaster 648

Enterprise hand store mill 649

Latest types electric store mills 650

Italian rapid coffee-making machines 651

Working of Italian rapid machines 652

La Victoria Arduino Mignonne 652

N.C.R.A. Home coffee mill 653

Manthey-Zorn rapid infuser and dispenser 653

Tricolette, single-cup filter device 654

Moorish coffee house in Algiers 656

Coffee house in Cairo 656

Coffee service in Cairo barber shop 657

Coffee-laden camels, Arabia 658

Arabian coffee house 658

Mahommedan brewing coffee for guest 659

Native café, Harar 661

Early coffee, tea, and chocolate service 661

Nubian slave girl with coffee service 662

Persian coffee service, 1737 663

In a Turkish coffee house 664

Roasting coffee outside a Turkish café 664

Turkish caffinet, early 19th century 665

Coffee-making in Turkey 666

Street coffee vender in the Levant 666

A coffee house in Syria 667

Cafetan--garb of oriental café-keeper 668

Street coffee service in Constantinople 668

Riverside café in Damascus 669

Coffee _al fresco_ in Jerusalem 671

Café Schrangl, Vienna 672

Favorite English way of making coffee 673

A café of Ye Mecca Company, London 673

Groom's coffee house, London 674

Café Monico, Piccadilly Circus, London 674

Gatti's, The Strand, London 675

Tea lounge, Hotel Savoy, London 675

Two popular places for coffee in London 676

Temple Bar restaurant, London 677

Tea balcony, Hotel Cecil, London 677

One of Slater's chain-shops, London 677

St. James's restaurant, Picadilly, London 678

An A.B.C. shop, London 678

Halt of caravaners at a serai, Bulgaria 678

Café de la Paix, Paris 679

Sidewalk annex, Café de la Paix 680

Café de la Régence, Paris 681

Café de la Régence in 1922 682

One of the Biard cafés, Paris 683

Restaurant Procope, 1922 683

Morning coffee at a Boulevard café 684

Café Bauer, Unter den Linden, Berlin 684

Café Bauer, exterior 685

Kranzler's Unter den Linden, Berlin 685

Swedish coffee boilers 687

Sidewalk café, Lisbon 687

Coffee rooms replacing hotel bars, U.S. 688

Britannia coffee pot--a Lincoln relic 690

Coffee service, Hotel Astor, New York 691

Early coffee-making in Persia 694

Napier vacuum coffee maker 700

Napier-List steam coffee machine 700

Finley Acker's filter-paper coffee pot 700

Kin-Hee pot in operation 701

Tricolator in operation 701

King percolator 701

Three American coffee-making machines in operation 702

How the Tru-Bru pot operates 702

Coffee-making devices used in U.S. 703

English hotel coffee-making machines 706

Well-known makes of large coffee urns 707

Popular German drip pot 708

Section of roasted bean, magnified 719

Cross-section of roasted bean, magnified 720

Coarse grind under the microscope 720

Medium grind under the microscope 721

Fine-meal grind under the microscope 721

_Portraits_

Ach, F.J. 447, 512

Akers, Fred 495

Ames, Allan P. 447

Arbuckle, John 523

Arnold, Benjamin Greene 476, 517

Arnold, F.B. 476

Bayne, William 479

Bayne, William, Jr. 447

Beard, Eli 493

Beard, Samuel 493

Bennett, William H. 479

Bickford, C.E. 478

Boardman, Thomas J. 500

Boardman, William 500

Brand, Carl W. 512

Brandenstein, M.J. 504

Burns, Jabez 527

Canby, Edward 500

Casanas, Ben C. 512

Cauchois. F.A. 493

Chase, Caleb 500

Cheek, J.O. 504, 515

Closset, Joseph 504

Coste, Felix 447

Crossman, Geo. W. 479

Devers, A.H. 504

Dwinell, James F. 500

Eppens, Fred 495

Eppens, Julius A. 495, 497

Eppens, W.H. 493, 495

Evans, David G. 504

Fischer, Benedickt 493

Flint, J.G. 500

Folger, J.A., Jr. 504

Folger, J.A., Sr. 504

Forbes, A.E. 504

Forbes, Jas. H. 504

Geiger, Frank J. 500

Gillies, Jas. W. 493

Gillies, Wright 493

Grossman, William 500

Harrison, D.Y. 500

Harrison, W.H. 500

Haulenbeek, Peter 493

Hayward, Martin 500

Heekin, James 500

Jones, W.T. 504

Kimball, O.G. 478

Kinsella, W.J. 504

Kirkland, Alexander 495

Kolschitzky, Franz George 50

McLaughlin, W.F. 500

Mahood, Samuel 500

Mayo, Henry 495

Meehan, P.C. 477

Menezes, Th. Langgaard de 446

Meyer, Robert 511

Peck, Edwin H. 477

Phyfe, Jas. W. 478

Pierce, O.W., Sr. 500

Pupke, John F. 495

Purcell, Joseph 476

Reid, Fred 495

Reid, Thomas 493, 495

Roome, Col. William P. 499

Russell, James C. 478

Sanborn, James S. 500

Schilling, A. 504

Schotten, Julius J. 504, 512

Schotten, William 504

Seelye, Frank R. 512

Sielcken, Hermann 476, 519

Simmonds, H. 477

Sinnot, J.B. 504

Smith, L.B. 493

Smith, M.E. 504

Sprague, Albert A. 500

Stephens, Henry A. 500

Stoffregen, Charles 504

Stoffregen, C.H. 447

Taylor, James H. 477

Thomson, A.M. 500

Van Loan, Thomas 498

Weir, Ross W. 447, 512

Westfeldt, George 479

Widlar, Francis 500

Wilde, Samuel 493

Withington, Elijah 493

Woolson, Alvin M. 500

Wright, George C. 500

Wright, George S. 447

Young, Samuel 500

Zinsmeister, J. 504

_Maps, Charts, and Diagrams_

Map of London coffee-house district, 1748 76

Formula for Caffein 160

Commercial coffee chart 191

Eiffel and Woolworth towers in coffee 272

World's coffee cup and largest ship 275

Coffee exports, 1850-1920 277

Coffee exports, 1916-1920 277

Brazil coffee exports, 1850-1920 278

World's coffee consumption, 1850 286

Coffee imports, 1916-1920 286

World trend of consumption of tea and coffee, 1860-1920 288

Coffee map of World (folded insert) _facing_ 288

Pre-war annual average production of coffee by continents 294

Pre-war annual average production of coffee by countries 294

Pre-war average annual imports of coffee into U.S. by continents 295

Pre-war average annual imports of coffee into U.S. by countries 295

Pre-war coffee-imports chart 297

Pre-war consumption and price chart 297

Coffee map, Brazil 342

Coffee map, São Paulo, Minãs, and Rio 344

Mild-coffee map, 1 346

Coffee map, Africa and Arabia 352

Mild-coffee map, 2 354

Complete reference table (21 pp.) 358

Plan of milling-machine connections 381

Plan of green-coffee-mixer connections 383

Layout for coffee and tea department 418

Chart, advertising of coffee and coffee substitutes, 1911-20 440

Charts, per capita consumption of coffee, and coffee and substitute

advertising 441

Chart, plan of advertising campaign 448

Chart, private-brand advertising, 1921 458

A COFFEE THESAURUS

_Encomiums and descriptive phrases applied to the plant, the berry, and

the beverage_

_The Plant_

The precious plant

This friendly plant

Mocha's happy tree

The gift of Heaven

The plant with the jessamine-like flowers

The most exquisite perfume of Araby the blest

Given to the human race by the gift of the Gods

_The Berry_

The magic bean

The divine fruit

Fragrant berries

Rich, royal berry

Voluptuous berry

The precious berry

The healthful bean

The Heavenly berry

The marvelous berry

This all-healing berry

Yemen's fragrant berry

The little aromatic berry

Little brown Arabian berry

Thought-inspiring bean of Arabia

The smoking, ardent beans Aleppo sends

That wild fruit which gives so beloved a drink

_The Beverage_

Nepenthe

Festive cup

Juice divine

Nectar divine

Ruddy mocha

A man's drink

Lovable liquor

Delicious mocha

The magic drink

This rich cordial

Its stream divine

The family drink

The festive drink

Coffee is our gold

Nectar of all men

The golden mocha

This sweet nectar

Celestial ambrosia

The friendly drink

The cheerful drink

The essential drink

The sweet draught

The divine draught

The grateful liquor

The universal drink

The American drink

The amber beverage

The convivial drink

The universal thrill

King of all perfumes

The cup of happiness

The soothing draught

Ambrosia of the Gods

The intellectual drink

The aromatic draught

The salutary beverage

The good-fellow drink

The drink of democracy

The drink ever glorious

Wakeful and civil drink

The beverage of sobriety

A psychological necessity

The fighting man's drink

Loved and favored drink

The symbol of hospitality

This rare Arabian cordial

Inspirer of men of letters

The revolutionary beverage

Triumphant stream of sable

Grave and wholesome liquor

The drink of the intellectuals

A restorative of sparkling wit

Its color is the seal of its purity

The sober and wholesome drink

Lovelier than a thousand kisses

This honest and cheering beverage

A wine which no sorrow can resist

The symbol of human brotherhood

At once a pleasure and a medicine

The beverage of the friends of God

The fire which consumes our griefs

Gentle panacea of domestic troubles

The autocrat of the breakfast table

The beverage of the children of God

King of the American breakfast table

Soothes you softly out of dull sobriety

The cup that cheers but not inebriates[1]

Coffee, which makes the politician wise

Its aroma is the pleasantest in all nature

The sovereign drink of pleasure and health[2]

The indispensable beverage of strong nations

The stream in which we wash away our sorrows

The enchanting perfume that a zephyr has brought

Favored liquid which fills all my soul with delight

The delicious libation we pour on the altar of friendship

This invigorating drink which drives sad care from the heart

EVOLUTION OF A CUP OF COFFEE

_Showing the various steps through which the bean passes from plantation

to cup_

1 Planting the seed in nursery

2 Transplanting into rows

3 Cultivating and pruning

4 Picking the cherries

5 Pulping

6 Fermenting

7 Washing

8 Drying in the parchment

9 Hulling

10 Polishing

11 Grading

12 Transporting to the seaport

13 Buying and selling for export

14 Transhipment overseas

15 Buying and selling at wholesale

16 Shipment to the point of manufacture

17 Separating

18 Milling

19 Mixing or blending

20 Roasting

21 Cooling and stoning

22 Buying and selling at retail

23 Grinding

24 Making the beverage

[Illustration: COFFEE ARABICA; LEAVES, FLOWERS AND FRUIT

Painted from nature by M.E. Eaton--Detail sketches show anther, pistil,

and section of corolla]

CHAPTER I

DEALING WITH THE ETYMOLOGY OF COFFEE

_Origin and translation of the word from the Arabian into various

languages--Views of many writers_

The history of the word coffee involves several phonetic difficulties.

The European languages got the name of the beverage about 1600 from the

original Arabic [Arabic] _qahwah_, not directly, but through its

Turkish form, _kahveh_. This was the name, not of the plant, but the

beverage made from its infusion, being originally one of the names

employed for wine in Arabic.

Sir James Murray, in the _New English Dictionary_, says that some have

conjectured that the word is a foreign, perhaps African, word disguised,

and have thought it connected with the name Kaffa, a town in Shoa,

southwest Abyssinia, reputed native place of the coffee plant, but that

of this there is no evidence, and the name _qahwah_ is not given to the

berry or plant, which is called [Arabic] _bunn_, the native name in

Shoa being _bun_.

Contributing to a symposium on the etymology of the word coffee in

_Notes and Queries_, 1909, James Platt, Jr., said:

The Turkish form might have been written _kahvé_, as its final _h_

was never sounded at any time. Sir James Murray draws attention to

the existence of two European types, one like the French _café_,

Italian _caffè_, the other like the English _coffee_, Dutch

_koffie_. He explains the vowel _o_ in the second series as

apparently representing _au_, from Turkish _ahv_. This seems

unsupported by evidence, and the _v_ is already represented by the

_ff_, so on Sir James's assumption _coffee_ must stand for

_kahv-ve_, which is unlikely. The change from _a_ to _o_, in my

opinion, is better accounted for as an imperfect appreciation. The

exact sound of a in Arabic and other Oriental languages is that

of the English short U, as in "cuff." This sound, so easy to us, is

a great stumbling-block to other nations. I judge that Dutch

_koffie_ and kindred forms are imperfect attempts at the notation

of a vowel which the writers could not grasp. It is clear that the

French type is more correct. The Germans have corrected their

_koffee_, which they may have got from the Dutch, into _kaffee_.

The Scandinavian languages have adopted the French form. Many must

wonder how the _hv_ of the original so persistently becomes _ff_ in

the European equivalents. Sir James Murray makes no attempt to

solve this problem.

Virendranath Chattopádhyáya, who also contributed to the _Notes and

Queries_ symposium, argued that the _hw_ of the Arabic _qahwah_ becomes

sometimes _ff_ and sometimes only _f_ or _v_ in European translations

because some languages, such as English, have strong syllabic accents

(stresses), while others, as French, have none. Again, he points out

that the surd aspirate _h_ is heard in some languages, but is hardly

audible in others. Most Europeans tend to leave it out altogether.

Col. W.F. Prideaux, another contributor, argued that the European

languages got one form of the word coffee directly from the Arabic

_qahwah_, and quoted from Hobson-Jobson in support of this:

_Chaoua_ in 1598, _Cahoa_ in 1610, _Cahue_ in 1615; while Sir

Thomas Herbert (1638) expressly states that "they drink (in Persia)

... above all the rest, _Coho_ or _Copha_: by Turk and Arab called

_Caphe_ and _Cahua_." Here the Persian, Turkish, and Arabic

pronunciations are clearly differentiated.

Col. Prideaux then calls, as a witness to the Anglo-Arabic

pronunciation, one whose evidence was not available when the _New

English Dictionary_ and Hobson-Jobson articles were written. This is

John Jourdain, a Dorsetshire seaman, whose _Diary_ was printed by the

Hakluyt Society in 1905. On May 28, 1609, he records that "in the

afternoone wee departed out of Hatch (Al-Hauta, the capital of the Lahej

district near Aden), and travelled untill three in the morninge, and

then wee rested in the plaine fields untill three the next daie, neere

unto a cohoo howse in the desert." On June 5 the party, traveling from

Hippa (Ibb), "laye in the mountaynes, our camells being wearie, and our

selves little better. This mountain is called Nasmarde (Nakil

Sumara), where all the cohoo grows." Farther on was "a little

village, where there is sold cohoo and fruite. The seeds of this cohoo

is a greate marchandize, for it is carried to grand Cairo and all other

places of Turkey, and to the Indias." Prideaux, however, mentions that

another sailor, William Revett, in his journal (1609) says, referring to

Mocha, that "Shaomer Shadli (Shaikh 'Ali bin 'Omar esh-Shadil) was

the fyrst inventour for drynking of coffe, and therefor had in

esteemation." This rather looks to Prideaux as if on the coast of

Arabia, and in the mercantile towns, the Persian pronunciation was in

vogue; whilst in the interior, where Jourdain traveled, the Englishman

reproduced the Arabic.

Mr. Chattopádhyáya, discussing Col. Prideaux's views as expressed above,

said:

Col. Prideaux may doubt "if the worthy mariner, in entering the

word in his log, was influenced by the abstruse principles of

phonetics enunciated" by me, but he will admit that the change from

_kahvah_ to _coffee_ is a phonetic change, and must be due to the

operation of some phonetic principle. The average man, when he

endeavours to write a foreign word in his own tongue, is

handicapped considerably by his inherited and acquired phonetic

capacity. And, in fact, if we take the quotations made in

"Hobson-Jobson," and classify the various forms of the word

_coffee_ according to the nationality of the writer, we obtain very

interesting results.

Let us take Englishmen and Dutchmen first. In Danvers's _Letters_

(1611) we have both "_coho_ pots" and "_coffao_ pots"; Sir T. Roe

(1615) and Terry (1616) have _cohu_; Sir T. Herbert (1638) has

_coho_ and _copha_; Evelyn (1637), _coffee_; Fryer (1673) _coho_;

Ovington (1690), _coffee_; and Valentijn (1726), _coffi_. And from

the two examples given by Col. Prideaux, we see that Jourdain

(1609) has _cohoo_, and Revett (1609) has _coffe_.

To the above should be added the following by English writers, given in

Foster's _English Factories in India_ (1618-21, 1622-23, 1624-29): cowha

(1619), cowhe, couha (1621), coffa (1628).

Let us now see what foreigners (chiefly French and Italian) write. The

earliest European mention is by Rauwolf, who knew it in Aleppo in 1573.

He has the form _chaube_. Prospero Alpini (1580) has _caova_; Paludanus

(1598) _chaoua_; Pyrard de Laval (1610) _cahoa_; P. Della Valle (1615)

_cahue_; Jac. Bontius (1631) _caveah_; and the _Journal d'Antoine

Galland_ (1673) _cave_. That is, Englishmen use forms of a certain

distinct type, _viz._, cohu, coho, coffao, coffe, copha, coffee, which

differ from the more correct transliteration of foreigners.

In 1610 the Portuguese Jew, Pedro Teixeira (in the Hakluyt Society's

edition of his _Travels_) used the word _kavàh_.

The inferences from these transitional forms seem to be: 1. The word

found its way into the languages of Europe both from the Turkish and

from the Arabic. 2. The English forms (which have strong stress on the

first syllable) have _o_ instead of _a_, and _f_ instead of _h_.

3. The foreign forms are unstressed and have no _h_. The original _v_ or

_w_ (or labialized _u_) is retained or changed into _f_.

It may be stated, accordingly, that the chief reason for the existence

of two distinct types of spelling is the omission of _h_ in unstressed

languages, and the conversion of _h_ into _f_ under strong stress in

stressed languages. Such conversion often takes place in Turkish; for

example, _silah dar_ in Persian (which is a highly stressed language)

becomes _zilif dar_ in Turkish. In the languages of India, on the other

hand, in spite of the fact that the aspirate is usually very clearly

sounded, the word _qahvah_ is pronounced _kaiva_ by the less

educated classes, owing to the syllables being equally stressed.

Now for the French viewpoint. Jardin[3] opines that, as regards the

etymology of the word coffee, scholars are not agreed and perhaps never

will be. Dufour[4] says the word is derived from _caouhe_, a name given

by the Turks to the beverage prepared from the seed. Chevalier

d'Arvieux, French consul at Alet, Savary, and Trevoux, in his

dictionary, think that coffee comes from the Arabic, but from the word

_cahoueh_ or _quaweh_, meaning to give vigor or strength, because, says

d'Arvieux, its most general effect is to fortify and strengthen.

Tavernier combats this opinion. Moseley attributes the origin of the

word coffee to Kaffa. Sylvestre de Sacy, in his _Chréstomathie Arabe_,

published in 1806, thinks that the word _kahwa_, synonymous with

_makli_, roasted in a stove, might very well be the etymology of the

word coffee. D'Alembert in his encyclopedic dictionary, writes the word

_caffé_. Jardin concludes that whatever there may be in these various

etymologies, it remains a fact that the word coffee comes from an

Arabian word, whether it be _kahua_, _kahoueh_, _kaffa_ or _kahwa_, and

that the peoples who have adopted the drink have all modified the

Arabian word to suit their pronunciation. This is shown by giving the

word as written in various modern languages:

French, _café_; Breton, _kafe_; German, _kaffee_ (coffee tree,

_kaffeebaum_); Dutch, _koffie_ (coffee tree, _koffieboonen_); Danish,

_kaffe_; Finnish, _kahvi_; Hungarian, _kavé_; Bohemian, _kava_; Polish,

_kawa_; Roumanian, _cafea_; Croatian, _kafa_; Servian, _kava_; Russian,

_kophe_; Swedish, _kaffe_; Spanish, _café_; Basque, _kaffia_; Italian,

_caffè_; Portuguese, _café_; Latin (scientific), _coffea_; Turkish,

_kahué_; Greek, _kaféo_; Arabic, _qahwah_ (coffee berry, _bun_);

Persian, _qéhvé_ (coffee berry, _bun_[5]); Annamite, _ca-phé_;

Cambodian, _kafé_; Dukni[6], _bunbund_[7]; Teluyan[8], _kapri-vittulu_;

Tamil[9], _kapi-kottai_ or _kopi_; Canareze[10], _kapi-bija_; Chinese,

_kia-fey_, _teoutsé_; Japanese, _kéhi_; Malayan, _kawa_, _koppi_;

Abyssinian, _bonn_[11]; Foulak, _legal café_[12]; Sousou, _houri

caff_[13]; Marquesan, _kapi_; Chinook[14], _kaufee_; Volapuk, _kaf_;

Esperanto, _kafva_.

[Illustration: THE FAIRY BEAUTY OF A COFFEE TREE IN FLOWER]

CHAPTER II

HISTORY OF COFFEE PROPAGATION

_A brief account of the cultivation of the coffee plant in the Old

World and its introduction into the New--A romantic coffee

adventure_

The history of the propagation of the coffee plant is closely interwoven

with that of the early history of coffee drinking, but for the purposes

of this chapter we shall consider only the story of the inception and

growth of the cultivation of the coffee tree, or shrub, bearing the

seeds, or berries, from which the drink, coffee, is made.

Careful research discloses that most authorities agree that the coffee

plant is indigenous to Abyssinia, and probably Arabia, whence its

cultivation spread throughout the tropics. The first reliable mention of

the properties and uses of the plant is by an Arabian physician toward

the close of the ninth century A.D., and it is reasonable to suppose

that before that time the plant was found growing wild in Abyssinia and

perhaps in Arabia. If it be true, as Ludolphus writes,[15] that the

Abyssinians came out of Arabia into Ethiopia in the early ages, it is

possible that they may have brought the coffee tree with them; but the

Arabians must still be given the credit for discovering and promoting

the use of the beverage, and also for promoting the propagation of the

plant, even if they found it in Abyssinia and brought it to Yemen.

Some authorities believe that the first cultivation of coffee in Yemen

dates back to 575 A.D., when the Persian invasion put an end to the

Ethiopian rule of the negus Caleb, who conquered the country in 525.

Certainly the discovery of the beverage resulted in the cultivation of

the plant in Abyssinia and in Arabia; but its progress was slow until

the 15th and 16th centuries, when it appears as intensively carried on

in the Yemen district of Arabia. The Arabians were jealous of their new

found and lucrative industry, and for a time successfully prevented its

spread to other countries by not permitting any of the precious berries

to leave the country unless they had first been steeped in boiling water

or parched, so as to destroy their powers of germination. It may be that

many of the early failures successfully to introduce the cultivation of

the coffee plant into other lands was also due to the fact, discovered

later, that the seeds soon lose their germinating power.

However, it was not possible to watch every avenue of transport, with

thousands of pilgrims journeying to and from Mecca every year; and so

there would appear to be some reason to credit the Indian tradition

concerning the introduction of coffee cultivation into southern India by

Baba Budan, a Moslem pilgrim, as early as 1600, although a better

authority gives the date as 1695. Indian tradition relates that Baba

Budan planted his seeds near the hut he built for himself at Chickmaglur

in the mountains of Mysore, where, only a few years since, the writer

found the descendants of these first plants growing under the shade of

the centuries-old original jungle trees. The greater part of the plants

cultivated by the natives of Kurg and Mysore appear to have come from

the Baba Budan importation. It was not until 1840 that the English began

the cultivation of coffee in India. The plantations extend now from the

extreme north of Mysore to Tuticorin.

_Early Cultivation by the Dutch_

In the latter part of the 16th century, German, Italian, and Dutch

botanists and travelers brought back from the Levant considerable

information regarding the new plant and the beverage. In 1614

enterprising Dutch traders began to examine into the possibilities of

coffee cultivation and coffee trading. In 1616 a coffee plant was

successfully transported from Mocha to Holland. In 1658 the Dutch

started the cultivation of coffee in Ceylon, although the Arabs are said

to have brought the plant to the island prior to 1505. In 1670 an

attempt was made to cultivate coffee on European soil at Dijon, France,

but the result was a failure.

In 1696, at the instigation of Nicolaas Witsen, then burgomaster of

Amsterdam, Adrian Van Ommen, commander at Malabar, India, caused to be

shipped from Kananur, Malabar, to Java, the first coffee plants

introduced into that island. They were grown from seed of the _Coffea

arabica_ brought to Malabar from Arabia. They were planted by

Governor-General Willem Van Outshoorn on the Kedawoeng estate near

Batavia, but were subsequently lost by earthquake and flood. In 1699

Henricus Zwaardecroon imported some slips, or cuttings, of coffee trees

from Malabar into Java. These were more successful, and became the

progenitors of all the coffees of the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch were

then taking the lead in the propagation of the coffee plant.

In 1706 the first samples of Java coffee, and a coffee plant grown in

Java, were received at the Amsterdam botanical gardens. Many plants were

afterward propagated from the seeds produced in the Amsterdam gardens,

and these were distributed to some of the best known botanical gardens

and private conservatories in Europe.

While the Dutch were extending the cultivation of the plant to Sumatra,

the Celebes, Timor, Bali, and other islands of the Netherlands Indies,

the French were seeking to introduce coffee cultivation into their

colonies. Several attempts were made to transfer young plants from the

Amsterdam botanical gardens to the botanical gardens at Paris; but all

were failures.

In 1714, however, as a result of negotiations entered into between the

French government and the municipality of Amsterdam, a young and

vigorous plant about five feet tall was sent to Louis XIV at the chateau

of Marly by the burgomaster of Amsterdam. The day following, it was

transferred to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, where it was received

with appropriate ceremonies by Antoine de Jussieu, professor of botany

in charge. This tree was destined to be the progenitor of most of the

coffees of the French colonies, as well as of those of South America,

Central America, and Mexico.

_The Romance of Captain Gabriel de Clieu_

Two unsuccessful attempts were made to transport to the Antilles plants

grown from the seed of the tree presented to Louis XIV; but the honor of

eventual success was won by a young Norman gentleman, Gabriel Mathieu de

Clieu, a naval officer, serving at the time as captain of infantry at

Martinique. The story of de Clieu's achievement is the most romantic

chapter in the history of the propagation of the coffee plant.

His personal affairs calling him to France, de Clieu conceived the idea

of utilizing the return voyage to introduce coffee cultivation into

Martinique. His first difficulty lay in obtaining several of the plants

then being cultivated in Paris, a difficulty at last overcome through

the instrumentality of M. de Chirac, royal physician, or, according to a

letter written by de Clieu himself, through the kindly offices of a lady

of quality to whom de Chirac could give no refusal. The plants selected

were kept at Rochefort by M. Bégon, commissary of the department, until

the departure of de Clieu for Martinique. Concerning the exact date of

de Clieu's arrival at Martinique with the coffee plant, or plants, there

is much conflict of opinion. Some authorities give the date as 1720,

others 1723. Jardin[16] suggests that the discrepancy in dates may arise

from de Clieu, with praiseworthy perseverance, having made the voyage

twice. The first time, according to Jardin, the plants perished; but the

second time de Clieu had planted the seeds when leaving France and these

survived, "due, they say, to his having given of his scanty ration of

water to moisten them." No reference to a preceding voyage, however, is

made by de Clieu in his own account, given in a letter written to the

_Année Littéraire_[17] in 1774. There is also a difference of opinion as

to whether de Clieu arrived with one or three plants. He himself says

"one" in the letter referred to.

According to the most trustworthy data, de Clieu embarked at Nantes,

1723.[18] He had installed his precious plant in a box covered with a

glass frame in order to absorb the rays of the sun and thus better to

retain the stored-up heat for cloudy days. Among the passengers one man,

envious of the young officer, did all in his power to wrest from him the

glory of success. Fortunately his dastardly attempt failed of its

intended effect.

"It is useless," writes de Clieu in his letter to the _Année

Littéraire_, "to recount in detail the infinite care that I was obliged

to bestow upon this delicate plant during a long voyage, and the

difficulties I had in saving it from the hands of a man who, basely

jealous of the joy I was about to taste through being of service to my

country, and being unable to get this coffee plant away from me, tore

off a branch."

[Illustration: CAPTAIN DE CLIEU SHARES HIS DRINKING WATER WITH THE

COFFEE PLANT HE IS CARRYING TO MARTINIQUE]

The vessel carrying de Clieu was a merchantman, and many were the trials

that beset passengers and crew. Narrowly escaping capture by a corsair

of Tunis, menaced by a violent tempest that threatened to annihilate

them, they finally encountered a calm that proved more appalling than

either. The supply of drinking water was well nigh exhausted, and what

was left was rationed for the remainder of the voyage.

"Water was lacking to such an extent," says de Clieu, "that for more

than a month I was obliged to share the scanty ration of it assigned to

me with this my coffee plant upon which my happiest hopes were founded

and which was the source of my delight. It needed such succor the more

in that it was extremely backward, being no larger than the slip of a

pink." Many stories have been written and verses sung recording and

glorifying this generous sacrifice that has given luster to the name of

de Clieu.

Arrived in Martinique, de Clieu planted his precious slip on his estate

in Prêcheur, one of the cantons of the island; where, says Raynal, "it

multiplied with extraordinary rapidity and success." From the seedlings

of this plant came most of the coffee trees of the Antilles. The first

harvest was gathered in 1726.

De Clieu himself describes his arrival as follows:

Arriving at home, my first care was to set out my plant with great

attention in the part of my garden most favorable to its growth.

Although keeping it in view, I feared many times that it would be

taken from me; and I was at last obliged to surround it with thorn

bushes and to establish a guard about it until it arrived at

maturity ... this precious plant which had become still more dear

to me for the dangers it had run and the cares it had cost me.

Thus the little stranger thrived in a distant land, guarded day and

night by faithful slaves. So tiny a plant to produce in the end all the

rich estates of the West India islands and the regions bordering on the

Gulf of Mexico! What luxuries, what future comforts and delights,

resulted from this one small talent confided to the care of a man of

rare vision and fine intellectual sympathy, fired by the spirit of real

love for his fellows! There is no instance in the history of the French

people of a good deed done by stealth being of greater service to

humanity.

De Clieu thus describes the events that followed fast upon the

introduction of coffee into Martinique, with particular reference to

the earthquake of 1727:

Success exceeded my hopes. I gathered about two pounds of seed

which I distributed among all those whom I thought most capable of

giving the plants the care necessary to their prosperity.

The first harvest was very abundant; with the second it was

possible to extend the cultivation prodigiously, but what favored

multiplication, most singularly, was the fact that two years

afterward all the cocoa trees of the country, which were the

resource and occupation of the people, were uprooted and totally

destroyed by horrible tempests accompanied by an inundation which

submerged all the land where these trees were planted, land which

was at once made into coffee plantations by the natives. These did

marvelously and enabled us to send plants to Santo Domingo,

Guadeloupe, and other adjacent islands, where since that time they

have been cultivated with the greatest success.

By 1777 there were 18,791,680 coffee trees in Martinique.

De Clieu was born in Angléqueville-sur-Saane, Seine-Inférieure

(Normandy), in 1686 or 1688.[19] In 1705 he was a ship's ensign; in 1718

he became a chevalier of St. Louis; in 1720 he was made a captain of

infantry; in 1726, a major of infantry; in 1733 he was a ship's

lieutenant; in 1737 he became governor of Guadeloupe; in 1746 he was a

ship's captain; in 1750 he was made honorary commander of the order of

St. Louis; in 1752 he retired with a pension of 6000 francs; in 1753 he

re-entered the naval service; in 1760 he again retired with a pension of

2000 francs.

In 1746 de Clieu, having returned to France, was presented to Louis XV

by the minister of marine, Rouillé de Jour, as "a distinguished officer

to whom the colonies, as well as France itself, and commerce generally,

are indebted for the cultivation of coffee."

Reports to the king in 1752 and 1759 recall his having carried the first

coffee plant to Martinique, and that he had ever been distinguished for

his zeal and disinterestedness. In the _Mercure de France_, December,

1774, was the following death notice:

Gabriel d'Erchigny de Clieu, former Ship's Captain and Honorary

Commander of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, died in

Paris on the 30th of November in the 88th year of his age.

A notice of his death appeared also in the _Gazette de France_ for

December 5, 1774, a rare honor in both cases; and it has been said that

at this time his praise was again on every lip.

One French historian, Sidney Daney,[20] records that de Clieu died in

poverty at St. Pierre at the age of 97; but this must be an error,

although it does not anywhere appear that at his death he was possessed

of much, if any, means. Daney says:

This generous man received as his sole recompense for a noble deed

the satisfaction of seeing this plant for whose preservation he had

shown such devotion, prosper throughout the Antilles. The

illustrious de Clieu is among those to whom Martinique owes a

brilliant reparation.

Daney tells also that in 1804 there was a movement in Martinique to

erect a monument upon the spot where de Clieu planted his first coffee

plant, but that the undertaking came to naught.

Pardon, in his _La Martinique_ says:

Honor to this brave man! He has deserved it from the people of two

hemispheres. His name is worthy of a place beside that of

Parmentier who carried to France the potato of Canada. These two

men have rendered immense service to humanity, and their memory

should never be forgotten--yet alas! Are they even remembered?

Tussac, in his _Flora de las Antillas_, writing of de Clieu, says,

"Though no monument be erected to this beneficent traveler, yet his name

should remain engraved in the heart of every colonist."

In 1774 the _Année Littéraire_ published a long poem in de Clieu's

honor. In the feuilleton of the _Gazette de France_, April 12, 1816, we

read that M. Donns, a wealthy Hollander, and a coffee connoisseur,

sought to honor de Clieu by having painted upon a porcelain service all

the details of his voyage and its happy results. "I have seen the cups,"

says the writer, who gives many details and the Latin inscription.

That singer of navigation, Esménard, has pictured de Clieu's devotion in

the following lines:

Forget not how de Clieu with his light vessel's sail,

Brought distant Moka's gift--that timid plant and frail.

The waves fell suddenly, young zephyrs breathed no more,

Beneath fierce Cancer's fires behold the fountain store,

Exhausted, fails; while now inexorable need

Makes her unpitying law--with measured dole obeyed.

Now each soul fears to prove Tantalus torment first.

De Clieu alone defies: While still that fatal thirst,

Fierce, stifling, day by day his noble strength devours,

And still a heaven of brass inflames the burning hours.

With that refreshing draught his life he will not cheer;

But drop by drop revives the plant he holds more dear.

Already as in dreams, he sees great branches grow,

One look at his dear plant assuages all his woe.

The only memorial to de Clieu in Martinique is the botanical garden at

Fort de France, which was opened in 1918 and dedicated to de Clieu,

"whose memory has been too long left in oblivion.[21]"

In 1715 coffee cultivation was first introduced into Haiti and Santo

Domingo. Later came hardier plants from Martinique. In 1715-17 the

French Company of the Indies introduced the cultivation of the plant

into the Isle of Bourbon (now Réunion) by a ship captain named

Dufougeret-Grenier from St. Malo. It did so well that nine years later

the island began to export coffee.

The Dutch brought the cultivation of coffee to Surinam in 1718. The

first coffee plantation in Brazil was started at Pará in 1723 with

plants brought from French Guiana, but it was not a success. The English

brought the plant to Jamaica in 1730. In 1740 Spanish missionaries

introduced coffee cultivation into the Philippines from Java. In 1748

Don José Antonio Gelabert introduced coffee into Cuba, bringing the seed

from Santo Domingo. In 1750 the Dutch extended the cultivation of the

plant to the Celebes. Coffee was introduced into Guatemala about

1750-60. The intensive cultivation in Brazil dates from the efforts

begun in the Portuguese colonies in Pará and Amazonas in 1752. Porto

Rico began the cultivation of coffee about 1755. In 1760 João Alberto

Castello Branco brought to Rio de Janeiro a coffee tree from Goa,

Portuguese India. The news spread that the soil and climate of Brazil

were particularly adapted to the cultivation of coffee. Molke, a Belgian

monk, presented some seeds to the Capuchin monastery at Rio in 1774.

Later, the bishop of Rio, Joachim Bruno, became a patron of the plant

and encouraged its propagation in Rio, Minãs, Espirito Santo, and São

Paulo. The Spanish voyager, Don Francisco Xavier Navarro, is credited

with the introduction of coffee into Costa Rica from Cuba in 1779. In

Venezuela the industry was started near Caracas by a priest, José

Antonio Mohedano, with seed brought from Martinique in 1784.

Coffee cultivation in Mexico began in 1790, the seed being brought from

the West Indies. In 1817 Don Juan Antonio Gomez instituted intensive

cultivation in the State of Vera Cruz. In 1825 the cultivation of the

plant was begun in the Hawaiian Islands with seeds from Rio de Janeiro.

As previously noted, the English began to cultivate coffee in India in

1840. In 1852 coffee cultivation was begun in Salvador with plants

brought from Cuba. In 1878 the English began the propagation of coffee

in British Central Africa, but it was not until 1901 that coffee

cultivation was introduced into British East Africa from Réunion. In

1887 the French introduced the plant into Tonkin, Indo-China. Coffee

growing in Queensland, introduced in 1896, has been successful in a

small way.

In recent years several attempts have been made to propagate the coffee

plant in the southern United States, but without success. It is

believed, however, that the topographic and climatic conditions in

southern California are favorable for its cultivation.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: OMAR AND THE MARVELOUS COFFEE BIRD]

[Illustration: KALDI AND HIS DANCING GOATS]

[Illustration: THE LEGENDARY DISCOVERY OF THE COFFEE DRINK

From drawings by a modern French artist]

CHAPTER III

EARLY HISTORY OF COFFEE DRINKING

_Coffee in the Near East in the early centuries--Stories of its

origin--Discovery by physicians and adoption by the Church--Its

spread through Arabia, Persia and Turkey--Persecutions and

intolerances--Early coffee manners and customs_

The coffee drink had its rise in the classical period of Arabian

medicine, which dates from Rhazes (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya El

Razi) who followed the doctrines of Galen and sat at the feet of

Hippocrates. Rhazes (850-922) was the first to treat medicine in an

encyclopedic manner, and, according to some authorities, the first

writer to mention coffee. He assumed the poetical name of Razi because

he was a native of the city of Raj in Persian Irak. He was a great

philosopher and astronomer, and at one time was superintendent of the

hospital at Bagdad. He wrote many learned books on medicine and surgery,

but his principal work is _Al-Haiwi_, or _The Continent_, a collection

of everything relating to the cure of disease from Galen to his own

time.

Philippe Sylvestre Dufour (1622-87)[22], a French coffee merchant,

philosopher, and writer, in an accurate and finished treatise on coffee,

tells us (see the early edition of the work translated from the Latin)

that the first writer to mention the properties of the coffee bean under

the name of _bunchum_ was this same Rhazes, "in the ninth century after

the birth of our Saviour"; from which (if true) it would appear that

coffee has been known for upwards of 1000 years. Robinson[23], however,

is of the opinion that _bunchum_ meant something else and had nothing to

do with coffee. Dufour, himself, in a later edition of his _Traitez

Nouveaux et Curieux du Café_ (the Hague, 1693) is inclined to admit that

_bunchum_ may have been a root and not coffee, after all; however, he is

careful to add that there is no doubt that the Arabs knew coffee as far

back as the year 800. Other, more modern authorities, place it as early

as the sixth century.

_Wiji Kawih_ is mentioned in a Kavi (Javan) inscription A.D. 856; and it

is thought that the "bean broth" in David Tapperi's list of Javanese

beverages (1667-82) may have been coffee[24].

While the true origin of coffee drinking may be forever hidden among the

mysteries of the purple East, shrouded as it is in legend and fable,

scholars have marshaled sufficient facts to prove that the beverage was

known in Ethiopia "from time immemorial," and there is much to add

verisimilitude to Dufour's narrative. This first coffee merchant-prince,

skilled in languages and polite learning, considered that his character

as a merchant was not inconsistent with that of an author; and he even

went so far as to say there were some things (for instance, coffee) on

which a merchant could be better informed than a philosopher.

Granting that by _bunchum_ Rhazes meant coffee, the plant and the drink

must have been known to his immediate followers; and this, indeed, seems

to be indicated by similar references in the writings of Avicenna (Ibn

Sina), the Mohammedan physician and philosopher, who lived from 980 to

1037 A.D.

Rhazes, in the quaint language of Dufour, assures us that "_bunchum_

(coffee) is hot and dry and very good for the stomach." Avicenna

explains the medicinal properties and uses of the coffee bean (_bon_ or

_bunn_), which he, also, calls _bunchum_, after this fashion:

As to the choice thereof, that of a lemon color, light, and of a

good smell, is the best; the white and the heavy is naught. It is

hot and dry in the first degree, and, according to others, cold in

the first degree. It fortifies the members, it cleans the skin, and

dries up the humidities that are under it, and gives an excellent

smell to all the body.

The early Arabians called the bean and the tree that bore it, _bunn_;

the drink, _bunchum_. A. Galland[25] (1646-1715), the French Orientalist

who first analyzed and translated from the Arabic the Abd-al-Kâdir

manuscript[26], the oldest document extant telling of the origin of

coffee, observes that Avicenna speaks of the _bunn_, or coffee; as do

also Prospero Alpini and Veslingius (Vesling). Bengiazlah, another great

physician, contemporary with Avicenna, likewise mentions coffee; by

which, says Galland, one may see that we are indebted to physicians for

the discovery of coffee, as well as of sugar, tea, and chocolate.

Rauwolf[27] (d. 1596), German physician and botanist, and the first

European to mention coffee, who became acquainted with the beverage in

Aleppo in 1573, telling how the drink was prepared by the Turks, says:

In this same water they take a fruit called _Bunnu_, which in its

bigness, shape, and color is almost like unto a bayberry, with two

thin shells surrounded, which, as they informed me, are brought

from the _Indies_; but as these in themselves are, and have within

them, two yellowish grains in two distinct cells, and besides,

being they agree in their virtue, figure, looks, and name with the

_Bunchum_ of Avicenna and _Bunco_, of _Rasis ad Almans_ exactly:

therefore I take them to be the same.

In Dr. Edward Pocoke's translation (Oxford, 1659) of _The Nature of the

Drink Kauhi, or Coffee, and the Berry of which it is Made, Described by

an Arabian Phisitian_, we read:

_Bun_ is a plant in _Yaman_ [Yemen], which is planted in _Adar_,

and groweth up and is gathered in _Ab_. It is about a cubit high,

on a stalk about the thickness of one's thumb. It flowers white,

leaving a berry like a small nut, but that sometimes it is broad

like a bean; and when it is peeled, parteth in two. The best of it

is that which is weighty and yellow; the worst, that which is

black. It is hot in the first degree, dry in the second: it is

usually reported to be cold and dry, but it is not so; for it is

bitter, and whatsoever is bitter is hot. It may be that the scorce

is hot, and the Bun it selfe either of equall temperature, or cold

in the first degree.

That which makes for its coldnesse is its stipticknesse. In summer

it is by experience found to conduce to the drying of rheumes, and

flegmatick coughes and distillations, and the opening of

obstructions, and the provocation of urin. It is now known by the

name of _Kohwah_. When it is dried and thoroughly boyled, it

allayes the ebullition of the blood, is good against the small poxe

and measles, the bloudy pimples; yet causeth vertiginous headheach,

and maketh lean much, occasioneth waking, and the Emrods, and

asswageth lust, and sometimes breeds melancholly.

He that would drink it for livelinesse sake, and to discusse

slothfulnesse, and the other properties that we have mentioned, let

him use much sweat meates with it, and oyle of pistaccioes, and

butter. Some drink it with milk, but it is an error, and such as

may bring in danger of the leprosy.

Dufour concludes that the coffee beans of commerce are the same as the

_bunchum_ (_bunn_) described by Avicenna and the _bunca_ (_bunchum_) of

Rhazes. In this he agrees, almost word for word, with Rauwolf,

indicating no change in opinion among the learned in a hundred years.

Christopher Campen thinks Hippocrates, father of medicine, knew and

administered coffee.

Robinson, commenting upon the early adoption of coffee into materia

medica, charges that it was a mistake on the part of the Arab

physicians, and that it originated the prejudice that caused coffee to

be regarded as a powerful drug instead of as a simple and refreshing

beverage.

_Homer, the Bible, and Coffee_

In early Grecian and Roman writings no mention is made of either the

coffee plant or the beverage made from the berries. Pierre (Pietro)

Delia Valle[28] (1586-1652), however, maintains that the _nepenthe_,

which Homer says Helen brought with her out of Egypt, and which she

employed as surcease for sorrow, was nothing else but coffee mixed with

wine.[29] This is disputed by M. Petit, a well known physician of Paris,

who died in 1687. Several later British authors, among them, Sandys,

the poet; Burton; and Sir Henry Blount, have suggested the probability

of coffee being the "black broth" of the Lacedæmonians.

George Paschius, in his Latin treatise of the _New Discoveries Made

since the Time of the Ancients_, printed at Leipsic in 1700, says he

believes that coffee was meant by the five measures of parched corn

included among the presents Abigail made to David to appease his wrath,

as recorded in the _Bible_, 1 Samuel, xxv, 18. The _Vulgate_ translates

the Hebrew words _sein kali_ into _sata polentea_, which signify wheat,

roasted, or dried by fire.

[Illustration: TITLE PAGE OF DUFOUR'S BOOK, EDITION OF 1693]

Pierre Étienne Louis Dumant, the Swiss Protestant minister and author,

is of the opinion that coffee (and not lentils, as others have supposed)

was the red pottage for which Esau sold his birthright; also that the

parched grain that Boaz ordered to be given Ruth was undoubtedly roasted

coffee berries.

Dufour mentions as a possible objection against coffee that "the use and

eating of beans were heretofore forbidden by Pythagoras," but intimates

that the coffee bean of Arabia is something different.

Scheuzer,[30] in his _Physique Sacrée_, says "the Turks and the Arabs

make with the coffee bean a beverage which bears the same name, and many

persons use as a substitute the flour of roasted barley." From this we

learn that the coffee substitute is almost as old as coffee itself.

_Some Early Legends_

After medicine, the church. There are several Mohammedan traditions that

have persisted through the centuries, claiming for "the faithful" the

honor and glory of the first use of coffee as a beverage. One of these

relates how, about 1258 A.D., Sheik Omar, a disciple of Sheik Abou'l

hasan Schadheli, patron saint and legendary founder of Mocha, by chance

discovered the coffee drink at Ousab in Arabia, whither he had been

exiled for a certain moral remissness.

Facing starvation, he and his followers were forced to feed upon the

berries growing around them. And then, in the words of the faithful Arab

chronicle in the Bibliothéque Nationale at Paris, "having nothing to eat

except coffee, they took of it and boiled it in a saucepan and drank of

the decoction." Former patients in Mocha who sought out the good

doctor-priest in his Ousab retreat, for physic with which to cure their

ills, were given some of this decoction, with beneficial effect. As a

result of the stories of its magical properties, carried back to the

city, Sheik Omar was invited to return in triumph to Mocha where the

governor caused to be built a monastery for him and his companions.

Another version of this Oriental legend gives it as follows:

The dervish Hadji Omar was driven by his enemies out of Mocha into

the desert, where they expected he would die of starvation. This

undoubtedly would have occurred if he had not plucked up courage to

taste some strange berries which he found growing on a shrub. While

they seemed to be edible, they were very bitter; and he tried to

improve the taste by roasting them. He found, however, that they

had become very hard, so he attempted to soften them with water.

The berries seemed to remain as hard as before, but the liquid

turned brown, and Omar drank it on the chance that it contained

some of the nourishment from the berries. He was amazed at how it

refreshed him, enlivened his sluggishness, and raised his drooping

spirits. Later, when he returned to Mocha, his salvation was

considered a miracle. The beverage to which it was due sprang into

high favor, and Omar himself was made a saint.

A popular and much-quoted version of Omar's discovery of coffee, also

based upon the Abd-al-Kâdir manuscript, is the following:

In the year of the Hegira 656, the mollah Schadheli went on a

pilgrimage to Mecca. Arriving at the mountain of the Emeralds

(Ousab), he turned to his disciple Omar and said: "I shall die in

this place. When my soul has gone forth, a veiled person will

appear to you. Do not fail to execute the command which he will

give you."

The venerable Schadheli being dead, Omar saw in the middle of the

night a gigantic specter covered by a white veil.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The phantom drew back his veil, and Omar saw with surprise

Schadheli himself, grown ten cubits since his death. The mollah dug

in the ground, and water miraculously appeared. The spirit of his

teacher bade Omar fill a bowl with the water and to proceed on his

way and not to stop till he reached the spot where the water would

stop moving.

"It is there," he added, "that a great destiny awaits you."

Omar started his journey. Arriving at Mocha in Yemen, he noticed

that the water was immovable. It was here that he must stop.

The beautiful village of Mocha was then ravaged by the plague. Omar

began to pray for the sick and, as the saintly man was close to

Mahomet, many found themselves cured by his prayers.

The plague meanwhile progressing, the daughter of the King of Mocha

fell ill and her father had her carried to the home of the dervish

who cured her. But as this young princess was of rare beauty, after

having cured her, the good dervish tried to carry her off. The king

did not fancy this new kind of reward. Omar was driven from the

city and exiled on the mountain of Ousab, with herbs for food and a

cave for a home.

"Oh, Schadheli, my dear master," cried the unfortunate dervish one

day; "if the things which happened to me at Mocha were destined,

was it worth the trouble to give me a bowl to come here?"

To these just complaints, there was heard immediately a song of

incomparable harmony, and a bird of marvelous plumage came to rest

in a tree. Omar sprang forward quickly toward the little bird which

sang so well, but then he saw on the branches of the tree only

flowers and fruit. Omar laid hands on the fruit, and found it

delicious. Then he filled his great pockets with it and went back

to his cave. As he was preparing to boil a few herbs for his

dinner, the idea came to him of substituting for this sad soup,

some of his harvested fruit. From it he obtained a savory and

perfumed drink; it was coffee.

The Italian _Journal of the Savants_ for the year 1760 says that two

monks, Scialdi and Ayduis, were the first to discover the properties of

coffee, and for this reason became the object of special prayers. "Was

not this Scialdi identical with the Sheik Schadheli?" asks Jardin.[31]

The most popular legend ascribes the discovery of the drink to an

Arabian herdsman in upper Egypt, or Abyssinia, who complained to the

abbot of a neighboring monastery that the goats confided to his care

became unusually frolicsome after eating the berries of certain shrubs

found near their feeding grounds. The abbot, having observed the fact,

determined to try the virtues of the berries on himself. He, too,

responded with a new exhilaration. Accordingly, he directed that some be

boiled, and the decoction drunk by his monks, who thereafter found no

difficulty in keeping awake during the religious services of the night.

The abbé Massieu in his poem, _Carmen Caffaeum_, thus celebrates the

event:

The monks each in turn, as the evening draws near,

Drink 'round the great cauldron--a circle of cheer!

And the dawn in amaze, revisiting that shore,

On idle beds of ease surprised them nevermore!

According to the legend, the news of the "wakeful monastery" spread

rapidly, and the magical berry soon "came to be in request throughout

the whole kingdom; and in progress of time other nations and provinces

of the East fell into the use of it."

The French have preserved the following picturesque version of this

legend:

A young goatherd named Kaldi noticed one day that his goats, whose

deportment up to that time had been irreproachable, were abandoning

themselves to the most extravagant prancings. The venerable buck,

ordinarily so dignified and solemn, bounded about like a young kid.

Kaldi attributed this foolish gaiety to certain fruits of which the

goats had been eating with delight.

The story goes that the poor fellow had a heavy heart; and in the

hope of cheering himself up a little, he thought he would pick and

eat of the fruit. The experiment succeeded marvelously. He forgot

his troubles and became the happiest herder in happy Arabia. When

the goats danced, he gaily made himself one of the party, and

entered into their fun with admirable spirit.

One day, a monk chanced to pass by and stopped in surprise to find

a ball going on. A score of goats were executing lively pirouettes

like a ladies' chain, while the buck solemnly _balancé-ed_, and the

herder went through the figures of an eccentric pastoral dance.

The astonished monk inquired the cause of this saltatorial madness;

and Kaldi told him of his precious discovery.

Now, this poor monk had a great sorrow; he always went to sleep in

the middle of his prayers; and he reasoned that Mohammed without

doubt was revealing this marvelous fruit to him to overcome his

sleepiness.

[Illustration: ARAB DRINKING COFFEE; CHINAMAN, TEA; AND INDIAN,

CHOCOLATE

Frontispiece from Dufour's work]

Piety does not exclude gastronomic instincts. Those of our good

monk were more than ordinary; because he thought of drying and

boiling the fruit of the herder. This ingenious concoction gave us

coffee. Immediately all the monks of the realm made use of the

drink, because it encouraged them to pray and, perhaps, also

because it was not disagreeable.

In those early days it appears that the drink was prepared in two ways;

one in which the decoction was made from the hull and the pulp

surrounding the bean, and the other from the bean itself. The roasting

process came later and is an improvement generally credited to the

Persians. There is evidence that the early Mohammedan churchmen were

seeking a substitute for the wine forbidden to them by the Koran, when

they discovered coffee. The word for coffee in Arabic, _qahwah_, is the

same as one of those used for wine; and later on, when coffee drinking

grew so popular as to threaten the very life of the church itself, this

similarity was seized upon by the church-leaders to support their

contention that the prohibition against wine applied also to coffee.

La Roque,[32] writing in 1715, says that the Arabian word _cahouah_

signified at first only wine; but later was turned into a generic term

applied to all kinds of drink. "So there were really three sorts of

coffee; namely, wine, including all intoxicating liquors; the drink made

with the shells, or cods, of the coffee bean; and that made from the

bean itself."

Originally, then, the coffee drink may have been a kind of wine made

from the coffee fruit. In the coffee countries even today the natives

are very fond, and eat freely, of the ripe coffee cherries, voiding the

seeds. The pulp surrounding the coffee seeds (beans) is pleasant to

taste, has a sweetish, aromatic flavor, and quickly ferments when

allowed to stand.

Still another tradition (was the wish father to the thought?) tells how

the coffee drink was revealed to Mohammed himself by the Angel Gabriel.

Coffee's partisans found satisfaction in a passage in the _Koran_ which,

they said, foretold its adoption by the followers of the Prophet:

They shall be given to drink an excellent wine, sealed; its seal is

that of the musk.

The most diligent research does not carry a knowledge of coffee back

beyond the time of Rhazes, two hundred years after Mohammed; so there is

little more than speculation or conjecture to support the theory that it

was known to the ancients, in Bible times or in the days of The Praised

One. Our knowledge of tea, on the other hand, antedates the Christian

era. We know also that tea was intensively cultivated and taxed under

the Tang dynasty in China, A.D. 793, and that Arab traders knew of it in

the following century.

_The First Reliable Coffee Date_

About 1454 Sheik Gemaleddin Abou Muhammad Bensaid, mufti of Aden,

surnamed Aldhabani, from Dhabhan, a small town where he was born, became

acquainted with the virtues of coffee on a journey into Abyssinia.[33]

Upon his return to Aden, his health became impaired; and remembering the

coffee he had seen his countrymen drinking in Abyssinia, he sent for

some in the hope of finding relief. He not only recovered from his

illness; but, because of its sleep-dispelling qualities, he sanctioned

the use of the drink among the dervishes "that they might spend the

night in prayers or other religious exercises with more attention and

presence of mind.[34]"

It is altogether probable that the coffee drink was known in Aden before

the time of Sheik Gemaleddin; but the endorsement of the very learned

imam, whom science and religion had already made famous, was sufficient

to start a vogue for the beverage that spread throughout Yemen, and

thence to the far corners of the world. We read in the Arabian

manuscript at the Bibliothéque Nationale that lawyers, students, as well

as travelers who journeyed at night, artisans, and others, who worked at

night, to escape the heat of the day, took to drinking coffee; and even

left off another drink, then becoming popular, made from the leaves of a

plant called _khat_ or _cat_ (_catha edulis_).

Sheik Gemaleddin was assisted in his work of spreading the gospel of

this the first propaganda for coffee by one Muhammed Alhadrami, a

physician of great reputation, born in Hadramaut, Arabia Felix.

A recently unearthed and little known version of coffee's origin shows

how features of both the Omar tradition and the Gemaleddin story may be

combined by a professional Occidental tale-writer[35]:

Toward the middle of the fifteenth century, a poor Arab was

traveling in Abyssinia. Finding himself weak and weary, he stopped

near a grove. For fuel wherewith to cook his rice, he cut down a

tree that happened to be covered with dried berries. His meal being

cooked and eaten, the traveler discovered that these half-burnt

berries were fragrant. He collected a number of them and, on

crushing them with a stone, found that the aroma was increased to a

great extent. While wondering at this, he accidentally let the

substance fall into an earthen vessel that contained his scanty

supply of water.

A miracle! The almost putrid water was purified. He brought it to

his lips; it was fresh and agreeable; and after a short rest the

traveler so far recovered his strength and energy as to be able to

resume his journey. The lucky Arab gathered as many berries as he

could, and having arrived at Aden, informed the mufti of his

discovery. That worthy was an inveterate opium-smoker, who had been

suffering for years from the influence of the poisonous drug. He

tried an infusion of the roasted berries, and was so delighted at

the recovery of his former vigor that in gratitude to the tree he

called it _cahuha_ which in Arabic signifies "force".

Galland, in his analysis of the Arabian manuscript, already referred to,

that has furnished us with the most trustworthy account of the origin of

coffee, criticizes Antoine Faustus Nairon, Maronite professor of

Oriental languages at Rome, who was the author of the first printed

treatise on coffee only,[36] for accepting the legends relating to Omar

and the Abyssinian goatherd. He says they are unworthy of belief as

facts of history, although he is careful to add that there is _some_

truth in the story of the discovery of coffee by the Abyssinian goats

and the abbot who prescribed the use of the berries for his monks, "the

Eastern Christians being willing to have the honor of the invention of

coffee, for the abbot, or prior, of the convent and his companions are

only the mufti Gemaleddin and Muhammid Alhadrami, and the monks are the

dervishes."

Amid all these details, Jardin reaches the conclusion that it is to

chance we must attribute the knowledge of the properties of coffee, and

that the coffee tree was transported from its native land to Yemen, as

far as Mecca, and possibly into Persia, before being carried into Egypt.

Coffee, being thus favorably introduced into Aden, it has continued

there ever since, without interruption. By degrees the cultivation of

the plant and the use of the beverage passed into many neighboring

places. Toward the close of the fifteenth century (1470-1500) it reached

Mecca and Medina, where it was introduced, as at Aden, by the dervishes,

and for the same religious purpose. About 1510 it reached Grand Cairo in

Egypt, where the dervishes from Yemen, living in a district by

themselves, drank coffee on the nights they intended to spend in

religious devotion. They kept it in a large red earthen vessel--each in

turn receiving it, respectfully, from their superior, in a small bowl,

which he dipped into the jar--in the meantime chanting their prayers,

the burden of which was always: "There is no God but one God, the true

King, whose power is not to be disputed."

[Illustration: A BOUQUET OF RIPE FRUIT]

[Illustration: FLOWERS, FRUIT, AND LEAVES]

[Illustration: THE COFFEE TREE BEARS FRUIT, LEAF, AND BLOSSOM AT THE

SAME TIME]

After the dervishes, the bowl was passed to lay members of the

congregation. In this way coffee came to be so associated with the act

of worship that "they never performed a religious ceremony in public and

never observed any solemn festival without taking coffee."

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Mecca became so fond of the beverage that,

disregarding its religious associations, they made of it a secular drink

to be sipped publicly in _kaveh kanes_, the first coffee houses. Here

the idle congregated to drink coffee, to play chess and other games, to

discuss the news of the day, and to amuse themselves with singing,

dancing, and music, contrary to the manners of the rigid Mahommedans,

who were very properly scandalized by such performances. In Medina and

in Cairo, too, coffee became as common a drink as in Mecca and Aden.

_The First Coffee Persecution_

At length the pious Mahommedans began to disapprove of the use of coffee

among the people. For one thing, it made common one of the best

psychology-adjuncts of their religion; also, the joy of life, that it

helped to liberate among those who frequented the coffee houses,

precipitated social, political, and religious arguments; and these

frequently developed into disturbances. Dissensions arose even among the

churchmen themselves. They divided into camps for and against coffee.

The law of the Prophet on the subject of wine was variously construed as

applying to coffee.

About this time (1511) Kair Bey was governor of Mecca for the sultan of

Egypt. He appears to have been a strict disciplinarian, but lamentably

ignorant of the actual conditions obtaining among his people. As he was

leaving the mosque one evening after prayers, he was offended by seeing

in a corner a company of coffee drinkers who were preparing to pass the

night in prayer. His first thought was that they were drinking wine; and

great was his astonishment when he learned what the liquor really was

and how common was its use throughout the city. Further investigation

convinced him that indulgence in this exhilarating drink must incline

men and women to extravagances prohibited by law, and so he determined

to suppress it. First he drove the coffee drinkers out of the mosque.

The next day, he called a council of officers of justice, lawyers,

physicians, priests, and leading citizens, to whom he declared what he

had seen the evening before at the mosque; and, "being resolved to put a

stop to the coffee-house abuses, he sought their advice upon the

subject." The chief count in the indictment was that "in these places

men and women met and played tambourines, violins, and other musical

instruments. There were also people who played chess, mankala, and other

similar games, for money; and there were many other things done contrary

to our sacred law--may God keep it from all corruption until the day

when we shall all appear before him![37]"

The lawyers agreed that the coffee houses needed reforming; but as to

the drink itself, inquiry should be made as to whether it was in any way

harmful to mind or body; for if not, it might not be sufficient to close

the places that sold it. It was suggested that the opinion of the

physicians be sought.

Two brothers, Persian physicians named Hakimani, and reputed the best in

Mecca, were summoned, although we are told they knew more about logic

than they did about physic. One of them came into the council fully

prejudiced, as he had already written a book against coffee, and filled

with concern for his profession, being fearful lest the common use of

the new drink would make serious inroads on the practise of medicine.

His brother joined with him in assuring the assembly that the plant

_bunn_, from which coffee was made, was "cold and dry" and so

unwholesome. When another physician present reminded them that

Bengiazlah, the ancient and respected contemporary of Avicenna, taught

that it was "hot and dry," they made arbitrary answer that Bengiazlah

had in mind another plant of the same name, and that anyhow, it was not

material; for, if the coffee drink disposed people to things forbidden

by religion, the safest course for Mahommedans was to look upon it as

unlawful.

The friends of coffee were covered with confusion. Only the mufti spoke

out in the meeting in its favor. Others, carried away by prejudice or

misguided zeal, affirmed that coffee clouded their senses. One man arose

and said it intoxicated like wine; which made every one laugh, since he

could hardly have been a judge of this if he had not drunk wine, which

is forbidden by the Mohammedan religion. Upon being asked whether he had

ever drunk any, he was so imprudent as to admit that he had, thereby

condemning himself out of his own mouth to the bastinado.

The mufti of Aden, being both an officer of the court and a divine,

undertook, with some heat, a defense of coffee; but he was clearly in an

unpopular minority. He was rewarded with the reproaches and affronts of

the religious zealots.

So the governor had his way, and coffee was solemnly condemned as thing

forbidden by the law; and a presentment was drawn up, signed by a

majority of those present, and dispatched post-haste by the governor to

his royal master, the sultan, at Cairo. At the same time, the governor

published an edict forbidding the sale of coffee in public or private.

The officers of justice caused all the coffee houses in Mecca to be

shut, and ordered all the coffee found there, or in the merchants'

warehouses, to be burned.

Naturally enough, being an unpopular edict, there were many evasions,

and much coffee drinking took place behind closed doors. Some of the

friends of coffee were outspoken in their opposition to the order, being

convinced that the assembly had rendered a judgment not in accordance

with the facts, and above all, contrary to the opinion of the mufti who,

in every Arab community, is looked up to as the interpreter, or

expounder, of the law. One man, caught in the act of disobedience,

besides being severely punished, was also led through the most public

streets of the city seated on an ass.

However, the triumph of the enemies of coffee was short-lived; for not

only did the sultan of Cairo disapprove the "indiscreet zeal" of the

governor of Mecca, and order the edict revoked; but he read him a severe

lesson on the subject. How dared he condemn a thing approved at Cairo,

the capital of his kingdom, where there were physicians whose opinions

carried more weight than those of Mecca, and who had found nothing

against the law in the use of coffee? The best things might be abused,

added the sultan, even the sacred waters of Zamzam, but this was no

reason for an absolute prohibition. The fountain, or well, of Zamzam,

according to the Mohammedan teaching, is the same which God caused to

spring up in the desert to comfort Hagar and Ishmael when Abraham

banished them. It is in the enclosure of the temple at Mecca; and the

Mohammedans drink of it with much show of devotion, ascribing great

virtues to it.

It is not recorded whether the misguided governor was shocked at this

seeming profanity; but it is known that he hastened to obey the orders

of his lord and master. The prohibition was recalled, and thereafter he

employed his authority only to preserve order in the coffee houses. The

friends of coffee, and the lovers of poetic justice, found satisfaction

in the governor's subsequent fate. He was exposed as "an extortioner and

a public robber," and "tortured to death," his brother killing himself

to avoid the same fate. The two Persian physicians who had played so

mean a part in the first coffee persecution, likewise came to an unhappy

end. Being discredited in Mecca they fled to Cairo, where, in an

unguarded moment, having cursed the person of Selim I, emperor of the

Turks, who had conquered Egypt, they were executed by his order.

Coffee, being thus re-established at Mecca, met with no opposition until

1524, when, because of renewed disorders, the kadi of the town closed

the coffee houses, but did not seek to interfere with coffee drinking at

home and in private. His successor, however, re-licensed them; and,

continuing on their good behavior since then, they have not been

disturbed.

In 1542 a ripple was caused by an order issued by Soliman the Great,

forbidding the use of coffee; but no one took it seriously, especially

as it soon became known that the order had been obtained "by surprise"

and at the desire of only one of the court ladies "a little too nice in

this point."

One of the most interesting facts in the history of the coffee drink is

that wherever it has been introduced it has spelled revolution. It has

been the world's most radical drink in that its function has always been

to make people think. And when the people began to think, they became

dangerous to tyrants and to foes of liberty of thought and action.

Sometimes the people became intoxicated with their new found ideas; and,

mistaking liberty for license, they ran amok, and called down upon their

heads persecutions and many petty intolerances. So history repeated

itself in Cairo, twenty-three years after the first Mecca persecution.

_Coffee's Second Religious Persecution_

Selim I, after conquering Egypt, had brought coffee to Constantinople in

1517. The drink continued its progress through Syria, and was received

in Damascus (about 1530), and in Aleppo (about 1532), without

opposition. Several coffee houses of Damascus attained wide fame, among

them the Café of the Roses, and the Café of the Gate of Salvation.

Its increasing popularity and, perhaps, the realization that the

continued spread of the beverage might lessen the demand for his

services, caused a physician of Cairo to propound (about 1523) to his

fellows this question:

What is your opinion concerning the liquor called coffee which is

drank in company, as being reckoned in the number of those we have

free leave to make use of, notwithstanding it is the cause of no

small disorders, that it flies up into the head and is very

pernicious to health? Is it permitted or forbidden?

At the end he was careful to add, as his own opinion (and without

prejudice?), that coffee was unlawful. To the credit of the physicians

of Cairo as a class, it should be recorded that they looked with

unsympathetic eyes upon this attempt on the part of one of their number

to stir up trouble for a valuable adjunct to their materia medica, and

so the effort died a-borning.

If the physicians were disposed to do nothing to stop coffee's progress,

not so the preachers. As places of resort, the coffee houses exercised

an appeal that proved stronger to the popular mind than that of the

temples of worship. This to men of sound religious training was

intolerable. The feeling against coffee smouldered for a time; but in

1534 it broke out afresh. In that year a fiery preacher in one of

Cairo's mosques so played upon the emotions of his congregation with a

preachment against coffee, claiming that it was against the law and that

those who drank it were not true Mohammedans, that upon leaving the

building a large number of his hearers, enraged, threw themselves into

the first coffee house they found in their way, burned the coffee pots

and dishes, and maltreated all the persons they found there.

Public opinion was immediately aroused; and the city was divided into

two parties; one maintaining that coffee was against the law of

Mohammed, and the other taking the contrary view. And then arose a

Solomon in the person of the chief justice, who summoned into his

presence the learned physicians for consultation. Again the medical

profession stood by its guns. The medical men pointed out to the chief

justice that the question had already been decided by their predecessors

on the side of coffee, and that the time had come to put some check "on

the furious zeal of the bigots" and the "indiscretions of ignorant

preachers." Whereupon, the wise judge caused coffee to be served to the

whole company and drank some himself. By this act he "re-united the

contending parties, and brought coffee into greater esteem than ever."

_Coffee in Constantinople_

The story of the introduction of coffee into Constantinople shows that

it experienced much the same vicissitudes that marked its advent at

Mecca and Cairo. There were the same disturbances, the same unreasoning

religious superstition, the same political hatreds, the same stupid

interference by the civil authorities; and yet, in spite of it all,

coffee attained new honors and new fame. The Oriental coffee house

reached its supreme development in Constantinople.

Although coffee had been known in Constantinople since 1517, it was not

until 1554 that the inhabitants became acquainted with that great

institution of early eastern democracy--the coffee house. In that year,

under the reign of Soliman the Great, son of Selim I, one Schemsi of

Damascus and one Hekem of Aleppo opened the first two coffee houses in

the quarter called Taktacalah. They were wonderful institutions for

those days, remarkable alike for their furnishings and their comforts,

as well as for the opportunity they afforded for social intercourse and

free discussion. Schemsi and Hekem received their guests on "very neat

couches or sofas," and the admission was the price of a dish of

coffee--about one cent.

Turks, high and low, took up the idea with avidity. Coffee houses

increased in number. The demand outstripped the supply. In the seraglio

itself special officers (_kahvedjibachi_) were commissioned to prepare

the coffee drink for the sultan. Coffee was in favor with all classes.

The Turks gave to the coffee houses the name _kahveh kanes_

(_diversoria_, Cotovicus called them); and as they grew in popularity,

they became more and more luxurious. There were lounges, richly

carpeted; and in addition to coffee, many other means of entertainment.

To these "schools of the wise" came the "young men ready to enter upon

offices of judicature; kadis from the provinces, seeking re-instatement

or new appointments; muderys, or professors; officers of the seraglio;

bashaws; and the principal lords of the port," not to mention merchants

and travelers from all parts of the then known world.

_Coffee House Persecutions_

About 1570, just when coffee seemed settled for all time in the social

scheme, the imams and dervishes raised a loud wail against it, saying

the mosques were almost empty, while the coffee houses were always full.

Then the preachers joined in the clamor, affirming it to be a greater

sin to go to a coffee house than to enter a tavern. The authorities

began an examination; and the same old debate was on. This time,

however, appeared a mufti who was unfriendly to coffee. The religious

fanatics argued that Mohammed had not even known of coffee, and so could

not have used the drink, and, therefore, it must be an abomination for

his followers to do so. Further, coffee was burned and ground to

charcoal before making a drink of it; and the _Koran_ distinctly forbade

the use of charcoal, including it among the unsanitary foods. The mufti

decided the question in favor of the zealots, and coffee was forbidden

by law.

The prohibition proved to be more honored in the breach than in the

observance. Coffee drinking continued in secret, instead of in the open.

And when, about 1580, Amurath III, at the further solicitation of the

churchmen, declared in an edict that coffee should be classed with wine,

and so prohibited in accordance with the law of the Prophet, the people

only smiled, and persisted in their secret disobedience. Already they

were beginning to think for themselves on religious as well as political

matters. The civil officers, finding it useless to try to suppress the

custom, winked at violations of the law; and, for a consideration,

permitted the sale of coffee privately, so that many Ottoman

"speak-easies" sprung up--places where coffee might be had behind shut

doors; shops where it was sold in back-rooms.

This was enough to re-establish the coffee houses by degrees. Then came

a mufti less scrupulous or more knowing than his predecessor, who

declared that coffee was not to be looked upon as coal, and that the

drink made from it was not forbidden by the law. There was a general

renewal of coffee drinking; religious devotees, preachers, lawyers, and

the mufti himself indulging in it, their example being followed by the

whole court and the city.

After this, the coffee houses provided a handsome source of revenue to

each succeeding grand vizier; and there was no further interference with

the beverage until the reign of Amurath IV, when Grand Vizier Kuprili,

during the war with Candia, decided that for political reasons, the

coffee houses should be closed. His argument was much the same as that

advanced more than a hundred years later by Charles II of England,

namely, that they were hotbeds of sedition. Kuprili was a military

dictator, with nothing of Charles's vacillating nature; and although,

like Charles, he later rescinded his edict, he enforced it, while it was

effective, in no uncertain fashion. Kuprili was no petty tyrant. For a

first violation of the order, cudgeling was the punishment; for a second

offense, the victim was sewn in a leather bag and thrown into the

Bosporus. Strangely enough, while he suppressed the coffee houses, he

permitted the taverns, that sold wine forbidden by the _Koran_, to

remain open. Perhaps he found the latter produced a less dangerous kind

of mental stimulation than that produced by coffee. Coffee, says Virey,

was too intellectual a drink for the fierce and senseless administration

of the pashas.

Even in those days it was not possible to make people good by law.

Paraphrasing the copy-book, suppressed desires will arise, though all

the world o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. An unjust law was no more

enforceable in those centuries than it is in the twentieth century. Men

are humans first, although they may become brutish when bereft of

reason. But coffee does not steal away their reason; rather, it sharpens

their reasoning faculties. As Galland has truly said: "Coffee joins men,

born for society, in a more perfect union; protestations are more

sincere in being made at a time when the mind is not clouded with fumes

and vapors, and therefore not easily forgotten, which too frequently

happens when made over a bottle."

[Illustration: CHARACTERISTIC SCENE IN A TURKISH COFFEE HOUSE OF THE

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY]

Despite the severe penalties staring them in the face, violations of the

law were plentiful among the people of Constantinople. Venders of the

beverage appeared in the market-places with "large copper vessels with

fire under them; and those who had a mind to drink were invited to step

into any neighboring shop where every one was welcome on such an

account."

Later, Kuprili, having assured himself that the coffee houses were no

longer a menace to his policies, permitted the free use of the beverage

that he had previously forbidden.

_Coffee and Coffee Houses in Persia_

Some writers claim for Persia the discovery of the coffee drink; but

there is no evidence to support the claim. There are, however,

sufficient facts to justify a belief that here, as in Ethiopia, coffee

has been known from time immemorial--which is a very convenient phrase.

At an early date the coffee house became an established institution in

the chief towns. The Persians appear to have used far more intelligence

than the Turks in handling the political phase of the coffee-house

question, and so it never became necessary to order them suppressed in

Persia.

The wife of Shah Abbas, observing that great numbers of people were wont

to gather and to talk politics in the leading coffee house of Ispahan,

appointed a mollah--an ecclesiastical teacher and expounder of the

law--to sit there daily to entertain the frequenters of the place with

nicely turned points of history, law, and poetry. Being a man of wisdom

and great tact, he avoided controversial questions of state; and so

politics were kept in the background. He proved a welcome visitor, and

was made much of by the guests. This example was generally followed, and

as a result disturbances were rare in the coffee houses of Ispahan.

Adam Olearius[38] (1599-1671), who was secretary to the German Embassy

that traveled in Turkey in 1633-36, tells of the great diversions made

in Persian coffee houses "by their poets and historians, who are seated

in a high chair from whence they make speeches and tell satirical

stories, playing in the meantime with a little stick and using the same

gestures as our jugglers and legerdemain men do in England."

At court conferences conspicuous among the shah's retinue were always to

be seen the "kahvedjibachi," or "coffee-pourers."

_Early Coffee Manners and Customs_

Karstens Niebuhr[39] (1733-1815), the Hanoverian traveler, furnishes the

following description of the early Arabian, Syrian, and Egyptian coffee

houses:

They are commonly large halls, having their floors spread with

mats, and illuminated at night by a multitude of lamps. Being the

only theaters for the exercise of profane eloquence, poor scholars

attend here to amuse the people. Select portions are read, _e.g._

the adventures of Rustan Sal, a Persian hero. Some aspire to the

praise of invention, and compose tales and fables. They walk up and

down as they recite, or assuming oratorial consequence, harangue

upon subjects chosen by themselves.

In one coffee house at Damascus an orator was regularly hired to

tell his stories at a fixed hour; in other cases he was more

directly dependant upon the taste of his hearers, as at the

conclusion of his discourse, whether it had consisted of literary

topics or of loose and idle tales, he looked to the audience for a

voluntary contribution.

At Aleppo, again, there was a man with a soul above the common,

who, being a person of distinction, and one that studied merely for

his own pleasure, had yet gone the round of all the coffee houses

in the city to pronounce moral harangues.

In some coffee houses there were singers and dancers, as before, and

many came to listen to the marvelous tales, of the _Thousand and One

Nights_.

In Oriental countries it was once the custom to offer a cup of "bad

coffee," i.e., coffee containing poison, to those functionaries or other

persons who had proven themselves embarrassing to the authorities.

While coffee drinking started as a private religious function, it was

not long after its introduction by the coffee houses that it became

secularized still more in the homes of the people, although for

centuries it retained a certain religious significance. Galland says

that in Constantinople, at the time of his visit to the city, there was

no house, rich or poor, Turk or Jew, Greek or Armenian, where it was not

drunk at least twice a day, and many drank it oftener, for it became a

custom in every house to offer it to all visitors; and it was considered

an incivility to refuse it. Twenty dishes a day, per person, was not an

uncommon average.

Galland observes that "as much money must be spent in the private

families of Constantinople for coffee as for wine at Paris," and relates

that it is as common for beggars to ask for money to buy coffee, as it

is in Europe to ask for money to buy wine or beer.

At this time to refuse or to neglect to give coffee to their wives was a

legitimate cause for divorce among the Turks. The men made promise when

marrying never to let their wives be without coffee. "That," says

Fulbert de Monteith, "is perhaps more prudent than to swear fidelity."

Another Arabic manuscript by Bichivili in the Bibliothéque Nationale at

Paris furnishes us with this pen picture of the coffee ceremony as

practised in Constantinople in the sixteenth century:

In all the great men's houses, there are servants whose business it

is only to take care of the coffee; and the head officer among

them, or he who has the inspection over all the rest, has an

apartment allowed him near the hall which is destined for the

reception of visitors. The Turks call this officer _Kavveghi_, that

is, Overseer or Steward of the Coffee. In the harem or ladies'

apartment in the seraglio, there are a great many such officers,

each having forty or fifty _Baltagis_ under them, who, after they

have served a certain time in these coffee-houses, are sure to be

well provided for, either by an advantageous post, or a sufficient

quantity of land. In the houses of persons of quality likewise,

there are pages, called _Itchoglans_, who receive the coffee from

the stewards, and present it to the company with surprising

dexterity and address, as soon as the master of the family makes a

sign for that purpose, which is all the language they ever speak to

them.... The coffee is served on salvers without feet, made

commonly of painted or varnished wood, and sometimes of silver.

They hold from 15 to 20 china dishes each; and such as can afford

it have these dishes half set in silver ... the dish may be easily

held with the thumb below and two fingers on the upper edge.

[Illustration: SERVING COFFEE TO A GUEST.--AFTER A DRAWING IN AN EARLY

EDITION OF "ARABIAN NIGHTS"]

In his _Relation of a Journey to Constantinople in 1657_, Nicholas

Rolamb, the Swedish traveler and envoy to the Ottoman Porte, gives us

this early glimpse of coffee in the home life of the Turks:[40]

This [coffee] is a kind of pea that grows in _Egypt_, which the

_Turks_ pound and boil in water, and take it for pleasure instead

of brandy, sipping it through the lips boiling hot, persuading

themselves that it consumes catarrhs, and prevents the rising of

vapours out of the stomach into the head. The drinking of this

coffee and smoking tobacco (for tho' the use of tobacco is

forbidden on pain of death, yet it is used in _Constantinople_ more

than any where by men as well as women, tho' secretly) makes up all

the pastime among the _Turks_, and is the only thing they treat one

another with; for which reason all people of distinction have a

particular room next their own, built on purpose for it, where

there stands a jar of coffee continually boiling.

It is curious to note that among several misconceptions that were held

by some of the peoples of the Levant was one that coffee was a promoter

of impotence, although a Persian version of the Angel Gabriel legend

says that Gabriel invented it to restore the Prophet's failing

metabolism. Often in Turkish and Arabian literature, however, we meet

with the suggestion that coffee drinking makes for sterility and

barrenness, a notion that modern medicine has exploded; for now we know

that coffee stimulates the racial instinct, for which tobacco is a

sedative.

[Illustration: THE FIRST PRINTED REFERENCE TO COFFEE, AS IT APPEARS IN

RAUWOLF'S WORK, 1582]

CHAPTER IV

INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO WESTERN EUROPE

_When the three great temperance beverages, cocoa, tea, and coffee,

came to Europe--Coffee first mentioned by Rauwolf in 1582--Early

days of coffee in Italy--How Pope Clement VIII baptized it and made

it a truly Christian beverage--The first European coffee house, in

Venice, 1645--The famous Caffè Florian--Other celebrated Venetian

coffee houses of the eighteenth century--The romantic story of

Pedrocchi, the poor lemonade-vender, who built the most beautiful

coffee house in the world_

Of the world's three great temperance beverages, cocoa, tea, and coffee,

cocoa was the first to be introduced into Europe, in 1528, by the

Spanish. It was nearly a century later, in 1610, that the Dutch brought

tea to Europe. Venetian traders introduced coffee into Europe in 1615.

Europe's first knowledge of coffee was brought by travelers returning

from the Far East and the Levant. Leonhard Rauwolf started on his famous

journey into the Eastern countries from Marseilles in September, 1573,

having left his home in Augsburg, the 18th of the preceding May. He

reached Aleppo in November, 1573; and returned to Augsburg, February 12,

1576. He was the first European to mention coffee; and to him also

belongs the honor of being the first to refer to the beverage in print.

Rauwolf was not only a doctor of medicine and a botanist of great

renown, but also official physician to the town of Augsburg. When he

spoke, it was as one having authority. The first printed reference to

coffee appears as _chaube_ in chapter viii of _Rauwolf's Travels_, which

deals with the manners and customs of the city of Aleppo. The exact

passage is reproduced herewith as it appears in the original German

edition of Rauwolf published at Frankfort and Lauingen in 1582-83. The

translation is as follows:

If you have a mind to eat something or to drink other liquors,

there is commonly an open shop near it, where you sit down upon the

ground or carpets and drink together. Among the rest they have a

very good drink, by them called _Chaube_ [coffee] that is almost as

black as ink, and very good in illness, chiefly that of the

stomach; of this they drink in the morning early in open places

before everybody, without any fear or regard, out of _China_ cups,

as hot as they can; they put it often to their lips but drink but

little at a time, and let it go round as they sit.

In this same water they take a fruit called _Bunnu_ which in its

bigness, shape and color is almost like unto a bayberry, with two

thin shells surrounded, which, as they informed me, are brought

from the _Indies_; but as these in themselves are, and have within

them, two yellowish grains in two distinct cells, and besides,

being they agree in their virtue, figure, looks, and name with the

_Bunchum_ of _Avicenna_, and _Bunca_, of _Rasis ad Almans_ exactly;

therefore I take them to be the same, until I am better informed by

the learned. This liquor is very common among them, wherefore there

are a great many of them that sell it, and others that sell the

berries, everywhere in their _Batzars_.

_The Early Days of Coffee in Italy_

It is not easy to determine just when the use of coffee spread from

Constantinople to the western parts of Europe; but it is more than

likely that the Venetians, because of their close proximity to, and

their great trade with, the Levant, were the first acquainted with it.

Prospero Alpini (Alpinus; 1553-1617), a learned physician and botanist

of Padua, journeyed to Egypt in 1580, and brought back news of coffee.

He was the first to print a description of the coffee plant and drink in

his treatise _The Plants of Egypt_, written in Latin, and published in

Venice, 1592. He says:

I have seen this tree at Cairo, it being the same tree that

produces the fruit, so common in Egypt, to which they give the name

_bon_ or _ban_. The Arabians and the Egyptians make a sort of

decoction of it, which they drink instead of wine; and it is sold

in all their public houses, as wine is with us. They call this

drink _caova_. The fruit of which they make it comes from "Arabia

the Happy," and the tree that I saw looks like a spindle tree, but

the leaves are thicker, tougher, and greener. The tree is never

without leaves.

Alpini makes note of the medicinal qualities attributed to the drink by

dwellers in the Orient, and many of these were soon incorporated into

Europe's materia medica.

Johann Vesling (Veslingius; 1598-1649), a German botanist and traveler,

settled in Venice, where he became known as a learned Italian physician.

He edited (1640) a new edition of Alpini's work; but earlier (1638)

published some comments on Alpini's findings, in the course of which he

distinguished certain qualities found in a drink made from the husks

(skins) of the coffee berries from those found in the liquor made from

the beans themselves, which he calls the stones of the coffee fruit. He

says:

Not only in Egypt is coffee in much request, but in almost all the

other provinces of the Turkish Empire. Whence it comes to pass that

it is dear even in the Levant and scarce among the Europeans, who

by that means are deprived of a very wholesome liquor.

From this we may conclude that coffee was not wholly unknown in Europe

at that time. Vesling adds that when he visited Cairo, he found there

two or three thousand coffee houses, and that "some did begin to put

sugar in their coffee to correct the bitterness of it, and others made

sugar-plums of the berries."

_Coffee Baptized by the Pope_

Shortly after coffee reached Rome, according to a much quoted legend, it

was again threatened with religious fanaticism, which almost caused its

excommunication from Christendom. It is related that certain priests

appealed to Pope Clement VIII (1535-1605) to have its use forbidden

among Christians, denouncing it as an invention of Satan. They claimed

that the Evil One, having forbidden his followers, the infidel Moslems,

the use of wine--no doubt because it was sanctified by Christ and used

in the Holy Communion--had given them as a substitute this hellish black

brew of his which they called coffee. For Christians to drink it was to

risk falling into a trap set by Satan for their souls.

[Illustration: AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ITALIAN COFFEE HOUSE

After Goldoni, by Zatta]

It is further related that the pope, made curious, desired to inspect

this Devil's drink, and had some brought to him. The aroma of it was so

pleasant and inviting that the pope was tempted to try a cupful. After

drinking it, he exclaimed, "Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious that

it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We

shall fool Satan by baptizing it, and making it a truly Christian

beverage."

Thus, whatever harmfulness its opponents try to attribute to coffee, the

fact remains (if we are to credit the story) that it has been baptized

and proclaimed unharmful, and a "truly Christian beverage," by his

holiness the pope.

The Venetians had further knowledge of coffee in 1585, when

Gianfrancesco Morosini, city magistrate at Constantinople, reported to

the Senate that the Turks "drink a black water as hot as they can suffer

it, which is the infusion of a bean called _cavee_, which is said to

possess the virtue of stimulating mankind."

Dr. A. Couguet, in an Italian review, asserts that Europe's first cup of

coffee was sipped in Venice, toward the close of the sixteenth century.

He is of the opinion that the first berries were imported by Mocengio,

who was called the _pevere_, because he made a huge fortune trading in

spices and other specialties of the Orient.

In 1615 Pierre (Pietro) Delia Valle (1586-1652), the well known Italian

traveler and author of _Travels in India and Persia_, wrote a letter

from Constantinople to his friend Mario Schipano at Venice:

The Turks have a drink of black color, which during the summer is

very cooling, whereas in the winter it heats and warms the body,

remaining always the same beverage and not changing its substance.

They swallow it hot as it comes from the fire and they drink it in

long draughts, not at dinner time, but as a kind of dainty and

sipped slowly while talking with one's friends. One cannot find any

meetings among them where they drink it not.... With this drink,

which they call _cahue_, they divert themselves in their

conversations.... It is made with the grain or fruit of a certain

tree called _cahue_.... When I return I will bring some with me and

I will impart the knowledge to the Italians.

[Illustration: NOBILITY IN AN EARLY VENETIAN CAFFÈ

From the Grevembroch collection in the Museo Civico]

Della Valle's countrymen, however, were in a fair way to become well

acquainted with the beverage, for already (1615) it had been introduced

into Venice. At first it was used largely for medicinal purposes; and

high prices were charged for it. Vesling says of its use in Europe as a

medicine, "the first step it made from the cabinets of the curious, as

an exotic seed, being into the apothecaries' shops as a drug."

The first coffee house in Italy is said to have been opened in 1645, but

convincing confirmation is lacking. In the beginning, the beverage was

sold with other drinks by lemonade-venders. The Italian word

_aquacedratajo_ means one who sells lemonade and similar refreshments;

also one who sells coffee, chocolate, liquor, etc. Jardin says the

beverage was in general use throughout Italy in 1645. It is certain,

however, that a coffee shop was opened in Venice in 1683 under the

_Procuratie Nuove_. The famous Caffè Florian was opened in Venice by

Floriono Francesconi in 1720.

The first authoritative treatise devoted to coffee only appeared in

1671. It was written in Latin by Antoine Faustus Nairon (1635-1707),

Maronite professor of the Chaldean and Syrian languages in the College

of Rome.

During the latter part of the seventeenth century and the first half of

the eighteenth, the coffee house made great progress in Italy. It is

interesting to note that this first European adaptation of the Oriental

coffee house was known as a _caffè_. The double _f_ is retained by the

Italians to this day, and by some writers is thought to have been taken

from _coffea_, without the double _f_ being lost, as in the case of the

French and some other Continental forms.

To Italy, then, belongs the honor of having given to the Western world

the real coffee house, although the French and Austrians greatly

improved upon it. It was not long after its beginning that nearly every

shop on the Piazza di San Marco in Venice was a _caffè_[41]. Near the

Piazza was the Caffè della Ponte dell' Angelo, where in 1792 died the

dog Tabacchio, celebrated by Vincenzo Formaleoni in a satirical eulogy

that is a parody of the oration of Ubaldo Bregolini upon the death of

Angelo Emo.

In the Caffè della Spaderia, kept by Marco Ancilloto, some radicals

proposed to open a reading-room to encourage the spread of liberal

ideas. The inquisitors sent a foot-soldier to notify the proprietor that

he should inform the first person entering the room that he was to

present himself before their tribunal. The idea was thereupon abandoned.

[Illustration: GOLDONI IN A VENETIAN CAFFÈ

From a painting by P. Longhi]

Among other celebrated coffee houses was the one called Menegazzo, from

the name of the rotund proprietor, Menico. This place was much

frequented by men of letters; and heated discussions were common there

between Angelo Maria Barbaro, Lorenzo da Ponte, and others of their

time.

The coffee house gradually became the common resort of all classes. In

the mornings came the merchants, lawyers, physicians, brokers, workers,

and wandering venders; in the afternoons, and until the late hours of

the nights, the leisure classes, including the ladies.

For the most part, the rooms of the first Italian _caffè_ were low,

simple, unadorned, without windows, and only poorly illuminated by

tremulous and uncertain lights. Within them, however, joyous throngs

passed to and fro, clad in varicolored garments, men and women chatting

in groups here and there, and always above the buzz there were to be

heard such choice bits of scandal as made worthwhile a visit to the

coffee house. Smaller rooms were devoted to gaming.

In the "little square" described by Goldoni[42] in his comedy _The

Coffee House_, where the combined barber-shop and gambling house was

located, Don Marzio, that marvelous type of slanderous old romancer, is

shown as one typical of the period, for Goldoni was a satirist. The

other characters of the play were also drawn from the types then to be

seen every day in the coffee houses on the Piazza.

In the square of St. Mark's, in the eighteenth century, under the

_Procuratie Vecchie_, were the _caffè_ Re di Francia, Abbondanza, Pitt,

l'eroe, Regina d'Ungheria, Orfeo, Redentore, Coraggio-Speranza, Arco

Celeste, and Quadri. The last-named was opened in 1775 by Giorgio Quadri

of Corfu, who served genuine Turkish coffee for the first time in

Venice.

Under the _Procuratie Nuove_ were to be found the _caffè_ Angelo

Custode, Duca di Toscana, Buon genio-Doge, Imperatore Imperatrice della

Russia, Tamerlano, Fontane di Diana, Dame Venete, Aurora Piante d'oro,

Arabo-Piastrelle, Pace, Venezia trionfante, and Florian.

Probably no coffee house in Europe has acquired so world-wide a

celebrity as that kept by Florian, the friend of Canova the sculptor,

and the trusted agent and acquaintance of hundreds of persons in and out

of the city, who found him a mine of social information and a convenient

city directory. Persons leaving Venice left their cards and itineraries

with him; and new-comers inquired at Florian's for tidings of those whom

they wished to see. "He long concentrated in himself a knowledge more

varied and multifarious than that possessed by any individual before or

since," says Hazlitt[43], who has given us this delightful pen picture

of _caffè_ life in Venice in the eighteenth century:

Venetian coffee was said to surpass all others, and the article

placed before his visitors by Florian was the best in Venice. Of

some of the establishments as they then existed, Molmenti has

supplied us with illustrations, in one of which Goldoni the

dramatist is represented as a visitor, and a female mendicant is

soliciting alms.

So cordial was the esteem of the great sculptor Canova for him,

that when Florian was overtaken by gout, he made a model of his

leg, that the poor fellow might be spared the anguish of fitting

himself with boots. The friendship had begun when Canova was

entering on his career, and he never forgot the substantial

services which had been rendered to him in the hour of need.

In later days, the Caffè Florian was under the superintendence of a

female chef, and the waitresses used, in the case of certain

visitors, to fasten a flower in the button-hole, perhaps allusively

to the name. In the Piazza itself girls would do the same thing. A

good deal of hospitality is, and has ever been, dispensed at Venice

in the cafés and restaurants, which do service for the domestic

hearth.

There were many other establishments devoted, more especially in

the latest period of Venetian independence, to the requirements of

those who desired such resorts for purposes of conversation and

gossip. These houses were frequented by various classes of

patrons--the patrician, the politician, the soldier, the artist,

the old and the young--all had their special haunts where the

company and the tariff were in accordance with the guests. The

upper circles of male society--all above the actually

poor--gravitated hither to a man.

For the Venetian of all ranks the coffee house was almost the last

place visited on departure from the city, and the first visited on

his return. His domicile was the residence of his wife and the

repository of his possessions; but only on exceptional occasions

was it the scene of domestic hospitality, and rare were the

instances when the husband and wife might be seen abroad together,

and when the former would invite the lady to enter a café or a

confectioner's shop to partake of an ice.

[Illustration: FLORIAN'S FAMOUS CAFFÈ IN THE PIAZZA DI SAN MARCO,

VENICE, NINETEENTH CENTURY]

The Caffè Florian has undergone many changes, but it still survives as

one of the favorite _caffè_ in the Piazza San Marco.

By 1775 coffee-house history had begun to repeat itself in Venice.

Charges of immorality, vice, and corruption, were preferred against the

_caffè_; and the Council of Ten in 1775, and again in 1776, directed the

Inquisitors of State to eradicate these "social cankers." However, they

survived all attempts of the reformers to suppress them.

The Caffè Pedrocchi in Padua was another of the early Italian coffee

houses that became famous. Antonio Pedrocchi (1776-1852) was a

lemonade-vender who, in the hope of attracting the gay youth, the

students of his time, bought an old house with the idea of converting

the ground floor into a series of attractive rooms. He put all his ready

money and all he could borrow into the venture, only to find there were

no cellars, indispensable for making ices and beverages on the premises,

and that the walls and floors were so old that they crumbled when

repairs were started.

He was in despair; but, nothing daunted, he decided to have a cellar

dug. What was his surprise to find the house was built over the vault

of an old church, and that the vault contained considerable treasure.

The lucky proprietor found himself free to continue his trade of

lemonade-vender and coffee-seller, or to live a life of ease. Being a

wise man, he adhered to his original plan; and soon his luxurious rooms

became the favorite rendezvous for the smart set of his day. In this

period lemonade and coffee frequently went together. The Caffè Pedrocchi

is considered one of the finest pieces of architecture erected in Italy

in the nineteenth century. It was begun in 1816, opened in 1831, and

completed in 1842.

Coffee houses were early established in other Italian cities,

particularly in Rome, Florence, and Genoa.

In 1764, _Il Caffè_, a purely philosophical and literary periodical,

made its appearance in Milan, being founded by Count Pietro Verri

(1728-97). Its chief editor was Cesare Beccaria. Its object was to

counteract the influence and superficiality of the Arcadians. It

acquired its title from the fact that Count Verri and his friends were

wont to meet at a coffee house in Milan kept by a Greek named Demetrio.

It lived only two years.

Other periodicals of the same name appeared at later periods.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER V

THE BEGINNINGS OF COFFEE IN FRANCE

_What French travelers did for coffee--The introduction of coffee

by P. de la Roque into Marseilles in 1644--The first commercial

importation of coffee from Egypt--The first French coffee

house--Failure of the attempt by physicians of Marseilles to

discredit coffee--Soliman Aga introduces coffee into

Paris--Cabarets à caffè--Celebrated works on coffee by French

writers_

We are indebted to three great French travelers for much valuable

knowledge about coffee; and these gallant gentlemen first fired the

imagination of the French people in regard to the beverage that was

destined to play so important a part in the French revolution. They are

Tavernier (1605-89), Thévenot (1633-67), and Bernier (1625-88).

Then there is Jean La Roque (1661-1745), who made a famous "Voyage to

Arabia the Happy" (_Voyage de l'Arabie Heureuse_) in 1708-13 and to

whose father, P. de la Roque, is due the honor of having brought the

first coffee into France in 1644. Also, there is Antoine Galland

(1646-1715), the French Orientalist, first translator of the _Arabian

Nights_ and antiquary to the king, who, in 1699, published an analysis

and translation from the Arabic of the Abd-al-Kâdir manuscript (1587),

giving the first authentic account of the origin of coffee.

Probably the earliest reference to coffee in France is to be found in

the simple statement that Onorio Belli (Bellus), the Italian botanist

and author, in 1596 sent to Charles de l'Écluse (1526-1609), a French

physician, botanist and traveler, "seeds used by the Egyptians to make a

liquid they call _cave_.[44]"

P. de la Roque accompanied M. de la Haye, the French ambassador, to

Constantinople; and afterward traveled into the Levant. Upon his return

to Marseilles in 1644, he brought with him not only some coffee, but

"all the little implements used about it in Turkey, which were then

looked upon as great curiosities in France." There were included in the

coffee service some findjans, or china dishes, and small pieces of

muslin embroidered with gold, silver, and silk, which the Turks used as

napkins.

Jean La Roque gives credit to Jean de Thévenot for introducing coffee

privately into Paris in 1657, and for teaching the French how to use

coffee.

De Thévenot writes in this entertaining fashion concerning the use of

the drink in Turkey in the middle of the seventeenth century:

They have another drink in ordinary use. They call it _cahve_ and

take it all hours of the day. This drink is made from a berry

roasted in a pan or other utensil over the fire. They pound it into

a very fine powder.

When they wish to drink it, they take a boiler made expressly for

the purpose, which they call an _ibrik_; and having filled it with

water, they let it boil. When it boils, they add to about three

cups of water a heaping spoonful of the powder; and when it boils,

they remove it quickly from the fire, or sometimes they stir it,

otherwise it would boil over, as it rises very quickly. When it has

boiled up thus ten or twelve times, they pour it into porcelain

cups, which they place upon a platter of painted wood and bring it

to you thus boiling.

One must drink it hot, but in several instalments, otherwise it is

not good. One takes it in little swallows[45] for fear of burning

one's self--in such fashion that in a _cavekane_ (so they call the

places where it is sold ready prepared), one hears a pleasant

little musical sucking sound.... There are some who mix with it a

small quantity of cloves and cardamom seeds; others add sugar.

[Illustration: TITLE PAGE OF LA ROQUE'S WORK, 1716]

It was really out of curiosity that the people of France took to coffee,

says Jardin; "they wanted to know this Oriental beverage, so much

vaunted, although its blackness at first sight was far from attractive."

About the year 1660 several merchants of Marseilles, who had lived for a

time in the Levant and felt they were not able to do without coffee,

brought some coffee beans home with them; and later, a group of

apothecaries and other merchants brought in the first commercial

importation of coffee in bales from Egypt. The Lyons merchants soon

followed suit, and the use of coffee became general in those parts. In

1671 certain private persons opened a coffee house in Marseilles, near

the Exchange, which at once became popular with merchants and travelers.

Others started up, and all were crowded. The people did not, however,

drink any the less at home. "In fine," says La Roque, "the use of the

beverage increased so amazingly that, as was inevitable, the physicians

became alarmed, thinking it would not agree with the inhabitants of a

country hot and extremely dry."

[Illustration: THE COFFEE TREE AS PICTURED BY LA ROQUE IN HIS "VOYAGE DE

L'ARABIE HEUREUSE"]

The age-old controversy was on. Some sided with the physicians, others

opposed them, as at Mecca, Cairo, and Constantinople; only here the

argument turned mainly on the medicinal question, the Church this time

having no part in the dispute. "The lovers of coffee used the physicians

very ill when they met together, and the physicians on their side

threatened the coffee drinkers with all sorts of diseases."

[Illustration: A CLOSE-UP OF RIPE COFFEE BERRIES]

Matters came to a head in 1679, when an ingenious attempt by the

physicians of Marseilles to discredit coffee took the form of having a

young student, about to be admitted to the College of Physicians,

dispute before the magistrate in the town hall, a question proposed by

two physicians of the Faculty of Aix, as to whether coffee was or was

not prejudicial to the inhabitants of Marseilles.

The thesis recited that coffee had won the approval of all nations, had

almost wholly put down the use of wine, although it was not to be

compared even with the lees of that excellent beverage; that it was a

vile and worthless foreign novelty; that its claim to be a remedy

against distempers was ridiculous, because it was not a bean but the

fruit of a tree discovered by goats and camels; that it was hot and not

cold, as alleged; that it burned up the blood, and so induced palsies,

impotence, and leanness; "from all of which we must necessarily conclude

that coffee is hurtful to the greater part of the inhabitants of

Marseilles."

Thus did the good doctors of the Faculty of Aix set forth their

prejudices, and this was their final decision upon coffee. Many thought

they overreached themselves in their misguided zeal. They were handled

somewhat roughly in the disputation, which disclosed many false

reasonings, to say nothing of blunders as to matters of fact. The world

had already advanced too far to have another decision against coffee

count for much, and this latest effort to stop its onward march was of

even less force than the diatribes of the Mohammedan priests. The coffee

houses continued to be as much frequented as before, and the people

drank no less coffee in their homes. Indeed, the indictment proved a

boomerang, for consumption received such an impetus that the merchants

of Lyons and Marseilles, for the first time in history, began to import

green coffee from the Levant by the ship-load in order to meet the

increased demand.

Meanwhile, in 1669, Soliman Aga, the Turkish ambassador from Mohammed IV

to the court of Louis XIV, had arrived in Paris. He brought with him a

considerable quantity of coffee, and introduced the coffee drink, made

in Turkish style, to the French capital.

[Illustration: A COFFEE BRANCH WITH FLOWERS AND FRUIT AS ILLUSTRATED IN

LA ROQUE'S "VOYAGE DE L'ARABIE HEUREUSE"]

The ambassador remained in Paris only from July, 1669, to May, 1670, but

long enough firmly to establish the custom he had introduced. Two years

later, Pascal, an Armenian, opened his coffee-drinking booth at the fair

of St.-Germain, and this event marked the beginning of the Parisian

coffee houses. The story is told in detail in chapter XI.

The custom of drinking coffee having become general in the capital, as

well as in Marseilles and Lyons, the example was followed in all the

provinces. Every city soon had its coffee houses, and the beverage was

largely consumed in private homes. La Roque writes: "None, from the

meanest citizen to the persons of the highest quality, failed to use it

every morning or at least soon after dinner, it being the custom

likewise to offer it in all visits."

"The persons of highest quality" encouraged the fashion of having

_cabaréts à caffé_; and soon it was said that there could be seen in

France all that the East could furnish of magnificence in coffee houses,

"the china jars and other Indian furniture being richer and more

valuable than the gold and silver with which they were lavishly

adorned."

In 1671 there appeared in Lyons a book entitled _The Most Excellent

Virtues of the Mulberry, Called Coffee_, showing the need for an

authoritative work on the subject--a need that was ably filled that same

year and in Lyons by the publication of Philippe Sylvestre Dufour's

admirable treatise, _Concerning the Use of Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate_.

Again at Lyons, Dufour published (1684) his more complete work on _The

Manner of Making Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate_. This was followed (1715)

by the publication in Paris of Jean La Roque's _Voyage de l'Arabie

Heureuse_, containing the story of the author's journey to the court of

the king of Yemen in 1711, a description of the coffee tree and its

fruit, and a critical and historical treatise on its first use and

introduction to France.

La Roque's description of his visit to the king's gardens is interesting

because it shows the Arabs still held to the belief that coffee grew

only in Arabia. Here it is:

There was nothing remarkable in the King's Gardens, except the

great pains taken to furnish it with all the kinds of trees that

are common in the country; amongst which there were the coffee

trees, the finest that could be had. When the deputies represented

to the King how much that was contrary to the custom of the Princes

of Europe (who endeavor to stock their gardens chiefly with the

rarest and most uncommon plants that can be found) the King

returned them this answer: That he valued himself as much upon his

good taste and generosity as any Prince in Europe; the coffee tree,

he told them, was indeed common in his country, but it was not the

less dear to him upon that account; the perpetual verdure of it

pleased him extremely; and also the thoughts of its producing a

fruit which was nowhere else to be met with; and when he made a

present of that that came from his own Gardens, it was a great

satisfaction to him to be able to say that he had planted the trees

that produced it with his own hands.

The first merchant licensed to sell coffee in France was one Damame

François, a bourgeois of Paris, who secured the privilege through an

edict of 1692. He was given the sole right for ten years to sell coffees

and teas in all the provinces and towns of the kingdom, and in all

territories under the sovereignty of the king, and received also

authority to maintain a warehouse.

To Santo Domingo (1738) and other French colonies the café was soon

transported from the homeland, and thrived under special license from

the king.

In 1858 there appeared in France a leaflet-periodical, entitled _The

Café, Literary, Artistic, and Commercial_. Ch. Woinez, the editor, said

in announcing it: "The Salon stood for privilege, the Café stands for

equality." Its publication was of short duration.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VI

THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO ENGLAND

_The first printed reference to coffee in English--Early mention of

coffee by noted English travelers and writers--The Lacedæmonian

"black broth" controversy--How Conopios introduced coffee drinking

at Oxford--The first English coffee house in Oxford--Two English

botanists on coffee_

English travelers and writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

were quite as enterprising as their Continental contemporaries in

telling about the coffee bean and the coffee drink. The first printed

reference to coffee in English, however, appears as _chaoua_ in a note

by a Dutchman, Paludanus, in _Linschoten's Travels_, the title of an

English translation from the Latin of a work first published in Holland

in 1595 or 1596, the English edition appearing in London in 1598. A

reproduction made from a photograph of the original work, with the

quaint black-letter German text and the Paludanus notation in roman, is

shown herewith.

Hans Hugo (or John Huygen) Van Linschooten (1563-1611) was one of the

most intrepid of Dutch travelers. In his description of Japanese manners

and customs we find one of the earliest tea references. He says:

Their manner of eating and drinking is: everie man hath a table

alone, without table-clothes or napkins, and eateth with two pieces

of wood like the men of Chino: they drinke wine of Rice, wherewith

they drink themselves drunke, and after their meat they use a

certain drinke, which is a pot with hote water, which they drinke

as hote as ever they may indure, whether it be Winter or Summer.

Just here Bernard Ten Broeke Paludanus (1550-1633), Dutch savant and

author, professor of philosophy at the University of Leyden, himself a

traveler over the four quarters of the globe, inserts his note

containing the coffee reference. He says:

The Turks holde almost the same manner of drinking of their

_Chaona_[46], which they make of certaine fruit, which is like unto

the Bakelaer[47], and by the Egyptians called _Bon_ or _Ban_[48]:

they take of this fruite one pound and a half, and roast them a

little in the fire and then sieth them in twenty pounds of water,

till the half be consumed away: this drinke they take every morning

fasting in their chambers, out of an earthen pot, being verie hote,

as we doe here drinke _aquacomposita_[49] in the morning: and they

say that it strengtheneth and maketh them warme, breaketh wind, and

openeth any stopping.

Van Linschooten then completes his tea reference by saying:

The manner of dressing their meat is altogether contrarie unto

other nations: the aforesaid warme water is made with the powder of

a certaine hearbe called _Chaa_, which is much esteemed, and is

well accounted among them.

The _chaa_ is, of course, tea, dialect _t'eh_.

In 1599, "Sir" Antony (or Anthony) Sherley (1565-1630), a picturesque

gentleman-adventurer, the first Englishman to mention coffee drinking in

the Orient, sailed from Venice on a kind of self-appointed, informal

Persian mission, to invite the shah to ally himself with the Christian

princes against the Turks, and incidentally, to promote English trade

interests in the East. The English government knew nothing of the

arrangement, disavowed him, and forbade his return to England. However,

the expedition got to Persia; and the account of the voyage thither was

written by William Parry, one of the Sherley party, and was published in

London in 1601. It is interesting because it contains the first printed

reference to coffee in English employing the more modern form of the

word. The original reference was photographed for this work in the Worth

Library of the British Museum, and is reproduced herewith on page 39.

The passage is part of an account of the manners and customs of the

Turks (who, Parry says, are "damned infidells") in Aleppo. It reads:

They sit at their meat (which is served to them upon the ground) as

Tailers sit upon their stalls, crosse-legd; for the most part,

passing the day in banqueting and carowsing, untill they surfet,

drinking a certaine liquor, which they do call _Coffe_, which is

made of seede much like mustard seede, which will soone intoxicate

the braine like our Metheglin.[50]

Another early English reference to coffee, wherein the word is spelled

"coffa", is in Captain John Smith's book of _Travels and Adventure_,

published in 1603. He says of the Turks: "Their best drink is _coffa_ of

a graine they call _coava_."

This is the same Captain John Smith who in 1607 became the founder of

the Colony of Virginia and brought with him to America probably the

earliest knowledge of the beverage given to the new Western world.

Samuel Purchas (1527-1626), an early English collector of travels, in

_Purchas His Pilgrimes_, under the head of "Observations of William

Finch, merchant, at Socotra" (Sokotra--an island in the Indian Ocean) in

1607, says of the Arab inhabitants:

Their best entertainment is a china dish of _Coho_, a blacke

bitterish drinke, made of a berry like a bayberry, brought from

Mecca, supped off hot, good for the head and stomache.[51]

Still other early and favorite English references to coffee are those to

be found in the _Travels_ of William Biddulph. This work was published

in 1609. It is entitled _The Travels of Certayne Englishmen in Africa,

Asia, etc.... Begunne in 1600 and by some of them finished--this yeere

1608_. These references are also reproduced herewith from the

black-letter originals in the British Museum (see page 40).

Biddulph's description of the drink, and of the coffee-house customs of

the Turks, was the first detailed account to be written by an

Englishman. It also appears in _Purchas His Pilgrimes_ (1625). But, to

quote:

Their most common drinke is _Coffa_, which is a blacke kinde of

drinke, made of a kind of Pulse like Pease, called _Coaua_; which

being grownd in the Mill, and boiled in water, they drinke it as

hot as they can suffer it; which they finde to agree very well with

them against their crudities, and feeding on hearbs and rawe

meates. Other compounded drinkes they have, called _Sherbet_, made

of Water and Sugar, or Hony, with Snow therein to make it coole;

for although the Countrey bee hot, yet they keepe Snow all the

yeere long to coole their drinke. It is accounted a great curtesie

amongst them to give unto their frends when they come to visit

them, a Fin-ion or Scudella of _Coffa_, which is more holesome than

toothsome, for it causeth good concoction, and driveth away

drowsinesse.

Some of them will also drinke Bersh or Opium, which maketh them

forget themselves, and talk idely of Castles in the Ayre, as though

they saw Visions, and heard Revelations. Their _Coffa_ houses are

more common than Ale-houses in England; but they use not so much to

sit in the houses, as on benches on both sides the streets, neere

unto a Coffa house, every man with his Fin-ionful; which being

smoking hot, they use to put it to their Noses & Eares, and then

sup it off by leasure, being full of idle and Ale-house talke

whiles they are amongst themselves drinking it; if there be any

news, it is talked of there.

Among other early English references to coffee we find an interesting

one by Sir George Sandys (1577-1644), the poet, who gave a start to

classical scholarship in America by translating Ovid's _Metamorphoses_

during his pioneer days in Virginia. In 1610 he spent a year in Turkey,

Egypt, and Palestine, and records of the Turks:[52]

Although they be destitute of Taverns, yet have they their

Coffa-houses, which something resemble them. There sit they

chatting most of the day; and sippe of a drinke called Coffa (of

the berry that it is made of) in little _China_ dishes as hot as

they can suffer it: blacke as soote, and tasting not much unlike it

(why not that blacke broth which was in use amongst the

_Lacedemonians_?) which helpeth, as they say, digestion, and

procureth alacrity: many of the Coffa-men keeping beautifull boyes,

who serve as stales to procure them customers.

Edward Terry (1590-1660), an English traveler, writes, under date of

1616, that many of the best people in India who are strict in their

religion and drink no wine at all, "use a liquor more wholesome than

pleasant, they call coffee; made by a black Seed boyld in water, which

turnes it almost into the same colour, but doth very little alter the

taste of the water [!], notwithstanding it is very good to help

Digestion, to quicken the Spirits and to cleanse the Blood."

[Illustration#: FIRST PRINTED REFERENCE TO COFFEE IN ENGLISH, 1598

It appears as _Chaona_ (_chaoua_) in the second line of the roman text

notation by Paludanus]

In 1623, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), in his _Historia Vitae et Mortis_

says: "The Turkes use a kind of herb which they call _caphe_"; and, in

1624, in his _Sylva Sylvarum_[53] (published in 1627, after his death),

he writes:

They have in Turkey a drink called _coffa_ made of a berry of the

same name, as black as soot, and of a strong scent, but not

aromatical; which they take, beaten into powder, in water, as hot

as they can drink it: and they take it, and sit at it in their

coffa-houses, which are like our taverns. This drink comforteth the

brain and heart, and helpeth digestion. Certainly this berry coffa,

the root and leaf betel, the leaf tobacco, and the tear of poppy

(opium) of which the Turks are great takers (supposing it expelleth

all fear), do all condense the spirits, and make them strong and

aleger. But it seemeth they were taken after several manners; for

coffa and opium are taken down, tobacco but in smoke, and betel is

but champed in the mouth with a little lime.

Robert Burton (1577-1640), English philosopher and humorist, in his

_Anatomy of Melancholy_[54] writes in 1632:

The Turkes have a drinke called coffa (for they use no wine), so

named of a berry as blacke as soot and as bitter (like that blacke

drinke which was in use amongst the Lacedemonians and perhaps the

same), which they sip still of, and sup as warme as they can

suffer; they spend much time in those coffa-houses, which are

somewhat like our Ale-houses or Taverns, and there they sit,

chatting and drinking, to drive away the time, and to be merry

together, because they find, by experience, that kinde of drinke so

used, helpeth digestion and procureth alacrity.

Later English scholars, however, found sufficient evidence in the works

of Arabian authors to assure their readers that coffee sometimes breeds

melancholy, causes headache, and "maketh lean much." One of these, Dr.

Pocoke, (1659: see chapter III) stated that, "he that would drink it for

livelinesse sake, and to discusse slothfulnesse ... let him use much

sweet meates with it, and oyle of pistaccioes, and butter. Some drink it

with milk, but it is an error, and such as may bring in danger of the

leprosy." Another writer observed that any ill effects caused by coffee,

unlike those of tea, etc., ceased when its use was discontinued. In this

connection it is interesting to note that in 1785 Dr. Benjamin Mosely,

physician to the Chelsea Hospital, member of the College of Physicians,

etc., probably having in mind the popular idea that the Arabic original

of the word coffee meant force, or vigor, once expressed the hope that

the coffee drink might return to popular favor in England as "a cheap

substitute for those enervating teas and beverages which produce the

pernicious habit of dram-drinking."

About 1628, Sir Thomas Herbert (1606-1681), English traveler and writer,

records among his observations on the Persians that:

"They drink above all the rest _Coho_ or _Copha_: by Turk and Arab

called _Caphe_ and _Cahua_: a drink imitating that in the Stigian

lake, black, thick, and bitter: destrain'd from _Bunchy_, _Bunnu_,

or Bay berries; wholesome, they say, if hot, for it expels

melancholy ... but not so much regarded for those good properties,

as from a Romance that it was invented and brew'd by Gabriel ... to

restore the decayed radical Moysture of kind hearted Mahomet."[55]

In 1634, Sir Henry Blount (1602-82), sometimes referred to as "the

father of the English coffee house," made a journey on a Venetian galley

into the Levant. He was invited to drink _cauphe_ in the presence of

Amurath IV; and later, in Egypt, he tells of being served the beverage

again "in a porcelaine dish". This is how he describes the drink in

Turkey:[56]

They have another drink not good at meat, called _Cauphe_, made of

a _Berry_ as big as a small _Bean_, dried in a Furnace, and beat to

Pouder, of a Soot-colour, in taste a little bitterish, that they

seeth and drink as hot as may be endured: It is good all hours of

the day, but especially morning and evening, when to that purpose,

they entertain themselves two or three hours in _Cauphe-houses_,

which in all Turkey abound more than _Inns_ and _Ale-houses_ with

us; it is thought to be the old black broth used so much by the

_Lacedemonians_, and dryeth ill Humours in the stomach, comforteth

the Brain, never causeth Drunkenness or any other Surfeit, and is a

harmless entertainment of good Fellowship; for there upon Scaffolds

half a yard high, and covered with Mats, they sit Cross-leg'd after

the _Turkish_ manner, many times two or three hundred together,

talking, and likely with some poor musick passing up and down.

[Illustration: FIRST PRINTED REFERENCE TO "COFFEE" IN ENGLISH, IN ITS

MODERN FORM, 1601

Photographed from the black-letter original of W. Parry's book in the

Worth Library of the British Museum]

This reference to the Lacedæmonian black broth, first by Sandys, then

by Burton, again by Blount, and concurred in by James Howell

(1595-1666), the first historiographer royal, gave rise to considerable

controversy among Englishmen of letters in later years. It is, of

course, a gratuitous speculation. The black broth of the Lacedæmonians

was "pork, cooked in blood and seasoned with salt and vinegar.[57]"

[Illustration: REFERENCES TO COFFEE AS FOUND IN BIDDULPH'S TRAVELS 1609

From the black-letter original in the British Museum]

William Harvey (1578-1657), the famous English physician who discovered

the circulation of the blood, and his brother are reputed to have used

coffee before coffee houses came into vogue in London--this must have

been previous to 1652. "I remember", says Aubrey[58], "he was wont to

drinke coffee; which his brother Eliab did, before coffee houses were

the fashion in London." Houghton, in 1701, speaks of "the famous

inventor of the circulation of the blood, Dr. Harvey, who some say did

frequently use it."

Although it seems likely that coffee must have been introduced into

England sometime during the first quarter of the seventeenth century,

with so many writers and travelers describing it, and with so much

trading going on between the merchants of the British Isles and the

Orient, yet the first reliable record we have of its advent is to be

found in the _Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S._[59],

under "Notes of 1637", where he says:

There came in my time to the college (Baliol, Oxford) one Nathaniel

Conopios, out of Greece, from Cyrill, the Patriarch of

Constantinople, who, returning many years after was made (as I

understand) Bishop of Smyrna. He was the first I ever saw drink

coffee; which custom came not into England till thirty years

thereafter.

Evelyn should have said thirteen years after; for then it was that the

first coffee house was opened (1650).

Conopios was a native of Crete, trained in the Greek church. He became

_primore_ to Cyrill, Patriarch of Constantinople. When Cyrill was

strangled by the vizier, Conopios fled to England to avoid a like

barbarity. He came with credentials to Archbishop Laud, who allowed him

maintenance in Balliol College.

It was observed that while he continued in Balliol College he made

the drink for his own use called Coffey, and usually drank it every

morning, being the first, as the antients of that House have

informed me, that was ever drank in Oxon.[60]

[Illustration: MOL'S COFFEE HOUSE, EXETER, ENGLAND, NOW WORTH'S ART

ROOMS]

In 1640 John Parkinson (1567-1650), English botanist and herbalist,

published his _Theatrum Botanicum_[61], containing the first botanical

description of the coffee plant in English, referred to as "_Arbor Bon

cum sua Buna._ The Turkes Berry Drinke".

His work being somewhat rare, it may be of historical interest to quote

the quaint description here:

Alpinus, in his Booke of Egiptian plants, giveth us a description

of this tree, which as hee saith, hee saw in the garden of a

certain Captaine of the _Ianissaries_, which was brought out of

_Arabia felix_ and there planted as a rarity, never seene growing

in those places before.

The tree, saith _Alpinus_, is somewhat like unto the _Evonymus_

Pricketimber tree, whose leaves were thicker, harder, and greener,

and always abiding greene on the tree; the fruite is called _Buna_

and is somewhat bigger then an Hazell Nut and longer, round also,

and pointed at the end, furrowed also on both sides, yet on one

side more conspicuous than the other, that it might be parted in

two, in each side whereof lyeth a small long white kernell, flat on

that side they joyne together, covered with a yellowish skinne, of

an acid taste, and somewhat bitter withall and contained in a

thinne shell, of a darkish ash-color; with these berries generally

in _Arabia_ and _Egipt_, and in other places of the _Turkes_

Dominions, they make a decoction or drinke, which is in the stead

of Wine to them, and generally sold in all their tappe houses,

called by the name of _Caova_; _Paludanus_ saith _Chaova_, and

_Rauwolfius_ _Chaube_.

This drinke hath many good physical properties therein; for it

strengthened a week stomacke, helpeth digestion, and the tumors and

obstructions of the liver and spleene, being drunke fasting for

some time together.

In 1650, a certain Jew from Lebanon, in some accounts Jacob or Jacobs by

name, in others Jobson[62], opened "at the Angel in the parish of St.

Peter in the East", Oxford, the earliest English coffee house and "there

it [coffee] was by some who delighted in noveltie, drank". Chocolate was

also sold at this first coffee house.

Authorities differ, but the confusion as to the name of the coffee-house

keeper may have arisen from the fact that there were two--Jacobs, who

began in 1650; and another, Cirques Jobson, a Jewish Jacobite, who

followed him in 1654.

The drink at once attained great favor among the students. Soon it was

in such demand that about 1655 a society of young students encouraged

one Arthur Tillyard, "apothecary and Royalist," to sell "coffey

publickly in his house against All Soules College." It appears that a

club composed of admirers of the young Charles met at Tillyard's and

continued until after the Restoration. This Oxford Coffee Club was the

start of the Royal Society.

Jacobs removed to Old Southhampton Buildings, London, where he was in

1671.

Meanwhile, the first coffee house in London had been opened by Pasqua

Rosée in 1652; and, as the remainder of the story of coffee's rise and

fall in England centers around the coffee houses of old London, we shall

reserve it for a separate chapter.

[Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH REFERENCE TO COFFEE BY SIR GEORGE SANDYS

From the seventh edition of _Sandys' Travels_, London, 1673]

Of course, the coffee-house idea, and the use of coffee in the home,

quickly spread to other cities in Great Britain; but all the coffee

houses were patterned after the London model. Mol's coffee house at

Exeter, Devonshire, which is pictured on page 41, was one of the first

coffee houses established in England, and may be regarded as typical of

those that sprang up in the provinces. It had previously been a noted

club house; and the old hall, beautifully paneled with oak, still

displays the arms of noted members. Here Sir Walter Raleigh and

congenial friends regaled themselves with smoking tobacco. This was one

of the first places where tobacco was smoked in England. It is now an

art gallery.

When the Bishop of Berytus (Beirut) was on his way to Cochin China in

1666, he reported that the Turks used coffee to correct the

indisposition caused in the stomach by the bad water. "This drink," he

says, "imitates the effect of wine ... has not an agreeable taste but

rather bitter, yet it is much used by these people for the good effects

they find therein."

In 1686, John Ray (1628-1704), one of the most celebrated of English

naturalists, published his _Universal History of Plants_, notable among

other things for being the first work of its kind to extol the virtues

of coffee in a scientific treatise.

R. Bradley, professor of botany at Cambridge, published (1714) _A Short

Historical Account of Coffee_, all trace of which appears to be lost.

Dr. James Douglas published in London (1727) his _Arbor Yemensis fructum

Cofe ferens; or, a description and History of the Coffee Tree_, in which

he laid under heavy contribution the Arabian and French writers that had

preceded him.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VII

THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO HOLLAND

_How the enterprising Dutch traders captured the first world's

market for coffee--Activities of the Netherlands East India

Company--The first coffee house at the Hague--The first public

auction at Amsterdam in 1711, when Java coffee brought forty-seven

cents a pound, green_

The Dutch had early knowledge of coffee because of their dealings with

the Orient and with the Venetians, and of their nearness to Germany,

where Rauwolf first wrote about it in 1582. They were familiar with

Alpini's writings on the subject in 1592. Paludanus, in his coffee note

on _Linschoten's Travels_, furnished further enlightenment in 1598.

The Dutch were always great merchants and shrewd traders. Being of a

practical turn of mind, they conceived an ambition to grow coffee in

their colonial possessions, so as to make their home markets

headquarters for a world's trade in the product. In considering modern

coffee-trading, the Netherlands East India Company may be said to be the

pioneer, as it established in Java one of the first experimental gardens

for coffee cultivation.

The Netherlands East India Company was formed in 1602. As early as 1614,

Dutch traders visited Aden to examine into the possibilities of coffee

and coffee-trading. In 1616 Pieter Van dan Broeck brought the first

coffee from Mocha to Holland. In 1640 a Dutch merchant, named Wurffbain,

offered for sale in Amsterdam the first commercial shipment of coffee

from Mocha. As indicating the enterprise of the Dutch, note that this

was four years before the beverage was introduced into France, and only

three years after Conopios had privately instituted the breakfast coffee

cup at Oxford.

About 1650, Varnar, the Dutch minister resident at the Ottoman Porte,

published a treatise on coffee.

When the Dutch at last drove the Portuguese out of Ceylon in 1658, they

began the cultivation of coffee there, although the plant had been

introduced into the island by the Arabs prior to the Portuguese invasion

in 1505. However, it was not until 1690 that the more systematic

cultivation of the coffee plant by the Dutch was undertaken in Ceylon.

Regular imports of coffee from Mocha to Amsterdam began in 1663. Later,

supplies began to arrive from the Malabar coast.

Pasqua Rosée, who introduced the coffee house into London in 1652, is

said to have made coffee popular as a beverage in Holland by selling it

there publicly in 1664. The first coffee house was opened in the Korten

Voorhout, the Hague, under the protection of the writer Van Essen;

others soon followed in Amsterdam and Haarlem.

At the instigation of Nicolaas Witsen, burgomaster of Amsterdam and

governor of the East India Company, Adrian Van Ommen, commander of

Malabar, sent the first Arabian coffee seedlings to Java in 1696,

recorded in the chapter on the history of coffee propagation. These were

destroyed by flood, but were followed in 1699 by a second shipment, from

which developed the coffee trade of the Netherlands East Indies, that

made Java coffee a household word in every civilized country.

A trial shipment of the coffee grown near Batavia was received at

Amsterdam in 1706, also a plant for the botanical gardens. This plant

subsequently became the progenitor of most of the coffees of the West

Indies and America.

The first Java coffee for the trade was received at Amsterdam 1711. The

shipment consisted of 894 pounds from the Jakatra plantations and from

the interior of the island. At the first public auction, this coffee

brought twenty-three and two-thirds _stuivers_ (about forty-seven cents)

per Amsterdam pound.

The Netherlands East India Company contracted with the regents of

Netherlands India for the compulsory delivery of coffee; and the natives

were enjoined to cultivate coffee, the production thus becoming a forced

industry worked by government. A "general system of cultivation" was

introduced into Java in 1832 by the government, which decreed the

employment of forced labor for different products. Coffee-growing was

the only forced industry that existed before this system of cultivation,

and it was the only government cultivation that survived the abolition

of the system in 1905-08. The last direct government interest in coffee

was closed out in 1918. From 1870 to 1874, the government plantations

yielded an average of 844,854 piculs[63] a year; from 1875 to 1878, the

average was 866,674 piculs. Between 1879 and 1883, it rose to 987,682

piculs. From 1884 to 1888, the average annual yield was only 629,942

piculs.

Holland readily adopted the coffee house; and among the earliest coffee

pictures preserved to us is one depicting a scene in a Dutch coffee

house of the seventeenth century, the work of Adriaen Van Ostade

(1610-1675), shown on page 586.

History records no intolerance of coffee in Holland. The Dutch attitude

was ever that of the constructionist. Dutch inventors and artisans gave

us many new designs in coffee mortars, coffee roasters, and coffee

serving-pots.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VIII

THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO GERMANY

_The contributions made by German travelers and writers to the

literature of the early history of coffee--The first coffee house

in Hamburg opened by an English merchant--Famous coffee houses of

old Berlin--The first coffee periodical, and the first

kaffee-klatsch--Frederick the Great's coffee-roasting

monopoly--Coffee persecutions--"Coffee-smellers"--The first coffee

king_

As we have already seen, Leonhard Rauwolf, in 1573, made his memorable

trip to Aleppo and, in 1582, won for Germany the honor of being the

first European country to make printed mention of the coffee drink.

Adam Olearius (or Oelschlager), a German Orientalist (1599-1671),

traveled in Persia as secretary to a German embassy in 1633-36. Upon his

return he published an account of his journeys. In it, under date of

1637, he says of the Persians:

They drink with their tobacco a certain black water, which they

call _cahwa_, made of a fruit brought out of Egypt, and which is in

colour like ordinary wheat, and in taste like Turkish wheat, and is

of the bigness of a little bean.... The Persians think it allays

the natural heat.

In 1637, Joh. Albrecht von Mandelsloh, in his _Oriental Trip_, mentions

"the black water of the Persians called _Kahwe_", saying "it must be

drunk hot."

Coffee drinking was introduced into Germany about 1670. The drink

appeared at the court of the great elector of Brandenburg in 1675.

Northern Germany got its first taste of the beverage from London, an

English merchant opening the first coffee house in Hamburg in 1679-80.

Regensburg followed in 1689; Leipsic, in 1694; Nuremberg, in 1696;

Stuttgart, in 1712; Augsburg, in 1713; and Berlin, in 1721. In that year

(1721) King Frederick William I granted a foreigner the privilege of

conducting a coffee house in Berlin free of all rental charges. It was

known as the English coffee house, as was also the first coffee house in

Hamburg. And for many years, English merchants supplied the coffees

consumed in northern Germany; while Italy supplied southern Germany.

Other well known coffee houses of old Berlin were, the Royal, in Behren

_Strasse_; that of the Widow Doebbert, in the Stechbahn; the City of

Rome, in Unter-den-Linden; Arnoldi, in Kronen _Strasse_; Miercke, in

Tauben _Strasse_, and Schmidt, in Post _Strasse_.

Later, Philipp Falck opened a Jewish coffee house in Spandauer

_Strasse_. In the time of Frederick the Great (1712-1786) there were at

least a dozen coffee houses in the metropolitan district of Berlin. In

the suburbs were many tents where coffee was served.

The first coffee periodical, _The New and Curious Coffee House_, was

issued in Leipsic in 1707 by Theophilo Georgi. The full title was _The

New and Curious Coffee House, formerly in Italy but now opened in

Germany. First water debauchery. "City of the Well." Brunnenstadt by

Lorentz Schoepffwasser_ [draw-water] 1707. The second issue gave the

name of Georgi as the real publisher. It was intended to be in the

nature of an organ for the first real German kaffee-klatsch. It was a

chronicle of the comings and goings of the savants who frequented the

"Tusculum" of a well-to-do gentleman in the outskirts of the city. At

the beginning the master of the house declared:

I know that the gentlemen here speak French, Italian and other

languages. I know also that in many coffee and tea meetings it is

considered requisite that French be spoken. May I ask, however,

that he who calls upon me should use no other language but German.

We are all Germans, we are in Germany; shall we not conduct

ourselves like true Germans?

In 1721 Leonhard Ferdinand Meisner published at Nuremberg the first

comprehensive German treatise on coffee, tea, and chocolate.

During the second half of the eighteenth century coffee entered the

homes, and began to supplant flour-soup and warm beer at breakfast

tables.

Meanwhile coffee met with some opposition in Prussia and Hanover.

Frederick the Great became annoyed when he saw how much money was paid

to foreign coffee merchants for supplies of the green bean, and tried to

restrict its use by making coffee a drink of the "quality". Soon all the

German courts had their own coffee roasters, coffee pots, and coffee

cups.

Many beautiful specimens of the finest porcelain cups and saucers made

in Meissen, and used at court fêtes of this period, survive in the

collections at the Potsdam and Berlin museums. The wealthy classes

followed suit; but when the poor grumbled because they could not afford

the luxury, and demanded their coffee, they were told in effect: "You

had better leave it alone. Anyhow, it's bad for you because it causes

sterility." Many doctors lent themselves to a campaign against coffee,

one of their favorite arguments being that women using the beverage must

forego child-bearing. Bach's _Coffee Cantata_[64] (1732) was a notable

protest in music against such libels.

On September 13, 1777, Frederick issued a coffee and beer manifesto, a

curious document, which recited:

It is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee

used by my subjects, and the amount of money that goes out of the

country in consequence. Everybody is using coffee. If possible,

this must be prevented. My people must drink beer. His Majesty was

brought up on beer, and so were his ancestors, and his officers.

Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on

beer; and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers

can be depended upon to endure hardship or to beat his enemies in

case of the occurrence of another war.

[Illustration: RICHTER'S COFFEE HOUSE IN LEIPSIC--SEVENTEENTH CENTURY]

For a time beer was restored to its honored place; and coffee continued

to be a luxury afforded only by the rich. Soon a revulsion of feeling

set in; and it was found that even Prussian military rule could not

enforce coffee prohibition. Whereupon, in 1781, finding that all his

efforts to reserve the beverage for the exclusive court circles, the

nobility, and the officers of his army, were vain, the king created a

royal monopoly in coffee, and forbade its roasting except in royal

roasting establishments. At the same time, he made exceptions in the

cases of the nobility, the clergy, and government officials; but

rejected all applications for coffee-roasting licenses from the common

people. His object, plainly, was to confine the use of the drink to the

elect. To these representatives of the cream of Prussian society, the

king issued special licenses permitting them to do their own roasting.

Of course, they purchased their supplies from the government; and as the

price was enormously increased, the sales yielded Frederick a handsome

income. Incidentally, the possession of a coffee-roasting license became

a kind of badge of membership in the upper class. The poorer classes

were forced to get their coffee by stealth; and, failing this, they fell

back upon numerous barley, wheat, corn, chicory, and dried-fig

substitutes, that soon appeared in great numbers.

This singular coffee ordinance was known as the "_Déclaration du Roi

concernant la vente du café brûlé_", and was published January 21, 1781.

[Illustration: COFFEE HOUSE IN GERMANY--MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH

CENTURY]

After placing the coffee _regie_ (revenue) in the hands of a Frenchman,

Count de Lannay, so many deputies were required to make collections that

the administration of the law became a veritable persecution. Discharged

wounded soldiers were mostly employed, and their principal duty was to

spy upon the people day and night, following the smell of roasting

coffee whenever detected, in order to seek out those who might be found

without roasting permits. The spies were given one-fourth of the fine

collected. These deputies made themselves so great a nuisance, and

became so cordially disliked, that they were called "coffee-smellers" by

the indignant people.

Taking a leaf out of Frederick's book, the elector of Cologne,

Maximilian Frederick, bishop of Münster, (Duchy of Westphalia) on

February 17, 1784, issued a manifesto which said:

To our great displeasure we have learned that in our Duchy of

Westphalia the misuse of the coffee beverage has become so extended

that to counteract the evil we command that four weeks after the

publication of this decree no one shall sell coffee roasted or not

roasted under a fine of one hundred dollars, or two years in

prison, for each offense.

Every coffee-roasting and coffee-serving place shall be closed, and

dealers and hotel-keepers are to get rid of their coffee supplies

in four weeks. It is only permitted to obtain from the outside

coffee for one's own consumption in lots of fifty pounds. House

fathers and mothers shall not allow their work people, especially

their washing and ironing women, to prepare coffee, or to allow it

in any manner under a penalty of one hundred dollars.

All officials and government employees, to avoid a penalty of one

hundred gold florins, are called upon closely to follow and to keep

a watchful eye over this decree. To the one who reports such

persons as act contrary to this decree shall be granted one-half of

the said money fine with absolute silence as to his name.

This decree was solemnly read in the pulpits, and was published besides

in the usual places and ways. There immediately followed a course of

"telling-ons", and of "coffee-smellings", that led to many bitter

enmities and caused much unhappiness in the Duchy of Westphalia.

Apparently the purpose of the archduke was to prevent persons of small

means from enjoying the drink, while those who could afford to purchase

fifty pounds at a time were to be permitted the indulgence. As was to be

expected, the scheme was a complete failure.

While the king of Prussia exploited his subjects by using the state

coffee monopoly as a means of extortion, the duke of Württemberg had a

scheme of his own. He sold to Joseph Suess-Oppenheimer, an unscrupulous

financier, the exclusive privilege of keeping coffee houses in

Württemberg. Suess-Oppenheimer in turn sold the individual coffee-house

licenses to the highest bidders, and accumulated a considerable fortune.

He was the first "coffee king."

But coffee outlived all these unjust slanders and cruel taxations of too

paternal governments, and gradually took its rightful place as one of

the favorite beverages of the German people.

[Illustration: KOLSCHITZKY, THE GREAT BROTHER-HEART, IN HIS BLUE BOTTLE

CAFÉ, VIENNA, 1683

From a lithograph after the painting by Franz Schams, entitled "Das

Erste (Kulczycki'sche) Kaffee Haus"]

CHAPTER IX

TELLING HOW COFFEE CAME TO VIENNA

_The romantic adventure of Franz George Kolschitzky, who carried "a

message to Garcia" through the enemy's lines and won for himself

the honor of being the first to teach the Viennese the art of

making coffee, to say nothing of falling heir to the supplies of

the green beans left behind by the Turks; also the gift of a house

from a grateful municipality, and a statue after

death--Affectionate regard in which "brother-heart" Kolschitzky is

held as the patron saint of the Vienna kaffee-sieder--Life in the

early Vienna cafés_

A romantic tale has been woven around the introduction of coffee into

Austria. When Vienna was besieged by the Turks in 1683, so runs the

legend, Franz George Kolschitzky, a native of Poland, formerly an

interpreter in the Turkish army, saved the city and won for himself

undying fame, with coffee as his principal reward.

It is not known whether, in the first siege of Vienna by the Turks in

1529, the invaders boiled coffee over their camp fires that surrounded

the Austrian capital; although they might have done so, as Selim I,

after conquering Egypt in 1517, had brought with him to Constantinople

large stores of coffee as part of his booty. But it is certain that when

they returned to the attack, 154 years later, they carried with them a

plentiful supply of the green beans.

Mohammed IV mobilized an army of 300,000 men and sent it forth under his

vizier, Kara Mustapha, (Kuprili's successor) to destroy Christendom and

to conquer Europe. Reaching Vienna July 7, 1683, the army quickly

invested the city and cut it off from the world. Emperor Leopold had

escaped the net and was several miles away. Nearby was the prince of

Lorraine, with an army of 33,000 Austrians, awaiting the succor promised

by John Sobieski, king of Poland, and an opportunity to relieve the

besieged capital. Count Rudiger von Starhemberg, in command of the

forces in Vienna, called for a volunteer to carry a message through the

Turkish lines to hurry along the rescue. He found him in the person of

Franz George Kolschitzky, who had lived for many years among the Turks

and knew their language and customs.

On August 13, 1683, Kolschitzky donned a Turkish uniform, passed through

the enemy's lines and reached the Emperor's army across the Danube.

Several times he made the perilous journey between the camp of the

prince of Lorraine and the garrison of the governor of Vienna. One

account says that he had to swim the four intervening arms of the Danube

each time he performed the feat. His messages did much to keep up the

morale of the city's defenders. At length King John and his army of

rescuing Poles arrived and were consolidated with the Austrians on the

summit of Mount Kahlenberg. It was one of the most dramatic moments in

history. The fate of Christian Europe hung in the balance. Everything

seemed to point to the triumph of the crescent over the cross. Once

again Kolschitzky crossed the Danube, and brought back word concerning

the signals that the prince of Lorraine and King John would give from

Mount Kahlenberg to indicate the beginning of the attack. Count

Starhemberg was to make a sortie at the same time.

[Illustration: FRANZ GEORGE KOLSCHITZKY, PATRON SAINT OF VIENNA COFFEE

LOVERS]

The battle took place September 12, and thanks to the magnificent

generalship of King John, the Turks were routed. The Poles here rendered

a never-to-be-forgotten service to all Christendom. The Turkish invaders

fled, leaving 25,000 tents, 10,000 oxen, 5,000 camels, 100,000 bushels

of grain, a great quantity of gold, and many sacks filled with

coffee--at that time unknown in Vienna. The booty was distributed; but

no one wanted the coffee. They did not know what to do with it; that is,

no one except Kolschitzky. He said, "If nobody wants those sacks, I will

take them", and every one was heartily glad to be rid of the strange

beans. But Kolschitzky knew what he was about, and he soon taught the

Viennese the art of preparing coffee. Later, he established the first

public booth where Turkish coffee was served in Vienna.

This, then, is the story of how coffee was introduced into Vienna, where

was developed that typical Vienna café which has become a model for a

large part of the world. Kolschitzky is honored in Vienna as the patron

saint of coffee houses. His followers, united in the guild of coffee

makers (_kaffee-sieder_), even erected a statue in his honor. It still

stands as part of the facade of a house where the Kolschitzygasse merges

into the Favoritengasse, as shown in the accompanying picture.

Vienna is sometimes referred to as the "mother of cafés". Café Sacher is

world-renowned. Tart à la Sacher is to be found in every cook-book. The

Viennese have their "_jause_" every afternoon. When one drinks coffee at

a Vienna café one generally has a _kipfel_ with it. This is a

crescent-shaped roll--baked for the first time in the eventful year

1683, when the Turks besieged the city. A baker made these crescent

rolls in a spirit of defiance of the Turk. Holding sword in one hand and

_kipfel_ in the other, the Viennese would show themselves on top of

their redoubts and challenge the cohorts of Mohammed IV.

Mohammed IV was deposed after losing the battle, and Kara Mustapha was

executed for leaving the stores--particularly the sacks of coffee

beans--at the gates of Vienna; but Vienna coffee and Vienna _kipfel_ are

still alive, and their appeal is not lessened by the years.

[Illustration: THE FIRST COFFEE HOUSE IN THE LEOPOLDSTADT

From a cut so titled in Bermann's _Alt und Neu Wien_]

The hero Kolschitzky was presented with a house by the grateful

municipality; and there, at the sign of the Blue Bottle, according to

one account, he continued as a coffee-house keeper for many years.[65]

This, in brief, is the story that--although not authenticated in all

its particulars--is seriously related in many books, and is firmly

believed throughout Vienna.

It seems a pity to discredit the hero of so romantic an adventure; but

the archives of Vienna throw a light upon Kolschitzky's later conduct

that tends to show that, after all, this Viennese idol's feet were of

common clay.

It is said that Kolschitzky, after receiving the sacks of green coffee

left behind by the Turks, at once began to peddle the beverage from

house to house, serving it in little cups from a wooden platter. Later

he rented a shop in Bischof-hof. Then he began to petition the municipal

council, that, in addition to the sum of 100 ducats already promised him

as further recognition of his valor, he should receive a house with good

will attached; that is, a shop in some growing business section. "His

petitions to the municipal council", writes M. Bermann[66], "are amazing

examples of measureless self-conceit and the boldest greed. He seemed

determined to get the utmost out of his own self-sacrifice. He insisted

upon the most highly deserved reward, such as the Romans bestowed upon

their Curtius, the Lacedæmonians upon their Pompilius, the Athenians

upon Seneca, with whom he modestly compared himself."

At last, he was given his choice of three houses in the Leopoldstadt,

any one of them worth from 400 to 450 gulden, in place of the money

reward, that had been fixed by a compromise agreement at 300 gulden. But

Kolschitzky was not satisfied with this; and urged that if he was to

accept a house in full payment it should be one valued at not less than

1000 gulden. Then ensued much correspondence and considerable haggling.

To put an end to the acrimonious dispute, the municipal council in 1685

directed that there should be deeded over to Kolschitzky and his wife,

Maria Ursula, without further argument, the house known at that time as

30 (now 8) Haidgasse.

It is further recorded that Kolschitzky sold the house within a year;

and, after many moves, he died of tuberculosis, February 20, 1694, aged

fifty-four years. He was courier to the emperor at the time of his

death, and was buried in the Stefansfreithof Cemetery.

[Illustration: STATUE OF KOLSCHITZKY ERECTED BY THE COFFEE MAKERS GUILD

OF VIENNA]

Kolschitzky's heirs moved the coffee house to Donaustrand, near the

wooden Schlagbrücke, later known as Ferdinand's _brücke_ (bridge). The

celebrated coffee house of Franz Mosee (d. 1860) stood on this same

spot.

In the city records for the year 1700 a house in the

Stock-im-Eisen-Platz (square) is designated by the words "_allwo das

erste kaffeegewölbe_" ("here was the first coffee house").

Unfortunately, the name of the proprietor is not given.

Many stories are told of Kolschitzky's popularity as a coffee-house

keeper. He is said to have addressed everyone as _bruderherz_

(brother-heart) and gradually he himself acquired the name _bruderherz_.

A portrait of Kolschitzky, painted about the time of his greatest vogue,

is carefully preserved by the Innung der Wiener Kaffee-sieder (the

Coffee Makers' Guild of Vienna).

Even during the lifetime of the first _kaffee-sieder_, a number of

others opened coffee houses and acquired some little fame. Early in the

eighteenth century a tourist gives us a glimpse of the progress made by

coffee drinking and by the coffee-house idea in Vienna. We read:

The city of Vienna is filled with coffee houses, where the

novelists or those who busy themselves with the newspapers delight

to meet, to read the gazettes and discuss their contents. Some of

these houses have a better reputation than others because such

_zeitungs-doctors_ (newspaper doctors--an ironical title) gather

there to pass most unhesitating judgment on the weightiest events,

and to surpass all others in their opinions concerning political

matters and considerations.

All this wins them such respect that many congregate there because

of them, and to enrich their minds with inventions and foolishness

which they immediately run through the city to bring to the ears of

the said personalities. It is impossible to believe what freedom is

permitted, in furnishing this gossip. They speak without reverence

not only of the doings of generals and ministers of state, but also

mix themselves in the life of the Kaiser (Emperor) himself.

Vienna liked the coffee house so well that by 1839 there were eighty of

them in the city proper and fifty more in the suburbs.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER X

THE COFFEE HOUSES OF OLD LONDON

_One of the most picturesque chapters in the history of coffee--The

first coffee house in London--The first coffee handbill, and the

first newspaper advertisement for coffee--Strange coffee

mixtures--Fantastic coffee claims--Coffee prices and coffee

licenses--Coffee club of the Rota--Early coffee-house manners and

customs--Coffee-house keepers' tokens--Opposition to the coffee

house--"Penny universities"--Weird coffee substitutes--The proposed

coffee-house newspaper monopoly--Evolution of the club--Decline and

fall of the coffee house--Pen pictures of coffee-house life--Famous

coffee houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--Some Old

World pleasure gardens--Locating the notable coffee houses_

The two most picturesque chapters in the history of coffee have to do

with the period of the old London and Paris coffee houses of the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Much of the poetry and romance of

coffee centers around this time.

"The history of coffee houses," says D'Israeli, "ere the invention of

clubs, was that of the manners, the morals and the politics of a

people." And so the history of the London coffee houses of the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is indeed the history of the

manners and customs of the English people of that period.

_The First London Coffee House_

"The first coffee house in London," says John Aubrey (1626-97), the

English antiquary and folklorist, "was in St. Michael's Alley, in

Cornhill, opposite to the church, which was sett up by one ... Bowman

(coachman to Mr. Hodges, a Turkey merchant, who putt him upon it) in or

about the yeare 1652. 'Twas about four years before any other was sett

up, and that was by Mr. Farr. Jonathan Paynter, over-against to St.

Michael's Church, was the first apprentice to the trade, viz., to

Bowman."[67]

Another account, for which we are indebted to William Oldys (1696-1761),

the bibliographer, relates that Mr. Edwards, a London merchant, acquired

the coffee habit in Turkey, and brought home with him from Ragusa, in

Dalmatia, Pasqua Rosée, an Armenian or Greek youth, who prepared the

beverage for him. "But the novelty thereof," says Oldys, "drawing too

much company to him, he allowed the said servant with another of his

son-in-law to set up the first coffee house in London at St. Michael's

Alley, in Cornhill."

From this it would appear that Pasqua Rosée had as partner in this

enterprise, the Bowman, who, according to Aubrey, was coachman to Mr.

Hodges, the son-in-law of Mr. Edwards, and a fellow merchant traveler.

Oldys tells us that Rosée and Bowman soon separated. John Timbs

(1801-1875), another English antiquary, says they quarreled, Rosée

keeping the house, and his partner Bowman obtaining leave to pitch a

tent and to sell the drink in St. Michael's churchyard.

Still another version of this historic incident is to be found in

_Houghton's Collection_, 1698. It reads:

It appears that a Mr. Daniel Edwards, an English merchant of

Smyrna, brought with him to this country a Greek of the name of

Pasqua, in 1652, who made his coffee; this Mr. Edwards married one

Alderman Hodges's daughter, who lived in Walbrook, and set up

Pasqua for a coffee man in a shed in the churchyard in St. Michael,

Cornhill, which is now a scrivener's brave-house, when, having

great custom, the ale-sellers petitioned the Lord Mayor against him

as being no freeman. This made Alderman Hodges join his coachman,

Bowman, who was free, as Pasqua's partner; but Pasqua, for some

misdemeanor, was forced to run the country, and Bowman, by his

trade and a contribution of 1000 sixpences, turned the shed to a

house. Bowman's apprentices were first, John Painter, then Humphry,

from whose wife I had this account.

This account makes it appear that Edwards was Hodges' son-in-law.

Whatever the relationship, most authorities agree that Pasqua Rosée was

the first to sell coffee publicly, whether in a tent or shed, in London

in or about the year 1652. His original shop-bill, or handbill, the

first advertisement for coffee, is in the British Museum, and from it

the accompanying photograph was made for this work. It sets forth in

direct fashion: "The Vertue of the _COFFEE_ Drink First publiquely made

and sold in England, by _Pasqua Rosée_ ... in St. _Michaels Alley_ in

_Cornhill_ ... at the Signe of his own Head."[68]

H.R. Fox Bourne[69] (about 1870) is alone in an altogether different

version of this historic event. He says:

"In 1652 Sir Nicholas Crispe, a Levant merchant, opened in London the

first coffee house known in England, the beverage being prepared by a

Greek girl brought over for the work."

There is nothing to substantiate this story; the preponderance of

evidence is in support of the Edwards-Rosée version.

Such then was the advent of the coffee house in London, which introduced

to English-speaking people the drink of democracy. Oddly enough, coffee

and the Commonwealth came in together. The English coffee house, like

its French contemporary, was the home of liberty.

Robinson, who accepts that version of the event wherein Edwards marries

Hodges's daughter, says that after the partners Rosée and Bowman

separated, and Bowman had set up his tent opposite Rosée, a zealous

partisan addressed these verses "To Pasqua Rosée, at the Sign of his own

Head and half his Body in St. Michael's Alley, next the first

Coffee-Tent in London":

Were not the fountain of my Tears

Each day exhausted by the steam

Of your Coffee, no doubt appears

But they would swell to such a stream

As could admit of no restriction

To see, poor Pasqua, thy Affliction.

What! Pasqua, you at first did broach

This Nectar for the publick Good,

Must you call Kitt down from the Coach

To drive a Trade he understood

No more than you did then your creed,

Or he doth now to write or read?

Pull Courage, Pasqua, fear no Harms

From the besieging Foe;

Make good your Ground, stand to your Arms,

Hold out this summer, and then tho'

He'll storm, he'll not prevail--your Face[70]

Shall give the Coffee Pot the chace.

Eventually Pasqua Rosée disappeared, some say to open a coffee house on

the Continent, in Holland or Germany. Bowman, having married Alderman

Hodges's cook, and having also prevailed upon about a thousand of his

customers to lend him sixpence apiece, converted his tent into a

substantial house, and eventually took an apprentice to the trade.

Concerning London's second coffee-house keeper, James Farr, proprietor

of the Rainbow, who had as his most distinguished visitor Sir Henry

Blount, Edward Hatton[71] says:

I find it recorded that one James Farr, a barber, who kept the

coffee-house which is now the Rainbow, by the Inner Temple Gate

(one of the first in England), was in the year 1657, prosecuted by

the inquest of St Dunstan's in the West, for making and selling a

sort of liquor called coffe, as a great nuisance and prejudice to

the neighborhood, etc., and who would then have thought London

would ever have had near three thousand such nuisances, and that

coffee would have been, as now, so much drank by the best of

quality and physicians?

[Illustration: FIRST ADVERTISEMENT FOR COFFEE--1652

Handbill used by Pasqua Rosée, who opened the first coffee house in

London From the original in the British Museum]

Hatton evidently attributed Fair's nuisance to the coffee itself,

whereas the presentment[72] clearly shows it was in Farr's chimney and

not in the coffee.

Mention has already been made that Sir Henry Blount was spoken of as

"the father of English coffee houses" and his claim to this distinction

would seem to be a valid one, for his strong personality "stamped itself

upon the system." His favorite motto, "_Loquendum est cum vulgo,

sentiendum cum sapientibus_" (the crowd may talk about it; the wise

decide it), says Robinson, "expresses well their colloquial purpose, and

was natural enough on the lips of one whose experience had been world

wide." Aubrey says of Sir Henry Blount, "He is now neer or altogether

eighty yeares, his intellectuals good still and body pretty strong."

Women played a not inconspicuous part in establishing businesses for the

sale of the coffee drink in England, although the coffee houses were not

for both sexes, as in other European countries. The London City

_Quaeries_ for 1660 makes mention of "a she-coffee merchant." Mary

Stringar ran a coffee house in Little Trinity Lane in 1669; Anne Blunt

was mistress of one of the Turk's-Head houses in Cannon Street in 1672.

Mary Long was the widow of William Long, and her initials, together with

those of her husband, appear on a token issued from the Rose tavern in

Bridge Street, Covent Garden. Mary Long's token from the "Rose coffee

house by the playhouse" in Covent Garden is shown among the group of

coffee-house keepers' tokens herein illustrated.

_The First Newspaper Advertisement_

The first newspaper advertisement for coffee appeared, May 26, 1657, in

the _Publick Adviser_ of London, one of the first weekly pamphlets. The

name of this publication was erroneously given as the _Publick

Advertiser_ by an early writer on coffee, and the error has been copied

by succeeding writers. The first newspaper advertisement was contained

in the issue of the _Publick Adviser_ for the week of May 19 to May 26,

and read:

In _Bartholomew_ Lane on the back side of the Old Exchange, the

drink called _Coffee_, (which is a very wholsom and Physical drink,

having many excellent vertues, closes the Orifice of the Stomack,

fortifies the heat within, helpeth Digestion, quickneth the

Spirits, maketh the heart lightsom, is good against Eye-sores,

Coughs, or Colds, Rhumes, Consumptions, Head-ach, Dropsie, Gout,

Scurvy, Kings Evil, and many others is to be sold both in the

morning, and at three of the clock in the afternoon).

Chocolate was also advertised for sale in London this same year. The

issue of the _Publick Adviser_ for June 16, 1657, contained this

announcement:

In Bishopgate Street, in Queen's Head Alley, at a Frenchman's house

is an excellent West India drink called chocolate, to be sold,

where you may have it ready at any time, and also unmade at

reasonable rates.

Tea was first sold publicly at Garraway's (or Garway's) in 1657.

_Strange Coffee Mixtures_

The doctors were loath to let coffee escape from the mysteries of the

pharmacopoeia and become "a simple and refreshing beverage" that any

one might obtain for a penny in the coffee houses, or, if preferred,

might prepare at home. In this they were aided and abetted by many

well-meaning but misguided persons (some of them men of considerable

intelligence) who seemed possessed of the idea that the coffee drink was

an unpleasant medicine that needed something to take away its curse, or

else that it required a complex method of preparation. Witness "Judge"

Walter Rumsey's _Electuary of Cophy_, which appeared in 1657 in

connection with a curious work of his called _Organon Salutis: an

instrument to cleanse the stomach_.[73] The instrument itself was a

flexible whale-bone, two or three feet long, with a small linen or silk

button at the end, and was designed to be introduced into the stomach to

produce the effect of an emetic. The electuary of coffee was to be taken

by the patient before and after using the instrument, which the "judge"

called his _Provang_. And this was the "judge's" "new and superior way

of preparing coffee" as found in his prescription for making electuary

of cophy:

Take equal quantity of Butter and Sallet-oyle, melt them well

together, but not boyle them: Then stirre them well that they may

incorporate together: Then melt therewith three times as much

Honey, and stirre it well together: Then add thereunto powder of

Turkish Cophie, to make it a thick Electuary.

A little consideration will convince any one that the electuary was most

likely to achieve the purpose for which it was recommended.

[Illustration: THE FIRST NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT FOR COFFEE--1657]

Another concoction invented by the "judge" was known as "wash-brew",

and included oatmeal, powder of "cophie", a pint of ale or any wine,

ginger, honey, or sugar to please the taste; to these ingredients butter

might be added and any cordial powder or pleasant spice. It was to be

put into a flannel bag and "so keep it at pleasure like starch." This

was a favorite medicine among the common people of Wales.

The book contained in a prefix an interesting historical document in the

shape of a letter from James Howell (1595-1666) the writer and

historiographer, which read:

Touching coffee, I concurre with them in opinion, who hold it to be

that black-broth which was us'd of old in Lacedemon, whereof the

Poets sing; Surely it must needs be salutiferous, because so many

sagacious, and the wittiest sort of Nations use it so much; as they

who have conversed with Shashes and Turbants doe well know. But,

besides the exsiccant quality it hath to dry up the crudities of

the Stomach, as also to comfort the Brain, to fortifie the sight

with its steem, and prevent Dropsies, Gouts, the Scurvie, together

with the Spleen and Hypocondriacall windes (all which it doth

without any violance or distemper at all.) I say, besides all these

qualities, 'tis found already, that this Coffee-drink hath caused a

greater sobriety among the nations; for whereas formerly

Apprentices and Clerks with others, used to take their mornings'

draught in Ale, Beer or Wine, which by the dizziness they cause in

the Brain, make many unfit for business, they use now to play the

Good-fellows in this wakefull and civill drink: Therefore that

worthy Gentleman, Mr. Mudiford[74], who introduced the practice

hereof first to London, deserves much respect of the whole nation.

The coffee drink at one time was mixed with sugar candy, and also with

mustard. In the coffee houses, however, it was usually served black;

"few people then mixed it with either sugar or milk."

_Fantastic Coffee Claims_

One can not fail to note in connection with the introduction of coffee

into England that the beverage suffered most from the indiscretions of

its friends. On the one hand, the quacks of the medical profession

sought to claim it for their own; and, on the other, more or less

ignorant laymen attributed to the drink such virtues as its real

champions among the physicians never dreamed of. It was the favorite

pastime of its friends to exaggerate coffee's merits; and of its

enemies, to vilify its users. All this furnished good "copy" for and

against the coffee house, which became the central figure in each new

controversy.

From the early English author who damned it by calling it "more

wholesome than toothsome", to Pasqua Rosée and his contemporaries, who

urged its more fantastic claims, it was forced to make its way through a

veritable morass of misunderstanding and intolerance. No harmless drink

in history has suffered more at hands of friend and foe.

Did its friends hail it as a panacea, its enemies retorted that it was a

slow poison. In France and in England there were those who contended

that it produced melancholy, and those who argued it was a cure for the

same. Dr. Thomas Willis (1621-1673), a distinguished Oxford physician

whom Antoine Portal (1742-1832) called "one of the greatest geniuses

that ever lived", said he would sometimes send his patients to the

coffee house rather than to the apothecary's shop. An old broadside,

described later in this chapter, stressed the notion that if you "do but

this Rare ARABIAN cordial use, and thou may'st all the Doctors Slops

Refuse."

As a cure for drunkenness its "magic" power was acclaimed by its

friends, and grudgingly admitted by its foes. This will appear presently

in a description of the war of the broadsides and the pamphlets. Coffee

was praised by one writer as a deodorizer. Another (Richard Bradley), in

his treatise concerning its use with regard to the plague, said if its

qualities had been fully known in 1665, "Dr. Hodges and other learned

men of that time would have recommended it." As a matter of fact, in

Gideon Harvey's _Advice against the Plague_, published in 1665, we find,

"coffee is commended against the contagion."

This is how the drink's sobering virtue was celebrated by the author of

the _Rebellious Antidote_:

Come, Frantick Fools, leave off your Drunken fits.

Obsequious be and I'll recall your Wits,

From perfect Madness to a modest Strain

For farthings four I'll fetch you back again,

Enable all your mene with tricks of State,

Enter and sip and then attend your Fate;

Come Drunk or Sober, for a gentle Fee,

Come n'er so Mad, I'll your Physician be.

Dr. Willis, in his _Pharmaceutice Rationalis_ (1674), was one of the

first to attempt to do justice to both sides of the coffee question. At

best, he thought it a somewhat risky beverage, and its votaries must,

in some cases, be prepared to suffer languor and even paralysis; it may

attack the heart and cause tremblings in the limbs. On the other hand it

may, if judiciously used, prove a marvelous benefit; "being daily drunk

it wonderfully clears and enlightens each part of the Soul and disperses

all the clouds of every Function."

It was a long time before recognition was obtained for the truth about

the "novelty drink"; especially that, if there were any beyond purely

social virtues to be found in coffee, they were "political rather than

medical."

Dr. James Duncan, of the Faculty of Montpellier, in his book _Wholesome

Advice against the Abuse of Hot Liquors_, done into English in 1706,

found coffee no more deserving of the name of panacea than that of

poison.

George Cheyne (1671-1743), the noted British physician, proclaimed his

neutrality in the words, "I have neither great praise nor bitter blame

for the thing."

_Coffee Prices and Coffee Licenses_

Coffee, with tea and chocolate, was first mentioned in the English

Statute books in 1660, when a duty of four pence was laid upon every

gallon made and sold, "to be paid by the maker." Coffee was classed by

the House of Commons with "other outlandish drinks."

It is recorded in 1662 that "the right coffee powder" was being sold at

the Turk's Head coffee house in Exchange Alley for "4s. to 6s. 8d. per

pound; that pounded in a mortar, 2s; East India berry, 1s. 6d.; and the

right Turkie berry, well garbled [ground] at 3s. The ungarbled [in the

bean] for less with directions how to use the same." Chocolate was also

to be had at "2s. 6d. the pound; the perfumed from 4s. to 10s."

At one time coffee sold for five guineas a pound in England, and even

forty crowns (about forty-eight dollars) a pound was paid for it.

In 1663, all English coffee houses were required to be licensed; the fee

was twelve pence. Failure to obtain a license was punished by a fine of

five pounds for every month's violation of the law. The coffee houses

were under close surveillance by government officials. One of these was

Muddiman, a good scholar and an "arch rogue", who had formerly "written

for the Parliament" but who later became a paid spy. L'Estrange, who had

a patent on "the sole right of intelligence", wrote in his

_Intelligencer_ that he was alarmed at the ill effects of "the ordinary

written papers of Parliament's news ... making coffee houses and all the

popular clubs judges of those councils and deliberations which they have

nothing to do with at all."

The first royal warrant for coffee was given by Charles II to Alexander

Man, a Scotsman who had followed General Monk to London, and set up in

Whitehall. Here he advertised himself as "coffee man to Charles II."

Owing to increased taxes on tea, coffee, and newspapers, near the end of

Queen Anne's reign (1714) coffee-house keepers generally raised their

prices as follows: Coffee, two pence per dish; green tea, one and a half

pence per dish. All drams, two pence per dram. At retail, coffee was

then sold for five shillings per pound; while tea brought from twelve to

twenty-eight shillings per pound.

_Coffee Club of The Rota_

"Coffee and Commonwealth", says a pamphleteer of 1665, "came in together

for a Reformation, to make 's a free and sober nation." The writer

argues that liberty of speech should be allowed, "where men of differing

judgements croud"; and he adds, "that's a coffee-house, for where should

men discourse so free as there?" Robinson's comments are apt:

Now perhaps we do not always connect the ideas of sociableness and

freedom of discussion with the days of Puritan rule; yet it must be

admitted that something like geniality and openness characterized

what Pepys calls the Coffee Club of the Rota. This "free and open

Society of ingenious gentlemen" was founded in the year 1659 by

certain members of the Republican party, whose peculiar opinions

had been timidly expressed and not very cordially tolerated under

the Great Oliver. By the weak Government that followed, these views

were regarded with extreme dislike and with some amount of terror.

"They met", says Aubrey, who was himself of their number, "at the Turk's

Head [Miles's coffee house] in New Palace Yard, Westminster, where they

take water, at one Miles's, the next house to the staires, where was

made purposely a large ovall table, with a passage in the middle for

Miles to deliver his coffee."

Robinson continues:

This curious refreshment bar and the interest with which the

beverage itself was regarded, were quite secondary to the

excitement caused by another novelty. When, after heated

disputation, a member desired to test the opinion of the meeting,

any particular point might, by agreement, be put to the vote and

then everything depended upon "our wooden oracle," the first

balloting-box ever seen in England. Formal methods of procedure and

the intensely practical nature of the subjects discussed, combined

to give a real importance to this Amateur Parliament.

[Illustration: A COFFEE HOUSE IN THE TIME OF CHARLES II

From a wood cut of 1674]

The Rota, or Coffee Club, as Pepys called it, was essentially a debating

society for the dissemination of republican opinions. It was preceded

only, in the reign of Henry IV, by the club called La Court de Bone

Compagnie; by Sir Walter Raleigh's Friday Street, or Bread Street, club;

the club at the Mermaid tavern in Bread Street, of which Shakespeare,

Beaumont, Fletcher, Raleigh, Selden, Donne, _et al._, were members; and

"rare" Ben Jonson's Devil tavern club, between Middle Temple Gate and

Temple Bar.

The Rota derived its name from a plan, which it was designed to promote,

for changing a certain number of members of parliament annually by

rotation. It was founded by James Harrington, who had painted it in

fairest colors in his _Oceana_, that ideal commonwealth.

Sir William Petty was one of its members. Around the table, "in a room

every evening as full as it could be crammed," says Aubrey, sat Milton

(?) and Marvell, Cyriac Skinner, Harrington, Nevill, and their friends,

discussing abstract political questions.

The Rota became famous for its literary strictures. Among these was "The

censure of the Rota upon Mr. Milton's book entitled _The ready and easie

way to establish a free commonwealth_" (1660), although it is doubtful

if Milton was ever a visitor to this "bustling coffee club." The Rota

also censured "Mr. Driden's _Conquest of Granada_" (1673).

_Early Coffee-House Manners and Customs_

Among many of the early coffee-house keepers there was great anxiety

that the coffee house, open to high and low, should be conducted under

such restraints as might secure the better class of customers from

annoyance. The following set of regulations in somewhat halting rhyme

was displayed on the walls of several of the coffee houses in the

seventeenth century:

THE RULES AND ORDERS OF THE COFFEE HOUSE.

Enter, Sirs, freely, but first, if you please,

Peruse our civil orders, which are these.

First, gentry, tradesmen, all are welcome hither,

And may without affront sit down together:

Pre-eminence of place none here should mind,

But take the next fit seat that he can find:

Nor need any, if finer persons come,

Rise up to assigne to them his room;

To limit men's expence, we think not fair,

But let him forfeit twelve-pence that shall swear;

He that shall any quarrel here begin,

Shall give each man a dish t' atone the sin;

And so shall he, whose compliments extend

So far to drink in _coffee_ to his friend;

Let noise of loud disputes be quite forborne,

No maudlin lovers here in corners mourn,

But all be brisk and talk, but not too much,

On sacred things, let none presume to touch.

Nor profane Scripture, nor sawcily wrong

Affairs of state with an irreverent tongue:

Let mirth be innocent, and each man see

That all his jests without reflection be;

To keep the house more quiet and from blame,

We banish hence cards, dice, and every game;

Nor can allow of wagers, that exceed

Five shillings, which ofttimes much trouble breed;

Let all that's lost or forfeited be spent

In such good liquor as the house doth vent.

And customers endeavour, to their powers,

For to observe still, seasonable hours.

Lastly, let each man what he calls for pay,

And so you're welcome to come every day.

The early coffee houses were often up a flight of stairs, and consisted

of a single large room with "tables set apart for divers topics." There

is a reference to this in the prologue to a comedy of 1681 (quoted by

Malone):

In a coffee house just now among the rabble

I bluntly asked, which is the treason table?

This was the arrangement at Man's and others favored by the wits, the

_literati_, and "men of fashionable instincts." In the distinctly

business coffee houses separate rooms were provided at a later time for

mercantile transactions. The introduction of wooden partitions--wooden

boxes, as at a tavern--was also of somewhat later date.

A print of 1674 shows five persons of different ranks in life, one of

them smoking, sitting on chairs around a coffee-house table, on which

are small basins, or dishes, without saucers, and tobacco pipes, while a

coffee boy is serving coffee.

In the beginning, only coffee was dispensed in the English coffee

houses. Soon chocolate, sherbert, and tea were added; but the places

still maintained their status as social and temperance factors.

Constantine Jennings (or George Constantine) of the Grecian advertised

chocolate, sherbert and tea at retail in 1664-65; also free instruction

in the part of preparing these liquors. "Drams and cordial waters were

to be had only at coffee houses newly set up," says Elford the younger,

writing about 1689. "While some few places added ale and beer as early

as 1669, intoxicating liquors were not items of importance for many

years."

[Illustration: A LONDON COFFEE HOUSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

From a wood cut of the period]

After the fire of 1666, many new coffee houses were opened that were not

limited to a single room up a flight of stairs. Because the coffee-house

keepers over-emphasized the sobering qualities of the coffee drink, they

drew many undesirable characters from the taverns and ale houses after

the nine o'clock closing hour. These were hardly calculated to improve

the reputation of the coffee houses; and, indeed, the decline of the

coffee houses as a temperance institution would seem to trace back to

this attitude of false pity for the victims of tavern vices, evils that

many of the coffee houses later on embraced to their own undoing. The

early institution was unique, its distinctive features being unlike

those of any public house in England or on the Continent. Later on, in

the eighteenth century, when these distinctive features became

obscured, the name coffee house became a misnomer.

[Illustration: COFFEE HOUSE, QUEEN ANNE'S TIME--1702-14

Showing coffee pots, coffee dishes, and coffee boy]

However, Robinson says, "the close intercourse between the habitués of

the coffee house, before it lost anything of its generous social

traditions and whilst the issue of the struggle for political liberty

was as yet uncertain, was to lead to something more than a mere jumbling

or huddling together of opposites. The diverse elements gradually united

in the bonds of common sympathy, or were forcibly combined by

persecution from without until there resulted a social, political and

moral force of almost irresistible strength."

_Coffee-House Keepers' Tokens_

The great London fire of 1666 destroyed some of the coffee houses; but

prominent among those that survived was the Rainbow, whose proprietor,

James Farr, issued one of the earliest coffee-house tokens, doubtless in

grateful memory of his escape. Farr's token shows an arched rainbow

emerging from the clouds of the "great fire," indicating that all was

well with him, and the Rainbow still radiant. On the reverse the medal

was inscribed, "In Fleet Street--His Half Penny."

A large number of these trade coins were put out by coffee-house keepers

and other tradesmen in the seventeenth century as evidence of an amount

due, as stated thereon, by the issuer to the holder. Tokens originated

because of the scarcity of small change. They were of brass, copper,

pewter, and even leather, gilded. They bore the name, address, and

calling of the issuer, the nominal value of the piece, and some

reference to his trade. They were readily redeemed, on presentation, at

their face value. They were passable in the immediate neighborhood,

seldom reaching farther than the next street. C.G. Williamson writes:

Tokens are essentially democratic; they would never have been

issued but for the indifference of the Government to a public need;

and in them we have a remarkable instance of a people forcing a

legislature to comply with demands at once reasonable and

imperative. Taken as a whole series, they are homely and quaint,

wanting in beauty, but not without a curious domestic art of their

own.

Robinson finds an exception to the general simplicity in the tokens

issued by one of the Exchange Alley houses. The dies of these tokens are

such as to have suggested the skilled workmanship of John Roettier. The

most ornate has the head of a Turkish sultan at that time famed for his

horrible deeds, ending in suicide; its inscription runs:

Morat ye Great Men did mee call;

Where Eare I came I conquer'd all.

A number of the most interesting coffee-house keepers' tokens in the

Beaufoy collection in the Guildhall Museum were photographed for this

work, and are shown herewith. It will be observed that many of the

traders of 1660-75 adopted as their trade sign a hand pouring coffee

from a pot, invariably of the Turkish-ewer pattern. Morat (Amurath) and

Soliman were frequent coffee-house signs in the seventeenth century.

J.H. Burn, in his _Catalogue of Traders' Tokens_, recites that in 1672

"divers persons who presumed ... to stamp, coin, exchange and distribute

farthings, halfpence and pence of brass and copper" were "taken into

custody, in order to a severe prosecution"; but upon submission, their

offenses were forgiven, and it was not until the year 1675 that the

private token ceased to pass current.

[Illustration: PLATE 1--COFFEE-HOUSE KEEPERS' TOKENS OF THE 17TH

CENTURY

Drawn for this work from the originals in the British Museum, and in the

Beaufoy collection at the Guildhall Museum]

A royal proclamation at the close of 1674 enjoined the prosecution of

any who should "utter base metals with private stamps," or "hinder the

vending of those half pence and farthings which are provided for

necessary exchange." After this, tokens were issued stamped "necessary

change."

[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1663]

_Opposition to the Coffee House_

It is easy to see why the coffee houses at once found favor among men of

intelligence in all classes. Until they came, the average Englishman had

only the tavern as a place of common resort. But here was a public house

offering a non-intoxicating beverage, and its appeal was instant and

universal. As a meeting place for the exchange of ideas it soon attained

wide popularity. But not without opposition. The publicans and ale-house

keepers, seeing business slipping away from them, made strenuous

propaganda against this new social center; and not a few attacks were

launched against the coffee drink. Between the Restoration and the year

1675, of eight tracts written upon the subject of the London coffee

houses, four have the words "character of a coffee house" as part of

their titles. The authors appear eager to impart a knowledge of the

town's latest novelty, with which many readers were unacquainted.

One of these early pamphlets (1662) was entitled _The Coffee Scuffle_,

and professed to give a dialogue between "a learned knight and a

pitifull pedagogue," and contained an amusing account of a house where

the Puritan element was still in the ascendant. A numerous company is

present, and each little group being occupied with its own subject, the

general effect is that of another Babel. While one is engaged in quoting

the classics, another confides to his neighbors how much he admires

Euclid;

A third's for a lecture, a fourth a conjecture,

A fifth for a penny in the pound.

Theology is introduced. Mask balls and plays are condemned. Others again

discuss the news, and are deep in the store of "mercuries" here to be

found. One cries up philosophy. Pedantry is rife, and for the most part

unchecked, when each 'prentice-boy "doth call for his coffee in Latin"

and all are so prompt with their learned quotations that "'t would make

a poor Vicar to tremble."

The first noteworthy effort attacking the coffee drink was a satirical

broadside that appeared in 1663. It was entitled _A Cup of Coffee: or,

Coffee in its Colours_. It said:

For men and Christians to turn Turks, and think

T'excuse the Crime because 'tis in their drink,

Is more than Magick....

Pure English Apes! Ye may, for ought I know,

Would it but mode, learn to eat Spiders too.

The writer wonders that any man should prefer coffee to canary, and

refers to the days of Beaumont, Fletcher, and Ben Jonson. He says:

They drank pure nectar as the gods drink too,

Sublim'd with rich Canary....

shall then

These less than coffee's self, these coffee-men,

These sons of nothing, that can hardly make

Their Broth, for laughing how the jest doth take;

Yet grin, and give ye for the Vine's pure Blood

A loathsome potion, not yet understood,

Syrrop of soot, or Essence of old Shooes,

Dasht with Diurnals and the Books of news?

The author of _A Cup of Coffee_, it will be seen, does not shrink from

using epithets.

[Illustration: PLATE 2--COFFEE-HOUSE KEEPERS' TOKENS OF THE 17TH

CENTURY

Drawn for this work from the originals in the British Museum, and in the

Beaufoy collection at the Guildhall Museum]

_The Coffee Man's Granado Discharged upon the Maiden's Complaint

Against Coffee_, a dialogue in verse, also appeared in 1663.

_The Character of a Coffee House, by an Eye and Ear Witness_ appeared in

1665. It was a ten-page pamphlet, and proved to be excellent propaganda

for coffee. It is so well done, and contains so much local color, that

it is reproduced here, the text Museum. The title page reads:

The

CHARACTER

OF A

COFFEE-HOUSE

wherein

Is contained a Description of the Persons

usually frequenting it, with their Discourse

and Humors,

As Also

The Admirable Vertues of

COFFEE

By an Eye and Ear Witness

_When Coffee once was vended here,

The Alc'ron shortly did appear,

For our Reformers were such Widgeons.

New Liquors brought in new Religions._

Printed in the Year, 1665.

The text and the arrangement of the body of the pamphlet are as follows:

THE

CHARACTER

OF A

COFFEE-HOUSE

THE DERIVATION OF

A COFFEE-HOUSE

A _Coffee-house_, the learned hold

It is a place where _Coffee's_ sold;

This derivation cannot fail us,

For where _Ale's_ vended, that's an _Ale-house_.

This being granted to be true,

'Tis meet that next the _Signs_ we shew

Both _where_ and _how_ to find this house

Where men such _cordial broth_ carowse.

And if _Culpepper_ woon some glory

In turning the _Dispensatory_

From _Latin_ into _English_; then

Why should not all good _English men_

Give him much thanks who shews a _cure_

For all diseases men endure?

SIGNS: HOW TO

FIND IT OUT

As you along the streets do trudge,

To take the pains you must not grudge,

To view the Posts or Broomsticks where

The Signs of _Liquors_ hanged are.

And if you see the great _Morat_

With Shash on's head instead of hat,

Or any _Sultan_ in his dress,

Or picture of a _Sultaness_,

Or _John's_ admir'd curled pate,

Or th' great _Mogul_ in's Chair of State,

Or _Constantine_ the _Grecian_,

Who fourteen years was th' onely man

That made _Coffee_ for th' great _Bashaw_,

Although the man he never saw;

Or if you see a _Coffee_-cup

Fil'd from a Turkish pot, hung up

Within the clouds, and round it _Pipes_,

_Wax Candles_, _Stoppers_, these are types

And certain signs (with many more

Would be too long to write them 'ore,)

Which plainly do Spectators tell

That in that house they _Coffee_ sell.

Some wiser than the rest (no doubt,)

Say they can by the smell find't out;

In at a door (say they,) but thrust

Your Nose, and if you scent _burnt Crust_,

Be sure there's _Coffee_ sold that's good,

For so by most 'tis understood.

Now being enter'd, there's no needing

Of complements or gentile breeding,

For you may seat you any where,

There's no respect of persons there;

Then comes the _Coffee-man_ to greet you,

With welcome Sir, let me entreat you,

To tell me what you'l please to have,

For I'm your humble, humble slave;

But if you ask, what good does Coffee?

He'l answer, Sir, don't think I scoff yee,

If I affirm there's no disease

Men have that drink it but find ease.

THE VERTUES

OF COFFEE

Look, there's a man who takes the steem

In at his Nose, has an extreme

_Worm_ in his pate, and giddiness,

Ask him and he will say no less.

There sitteth one whose Droptick belly

Was hard as flint, now's soft as jelly.

There stands another holds his head

'Ore th' _Coffee_-pot, was almost dead

Even now with Rhume; ask him hee'l say

That all his Rhum's now past away.

See, there's a man sits now demure

And sober, was within this hour

Quite drunk, and comes here frequently,

For 'tis his daily Malady,

More, it has such reviving power

'Twill keep a man awake an houre,

Nay, make his eyes wide open stare

Both Sermon time and all the prayer.

Sir, should I tell you all the rest

O' th' cures 't has done, two hours at least

In numb'ring them I needs must spend,

Scarce able then to make an end.

Besides these vertues that's therein.

For any kind of _Medicine_,

The _Commonwealth-Kingdom_ I'd say,

Has mighty reason for to pray

That still _Arabia_ may produce

Enough of Berry for it's use:

For't has such strange magnetick force,

That it draws after't great concourse

Of all degrees of persons, even

From high to low, from morn till even;

Especially the _sober Party_,

And News-mongers do drink't most hearty

Here you'r not thrust into a _Box_

As _Taverns_ do to catch the _Fox_,

But as from th' top of _Pauls_ high steeple,

Th' whole _City's_ view'd, even so all _people_

May here be seen; no secrets are

At th' _Court_ for _Peace_, or th' _Camp_ for _War_,

But straight they'r here disclos'd and known;

Men in this Age so wise are grown.

Now (Sir) what profit may accrew

By this, to all good men, judge you.

With that he's loudly call'd upon

For _Coffee_, and then whip he's gone.

THE COMPANY

Here at a Table sits (perplext)

A griping _Usurer_, and next

To him a gallant _Furioso_,

Then nigh to him a _Virtuoso_;

A _Player_ then (full fine) sits down,

And close to him a _Country Clown_.

O' th' other side sits some _Pragmatick_,

And next to him some sly _Phanatick_.

THE SEVERAL

LIQUORS

The gallant he for _Tea_ doth call,

The _Usurer_ for nought at all.

The _Pragmatick_ he doth intreat

That they will fill him some _Beau-cheat_,

The _Virtuoso_ he cries hand me

Some _Coffee_ mixt with _Sugar-candy_.

_Phanaticus_ (at last) says come,

Bring me some _Aromaticum_.

The _Player_ bawls for _Chocolate_,

All which the _Bumpkin_ wond'ring at,

Cries, ho, my _Masters_, what d' ye speak,

D' ye call for drink in Heathen Greek?

Give me some good old _Ale_ or _Beer_,

Or else I will not drink, I swear.

Then having charg'd their _Pipes_ around.

THEIR DISCOURSE

They silence break; First the profound

And sage _Phanatique_, Sirs what news?

Troth says the _Us'rer_ I ne'r use

To tip my tongue with such discourse,

'Twere news to know how to disburse

A summ of mony (makes me sad)

To get ought by't, times are so bad.

The other answers, truly Sir

You speak but truth, for I'le aver

They ne'r were worse; did you not hear

What _prodigies_ did late appear

At _Norwich, Ipswich, Grantham, Gotam_?

And though prophane ones do not not'em,

Yet we--Here th' _Virtuoso_ stops

The current of his speech, with hopes

Quoth he, you will not tak'd amiss,

I say all's lies that's news like this,

For I have Factors all about

The Realm, so that no _Stars_ peep out

That are unusual, much less these

Strange and unheard-of _prodigies_

You would relate, but they are tost

To me in letters by first Post.

At which the _Furioso_ swears

Such chat as this offends his ears

It rather doth become this Age

To talk of bloodshed, fury, rage,

And t' drink stout healths in brim-fill'd _Nogans_.

To th' downfall of the _Hogan Mogans_.

With that the _Player_ doffs his Bonnet,

And tunes his voice as if a Sonnet

Were to be sung; then gently says,

O what delight there is in _Plays_!

Sure if we were but all in _Peace_,

This noise of _Wars_ and _News_ would cease;

All sorts of people then would club

Their pence to see a Play that's good.

You'l wonder all this while (perhaps)

The _Curioso_ holds his chaps.

But he doth in his thoughts devise,

How to the rest he may seem wise;

Yet able longer not to hold,

His tedious tale too must be told,

And thus begins, Sirs unto me

It reason seems that liberty

Of speech and words should be allow'd

Where men of differing judgements croud,

And that's a _Coffee-house_, for where

Should men discourse so free as there?

_Coffee_ and _Commonwealth_ begin

Both with one letter, both came in

Together for a _Reformation_,

To make's a free and sober _Nation_.

But now--With that _Phanaticus_

Gives him a nod, and speaks him thus,

Hold brother, I know your intent,

That's no dispute convenient

For this same place, truths seldome find

Acceptance here, they'r more confin'd

To _Taverns_ and to _Ale-house_ liquor,

Where men do vent their minds more quicker

If that may for a truth but pass

What's said, _In vino veritas_.

With that up starts the _Country Clown_,

And stares about with threatening frown.

As if he would even eat them all up.

Then bids the boy run quick and call up,

A _Constable_, for he has reason

To fear their Latin may be _treason_

But straight they all call what's to pay,

Lay't down, and march each several way.

THE COMPANY

At th' other table sits a Knight,

And here _a grave old man_ ore right

Against his _worship_, then perhaps

That _by_ and _by_ a _Drawer_ claps

His bum close by them, there down squats

_A dealer in old shoes and hats_;

And here withouten any panick

Fear, dread or care a bold _Mechanick_.

HEIR DISCOURSE

The _Knight_ (because he's so) he prates

Of matters far beyond their pates.

_The grave old man_ he makes a bustle,

And his wise sentence in must justle.

Up starts th' _Apprentice boy_ and he

Says boldly so and so't must be.

_The dealer in old shoes to_ utter

His saying too makes no small sputter.

Then comes the pert _mechanick blade_,

And contradicts what all have said.

* * * * *

There by the fier-side doth sit,

One freezing in an _Ague_ fit.

Another poking in't with th' tongs,

Still ready to cough up his lungs

Here sitteth one that's melancolick,

And there one singing in a frolick.

Each one hath such a prety gesture,

At Smithfield fair would yield a tester.

Boy reach a pipe cries he that shakes,

The songster no Tobacco takes,

Says he who coughs, nor do I smoak,

Then _Monsieur Mopus_ turns his cloak

Off from his face, and with a grave

Majestick beck his pipe doth crave.

They load their guns and fall a smoaking

Whilst he who coughs sits by a choaking,

Till he no longer can abide.

And so removes from th' fier side.

Now all this while none calls to drink,

Which makes the _Coffee boy_ to think

Much they his pots should so enclose,

He cannot pass but tread on toes.

With that as he the _Nectar_ fills

From pot to pot, some on't he spills

Upon the _Songster_. Oh cries he.

Pox, what dost do? thou'st burnt my knee;

No says the boy, (to make a bald

And blind excuse.) _Sir 'twill not scald_.

With that the man lends him a cuff

O' th' ear, and whips away in snuff.

The other two, their pipes being out,

Says _Monsieur Mopus_ I much doubt

My friend I wait for will not come,

But if he do, say I'm gone home.

Then says the _Aguish man_ I must come

According to my wonted custome,

To give ye' a visit, although now

I dare not drink, and so _adieu_.

The boy replies, O Sir, however

You'r very welcome, we do never

Our _Candles_, _Pipes_ or _Fier_ grutch

To daily customers and such,

They'r _Company_ (without expence,)

For that's sufficient recompence.

Here at a table all alone,

Sits (studying) _a spruce youngster_, (one

Who doth conceipt himself fully witty,

And's counted _one o' th' wits o' th' City_,)

Till by him (with a stately grace,)

A Spanish _Don_ himself doth place.

Then (cap in hand) a brisk _Monsieur_

He takes his seat, and crowds as near

As possibly that he can come.

Then next a _Dutchman_ takes his room.

The Wits glib tongue begins to chatter,

Though't utters more of noise than matter,

Yet 'cause they seem to mind his words,

His lungs more battle still affords

At last says he to _Don_, I trow

You understand me? _Sennor no_

Says th' other. Here the Wit doth pause

A little while, then opes his jaws,

And says to _Monsieur_, you enjoy

Our tongue I hope? _Non par ma foy_,

Replies the _Frenchman_: nor you, Sir?

Says he to th' _Dutchman, Neen mynheer_,

With that he's gone, and cries, why sho'd

He stay where _wit's_ not understood?

There in a place of his own chusing

(Alone) some _lover_ sits a musing,

With arms across, and's eyes up lift,

As if he were of sence bereft.

Till sometimes to himself he's speaking,

Then sighs as if his heart were breaking.

Here in a corner sits a _Phrantick_,

And there stands by a frisking Antick,

Of all sorts some and all conditions

Even _Vintners_, _Surgeons_ and _Physicians_.

The _blind_, the _deaf_, and _aged cripple_

Do here resort and Coffee tipple.

Now here (perhaps) you may expect

My _Muse_ some trophies should erect

In high flown verse, for to set forth

The _noble praises_ of its _worth_.

Truth is, _old Poets_ beat their brains

To find out high and lofty strains

To praise the (now too frequent) use

Of the bewitching _grapes strong juice_,

Some have strain'd hard for to exalt

The _liquor_ of our _English Mault_

Nay _Don_ has almost crackt his _nodle_

Enough t'applaud his _Caaco Caudle_.

The _Germans Mum_, _Teag's Usquebagh_,

(Made him so well defend _Tredagh_,)

_Metheglin_, which the _Brittains_ tope,

Hot _Brandy_ wine, the _Hogans_ hope.

Stout _Meade_ which makes the _Russ_ to laugh,

Spic'd _Punch_ (in bowls) the _Indians quaff_.

All these have had their pens to raise

Them _Monuments_ of lasting praise,

Onely poor _Coffee_ seems to me

No subject fit for _Poetry_

At least 'tis one that none of mine is,

So I do wave 't, and here write--

FINIS.

[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1667]

_News from the Coffe House; in which is shewn their several sorts of

Passions_ appeared in 1667. It was reprinted in 1672 as _The Coffee

House or News-mongers' Hall_.

Several stanzas from these broadsides have been much quoted. They serve

to throw additional light upon the manners of the time, and upon the

kind of conversation met with in any well frequented coffee house of the

seventeenth century, particularly under the Stuarts. They are finely

descriptive of the company characteristics of the early coffee houses.

The fifth stanza of the edition of 1667, inimical to the French, was

omitted when the broadside was amended and reprinted in 1672, the year

that England joined with France and again declared war on the Dutch. The

following verses with explanatory notes are from Timbs:

NEWS FROM THE COFFE HOUSE

You that delight in Wit and Mirth,

And long to hear such News,

As comes from all Parts of the _Earth_,

_Dutch_, _Danes_, and _Turks_, and _Jews_,

I'le send yee to a Rendezvouz,

Where it is smoaking new;

Go hear it at a _Coffe-house_,

_It cannot but be true_.

There Battles and Sea-Fights are Fought,

And bloudy Plots display'd;

They know more Things then ere was thought

Or ever was betray'd:

No Money in the Minting-house

Is halfe so Bright and New;

And comming from a _Coffe-house_

_It cannot but be true_.

Before the _Navyes_ fall to Work,

They know who shall be Winner;

They there can tell ye what the _Turk_

Last _Sunday_ had to Dinner;

Who last did Cut _Du Ruitters_[75] Corns,

Amongst his jovial Crew;

Or Who first gave the _Devil_ Horns,

_Which cannot but be true_.

A _Fisherman_ did boldly tell,

And strongly did avouch,

He Caught a Shoal of Mackarel,

That Parley'd all in _Dutch_,

And cry'd out _Yaw, yaw, yaw Myne Here_;

But as the Draught they Drew

They Stunck for fear, that _Monck[76] was there_,

_Which cannot but be true_.

* * * * *

There's nothing done in all the World,

From _Monarch_ to the _Mouse_

But every Day or Night 'tis hurld

Into the _Coffe-house_.

What _Lillie_[77] or what _Booker_[78] can

By Art, not bring about,

At _Coffe-house_ you'l find a Man,

_Can quickly find it out_.

They know who shall in Times to come,

Be either made, or undone,

From great _St. Peters street_ in _Rome_,

To _Turnbull-street_[79] in _London_;

* * * * *

They know all that is Good, or Hurt,

To Dam ye, or to Save ye;

There is the _Colledge_, and the _Court_,

The _Country_, _Camp_ and _Navie_;

So great a _Universitie_,

I think there ne're was any;

In which you may a Schoolar be

For spending of a Penny.

* * * * *

Here Men do talk of every Thing,

With large and liberal Lungs,

Like Women at a Gossiping,

With double tyre of Tongues;

They'l give a Broad-side presently,

Soon as you are in view,

With Stories that, you'l wonder at,

Which they will swear are true.

The Drinking there of _Chockalat_,

Can make a _Fool_ a _Sophie_:

'Tis thought the _Turkish Mahomet_

Was first Inspir'd with _Coffe_,

By which his Powers did Over-flow

The Land of _Palestine_:

Then let us to, the _Coffe-house_ go,

'Tis Cheaper farr then Wine.

You shall know there, what Fashions are;

How Perrywiggs are Curl'd;

And for a Penny you shall heare,

All Novells in the World.

Both Old and Young, and Great and Small,

And Rich, and Poore, you'l see;

Therefore let's to the _Coffe_ All,

Come All away with Mee.

FINIS.

Robert Morton made a contribution to the controversy in _Lines Appended

to the Nature, Quality and Most Excellent Vertues of Coffee_ in 1670.

There was published in 1672 _A Broad-side Against Coffee, or the

Marriage of the Turk_, verses that attained considerable fame because of

their picturesque invective. They also stressed the fact that Pasqua

Rosées partner was a coachman, and imitated the broken English of the

Ragusan youth:

A BROAD-SIDE AGAINST COFFEE;

OR, THE

MARRIAGE OF THE TURK

_Coffee_, a kind of _Turkish Renegade_,

Has late a match with _Christian water_ made;

At first between them happen'd a Demur,

Yet joyn'd they were, but not without great _stir_;

* * * * *

_Coffee_ was cold as _Earth, Water_ as _Thames_,

And stood in need of recommending Flames;

* * * * *

_Coffee_ so brown as berry does appear,

Too swarthy for a Nymph so fair, so clear:

* * * * *

A Coachman was the first (here) _Coffee_ made,

And ever since the rest _drive on_ the trade;

_Me no good Engalash_! and sure enough,

He plaid the Quack to salve his Stygian stuff;

_Ver boon for de stomach, de Cough, de Ptisick_

And I believe him, for it looks like Physick.

_Coffee_ a crust is charkt into a coal,

The smell and taste of the Mock _China_ bowl;

Where huff and puff, they labour out their lungs,

Lest _Dives_-like they should bewail their tongues.

And yet they tell ye that it will not burn,

Though on the Jury Blisters you return;

Whose furious heat does make the water rise,

And still through the Alembicks of your eyes.

Dread and desire, ye fall to't snap by snap,

As hungry Dogs do scalding porrige lap,

But to cure Drunkards it has got great Fame;

_Posset_ or _Porrige_, will't not do the same?

Confusion huddles all into one Scene,

Like _Noah's_ Ark, the clean and the unclean.

But now, alas! the Drench has credit got,

And he's no Gentleman that drinks it not;

That such a _Dwarf_ should rise to such a stature!

But Custom is but a remove from Nature.

A _little_ Dish, and a _large_ Coffee-house,

What is it, but a _Mountain_ and a _Mouse_?

* * * * *

_Mens humana novitatis avidissima._

[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1670]

And so it came to pass that coffee history repeated itself in England.

Many good people became convinced that coffee was a dangerous drink. The

tirades against the beverage in that far-off time sound not unlike the

advertising patter employed by some of our present-day coffee-substitute

manufacturers. It was even ridiculed by being referred to as "ninny

broth" and "Turkey gruel."

[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1672]

_A brief description of the excellent vertues of that sober and

wholesome drink called coffee_ appeared in 1674 and proved an able and

dignified answer to the attacks that had preceded it. That same year,

for the first time in history, the sexes divided in a coffee

controversy, and there was issued _The Women's Petition against Coffee,

representing to public consideration the grand inconveniences accruing

to their sex from the excessive use of the drying and enfeebling

Liquor_, in which the ladies, who had not been accorded the freedom of

the coffee houses in England, as was the custom in France, Germany,

Italy, and other countries on the Continent, complained that coffee made

men as "unfruitful as the deserts where that unhappy berry is said to be

bought." Besides the more serious complaint that the whole race was in

danger of extinction, it was urged that "on a domestic message a husband

would stop by the way to drink a couple of cups of coffee."

This pamphlet is believed to have precipitated the attempt at

suppression by the crown the following year, despite the prompt

appearing, in 1674, of _The Men's Answer to the Women's Petition Against

Coffee, vindicating ... their liquor, from the undeserved aspersion

lately cast upon them, in their scandalous pamphlet_.

The 1674 broadside in defense of coffee was the first to be illustrated;

and for all its air of pretentious grandeur and occasional bathos, it

was not a bad rhyming advertisement for the persecuted drink. It was

printed for Paul Greenwood and sold "at the sign of the coffee mill and

tobacco-roll in Cloath-fair near West-Smithfield, who selleth the best

Arabian coffee powder and chocolate in cake or roll, after the Spanish

fashion, etc." The following extracts will serve to illustrate its epic

character:

When the sweet Poison of the Treacherous Grape,

Had Acted on the world a General Rape;

Drowning our very Reason and our Souls

In such deep Seas of large o'reflowing Bowls.

* * * * *

When Foggy Ale, leavying up mighty Trains

Of muddy Vapours, had besieg'd our Brains;

* * * * *

Then Heaven in Pity, to Effect our Cure.

* * * * *

First sent amongst us this _All-healing-Berry_,

At once to make us both _Sober_ and _Merry_.

_Arabian_ Coffee, a Rich Cordial

To Purse and Person Beneficial,

Which of so many Vertues doth partake,

Its Country's called Felix for its sake.

From the Rich Chambers of the Rising Sun,

Where Arts, and all good Fashions first begun,

Where Earth with choicest Rarities is blest,

And dying _Phoenix_ builds Her wondrous Nest:

COFFEE arrives, that Grave and wholesome Liquor,

That heals the Stomack, makes the Genius quicker,

Relieves the Memory, Revives the Sad.

* * * * *

Do but this Rare ARABIAN Cordial Use,

And thou may'st all the Doctors Slops Refuse.

Hush then, dull QUACKS, your Mountebanking cease,

COFFEE'S a speedier Cure for each Disease;

How great its Vertues are, we hence may think,

The Worlds third Part makes it their common Drink:

In Breif, all you who Healths Rich Treasures Prize,

And Court not Ruby Noses, or blear'd Eyes,

But own Sobriety to be your Drift.

And Love at once good Company and Thrift;

To Wine no more make Wit and Coyn a Trophy,

But come each Night and Frollique here in Coffee.

[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1674

The first one to be illustrated]

An eight-page folio, the last argument to be issued in defense of coffee

before Charles II sought to follow in the footsteps of Kair Bey and

Kuprili, was issued in the early part of 1675. It was entitled _Coffee

Houses Vindicated. In answer to the late published Character of a Coffee

House. Asserting from Reason, Experience and good Authors the Excellent

Use and physical Virtues of that Liquor ... With the Grand Convenience

of such civil Places of Resort and ingenious Conversation_.

The advantage of a coffee house compared with a "publick-house" is thus

set forth:

First, In regard of easy expense. Being to wait for or meet a

friend, a tavern-reckoning soon breeds a purse-consumption: in an

ale house, you must gorge yourself with pot after pot.... But here,

for a penny or two, you may spend two or three hours, have the

shelter of a house, the warmth of a fire, the diversion of company;

and conveniency, if you please, of taking a pipe of tobacco; and

all this without any grumbling or repining. Secondly. For sobriety.

It is grown, by the ill influences of I know not what hydropick

stars, almost a general custom amongst us, that no bargain can be

drove, or business concluded between man and man, but it must be

transacted at some publick-house ... where continual sippings ...

would be apt to fly up into their brains, and render them drowsy

and indisposed ... whereas, having now the opportunity of a

coffee-house, they repair thither, take each man a dish or two (so

far from causing, that it cures any dizziness, or disturbant

fumes): and so, dispatching their business, go out more sprightly

about their affairs, than before.... Lastly, For diversion ...

where can young gentlemen, or shop-keepers, more innocently and

advantageously spend an hour or two in the evening than at a

coffee-house? Where they shall be sure to meet company, and, by the

custom of the house, not such as at other places stingy and

reserved to themselves, but free and communicative, where every man

may modestly begin his story, and propose to, or answer another, as

he thinks fit.... So that, upon the whole matter, spight of the

idle sarcasms and paltry reproaches thrown upon it, we may, with no

less truth than plainness, give this brief character of a

well-regulated coffee-house, (for our pen disdains to be an

advocate for any sordid holes, that assume that name to cloke the

practice of debauchery,) that it is the sanctuary of health, the

nursery of temperance, the delight of frugality, and academy of

civility, and free-school of ingenuity.

_The Ale Wives' Complaint Against the Coffee-houses_, a dialogue between

a victualer's wife and a coffee man, at difference about spiriting away

each other's trade, also was issued in 1675.

As early as 1666, and again in 1672, we find the government planning to

strike a blow at the coffee houses. By the year 1675, these "seminaries

of sedition" were much frequented by persons of rank and substance, who,

"suitable to our native genius," says Anderson,[80] "used great freedom

therein with respect to the courts' proceedings in these and like

points, so contrary to the voice of the people."

In 1672, Charles II, seemingly eager to emulate the Oriental intolerants

that preceded him, determined to try his hand at suppression. "Having

been informed of the great inconveniences arising from the great number

of persons that resort to coffee-houses," the king "desired the Lord

Keeper and the Judges to give their opinion in writing as to how far he

might lawfully proceed against them."

Roger North in his _Examen_ gives the full story; and D'Israeli,

commenting on it, says, "it was not done without some apparent respect

for the British constitution." The courts affected not to act against

the law, and the judges were summoned to a consultation; but the five

who met could not agree in opinion.

Sir William Coventry spoke against the proposed measure. He pointed out

that the government obtained considerable revenue from coffee, that the

king himself owed to these seemingly obnoxious places no small debt of

gratitude in the matter of his own restoration; for they had been

permitted in Cromwell's time, when the king's friends had used more

liberty of speech than "they dared to do in any other." He urged, also,

that it might be rash to issue a command so likely to be disobeyed.

At last, being hard pressed for a reply, the judges gave such a halting

opinion in favor of the king's policy as to remind us of the reluctant

verdict wrung from the physicians and lawyers of Mecca on the occasion

of coffee's first persecution.[81] "The English lawyers, in language

which, for its civility and indefiniteness," says Robinson, "would have

been the envy of their Eastern brethren," declared that:

Retailing coffee _might_ be an innocent trade, as it _might_ be

exercised; but as it is used at present, in the nature of a common

assembly, to discourse of matters of State, news and _great

Persons_, as they are Nurseries of Idleness and Pragmaticalness,

and hinder the expence of our native Provisions, they _might_ be

thought common nuisances.

An attempt was made to mold public opinion to a favorable consideration

of the attempt at suppression in _The Grand Concern of England

explained_, which was good propaganda for his majesty's enterprise, but

utterly failed to carry conviction to the lovers of liberty.

After much backing and filling, the king, on December 23, 1675, issued a

proclamation which in its title frankly stated its object--"for the

suppression of coffee houses." It is here given in a somewhat condensed

form:

BY THE KING: A PROCLAMATION

FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF

COFFEE HOUSES

_Charles R._

Whereas it is most apparent that the multitude of Coffee Houses of

late years set up and kept within this kingdom, the dominion of

Wales, and town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the great resort of Idle

and disaffected persons to them, have produced very evil and

dangerous effects; as well for that many tradesmen and others, do

herein mispend much of their time, which might and probably would

be employed in and about their Lawful Calling and Affairs; but

also, for that in such houses ... divers false, malitious and

scandalous reports are devised and spread abroad to the Defamation

of his Majestie's Government, and to the Disturbance of the Peace

and Quiet of the Realm; his Majesty hath thought fit and necessary,

that the said Coffee Houses be (for the future) Put down, and

suppressed, and doth ... strictly charge and command all manner of

persons, That they or any of them do not presume from and after the

Tenth Day of January next ensuing, to keep any Public Coffee House,

or to utter or sell by retail, in his, her or their house or houses

(to be spent or consumed within the same) any Coffee, Chocolet,

Sherbett or Tea, as they will answer the contrary at their utmost

perils ... (all licenses to be revoked).

Given at our Court at Whitehall, this third-and-twentieth day of

Dec., 1675, in the seven-and-twentieth year of our Reign.

GOD SAVE THE KING.

And then a remarkable thing happened. It is not usual for a royal

proclamation issued on the 29th of one month to be recalled on the 8th

day of the next; but this is the record established by Charles II. The

proclamation was made on December 23, 1675, and issued December 29,

1675. It forbade the coffee houses to operate after January 10, 1676.

But so intense was the feeling aroused, that eleven days was sufficient

time to convince the king that a blunder had been made. Men of all

parties cried out against being deprived of their accustomed haunts. The

dealers in coffee, tea, and chocolate demonstrated that the proclamation

would greatly lessen his majesty's revenues. Convulsion and discontent

loomed large. The king heeded the warning, and on January 8, 1676,

another proclamation was issued by which the first proclamation was

recalled.

In order to save the king's face, it was solemnly recited that "His

Gracious Majesty," out of his "princely consideration and royal

compassion" would allow the retailers of coffee liquor to keep open

until the 24th of the following June. But this was clearly only a royal

subterfuge, as there was no further attempt at molestation, and it is

extremely doubtful if any was contemplated at the time the second

proclamation was promulgated.

"Than both which proclamations nothing could argue greater guilt nor

greater weakness," says Anderson. Robinson remarks, "A battle for

freedom of speech was fought and won over this question at a time when

Parliaments were infrequent and when the liberty of the press did not

exist."

"_Penny Universities_"

We read in 1677 that "none dare venture into the coffee houses unless he

be able to argue the question whether Parliament were dissolved or not."

All through the years remaining in the seventeenth century, and through

most of the eighteenth century, the London coffee houses grew and

prospered. As before stated, they were originally temperance

institutions, very different from the taverns and ale houses. "Within

the walls of the coffee house there was always much noise, much clatter,

much bustle, but decency was never outraged."

At prices ranging from one to two pence per dish, the demand grew so

great that coffee-house keepers were obliged to make the drink in pots

holding eight or ten gallons.

The seventeenth-century coffee houses were sometimes referred to as the

"penny universities"; because they were great schools of conversation,

and the entrance fee was only a penny. Two pence was the usual price of

a dish of coffee or tea, this charge also covering newspapers and

lights. It was the custom for the frequenter to lay his penny on the

bar, on entering or leaving. Admission to the exchange of sparkling wit

and brilliant conversation was within the reach of all.

So great a _Universitie_

I think there ne're was any;

In which you may a Schoolar be

For spending of a Penny.

"Regular customers," we are told, "had particular seats and special

attention from the fair lady at the bar, and the tea and coffee boys."

It is believed that the modern custom of tipping, and the word "tip,"

originated in the coffee houses, where frequently hung brass-bound boxes

into which customers were expected to drop coins for the servants. The

boxes were inscribed "To Insure Promptness" and from the initial letters

of these words came "tip."

The _National Review_ says, "before 1715 the number of coffee houses in

London was reckoned at 2000." Dufour, who wrote in 1683, declares, upon

information received from several persons who had staid in London, that

there were 3000 of these places. However, 2000 is probably nearer the

fact.

In that critical time in English history, when the people, tired of the

misgovernment of the later Stuarts, were most in need of a forum where

questions of great moment could be discussed, the coffee house became a

sanctuary. Here matters of supreme political import were threshed out

and decided for the good of Englishmen for all time. And because many of

these questions were so well thought out then, there was no need to

fight them out later. England's great struggle for political liberty was

really fought and won in the coffee house.

To the end of the reign of Charles II, coffee was looked upon by the

government rather as a new check upon license than an added luxury.

After the revolution, the London coffee merchants were obliged to

petition the House of Lords against new import duties, and it was not

until the year 1692 that the government, "for the greater encouragement

and advancement of trade and the greater importation of the said

respective goods or merchandises," discharged one half of the obnoxious

tariff.

_Weird Coffee Substitutes_

Shortly after the "great fire," coffee substitutes began to appear.

First came a liquor made with betony, "for the sake of those who could

not accustom themselves to the bitter taste of coffee." Betony is a herb

belonging to the mint family, and its root was formerly employed in

medicine as an emetic or purgative. In 1719, when coffee was 7s. a

pound, came bocket, later known as saloop, a decoction of sassafras and

sugar, that became such a favorite among those who could not afford tea

or coffee, that there were many saloop stalls in the streets of London.

It was also sold at Read's coffee house in Fleet Street.

_The Coffee Men Overreach Themselves_

The coffee-house keepers had become so powerful a force in the community

in 1729 that they lost all sense of proportion; and we find them

seriously proposing to usurp the functions of the newspapers. The

vainglorious coffee men requested the government to hand over to them a

journalistic monopoly; the argument being that the newspapers of the day

were choked with advertisements, filled with foolish stories gathered by

all-too enterprising newswriters, and that the only way for the

government to escape "further excesses occasioned by the freedom of the

press" and to rid itself of "those pests of society, the unlicensed

newsvendors," was for it to intrust the coffee men, as "the chief

supporters of liberty" with the publication of a _Coffee House Gazette_.

Information for the journal was to be supplied by the habitués of the

houses themselves, written down on brass slates or ivory tablets, and

called for twice daily by the _Gazette's_ representatives. All the

profits were to go to the coffee men--including the expected increase of

custom.

Needless to say, this amazing proposal of the coffee-house masters to

have the public write its own newspapers met with the scorn and the

derision it invited, and nothing ever came of it.

The increasing demand for coffee caused the government tardily to seek

to stimulate interest in the cultivation of the plant in British

colonial possessions. It was tried out in Jamaica in 1730. By 1732 the

experiment gave such promise that Parliament, "for encouraging the

growth of coffee in His Majesty's plantations in America," reduced the

inland duty on coffee coming from there, "but of none other," from two

shillings to one shilling six pence per pound. "It seems that the French

at Martinico, Hispaniola, and at the Isle de Bourbon, near Madagascar,

had somewhat the start of the English in the new product as had also the

Dutch at Surinam, yet none had hitherto been found to equal coffee from

Arabia, whence all the rest of the world had theirs." Thus writes Adam

Anderson in 1787, somewhat ungraciously seeking to damn England's

business rivals with faint praise. Java coffee was even then in the

lead, and the seeds of Bourbon-Santos were multiplying rapidly in

Brazilian soil.

The British East India Company, however, was much more interested in tea

than in coffee. Having lost out to the French and Dutch on the "little

brown berry of Arabia," the company engaged in so lively a propaganda

for "the cup that cheers" that, whereas the annual tea imports from 1700

to 1710 averaged 800,000 pounds, in 1721 more than 1,000,000 pounds of

tea were brought in. In 1757, some 4,000,000 pounds were imported. And

when the coffee house finally succumbed, tea, and not coffee, was firmly

intrenched as the national drink of the English people.

A movement in 1873 to revive the coffee house in the form of a coffee

"palace," designed to replace the public house as a place of resort for

working men, caused the Edinburgh Castle to be opened in London. The

movement attained considerable success throughout the British Isles, and

even spread to the United States.

_Evolution of the Club_

Every profession, trade, class, and party had its favorite coffee house.

"The bitter black drink called coffee," as Mr. Pepys described the

beverage, brought together all sorts and conditions of men; and out of

their mixed association there developed groups of patrons favoring

particular houses and giving them character. It is easy to trace the

transition of the group into a clique that later became a club,

continuing for a time to meet at the coffee house or the chocolate

house, but eventually demanding a house of its own.

_Decline and Fall of the Coffee House_

Starting as a forum for the commoner, "the coffee house soon became the

plaything of the leisure class; and when the club was evolved, the

coffee house began to retrograde to the level of the tavern. And so the

eighteenth century, which saw the coffee house at the height of its

power and popularity, witnessed also its decline and fall. It is said

there were as many clubs at the end of the century as there were coffee

houses at the beginning."

For a time, when the habit of reading newspapers descended the social

ladder, the coffee house acquired a new lease of life. Sir Walter Besant

observes:

They were then frequented by men who came, not to talk, but to

read; the smaller tradesmen and the better class of mechanic now

came to the coffee-house, called for a cup of coffee, and with it

the daily paper, which they could not afford to take in. Every

coffee-house took three or four papers; there seems to have been in

this latter phase of the once social institution no general

conversation. The coffee-house as a place of resort and

conversation gradually declined; one can hardly say why, except

that all human institutions do decay. Perhaps manners declined; the

leaders in literature ceased to be seen there; the city clerk began

to crowd in; the tavern and the club drew men from the

coffee-house.

A few houses survived until the early years of the nineteenth century,

but the social side had disappeared. As tea and coffee entered the

homes, and the exclusive club house succeeded the democratic coffee

forum, the coffee houses became taverns or chop houses, or, convinced

that they had outlived their usefulness, just ceased to be.

_Pen Pictures of Coffee-House Life_

From the writings of Addison in the _Spectator_, Steele in the _Tatler_,

Mackay in his _Journey Through England_, Macaulay in his history, and

others, it is possible to draw a fairly accurate pen-picture of life in

the old London coffee house.

In the seventeenth century the coffee room usually opened off the

street. At first only tables and chairs were spread about on a sanded

floor. Later, this arrangement was succeeded by the boxes, or booths,

such as appear in the Rowlandson caricatures, the picture of the

interior of Lloyds, etc.

The walls were decorated with handbills and posters advertising the

quack medicines, pills, tinctures, salves, and electuaries of the

period, all of which might be purchased at the bar near the entrance,

presided over by a prototype of the modern English barmaid. There were

also bills of the play, auction notices, etc., depending upon the

character of the place.

Then, as now, the barmaids were made much of by patrons. Tom Brown

refers to them as charming "Phillises who invite you by their amorous

glances into their smoaky territories."

Messages were left and letters received at the bar for regular

customers. Stella was instructed to address her letters to Swift, "under

cover to Addison at the St. James's coffee house." Says Macaulay:

Foreigners remarked that it was the coffee house which specially

distinguished London from all other cities; that the coffee house

was the Londoner's home, and that those who wished to find a

gentleman commonly asked, not whether he lived in Fleet Street or

Chancery Lane, but whether he frequented the Grecian or the

Rainbow.

[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF MANY OF THE OLD LONDON

COFFEE HOUSES PREVIOUS TO THE FIRE OF 1748]

So every man of the upper or middle classes went daily to his coffee

house to learn the news and to discuss it. The better class houses were

the meeting places of the most substantial men in the community. Every

coffee house had its orator, who became to his admirers a kind of

"fourth estate of the realm."

Macaulay gives us the following picture of the coffee house of 1685:

Nobody was excluded from these places who laid down his penny at

the bar. Yet every rank and profession, and every shade of

religious and political opinion had its own headquarters.

There were houses near St. James' Park, where fops congregated,

their heads and shoulders covered with black or flaxen wigs, not

less ample than those which are now worn by the Chancellor and by

the Speaker of the House of Commons. The atmosphere was like that

of a perfumer's shop. Tobacco in any form than that of richly

scented snuff was held in abomination. If any clown, ignorant of

the usages of the house, called for a pipe, the sneers of the whole

assembly and the short answers of the waiters soon convinced him

that he had better go somewhere else.

Nor, indeed, would he have far to go. For, in general, the

coffee-houses reeked with tobacco like a guard room. Nowhere was

the smoking more constant than at Will's. That celebrated house,

situated between Covent Garden and Bow street, was sacred to polite

letters. There the talk was about poetical justice and the unities

of place and time. Under no roof was a greater variety of figures

to be seen. There were earls in stars and garters, clergymen in

cassocks and bands, pert Templars, sheepish lads from universities,

translators and index makers in ragged coats of frieze. The great

press was to get near the chair where John Dryden sate. In winter

that chair was always in the warmest nook by the fire; in summer it

stood in the balcony. To bow to the Laureate, and to hear his

opinion of Racine's last tragedy, or of Bossu's treatise on epic

poetry, was thought a privilege. A pinch from his snuff-box was an

honour sufficient to turn the head of a young enthusiast.

There were coffee-houses where the first medical men might be

consulted. Dr. John Radcliffe, who, in the year 1685, rose to the

largest practice in London, came daily, at the hour when the

Exchange was full, from his house in Bow street, then a fashionable

part of the capital, to Garraway's, and was to be found, surrounded

by surgeons and apothecaries, at a particular table.

There were Puritan coffee-houses where no oath was heard, and where

lank-haired men discussed election and reprobation through their

noses; Jew coffee-houses, where dark-eyed money changers from

Venice and Amsterdam greeted each other; and Popish coffee-houses,

where, as good Protestants believed, Jesuits planned over their

cups another great fire, and cast silver bullets to shoot the King.

Ned Ward gives us this picture of the coffee house of the seventeenth

century. He is describing Old Man's, Scotland Yard:

We now ascended a pair of stairs, which brought us into an

old-fashioned room, where a gaudy crowd of odoriferous Tom-Essences

were walking backwards and forwards, with their hats in their

hands, not daring to convert them to their intended use lest it

should put the foretops of their wigs into some disorder. We

squeezed through till we got to the end of the room, where, at a

small table, we sat down, and observed that it was as great a

rarity to hear anybody call for a dish of politicians porridge, or

any other liquor, as it is to hear a beau call for a pipe of

tobacco; their whole exercise being to charge and discharge their

nostrils and keep the curls of their periwigs in their proper

order. The clashing of their snush-box lids, in opening and

shutting, made more noise than their tongues. Bows and cringes of

the newest mode were here exchanged 'twixt friend and friend with

wonderful exactness. They made a humming like so many hornets in a

country chimney, not with their talking, but with their whispering

over their new Minuets and Bories, with the hands in their pockets,

if only freed from their snush-box. We now began to be thoughtful

of a pipe of tobacco, whereupon we ventured to call for some

instruments of evaporation, which were accordingly brought us, but

with such a kind of unwillingness, as if they would much rather

been rid of our company; for their tables were so very neat, and

shined with rubbing like the upper-leathers of an alderman's shoes,

and as brown as the top of a country housewife's cupboard. The

floor was as clean swept as a Sir Courtly's dining room, which made

us look round to see if there were no orders hung up to impose the

forfeiture of so much mop-money upon any person that should spit

out of the chimney-corner. Notwithstanding we wanted an example to

encourage us in our porterly rudeness, we ordered them to light the

wax candle, by which we ignified our pipes and blew about our

whiffs; at which several Sir Foplins drew their faces into as many

peevish wrinkles as the beaux at the Bow Street Coffee-house, near

Covent Garden, did when the gentleman in masquerade came in amongst

them, with his oyster-barrel muff and turnip-buttons, to ridicule

their foperies.

In _A Brief and Merry History of Great Britain_ we read:

There is a prodigious number of Coffee-Houses in London, after the

manner I have seen some in Constantinople. These Coffee-Houses are

the constant Rendezvous for Men of Business as well as the idle

People. Besides Coffee, there are many other Liquors, which People

cannot well relish at first. They smoak Tobacco, game and read

Papers of Intelligence; here they treat of Matters of State, make

Leagues with Foreign Princes, break them again, and transact

Affairs of the last Consequence to the whole World. They represent

these Coffee-Houses as the most agreeable things in London, and

they are, in my Opinion, very proper Places to find People that a

Man has Business with, or to pass away the Time a little more

agreeably than he can do at home; but in other respects they are

loathsome, full of smoak, like a Guard-Room, and as much crowded. I

believe 'tis these Places that furnish the Inhabitants with

Slander, for there one hears exact Account of everything done in

Town, as if it were but a Village.

At those Coffee-Houses, near the Courts, called White's, St.

James's, Williams's, the Conversation turns chiefly upon the

Equipages, Essence, Horse-Matches, Tupees, Modes and Mortgages; the

Cocoa-Tree upon Bribery and Corruption, Evil ministers, Errors and

Mistakes in Government; the Scotch Coffee-Houses towards Charing

Cross, on Places and Pensions; the Tiltyard and Young Man's on

Affronts, Honour, Satisfaction, Duels and Rencounters. I was

informed that the latter happen so frequently, in this part of the

Town, that a Surgeon and a Sollicitor are kept constantly in

waiting; the one to dress and heal such Wounds as may be given, and

the other in case of Death to bring off the Survivor with a Verdict

of Se Devendendo or Manslaughter. In those Coffee-Houses about the

Temple the Subjects are generally on Causes, Costs, Demurrers,

Rejoinders and Exceptions; Daniel's the Welch Coffee-House in Fleet

Street, on Births, Pedigrees and Descents; Child's and the Chapter

upon Glebes, Tithes, Advowsons, Rectories and Lectureships; North's

Undue Elections, False Polling, Scrutinies, etc.; Hamlin's,

Infant-Baptism, Lay-Ordination, Free-Will, Election and

Reprobation; Batson's, the Prices of Pepper, Indigo and Salt-Petre;

and all those about the Exchange, where the Merchants meet to

transact their Affairs, are in a perpetual hurry about

Stock-Jobbing, Lying, Cheating, Tricking Widows and Orphans, and

committing Spoil and Rapine on the Publick.

[Illustration: WHITE'S AND BROOKES', ST. JAMES'S STREET]

In the eighteenth century beer and wine were commonly sold at the coffee

houses in addition to tea and chocolate. Daniel Defoe, writing of his

visit to Shrewsbury in 1724, says, "I found there the most coffee houses

around the Town Hall that ever I saw in any town, but when you come into

them they are but ale houses, only they think that the name coffee house

gives a better air."

Speaking of the coffee houses of the city, Besant says:

Rich merchants alone ventured to enter certain of the coffee

houses, where they transacted business more privately and more

expeditiously than on the Exchange. There were coffee houses where

officers of the army alone were found; where the city shopkeeper

met his chums; where actors congregated; where only divines, only

lawyers, only physicians, only wits and those who came to hear them

were found. In all alike the visitor put down his penny and went

in, taking his own seat if he was an habitue; he called for a cup

of tea or coffee and paid his twopence for it; he could call also,

if he pleased, for a cordial; he was expected to talk with his

neighbour whether he knew him or not. Men went to certain coffee

houses in order to meet the well-known poets and writers who were

to be found there, as Pope went in search of Dryden. The daily

papers and the pamphlets of the day were taken in. Some of the

coffee houses, but not the more respectable, allowed the use of

tobacco.

[Illustration: COFFEE HOUSE POLITICIANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY]

[Illustration: THE GREAT FAIR ON THE FROZEN THAMES--1683

From a broadside entitled _Wonders on the Deep_. Figure 2 is the Duke of

York's Coffee House]

Mackay, in his _Journey Through England_ (1724), says:

We rise by nine, and those that frequent great men's levees find

entertainment at them till eleven, or, as in Holland, go to

tea-tables; about twelve the _beau monde_ assemble in several

coffee or chocolate houses; the best of which are the Cocoatree and

White's chocolate houses, St. James', the Smyrna, Mrs. Rochford's

and the British coffee houses; and all these so near one another

that in less than an hour you see the company of them all. We are

carried to these places in chairs (or sedans), which are here very

cheap, a guinea a week, or a shilling per hour, and your chairmen

serve you for porters to run on errands, as your gondoliers do at

Venice.

If it be fine weather we take a turn into the park till two, when

we go to dinner; and if it be dirty, you are entertained at picquet

or basset at White's, or you may talk politics at the Smyrna or St.

James'. I must not forget to tell you that the parties have their

different places, where, however, a stranger is always well

received; but a Whig will no more go to the Cocoatree than a Tory

will be seen at the Coffee House, St James'.

The Scots go generally to the British, and a mixture of all sorts

go to the Smyrna. There are other little coffee houses much

frequented in this neighborhood--Young Man's for officers; Old

Man's for stock jobbers, paymasters and courtiers, and Little Man's

for sharpers. I never was so confounded in my life as when I

entered into this last. I saw two or three tables full at faro, and

was surrounded by a set of sharp faces that I was afraid would have

devoured me with their eyes. I was glad to drop two or three half

crowns at faro to get off with a clear skin, and was overjoyed I so

got rid of them.

At two we generally go to dinner; ordinaries are not so common here

as abroad, yet the French have set up two or three good ones for

the convenience of foreigners in Suffolk street, where one is

tolerably well served; but the general way here is to make a party

at the coffee house to go to dine at the tavern, where we sit till

six, when we go to the play, except you are invited to the table of

some great man, which strangers are always courted to and nobly

entertained.

Mackay writes that "in all the coffee houses you have not only the

foreign prints but several English ones with foreign occurrences,

besides papers of morality and party disputes."

"After the play," writes Defoe, "the best company generally go to Tom's

and Will's coffee houses, near adjoining, where there is playing at

picquet and the best of conversation till midnight. Here you will see

blue and green ribbons and stars sitting familiarly and talking with the

same freedom as if they had left their equality and degrees of distance

at home."

[Illustration: THE LION'S HEAD AT BUTTON'S COFFEE HOUSE

Designed by Hogarth, and put up by Addison, 1713 From a water color by

T.H. Shepherd]

Before entering the coffee house every one was recommended by the

_Tatler_ to prepare his body with three dishes of bohea and to purge his

brains with two pinches of snuff. Men had their coffee houses as now

they have their clubs--sometimes contented with one, sometimes belonging

to three or four. Johnson, for instance, was connected with St. James's,

the Turk's Head, the Bedford, Peele's, besides the taverns which he

frequented. Addison and Steele used Button's; Swift, Button's, the

Smyrna, and St. James's; Dryden, Will's; Pope, Will's and Button's;

Goldsmith, the St. James's and the Chapter; Fielding, the Bedford;

Hogarth, the Bedford and Slaughter's; Sheridan, the Piazza; Thurlow,

Nando's.

_Some Famous Coffee Houses_

Among the famous English coffee houses of the seventeenth-eighteenth

century period were St. James's, Will's, Garraway's, White's,

Slaughter's, the Grecian, Button's, Lloyd's, Tom's, and Don Saltero's.

St. James's was a Whig house frequented by members of Parliament, with a

fair sprinkling of literary stars. Garraway's catered to the gentry of

the period, many of whom naturally had Tory proclivities.

One of the notable coffee houses of Queen Anne's reign was Button's.

Here Addison could be found almost every afternoon and evening, along

with Steele, Davenant, Carey, Philips, and other kindred minds. Pope was

a member of the same coffee house club for a year, but his inborn

irascibility eventually led him to drop out of it.

At Button's a lion's head, designed by Hogarth after the Lion of Venice,

"a proper emblem of knowledge and action, being all head and paws," was

set up to receive letters and papers for the _Guardian_.[82] The

_Tatler_ and the _Spectator_ were born in the coffee house, and probably

English prose would never have received the impetus given it by the

essays of Addison and Steele had it not been for coffee house

associations.

Pope's famous _Rape of the Lock_ grew out of coffee-house gossip. The

poem itself contains one charming passage on coffee.[83]

Another frequenter of the coffee houses of London, when he had the money

to do so, was Daniel Defoe, whose _Robinson Crusoe_ was the precursor of

the English novel. Henry Fielding, one of the greatest of all English

novelists, loved the life of the more bohemian coffee houses, and was,

in fact, induced to write his first great novel, _Joseph Andrews_,

through coffee-house criticisms of Richardson's _Pamela_.

Other frequenters of the coffee houses of the period were Thomas Gray

and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Garrick was often to be seen at Tom's in

Birchin Lane, where also Chatterton might have been found on many an

evening before his untimely death.

_The London Pleasure Gardens_

The second half of the eighteenth century was covered by the reigns of

the Georges. The coffee houses were still an important factor in London

life, but were influenced somewhat by the development of gardens in

which were served tea, chocolate, and other drinks, as well as coffee.

At the coffee houses themselves, while coffee remained the favorite

beverage, the proprietors, in the hope of increasing their patronage,

began to serve wine, ale, and other liquors. This seems to have been the

first step toward the decay of the coffee house.

[Illustration: A TRIO OF NOTABLES AT BUTTON'S IN 1730

The figure in the cloak is Count Viviani; of the figures facing the

reader, the draughts player is Dr. Arbuthnot, and the figure standing is

assumed to be Pope]

The coffee houses, however, continued to be the centers of intellectual

life. When Samuel Johnson and David Garrick came together to London,

literature was temporarily in a bad way, and the hack writers of the

time dwelt in Grub Street.

It was not until after Johnson had met with some success, and had

established the first of his coffee-house clubs at the Turk's Head, that

literature again became a fashionable profession.

This really famous literary club met at the Turk's Head from 1763 to

1783. Among the most notable members were Johnson, the arbiter of

English prose; Oliver Goldsmith; Boswell, the biographer; Burke, the

orator; Garrick, the actor; and Sir Joshua Reynolds, the painter. Among

the later members were Gibbon, the historian; and Adam Smith, the

political economist.

Certain it is that during the sway of the English coffee house, and at

least partly through its influence, England produced a better prose

literature, as embodied alike in her essays, literary criticisms, and

novels, than she ever had produced before.

The advent of the pleasure garden brought coffee out into the open in

England; and one of the reasons why gardens, such as Ranelagh and

Vauxhall, began to be more frequented than the coffee houses was that

they were popular resorts for women as well as for men. All kinds of

beverages were served in them; and soon the women began to favor tea as

an afternoon drink. At least, the great development in the use of tea

dates from this period; and many of these resorts called themselves tea

gardens.

The use of coffee by this time, however, was well established in the

homes as a breakfast and dinner beverage, and such consumption more than

made up for any loss sustained through the gradual decadence of the

coffee house. Yet signs of the change in national taste that arrived

with the Georges were not wanting; for the active propaganda of the

British East India Company was fairly well launched during Queen Anne's

reign.

The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century were unique. At

one time there was a "mighty maze" of them. Their season extended from

April or May to August or September. At first there was no charge for

admission, but Warwick Wroth[84] tells us that visitors usually

purchased cheese cakes, syllabubs, tea, coffee and ale.

The four best-known London gardens were Vauxhall; Marylebone; Cuper's,

where the charge for admission subsequently was fixed at not less than a

shilling; and Ranelagh, where the charge of half a crown included "the

Elegant Regale" of tea, coffee, and bread and butter.

The pleasure gardens provided walks, rooms for dancing, skittle grounds,

bowling greens, variety entertainments, and promenade concerts; and not

a few places were given over to fashionable gambling and racing.

The Vauxhall Gardens, one of the most favored resorts of

pleasure-seeking Londoners, were located on the Surrey side of the

Thames, a short distance east of Vauxhall Bridge. They were originally

known as the New Spring Gardens (1661), to distinguish them from the old

Spring Gardens at Charing Cross. They became famous in the reign of

Charles II. Vauxhall was celebrated for its walks, lit with thousands of

lamps, its musical and other performances, suppers, and fireworks. High

and low were to be found there, and the drinking of tea and coffee in

the arbors was a feature. The illustration shows the garden brightly

illuminated by lanterns and lamps on some festival occasion. Coffee and

tea were served in the arbors.

[Illustration: VAUXHALL GARDENS ON A GALA NIGHT]

The Ranelagh, "a place of public entertainment," erected at Chelsea in

1742, was a kind of Vauxhall under cover. The principal room, known as

the Rotunda, was circular in shape, 150 feet in diameter, and had an

orchestra in the center and tiers of boxes all around. Promenading and

taking refreshments in the boxes were the principal divertisements.

Except on gala nights of masquerades and fireworks, only tea, coffee,

bread and butter were to be had at Ranelagh.

[Illustration: THE ROTUNDA IN RANELAGH GARDENS WITH THE COMPANY AT

BREAKFAST--1751]

In the group of gardens connected with mineral springs was the Dog and

Duck (St. George's Spa), which became at last a tea garden and a dancing

saloon of doubtful repute.

Still another division, recognized by Wroth, consisted mainly of tea

gardens, among them Highbury Barn, The Canonbury House, Hornsey and

Copenhagen House, Bagnigge Wells, and White Conduit House. The two last

named were the classic tea gardens of the period. Both were provided

with "long rooms" in case of rain, and for indoor promenades with organ

music. Then there were the Adam and Eve tea gardens, with arbors for

tea-drinking parties, which subsequently became the Adam and Eve Tavern

and Coffee House. Well known were the Bayswater Tea Gardens and the Jews

Harp House and Tea Gardens. All these were provided with neat, "genteel"

boxes, let into the hedges and alcoves, for tea and coffee drinkers.

_Locating the Notable Coffee Houses_

GARRAWAY'S, 3 'Change Alley, Cornhill, was a place for great mercantile

transactions. Thomas Garway, the original proprietor, was a tobacconist

and coffee man, who claimed to be the first that sold tea in England,

although not at this address. The later Garraway's was long famous as a

sandwich and drinking room for sherry, pale ale, and punch, in addition

to tea and coffee. It is said that the sandwich-maker was occupied two

hours in cutting and arranging the sandwiches for the day's consumption.

After the "great fire" of 1666 GARRAWAY'S moved into the same place in

Exchange Alley where Elford had been before the fire. Here he claimed to

have the oldest coffee house in London; but the ground on which BOWMAN'S

had stood was occupied later by the VIRGINIA and the JAMAICA coffee

houses. The latter was damaged by the fire of 1748 which consumed

GARRAWAY'S and ELFORD'S (see map of the 1748 fire).

WILL'S, the predecessor of BUTTON'S, first had the title of the RED COW,

then of the ROSE. It was kept by William Urwin, and was on the north

side of Russell Street at the corner of Bow Street. "It was Dryden who

made Will's coffee house the great resort of the wits of his time."

(_Pope_ and _Spence_.) The room in which the poet was accustomed to sit

was on the first floor; and his place was the place of honor by the

fireside in the winter, and at the corner of the balcony, looking over

the street, in fine weather; he called the two places his winter and his

summer seat. This was called the dining-room floor. The company did not

sit in boxes as subsequently, but at various tables which were dispersed

through the room. Smoking was permitted in the public room; it was then

so much in vogue that it does not seem to have been considered a

nuisance. Here, as in other similar places of meeting, the visitors

divided themselves into parties; and we are told by Ward that the young

beaux and wits, who seldom approached the principal table, thought it a

great honor to have a pinch out of Dryden's snuff-box. After Dryden's

death WILL'S was transferred to a house opposite, and became BUTTON'S,

"over against THOMAS'S in Covent Garden." Thither also Addison

transferred much company from THOMAS'S. Here Swift first saw Addison.

Hither also came "Steele, Arbuthnot and many other wits of the time."

BUTTON'S continued in vogue until Addison's death and Steele's

retirement into Wales, after which the coffee drinkers went to the

BEDFORD, dinner parties to the SHAKESPEARE. BUTTON'S was subsequently

known as the CALEDONIEN.

[Illustration: GARRAWAY'S COFFEE HOUSE IN 'CHANGE ALLEY

Garway (or Garraway) claimed to have been first to sell Tea in England]

[Illustration: BUTTON'S COFFEE HOUSE, GREAT RUSSELL STREET

Afterward it became the Caledonien

From a water color by T.H. Shepherd]

SLAUGHTER'S, famous as the resort of painters and sculptors in the

eighteenth century, was situated at the upper end of the west side of

St. Martin's Lane. Its first landlord was Thomas Slaughter, 1692. A

second SLAUGHTER'S (NEW SLAUGHTER'S) was established in the same street

in 1760, when the original SLAUGHTER'S adopted the name of OLD

SLAUGHTER'S. It was torn down in 1843-44. Among the notables who

frequented it were Hogarth; young Gainsborough; Cipriani; Haydon;

Roubiliac; Hudson, who painted the Dilettanti portraits; M'Ardell, the

mezzotinto-scraper; Luke Sullivan, the engraver; Gardell, the portrait

painter; and Parry, the Welsh harper.

TOM'S, in Birchin Lane, Cornhill, though in the main a mercantile

resort, acquired some celebrity from having been frequented by Garrick.

TOM'S was also frequented by Chatterton, as a place "of the best

resort." Then there was TOM'S in Devereux Court, Strand, and TOM'S at 17

Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, opposite BUTTON'S, a celebrated

resort during the reign of Queen Anne and for more than a century after.

THE GRECIAN, Devereux Court, Strand, was originally kept by one

Constantine, a Greek. From this house Steele proposed to date his

learned articles in the _Tatler_; it is mentioned in No. 1 of the

_Spectator_, and it was much frequented by Goldsmith. The GRECIAN was

Foote's morning lounge. In 1843 the premises became the Grecian

Chambers, with a bust of Lord Devereux, earl of Essex, over the door.

[Illustration: SLAUGHTER'S COFFEE HOUSE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE

It was taken down in 1843

From a water color by T.H. Shepherd, 1841]

[Illustration: TOM'S COFFEE HOUSE, 17 GREAT RUSSELL STREET

Used as a coffee house until 1804 and razed in 1865

From a water color by T.H. Shepherd]

LLOYD'S, Royal Exchange, celebrated for its priority of shipping

intelligence and its marine insurance, originated with Edward Lloyd, who

about 1688 kept a coffee house in Tower Street, later in Lombard Street

corner of Abchurch Lane. It was a modest place of refreshment for

seafarers and merchants. As a matter of convenience, Edward Lloyd

prepared "ships' lists" for the guidance of the frequenters of the

coffee house. "These lists, which were written by hand, contained,"

according to Andrew Scott, "an account of vessels which the underwriters

who met there were likely to have offered them for insurance." Such was

the beginning of two institutions that have since exercised a dominant

influence on the sea-carrying trade of the whole world--the Royal

Exchange Lloyd's, the greatest insurance institution in the world, and

Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Lloyd's now has 1400 agents in all parts

of the world. It receives as many as 100,000 telegrams a year. It

records through its intelligence service the daily movements of 11,000

vessels.

In the beginning one of the apartments in the Exchange was fitted up as

LLOYD'S coffee room. Edward Lloyd died in 1712. Subsequently the coffee

house was in Pope's Head Alley, where it was called NEW LLOYD'S coffee

house, but on September 14, 1784, it was removed to the northwest corner

of the Royal Exchange, where it remained until the partial destruction

of that building by fire.

[Illustration: LLOYD'S COFFEE HOUSE IN THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, SHOWING THE

SUBSCRIPTION ROOM]

In rebuilding the Exchange there were provided the Subscribers' or

Underwriters' room, the Merchants' room, and the Captains' room. _The

City_, second edition, 1848, contains the following description of this

most famous rendezvous of eminent merchants, shipowners, underwriters,

insurance, stock and exchange brokers:

Here is obtained the earliest news of the arrival and sailing of

vessels, losses at sea, captures, recaptures, engagements and other

shipping intelligence; and proprietors of ships and freights are

insured by the underwriters. The rooms are in the Venetian style

with Roman enrichments. At the entrance of the room are exhibited

the Shipping Lists, received from Lloyd's agents at home and

abroad, and affording particulars of departures or arrivals of

vessels, wrecks, salvage, or sale of property saved, etc. To the

right and left are "Lloyd's Books," two enormous ledgers. Right

hand, ships "spoken with" or arrived at their destined ports; left

hand, records of wrecks, fires or severe collisions, written in a

fine Roman hand in "double lines." To assist the underwriters in

their calculations, at the end of the room is an Anemometer, which

registers the state of the wind day and night; attached is a rain

gauge.

THE BRITISH, Cockspur Street, "long a house of call for Scotchmen," was

fortunate in its landladies. In 1759 it was kept by the sister of Bishop

Douglas, so well known for his works against Lauder and Bower, which may

explain its Scottish fame. At another period it was kept by Mrs.

Anderson, described in Mackenzie's _Life of Home_ as "a woman of

uncommon talents and the most agreeable conversation."

DON SALTERO'S, 18 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, was opened by a barber named

Salter in 1695. Sir Hans Sloane contributed of his own collection some

of the refuse gimcracks that were to be found in Salter's "museum."

Vice-Admiral Munden, who had been long on the coast of Spain, where he

had acquired a fondness for Spanish titles, named the keeper of the

house Don Saltero, and his coffee house and museum DON SALTERO'S.

SQUIRE'S was in Fulwood's Rents, Holburn, running up to Gray's Inn. It

was one of the receiving houses of the _Spectator_. In No. 269 the

_Spectator_ accepts Sir Roger de Coverley's invitation to "smoke a pipe

with him over a dish of coffee at Squire's. As I love the old man, I

take delight in complying with everything that is agreeable to him, and

accordingly waited on him to the coffee-house, where his venerable

figure drew upon us the eyes of the whole room. He had no sooner seated

himself at the upper end of the high table, but he called for a clean

pipe, a paper of tobacco, a dish of coffee, a wax candle and the

'Supplement' (a periodical paper of that time), with such an air of

cheerfulness and good humour, that all the boys in the coffee room (who

seemed to take pleasure in serving him) were at once employed on his

several errands, insomuch that nobody else could come at a dish of tea

until the Knight had got all his conveniences about him." Such was the

coffee room in the _Spectator's_ day.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF DICK'S COFFEE HOUSE

From the frontispiece to "The Coffee House--a dramatick Piece" (see

chapter XXXII)]

THE COCOA-TREE was originally a coffee house on the south side of Pall

Mall. When there grew up a need for "places of resort of a more elegant

and refined character," chocolate houses came into vogue, and the

COCOA-TREE was the most famous of these. It was converted into a club in

1746.

[Illustration: THE GRECIAN COFFEE HOUSE, DEVEREUX COURT

It was closed in 1843. From a drawing dated 1809]

WHITE'S chocolate house, established by Francis White about 1693 in St.

James's Street, originally open to any one as a coffee house, soon

became a private club, composed of "the most fashionable exquisites of

the town and court." In its coffee-house days, the entrance was

sixpence, as compared with the average penny fee of the other coffee

houses. Escott refers to WHITE'S as being "the one specimen of the class

to which it belongs, of a place at which, beneath almost the same roof,

and always bearing the same name, whether as coffee house or club, the

same class of persons has congregated during more than two hundred

years."

Among hundreds of other coffee houses that flourished during the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the following more notable ones are

deserving of mention:

[Illustration: DON SALTERO'S COFFEE HOUSE, CHEYNE WALK

From a steel engraving in the British Museum]

[Illustration: THE BRITISH COFFEE HOUSE

IN COCKSPUR STREET

From a print published in 1770]

BAKER'S, 58 'Change Alley, for nearly half a century noted for its chops

and steaks broiled in the coffee room and eaten hot from the gridiron;

the BALTIC, in Threadneedle Street, the rendezvous of brokers and

merchants connected with the Russian trade; the BEDFORD, "under the

Piazza, in Covent Garden," crowded every night with men of parts and

"signalized for many years as the emporium of wit, the seat of criticism

and the standard of taste"; the CHAPTER, in Paternoster Row, frequented

by Chatterton and Goldsmith; CHILD'S, in St. Paul's Churchyard, one of

the _Spectator's_ houses, and much frequented by the clergy and fellows

of the Royal Society; DICK'S, in Fleet Street, frequented by Cowper, and

the scene of Rousseau's comedietta, entitled _The Coffee House_; ST.

JAMES'S, in St. James's Street, frequented by Swift, Goldsmith, and

Garrick; JERUSALEM, in Cowper's Court, Cornhill, frequented by merchants

and captains connected with the commerce of China, India, and Australia;

JONATHAN'S, in 'Change Alley, described by the _Tatler_ as "the general

mart of stock jobbers"; the LONDON, in Ludgate Hill, noted for its

publishers' sales of stock and copyrights; MAN'S, in Scotland Yard,

which took its name from the proprietor, Alexander Man, and was

sometimes known as OLD MAN'S, or the ROYAL, to distinguish it from YOUNG

MAN'S, LITTLE MAN'S, NEW MAN'S, etc., minor establishments in the

neighborhood;[85] NANDO'S, in Fleet Street, the favorite haunt of Lord

Thurlow and many professional loungers, attracted by the fame of the

punch and the charms of the landlady; NEW ENGLAND AND NORTH AND SOUTH

AMERICAN, in Threadneedle Street, having on its subscription list

representatives of Barings, Rothschilds, and other wealthy

establishments; PEELE'S, in Fleet Street, having a portrait of Dr.

Johnson said to have been painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds; the PERCY, in

Oxford Street, the inspiration for the _Percy Anecdotes_; the PIAZZA, in

Covent Garden, where Macklin fitted up a large coffee room, or theater,

for oratory, and Fielding and Foote poked fun at him; the RAINBOW, in

Fleet Street, the second coffee house opened in London, having its token

money; the SMYRNA, in Pall Mall, a "place to talk politics," and

frequented by Prior and Swift; TOM KING'S, one of the old night houses

of Covent Garden Market, "well known to all gentlemen to whom beds are

unknown"; the TURK'S HEAD, 'Change Alley, which also had its tokens; the

TURK'S HEAD, in the Strand, which was a favorite supping house for Dr.

Johnson and Boswell; the FOLLY, a coffee house on a house-boat on the

Thames, which became quite notorious during Queen Anne's reign.

[Illustration: THE FRENCH COFFEE HOUSE IN LONDON, SECOND HALF OF THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

From the original water-color drawing by Thomas Rowlandson]

[Illustration]

[Illustration: RAMPONAUX' ROYAL DRUMMER, ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR OF THE

EARLY PARISIAN CAFÉS

Started originally as a tavern, this hostelry added coffee to its

cuisine and became famous in the reign of Louis XV The illustration is

from an early print used to advertise the "Royal Drummer's" attractions]

CHAPTER XI

HISTORY OF THE EARLY PARISIAN COFFEE HOUSES

_The introduction of coffee into Paris by Thévenot in 1657--How

Soliman Aga established the custom of coffee drinking at the court

of Louis XIV--Opening the first coffee houses--How the French

adaptation of the Oriental coffee house first appeared in the real

French café of François Procope--The important part played by the

coffee houses in the development of French literature and the

stage--Their association with the Revolution and the founding of

the Republic--Quaint customs and patrons--Historic Parisian cafés_

If we are to accept the authority of Jean La Roque, "before the year

1669 coffee had scarcely been seen in Paris, except at M. Thévenot's and

at the homes of some of his friends. Nor had it been heard of except in

the writings of travelers."

As noted in chapter V, Jean de Thévenot brought coffee into Paris in

1657. One account says that a decoction, supposed to have been coffee,

was sold by a Levantine in the Petit Châtelet under the name of _cohove_

or _cahoue_ during the reign of Louis XIII, but this lacks confirmation.

Louis XIV is said to have been served with coffee for the first time in

1664.

Soon after the arrival, in July, 1669, of the Turkish ambassador,

Soliman Aga, it became noised abroad that he had brought with him for

his own use, and that of his retinue, great quantities of coffee. He

"treated several persons with it, both in the court and the city." At

length "many accustomed themselves to it with sugar, and others who

found benefit by it could not leave it off."

Within six months all Paris was talking of the sumptuous coffee

functions of the ambassador from Mohammed IV to the court of Louis XIV.

Isaac D'Israeli best describes them in his _Curiosities of Literature_:

On bended knee, the black slaves of the Ambassador, arrayed in the

most gorgeous Oriental costumes, served the choicest Mocha coffee

in tiny cups of egg-shell porcelain, hot, strong and fragrant,

poured out in saucers of gold and silver, placed on embroidered

silk doylies fringed with gold bullion, to the grand dames, who

fluttered their fans with many grimaces, bending their piquant

faces--be-rouged, be-powdered and be-patched--over the new and

steaming beverage.

It was in 1669 or 1672 that Madame de Sévigné (Marie de Rabutin-Chantal;

1626-96), the celebrated French letter-writer, is said to have made that

famous prophecy, "There are two things Frenchmen will never

swallow--coffee and Racine's poetry," sometimes abbreviated into,

"Racine and coffee will pass." What Madame really said, according to one

authority, was that Racine was writing for Champmeslé, the actress, and

not for posterity; again, of coffee she said, "_s'en dégoûterait comme;

d'un indigne favori_" (People will become disgusted with it as with an

unworthy favorite).

Larousse says the double judgment was wrongly attributed to Mme. de

Sévigné. The celebrated aphorism, like many others, was forged later.

Mme. de Sévigné said, "Racine made his comedies for the Champmeslé--not

for the ages to come." This was in 1672. Four years later, she said to

her daughter, "You have done well to quit coffee. Mlle. de Mere has also

given it up."

[Illustration: COFFEE WAS FIRST SOLD AND SERVED PUBLICLY IN THE FAIR OF

ST.-GERMAIN

From a Seventeenth-Century Print]

However it may have been, the amiable letter-writer was destined to live

to see Frenchmen yielding at once to the lure of coffee and to the

poetical artifices of the greatest dramatic craftsman of his day.

While it is recorded that coffee made slow progress with the court of

Louis XIV, the next king, Louis XV, to please his mistress, du Barry,

gave it a tremendous vogue. It is related that he spent $15,000 a year

for coffee for his daughters.

Meanwhile, in 1672, one Pascal, an Armenian, first sold coffee publicly

in Paris. Pascal, who, according to one account, was brought to Paris by

Soliman Aga, offered the beverage for sale from a tent, which was also a

kind of booth, in the fair of St.-Germain, supplemented by the service

of Turkish waiter boys, who peddled it among the crowds from small cups

on trays. The fair was held during the first two months of spring, in a

large open plot just inside the walls of Paris and near the Latin

Quarter. As Pascal's waiter boys circulated through the crowds on those

chilly days the fragrant odor of freshly made coffee brought many ready

sales of the steaming beverage; and soon visitors to the fair learned to

look for the "little black" cupful of cheer, or _petit noir_, a name

that still endures.

When the fair closed, Pascal opened a small coffee shop on the Quai de

l'École, near the Pont Neuf; but his frequenters were of a type who

preferred the beers and wines of the day, and coffee languished. Pascal

continued, however, to send his waiter boys with their large coffee

jugs, that were heated by lamps, through the streets of Paris and from

door to door. Their cheery cry of "_café! café!_" became a welcome call

to many a Parisian, who later missed his _petit noir_ when Pascal gave

up and moved on to London, where coffee drinking was then in high favor.

[Illustration: STREET COFFEE VENDER OF PARIS--PERIOD, 1672 TO 1689--TWO

SOUS PER DISH, SUGAR INCLUDED]

Lacking favor at court, coffee's progress was slow. The French smart set

clung to its light wines and beers. In 1672, Maliban, another Armenian,

opened a coffee house in the rue Bussy, next to the Metz tennis court

near St.-Germain's abbey. He supplied tobacco also to his customers.

Later he went to Holland, leaving his servant and partner, Gregory, a

Persian, in charge. Gregory moved to the rue Mazarine, to be near the

Comédie Française. He was succeeded in the business by Makara, another

Persian, who later returned to Ispahan, leaving the coffee house to one

Le Gantois, of Liége.

About this period there was a cripple boy from Candia, known as le

Candiot, who began to cry "coffee!" in the streets of Paris. He carried

with him a coffee pot of generous size, a chafing-dish, cups, and all

other implements necessary to his trade. He sold his coffee from door to

door at two sous per dish, sugar included.

[Illustration: MANY OF THE EARLY PARISIAN COFFEE HOUSES FOLLOWED

PASCAL'S LEAD AND AFFECTED ARMENIAN DECORATIONS

From a Seventeenth-Century Print]

A Levantine named Joseph also sold coffee in the streets, and later had

several coffee shops of his own. Stephen, from Aleppo, next opened a

coffee house on Pont au Change, moving, when his business prospered, to

more pretentious quarters in the rue St.-André, facing St.-Michael's

bridge.

[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE HISTORIC CAFÉ DE PROCOPE SHOWING VOLTAIRE

AND DIDEROT IN DEBATE

From a rare water color]

All these, and others, were essentially the Oriental style of coffee

house of the lower order, and they appealed principally to the poorer

classes and to foreigners. "Gentlemen and people of fashion" did not

care to be seen in this type of public house. But when the French

merchants began to set up, first at St.-Germain's fair, "spacious

apartments in an elegant manner, ornamented with tapestries, large

mirrors, pictures, marble tables, branches for candles, magnificent

lustres, and serving coffee, tea, chocolate, and other refreshments",

they were soon crowded with people of fashion and men of letters.

In this way coffee drinking in public acquired a badge of

respectability. Presently there were some three hundred coffee houses in

Paris. The principal coffee men, in addition to plying their trade in

the city, maintained coffee rooms in St.-Germain's and St.-Laurence's

fairs. These were frequented by women as well as men.

_The Progenitor of the Real Parisian Café_

It was not until 1689, that there appeared in Paris a real French

adaptation of the Oriental coffee house. This was the Café de Procope,

opened by François Procope (Procopio Cultelli, or Cotelli) who came from

Florence or Palermo. Procope was a _limonadier_ (lemonade vender) who

had a royal license to sell spices, ices, barley water, lemonade, and

other such refreshments. He early added coffee to the list, and

attracted a large and distinguished patronage.

Procope, a keen-witted merchant, made his appeal to a higher class of

patrons than did Pascal and those who first followed him. He established

his café directly opposite the newly opened Comédie Française, in the

street then known as the rue des Fossés-St.-Germain, but now the rue de

l'Ancienne Comédie. A writer of the period has left this description of

the place: "The Café de Procope ... was also called the Antre [cavern]

de Procope, because it was very dark even in full day, and ill-lighted

in the evenings; and because you often saw there a set of lank, sallow

poets, who had somewhat the air of apparitions."

Because of its location, the Café de Procope became the gathering place

of many noted French actors, authors, dramatists, and musicians of the

eighteenth century. It was a veritable literary salon. Voltaire was a

constant patron; and until the close of the historic café, after an

existence of more than two centuries, his marble table and chair were

among the precious relics of the coffee house. His favorite drink is

said to have been a mixture of coffee and chocolate. Rousseau, author

and philosopher; Beaumarchais, dramatist and financier; Diderot, the

encyclopedist; Ste.-Foix, the abbé of Voisenon; de Belloy, author of the

_Siege of Callais_; Lemierre, author of _Artaxerce_; Crébillon; Piron;

La Chaussée; Fontenelle; Condorcet; and a host of lesser lights in the

French arts, were habitués of François Procope's modest coffee saloon

near the Comédie Française.

Naturally, the name of Benjamin Franklin, recognized in Europe as one of

the world's foremost thinkers in the days of the American Revolution,

was often spoken over the coffee cups of Café de Procope; and when the

distinguished American died in 1790, this French coffee house went into

deep mourning "for the great friend of republicanism." The walls, inside

and out, were swathed in black bunting, and the statesmanship and

scientific attainments of Franklin were acclaimed by all frequenters.

The Café de Procope looms large in the annals of the French Revolution.

During the turbulent days of 1789 one could find at the tables, drinking

coffee or stronger beverages, and engaged in debate over the burning

questions of the hour, such characters as Marat, Robespierre, Danton,

Hébert, and Desmoulins. Napoleon Bonaparte, then a poor artillery

officer seeking a commission, was also there. He busied himself largely

in playing chess, a favorite recreation of the early Parisian

coffee-house patrons. It is related that François Procope once compelled

young Bonaparte to leave his hat for security while he sought money to

pay his coffee score.

After the Revolution, the Café de Procope lost its literary prestige and

sank to the level of an ordinary restaurant. During the last half of the

nineteenth century, Paul Verlaine, bohemian, poet, and leader of the

symbolists, made the Café de Procope his haunt; and for a time it

regained some of its lost popularity. The Restaurant Procope still

survives at 13 rue de l'Ancienne Comédie.

History records that, with the opening of the Café de Procope, coffee

became firmly established in Paris. In the reign of Louis XV there were

600 cafés in Paris. At the close of the eighteenth century there were

more than 800. By 1843 the number had increased to more than 3000.

_The Development of the Cafés_

Coffee's vogue spread rapidly, and many cabaréts and famous eating

houses began to add it to their menus. Among these was the Tour d'Argent

(silver tower), which had been opened on the Quai de la Tournelle in

1582, and speedily became Paris's most fashionable restaurant. It still

is one of the chief attractions for the epicure, retaining the

reputation for its cooking that drew a host of world leaders, from

Napoleon to Edward VII, to its quaint interior.

[Illustration: THE CAFÉ DE PROCOPE IN 1743

From an engraving by Bosredon]

Another tavern that took up coffee after Procope, was the Royal

Drummer, which Jean Ramponaux established at the Courtille des

Porcherons and which followed Magny's. His hostelry rightly belongs to

the tavern class, although coffee had a prominent place on its menu. It

became notorious for excesses and low-class vices during the reign of

Louis XV, who was a frequent visitor. Low and high were to be found in

Ramponaux's cellar, particularly when some especially wild revelry was

in prospect. Marie Antoinette once declared she had her most enjoyable

time at a wild _farandole_ in the Royal Drummer. Ramponaux was taken to

its heart by fashionable Paris; and his name was used as a trade mark on

furniture, clothes, and foods.

[Illustration: THE CASHIER'S COUNTER IN A PARIS COFFEE HOUSE OF 1782

From a drawing by Rétif de la Bretonne]

The popularity of Ramponaux's Royal Drummer is attested by an

inscription on an early print showing the interior of the café.

Translated, it reads:

The pleasures of ease untroubled to taste,

The leisure of home to enjoy without haste,

Perhaps a few hours at Magny's to waste,

Ah, that was the old-fashioned way!

Today all our laborers, everyone knows,

Go running away ere the working hours close,

And why? They must be at Monsieur Ramponaux'!

Behold, the new style of café!

When coffee houses began to crop up rapidly in Paris, the majority

centered in the Palais Royal, "that garden spot of beauty, enclosed on

three sides by three tiers of galleries," which Richelieu had erected in

1636, under the name of Palais Cardinal, in the reign of Louis XIII. It

became known as the Palais Royal in 1643; and soon after the opening of

the Café de Procope, it began to blossom out with many attractive coffee

stalls, or rooms, sprinkled among the other shops that occupied the

galleries overlooking the gardens.

_Life In The Early Coffee Houses_

Diderot tells in 1760, in his _Rameau's Nephew_, of the life and

frequenters of one of the Palais Royal coffee houses, the Regency (_Café

de la Régence_):

In all weathers, wet or fine, it is my practice to go toward five

o'clock in the evening to take a turn in the Palais Royal.... If

the weather is too cold or too wet I take shelter in the Regency

coffee house. There I amuse myself by looking on while they play

chess. Nowhere in the world do they play chess as skillfully as in

Paris and nowhere in Paris as they do at this coffee house; 'tis

here you see Légal the profound, Philidor the subtle, Mayot the

solid; here you see the most astounding moves, and listen to the

sorriest talk, for if a man be at once a wit and a great chess

player, like Légal, he may also be a great chess player and a sad

simpleton, like Joubert and Mayot.

The beginnings of the Regency coffee house are associated with the

legend that Lefévre, a Parisian, began peddling coffee in the streets of

Paris about the time Procope opened his café in 1689. The story has it

that Lefévre later opened a café near the Palais Royal, selling it in

1718 to one Leclerc, who named it the Café de la Régence, in honor of

the regent of Orleans, a name that still endures on a broad sign over

its doors. The nobility had their rendezvous there after having paid

their court to the regent.

[Illustration: THE CAFÉ FOY IN THE PALAIS ROYAL, 1789

From an engraving by Bosredon]

To name the patrons of the Café de la Régence in its long career would

be to outline a history of French literature for more than two

centuries. There was Philidor the "greatest theoretician of the

eighteenth century, better known for his chess than his music";

Robespierre, of the Revolution, who once played chess with a

girl--disguised as a boy--for the life of her lover; Napoleon, who was

then noted more for his chess than his empire-building propensities; and

Gambetta, whose loud voice, generally raised in debate, disturbed one

chess player so much that he protested because he could not follow his

game. Voltaire, Alfred de Musset; Victor Hugo, Théophile Gautier, J.J.

Rousseau, the Duke of Richelieu, Marshall Saxe, Buffon, Rivarol,

Fontenelle, Franklin, and Henry Murger are names still associated with

memories of this historic café: Marmontel and Philidor played there at

their favorite game of chess. Diderot tells in his _Memoirs_ that his

wife gave him every day nine sous to get his coffee there. It was in

this establishment that he worked on his _Encyclopedia_.

Chess is today still in favor at the Régence, although the players are

not, as were the earlier patrons, obliged to pay by the hour for their

tables with extra charges for candles placed by the chess-boards. The

present Café de la Régence is in the rue St.-Honoré, but retains in

large measure its aspect of olden days.

Michelet, the historian, has given us a rhapsodic pen picture of the

Parisian cafés under the regency:

Paris became one vast café. Conversation in France was at its

zenith. There were less eloquence and rhetoric than in '89. With

the exception of Rousseau, there was no orator to cite. The

intangible flow of wit was as spontaneous as possible. For this

sparkling outburst there is no doubt that honor should be ascribed

in part to the auspicious revolution of the times, to the great

event which created new customs, and even modified human

temperament--the advent of coffee.

Its effect was immeasurable, not being weakened and neutralized as

it is today by the brutalizing influence of tobacco. They took

snuff, but did not smoke. The cabarét was dethroned, the ignoble

cabarét, where, during the reign of Louis XIV, the youth of the

city rioted amid wine-casks in the company of light women. The

night was less thronged with chariots. Fewer lords found a resting

place in the gutter. The elegant shop, where conversation flowed, a

salon rather than a shop, changed and ennobled its customs. The

reign of coffee is that of temperance. Coffee, the beverage of

sobriety, a powerful mental stimulant, which, unlike spirituous

liquors, increases clearness and lucidity; coffee, which suppresses

the vague, heavy fantasies of the imagination, which from the

perception of reality brings forth the sparkle and sunlight of

truth; coffee anti-erotic....

The three ages of coffee are those of modern thought; they mark the

serious moments of the brilliant epoch of the soul.

Arabian coffee is the pioneer, even before 1700. The beautiful

ladies that you see in the fashionable rooms of Bonnard, sipping

from their tiny cups--they are enjoying the aroma of the finest

coffee of Arabia. And of what are they chatting? Of the seraglio,

of Chardin, of the Sultana's coiffure, of the _Thousand and One

Nights_ (1704). They compare the ennui of Versailles with the

paradise of the Orient.

Very soon, in 1710-1720, commences the reign of Indian coffee,

abundant, popular, comparatively cheap. Bourbon, our Indian island,

where coffee was transplanted, suddenly realizes unheard-of

happiness. This coffee of volcanic lands acts as an explosive on

the Regency and the new spirit of things. This sudden cheer, this

laughter of the old world, these overwhelming flashes of wit, of

which the sparkling verse of Voltaire, the _Persian Letters_, give

us a faint idea! Even the most brilliant books have not succeeded

in catching on the wing this airy chatter, which comes, goes, flies

elusively. This is that spirit of ethereal nature which, in the

_Thousand and One Nights_, the enchanter confined in his bottle.

But what phial would have withstood that pressure?

The lava of Bourbon, like the Arabian sand, was unequal to the

demand. The Regent recognized this and had coffee transported to

the fertile soil of our Antilles. The strong coffee of Santo

Domingo, full, coarse, nourishing as well as stimulating, sustained

the adult population of that period, the strong age of the

encyclopedia. It was drunk by Buffon, Diderot, Rousseau, added its

glow to glowing souls, its light to the penetrating vision of the

prophets gathered in the cave of Procope, who saw at the bottom of

the black beverage the future rays of '89. Danton, the terrible

Danton, took several cups of coffee before mounting the tribune.

'The horse must have its oats,' he said.

The vogue of coffee popularized the use of sugar, which was then bought

by the ounce at the apothecary's shop. Dufour says that in Paris they

used to put so much sugar in the coffee that "it was nothing but a syrup

of blackened water." The ladies were wont to have their carriages stop

in front of the Paris cafés and to have their coffee served to them by

the porter on saucers of silver.

Every year saw new cafés opened. When they became so numerous, and

competition grew so keen, it was necessary to invent new attractions for

customers. Then was born the _café chantant_, where songs, monologues,

dances, little plays and farces (not always in the best taste), were

provided to amuse the frequenters. Many of these _cafés chantants_ were

in the open air along the Champs-Elysées. In bad weather, Paris provided

the pleasure-seeker with the Eldorado, Alcazar d'Hiver, Scala, Gaieté,

Concert du XIXme Siécle, Folies Bobino, Rambuteau, Concert Européen,

and countless other meeting places where one could be served with a cup

of coffee.

[Illustration: THE CAFÉ DES MILLE COLONNES IN 1811

From an engraving by Bosredon]

As in London, certain cafés were noted for particular followings, like

the military, students, artists, merchants. The politicians had their

favorite resorts. Says Salvandy:[86]

These were senates in miniature; here mighty political questions

were discussed; here peace and war were decided upon; here generals

were brought to the bar of justice ... distinguished orators were

victoriously refuted, ministers heckled upon their ignorance, their

incapacity, their perfidy, their corruption. The café is in reality

a French institution; in them we find all these agitations and

movements of men, the like of which is unknown in the English

tavern. No government can go against the sentiment of the cafés.

The Revolution took place because they were for the Revolution.

Napoleon reigned because they were for glory. The Restoration was

shattered, because they understood the Charter in a different

manner.

In 1700 appeared the _Portefeuille Galant_, containing conversations of

the cafés.

_The Cafés in the French Revolution_

The Palais Royal coffee houses were centers of activity in the days

preceding and following the Revolution. A picture of them in the July

days of 1789 has been left by Arthur Young, who was visiting Paris at

that time:

The coffee houses present yet more singular and astounding

spectacles; they are not only crowded within, but other expectant

crowds are at the doors and windows, listening _à gorge déployée_

to certain orators who from chairs or tables harangue each his

little audience; the eagerness with which they are heard, and the

thunder of applause they receive for every sentiment of more than

common hardiness or violence against the government, cannot easily

be imagined.

The Palais Royal teemed with excited Frenchmen on the fateful Sunday of

July 12, 1789. The moment was a tense one, when, coming out of the Café

Foy, Camille Desmoulins, a youthful journalist, mounted a table and

began the harangue that precipitated the first overt act of the French

Revolution. Blazing with a white hot frenzy, he so played upon the

passions of the mob that at the conclusion of his speech he and his

followers "marched away from the Café on their errand of Revolution."

The Bastille fell two days later.

As if abashed by its reputation as the starting point of the mob spirit

of the Revolution, Café Foy became in after years a sedate

gathering-place of artists and literati. Up to its close it was

distinguished among other famous Parisian cafés for its exclusiveness

and strictly enforced rule of "no smoking."

Even from the first the Parisian cafés catered to all classes of

society; and, unlike the London coffee houses, they retained this

distinctive characteristic. A number of them early added other liquid

and substantial refreshments, many becoming out-and-out restaurants.

_Coffee-House Customs and Patrons_

Coffee's effect on Parisians is thus described by a writer of the latter

part of the eighteenth century:

I think I may safely assert that it is to the establishment of so

many cafés in Paris that is due the urbanity and mildness

discernible upon most faces. Before they existed, nearly everybody

passed his time at the cabarét, where even business matters were

discussed. Since their establishment, people assemble to hear what

is going on, drinking and playing only in moderation, and the

consequence is that they are more civil and polite, at least in

appearance.

Montesquieu's satirical pen pictured in his _Persian Letters_ the

earliest cafés as follows:

In some of these houses they talk news; in others, they play

draughts. There is one where they prepare the coffee in such a

manner that it inspires the drinkers of it with wit; at least, of

all those who frequent it, there is not one person in four who does

not think he has more wit after he has entered that house. But what

offends me in these wits is that they do not make themselves useful

to their country.

Montesquieu encountered a geometrician outside a coffee house on the

Pont Neuf, and accompanied him inside. He describes the incident in this

manner:

I observe that our geometrician was received there with the utmost

officiousness, and that the coffee house boys paid him much more

respect than two musqueteers who were in a corner of the room. As

for him, he seemed as if he thought himself in an agreeable place;

for he unwrinkled his brows a little and laughed, as if he had not

the least tincture of geometrician in him.... He was offended at

every start of wit, as a tender eye is by too strong a light.... At

last I saw an old man enter, pale and thin, whom I knew to be a

coffee house politician before he sat down; he was not one of those

who are never to be intimidated by disasters, but always prophesy

of victories and success; he was one of those timorous wretches who

are always boding ill.

Café Momus and Café Rotonde figure conspicuously in the record of French

bohemianism. The Momus stood near the right bank of the River Seine in

rue des Prêtres St.-Germain, and was known as the home of the bohemians.

The Rotonde stood on the left bank at the corner of the rue de l'École

de Médecine and the rue Hautefeuille.

[Illustration: THE CAFÉ DE PARIS IN 1843

From an engraving by Bosredon]

Alexandre Schanne has given us a glimpse of bohemian life in the early

cafés. He lays his scene in the Café Rotonde, and tells how a number of

poor students were wont to make one cup of coffee last the coterie a

full evening by using it to flavor and to color the one glass of water

shared in common. He says:

Every evening, the first comer at the waiter's inquiry, "What will

you take, sir?" never failed to reply, "Nothing just at present, I

am waiting for a friend." The friend arrived, to be assailed by the

brutal question, "Have you any money?" He would make a despairing

gesture in the negative, and then add, loud enough to be heard by

the _dame du comptoir_, "By Jove, no; only fancy, I left my purse

on my console-table, with gilt feet, in the purest Louis XV style.

Ah! what a thing it is to be forgetful." He would sit down, and the

waiter would wipe the table as if he had something to do. A third

would come, who was sometimes able to reply, "Yes. I have ten

sous." "Good!" we would reply; "order a cup of coffee, a glass and

a water bottle; pay and give two sous to the waiter to secure his

silence." This would be done. Others would come and take their

places beside us, repeating to the waiter the same chorus, "We are

with this gentleman." Frequently we would be eight or nine sitting

at the same table, and only one customer. Whilst smoking and

reading the papers we would, however, pass the glass and bottle.

When the water began to run short, as on a ship in distress, one of

us would have the impudence to call out, "Waiter, some water!" The

master of the establishment, who understood our situation, had no

doubt given orders for us to be left alone, and made his fortune

without our help. He was a good fellow and an intelligent one,

having subscribed to all the scientific journals of Europe, which

brought him the custom of foreign students.

Another café perpetuating the best traditions of the Latin Quarter was

the Vachette, which survived until the death of Jean Moréas in 1911. The

Vachette is usually cited by antiquarians as a model of circumspection

as compared with the scores of cafés in the Quarter that were given up

to debaucheries. One writer puts it: "The Vachette traditions leaned

more to scholarship than sensuality."

In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries the Parisian café

was truly a coffee house; but as many of the patrons began to while away

most of their waking hours in them, the proprietors added other

beverages and food to hold their patronage. Consequently, we find listed

among the cafés of Paris some houses that are more accurately described

as restaurants, although they may have started their careers as coffee

houses.

_Historic Parisian Cafés_

Some of the historic cafés are still thriving in their original

locations, although the majority have now passed into oblivion. Glimpses

of the more famous houses are to be found in the novels, poetry, and

essays written by the French literati who patronized them. These

first-hand accounts give insights that are sometimes stirring, often

amusing, and frequently revolting--such as the assassination of

St.-Fargean in Février's low-vaulted cellar café in the Palais Royal.

There is Magny's, originally the haunt of such literary men as Gautier,

Taine, Saint-Victor, Turguenieff, de Goncourt, Soulie, Renan, Edmond. In

recent years the old Magny's was razed, and on its site was built the

modern restaurant of the same name, but in a style that has no

resemblance to its predecessor. Even the name of the street has been

changed, from rue Contrescarpe to the rue Mazet.

Méot's, the Véry, Beauvilliers', Massé's, the Café Chartres, the Troi

Fréres Provençaux, and the du Grand Commun, all situated in the Palais

Royal, are cafés that figured conspicuously in the French Revolution,

and are closely identified with the French stage and literature. Méot's

and Massé's were the trysting places of the Royalists in the days

preceding the outbreak, but welcomed the Revolutionists after they came

in power. The Chartres was notorious as the gathering place of young

aristocrats who escaped the guillotine, and, thus made bold, often

called their like from adjoining cafés to partake in some of their plans

for restoration of the empire. The Trois Fréres Provençaux, well known

for its excellent and costly dinners, is mentioned by Balzac, Lord

Lytton, and Alfred de Musset in some of their novels. The Café du Grand

Commun appears in Rousseau's _Confessions_ in connection with the play

_Devin du Village_.

Among the most famous of the cafés on the Rue St. Honoré were Venua's,

patronized by Robespierre and his companions of the Revolution, and

perhaps the scene of the inhuman murder of Berthier and its revolting

aftermath; the Mapinot, which has gone down in café history as the scene

of the banquet to Archibald Alison, the 22-year-old historian; and

Voisin's café, around which still cling traditions of such literary

lights as Zola, Alphonse Daudet, and Jules de Goncourt.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A TYPICAL PARISIAN CAFÉ OF THE EARLY

NINETEENTH CENTURY]

Perhaps the boulevard des Italiens had, and still has, more fashionable

cafés than any other section of the French capital. The Tortoni, opened

in the early days of the Empire by Velloni, an Italian lemonade vender,

was the most popular of the boulevard cafés, and was generally thronged

with fashionables from all parts of Europe. Here Louis Blanc, historian

of the Revolution, spent many hours in the early days of his fame.

Talleyrand; Rossini, the musician; Alfred Stevens and Edouard Manet,

artists, are some of the names still linked with the traditions of the

Tortoni. Farther down the boulevard were the Café Riche, Maison Dorée,

Café Anglais, and the Café de Paris. The Riche and the Dorée, standing

side by side, were both high-priced and noted for their revelries. The

Anglais, which came into existence after the snuffing out of the Empire,

was also distinguished for its high prices, but in return gave an

excellent dinner and fine wines. It is told that even during the siege

of Paris the Anglais offered its patrons "such luxuries as ass, mule,

peas, fried potatoes, and champagne."

Probably the Café de Paris, which came into existence in 1822, in the

former home of the Russian Prince Demidoff, was the most richly equipped

and elegantly conducted of any café in Paris in the nineteenth century.

Alfred de Musset, a frequenter, said, "you could not open its doors for

less than 15 francs."

The Café Littéraire, opened on boulevard Bonne Nouvelle late in the

nineteenth century, made a direct appeal to literary men for patronage,

printing this footnote on its menu: "Every customer spending a franc in

this establishment is entitled to one volume of any work to be selected

from our vast collection."

The names of Parisian cafés once more or less famous are legion. Some of

them are:

The Café Laurent, which Rousseau was forced to leave after writing an

especially bitter satire; the English café in which eccentric Lord

Wharton made merry with the Whig habitués; the Dutch café, the haunt of

Jacobites; Terre's, in the rue Neuve des Petits Champs, which Thackeray

described in _The Ballad of Bouillabaisse_; Maire's, in the boulevard

St.-Denis, which dates back beyond 1850; the Café Madrid, in the

boulevard Montmartre, of which Carjat, the Spanish lyric poet, was an

attraction; the Café de la Paix, in the boulevard des Capucines, the

resort of Second Empire Imperialists and their spies; the Café Durand,

in the place de la Madeleine, which started on a plane with the

high-priced Riche, and ended its career early in the twentieth century;

the Rocher de Cancale, memorable for its feasts and high-living patrons

from all over Europe; the Café Guerbois, near the rue de St. Petersburg,

where Manet, the impressionist, after many vicissitudes, won fame for

his paintings and held court for many years; the Chat Noir, on the rue

Victor Massé at Montmartre, a blend of café and concert hall, which has

since been imitated widely, both in name and feature.

[Illustration: CHESS HAS BEEN A FAVORITE PASTIME AT THE CAFÉ DE LA

RÉGENCE FOR TWO HUNDRED YEARS.]

CHAPTER XII

INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO NORTH AMERICA

_Captain John Smith, founder of the Colony of Virginia, is the

first to bring to North America a knowledge of coffee in 1607--The

coffee grinder on the Mayflower--Coffee drinking in 1668--William

Penn's coffee purchase in 1683--Coffee in colonial New England--The

psychology of the Boston "tea party," and why the United States

became a nation of coffee drinkers instead of tea drinkers, like

England--The first coffee license to Dorothy Jones in 1670--The

first coffee house in New England--Notable coffee houses of old

Boston--A skyscraper coffee house_

Undoubtedly the first to bring a knowledge of coffee to North America

was Captain John Smith, who founded the Colony of Virginia at Jamestown

in 1607. Captain Smith became familiar with coffee in his travels in

Turkey.

Although the Dutch also had early knowledge of coffee, it does not

appear that the Dutch West India Company brought any of it to the first

permanent settlement on Manhattan Island (1624). Nor is there any record

of coffee in the cargo of the Mayflower (1620), although it included a

wooden mortar and pestle, later used to make "coffee powder."

In the period when New York was New Amsterdam, and under Dutch occupancy

(1624-64), it is possible that coffee may have been imported from

Holland, where it was being sold on the Amsterdam market as early as

1640, and where regular supplies of the green bean were being received

from Mocha in 1663; but positive proof is lacking. The Dutch appear to

have brought tea across the Atlantic from Holland before coffee. The

English may have introduced the coffee drink into the New York colony

between 1664 and 1673. The earliest reference to coffee in America is

1668[87], at which time a beverage made from the roasted beans, and

flavored with sugar or honey, and cinnamon, was being drunk in New York.

Coffee first appears in the official records of the New England colony

in 1670. In 1683, the year following William Penn's settlement on the

Delaware, we find him buying supplies of coffee in the New York market

and paying for them at the rate of eighteen shillings and nine pence per

pound.[88]

Coffee houses patterned after the English and Continental prototypes

were soon established in all the colonies. Those of New York and

Philadelphia are described in separate chapters. The Boston houses are

described at the end of this chapter.

Norfolk, Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans also had them. Conrad

Leonhard's coffee house at 320 Market Street. St. Louis, was famous for

its coffee and coffee cake, from 1844 to 1905, when it became a bakery

and lunch room, removing in 1919 to Eighth and Pine Streets.

In the pioneer days of the great west, coffee and tea were hard to get;

and, instead of them, teas were often made from garden herbs, spicewood,

sassafras-roots, and other shrubs, taken from the thickets[89]. In

1839, in the city of Chicago, one of the minor taverns was known as the

Lake Street coffee house. It was situated at the corner of Lake and

Wells Streets. A number of hotels, which in the English sense might more

appropriately be called inns, met a demand for modest accommodation[90].

Two coffee houses were listed in the Chicago directories for 1843 and

1845, the Washington coffee house, 83 Lake Street; and the Exchange

coffee house, Clarke Street between La Salle and South Water Streets.

[Illustration: TYPES OF COLONIAL COFFEE ROASTERS

The cylinder at the top of the picture was revolved by hand in the

fireplace; the skillets were set in the smouldering ashes]

The old-time coffee houses of New Orleans were situated within the

original area of the city, the section bounded by the river, Canal

Street, Esplanade Avenue and Rampart Street. In the early days most of

the big business of the city was transacted in the coffee houses. The

_brûleau_, coffee with orange juice, orange peel, and sugar, with cognac

burned and mixed in it, originated in the New Orleans coffee house, and

led to its gradual evolution into the saloon.

_How the United States Became a Nation of Coffee Drinkers_

Coffee, tea, and chocolate were introduced into North America almost

simultaneously in the latter part of the seventeenth century. In the

first half of the eighteenth century, tea had made such progress in

England, thanks to the propaganda of the British East India Company,

that, being moved to extend its use in the colonies, the directors

turned their eyes first in the direction of North America. Here,

however, King George spoiled their well-laid plans by his unfortunate

stamp act of 1765, which caused the colonists to raise the cry of "no

taxation without representation."

Although the act was repealed in 1766, the right to tax was asserted,

and in 1767 was again used, duties being laid on paints, oils, lead,

glass, and tea. Once more the colonists resisted; and, by refusing to

import any goods of English make, so distressed the English

manufacturers that Parliament repealed every tax save that on tea.

Despite the growing fondness for the beverage in America, the colonists

preferred to get their tea elsewhere to sacrificing their principles and

buying it from England. A brisk trade in smuggling tea from Holland was

started.

In a panic at the loss of the most promising of its colonial markets,

the British East India Company appealed to Parliament for aid, and was

permitted to export tea, a privilege it had never before enjoyed.

Cargoes were sent on consignment to selected commissioners in Boston,

New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. The story of the subsequent

happenings properly belongs in a book on tea. It is sufficient here to

refer to the climax of the agitation against the fateful tea tax,

because it is undoubtedly responsible for our becoming a nation of

coffee drinkers instead of one of tea drinkers, like England.

[Illustration: AN EARLY FAMILY COFFEE ROASTER

This machine, known in Holland as a "Coffee Burner," was used late in

the 18th century in New England. It hung in the fireplace or stood in

the embers]

The Boston "tea party" of 1773, when citizens of Boston, disguised as

Indians, boarded the English ships lying in Boston harbor and threw

their tea cargoes into the bay, cast the die for coffee; for there and

then originated a subtle prejudice against "the cup that cheers", which

one hundred and fifty years have failed entirely to overcome. Meanwhile,

the change wrought in our social customs by this act, and those of like

nature following it, in the New York, Pennsylvania, and Charleston

colonies, caused coffee to be crowned "king of the American breakfast

table", and the sovereign drink of the American people.

[Illustration: HISTORICAL RELICS ASSOCIATED WITH THE EARLY DAYS OF

COFFEE IN NEW ENGLAND

These exhibits are in the Museum of the Maine Historical Society at

Portland. On the left is Kenrick's Patent coffee mill. In the center is

a Britannia urn with an iron bar for heating the liquid. The bar was

encased in a tin receptacle that hung inside the cover. On the right is

a wall type of coffee or spice grinder]

_Coffee in Colonial New England_

The history of coffee in colonial New England is so closely interwoven

with the story of the inns and taverns that it is difficult to

distinguish the genuine coffee house, as it was known in England, from

the public house where lodgings and liquors were to be had. The coffee

drink had strong competition from the heady wines, the liquors, and

imported teas, and consequently it did not attain the vogue among the

colonial New Englanders that it did among Londoners of the late

seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

Although New England had its coffee houses, these were actually taverns

where coffee was only one of the beverages served to patrons. "They

were", says Robinson, "generally meeting places of those who were

conservative in their views regarding church and state, being friends of

the ruling administration. Such persons were terms 'Courtiers' by their

adversaries, the Dissenters and Republicans."

Most of the coffee houses were established in Boston, the metropolis of

the Massachusetts Colony, and the social center of New England. While

Plymouth, Salem, Chelsea, and Providence had taverns that served coffee,

they did not achieve the name and fame of some of the more celebrated

coffee houses in Boston.

It is not definitely known when the first coffee was brought in; but it

is reasonable to suppose that it came as part of the household supplies

of some settler (probably between 1660 and 1670), who had become

acquainted with it before leaving England. Or it may have been

introduced by some British officer, who in London had made the rounds of

the more celebrated coffee houses of the latter half of the seventeenth

century.

_The First Coffee License_

According to early town records of Boston, Dorothy Jones was the first

to be licensed to sell "coffee and cuchaletto," the latter being the

seventeenth-century spelling for chocolate or cocoa. This license is

dated 1670, and is said to be the first written reference to coffee in

the Massachusetts Colony. It is not stated whether Dorothy Jones was a

vender of the coffee drink or of "coffee powder," as ground coffee was

known in the early days.

[Illustration: THE MAYFLOWER "COFFEE GRINDER"

Mortar and pestle for "braying" coffee to make coffee powder, brought

over in the Mayflower by the parents of Peregrine White]

There is some question as to whether Dorothy Jones was the first to sell

coffee as a beverage in Boston. Londoners had known and drunk coffee for

eighteen years before Dorothy Jones got her coffee license. British

government officials were frequently taking ship from London to the

Massachusetts Colony, and it is likely that they brought tidings and

samples of the coffee the English gentry had lately taken up. No doubt

they also told about the new-style coffee houses that were becoming

popular in all parts of London. And it may be assumed that their tales

caused the landlords of the inns and taverns of colonial Boston to add

coffee to their lists of beverages.

_New England's First Coffee House_

The name coffee house did not come into use in New England until late in

the seventeenth century. Early colonial records do not make it clear

whether the London coffee house or the Gutteridge coffee house was the

first to be opened in Boston with that distinctive title. In all

likelihood the London is entitled to the honor, for Samuel Gardner Drake

in his _History and Antiquities of the City of Boston_, published in

1854, says that "Benj. Harris sold books there in 1689." Drake seems to

be the only historian of early Boston to mention the London coffee

house.

Granting that the London coffee house was the first in Boston, then the

Gutteridge coffee house was the second. The latter stood on the north

side of State Street, between Exchange and Washington Streets, and was

named after Robert Gutteridge, who took out an innkeeper's license in

1691. Twenty-seven years later, his widow, Mary Gutteridge, petitioned

the town for a renewal of her late husband's permit to keep a public

coffee house.

The British coffee house, which became the American coffee house when

the crown officers and all things British became obnoxious to the

colonists, also began its career about the time Gutteridge took out his

license. It stood on the site that is now 66 State Street, and became

one of the most widely known coffee houses in colonial New England.

Of course, there were several inns and taverns in existence in Boston

long before coffee and coffee houses came to the New England metropolis.

Some of these taverns took up coffee when it became fashionable in the

colony, and served it to those patrons who did not care for the stronger

drinks.

[Illustration: THE CROWN COFFEE HOUSE, BOSTON

One of the first in New England to bear the distinctive name of coffee

house; opened in 1711 and burned down in 1780]

The earliest known inn was set up by Samuel Cole in Washington Street,

midway between Faneuil Hall and State Street. Cole was licensed as a

"comfit maker" in 1634, four years after the founding of Boston; and two

years later, his inn was the temporary abiding place of the Indian

chief Miantonomoh and his red warriors, who came to visit Governor Vane.

In the following year, the Earl of Marlborough found that Cole's inn was

so "exceedingly well governed," and afforded so desirable privacy, that

he refused the hospitality of Governor Winthrop at the governor's

mansion.

[Illustration: COFFEE MAKING AND SERVING DEVICES USED IN THE

MASSACHUSETTS COLONY

These exhibits are in the Museum of the Essex Institute at Salem, Mass.

Top row, left and right, Britannia serving pots; center, Britannia table

urn; bottom row, left end, tin coffee making pot; center, Britannia

serving pots; right end, tin French drip pot]

Another popular inn of the day was the Red Lyon, which was opened in

1637 by Nicholas Upshall, the Quaker, who later was hanged for trying to

bribe a jailer to pass some food into the jail to two Quakeresses who

were starving within.

Ship tavern, erected in 1650, at the corner of North and Clark Streets,

then on the waterfront, was a haunt of British government officials. The

father of Governor Hutchinson was the first landlord, to be succeeded in

1663 by John Vyal. Here lived the four commissioners who were sent to

these shores by King Charles II to settle the disputes then beginning

between the colonies and England.

Another lodging and eating place for the gentlemen of quality in the

first days of Boston was the Blue Anchor, in Cornhill, which was

conducted in 1664 by Robert Turner. Here gathered members of the

government, visiting officials, jurists, and the clergy, summoned into

synod by the Massachusetts General Court. It is assumed that the clergy

confined their drinking to coffee and other moderate beverages, leaving

the wines and liquors to their confrères.

_Some Notable Boston Coffee Houses_

In the last quarter of the seventeenth century quite a number of taverns

and inns sprang up. Among the most notable that have obtained

recognition in Boston's historical records were the King's Head, at the

corner of Fleet and North Streets; the Indian Queen, on a passageway

leading from Washington Street to Hawley Street; the Sun, in Faneuil

Hall Square, and the Green Dragon, which became one of the most

celebrated coffee-house taverns.

The King's Head, opened in 1691, early became a rendezvous of crown

officers and the citizens in the higher strata of colonial society.

The Indian Queen also became a favorite resort of the crown officers

from Province House. Started by Nathaniel Bishop about 1673, it stood

for more than 145 years as the Indian Queen, and then was replaced by

the Washington coffee house, which became noted throughout New England

as the starting place for the Roxbury "hourlies," the stage coaches that

ran every hour from Boston to nearby Roxbury.

[Illustration: COFFEE DEVICES THAT FIGURED IN THE PIONEERING OF THE

GREAT WEST

Photographed for this work in the Museum of the State Historical Society

of Wisconsin. Left to right, English decorated tin pot; coffee and spice

mill from Lexington, Mass.; Globe roaster built by Rays & Wilcox Co.,

Berlin, Conn., under Wood's patent; sheet brass coffee mill from

Lexington, Mass.; John Luther's coffee mill, Warren, R.I.; cast-iron

hopper mill]

The Sun tavern lived a longer life than any other Boston inn. Started in

1690 in Faneuil Hall Square, it was still standing in 1902, according to

Henry R. Blaney; but has since been razed to make way for a modern

skyscraper.

[Illustration: METAL AND CHINA COFFEE POTS USED IN NEW ENGLAND'S

COLONIAL DAYS

From the collection in the Museum of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial

Association, Deerfield, Mass.]

_New England's Most Famous Coffee House_

The Green Dragon, the last of the inns that were popular at the close of

the seventeenth century, was the most celebrated of Boston's

coffee-house taverns. It stood on Union Street, in the heart of the

town's business center, for 135 years, from 1697 to 1832, and figured in

practically all the important local and national events during its long

career. Red-coated British soldiers, colonial governors, bewigged crown

officers, earls and dukes, citizens of high estate, plotting

revolutionists of lesser degree, conspirators in the Boston Tea Party,

patriots and generals of the Revolution--all these were wont to gather

at the Green Dragon to discuss their various interests over their cups

of coffee, and stronger drinks. In the words of Daniel Webster, this

famous coffee-house tavern was the "headquarters of the Revolution." It

was here that Warren, John Adams, James Otis, and Paul Revere met as a

"ways and means committee" to secure freedom for the American colonies.

Here, too, came members of the Grand Lodge of Masons to hold their

meetings under the guidance of Warren, who was the first grand master of

the first Masonic lodge in Boston. The site of the old tavern, now

occupied by a business block, is still the property of the St. Andrew's

Lodge of Free Masons. The old tavern was a two-storied brick structure

with a sharply pitched roof. Over its entrance hung a sign bearing the

figure of a green dragon.

[Illustration: THE GREEN DRAGON, THE CENTER OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE

IN BOSTON FOR 135 YEARS

This tavern figured in practically all the important national affairs

from 1697 to 1832, and, according to Daniel Webster, was the

"headquarters of the Revolution"]

Patrons of the Green Dragon and the British coffee house were decidedly

opposed in their views on the questions of the day. While the Green

Dragon was the gathering place of the patriotic colonials, the British

was the rendezvous of the loyalists, and frequent were the encounters

between the patrons of these two celebrated taverns. It was in the

British coffee house that James Otis was so badly pummeled, after being

lured there by political enemies, that he never regained his former

brilliancy as an orator.

It was there, in 1750, that some British red coats staged the first

theatrical entertainment given in Boston, playing Otway's _Orphan_.

There, the first organization of citizens to take the name of a club

formed the Merchants' Club in 1751. The membership included officers of

the king, colonial governors and lesser officials, military and naval

leaders, and members of the bar, with a sprinkling of high-ranking

citizens who were staunch friends of the crown. However, the British

became so generally disliked that as soon as the king's troops evacuated

Boston in the Revolution, the name of the coffee house was changed to

the American.

The Bunch of Grapes, that Francis Holmes presided over as early as 1712,

was another hot-bed of politicians. Like the Green Dragon over the way,

its patrons included unconditional freedom seekers, many coming from the

British coffee house when things became too hot for them in that Tory

atmosphere. The Bunch of Grapes became the center of a stirring

celebration in 1776, when a delegate from Philadelphia read the

Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the inn to the crowd

assembled in the street below. So enthusiastic did the Bostonians become

that, in the excitement that followed, the inn was nearly destroyed when

one enthusiast built a bonfire too close to its walls. Another anecdote

told of the Bunch of Grapes concerns Sir William Phipps, governor of

Massachusetts from 1692-94, who was noted for his irascibility. He had

his favorite chair and window in the inn, and in the accounts of the

period it is written that on any fine afternoon his glowering

countenance could be seen at the window by the passers-by on State

Street.

After the beginning of the eighteenth century the title of coffee house

was applied to a number of hostelries opened in Boston. One of these was

the Crown, which was opened in the "first house on Long Wharf" in 1711

by Jonathan Belcher, who later became governor of Massachusetts, and

still later of New Jersey. The first landlord of the Crown was Thomas

Selby, who by trade was a periwig maker, but probably found the selling

of strong drink and coffee more profitable. Selby's coffee house was

also used as an auction room. The Crown stood until 1780, when it was

destroyed in a fire that swept the Long Wharf. On its site now stands

the Fidelity Trust Company at 148 State Street.

Another early Boston coffee house on State Street was the Royal

Exchange. How long it had been standing before it was first mentioned in

colonial records in 1711 is unknown. It occupied an ancient two-story

building, and was kept in 1711 by Benjamin Johns. This coffee house

became the starting place for stage coaches running between Boston and

New York, the first one leaving September 7, 1772. In the _Columbian

Centinel_ of January 1, 1800, appeared an advertisement in which it was

said: "New York and Providence Mail Stage leaves Major Hatches' Royal

Exchange Coffee House in State Street every morning at 8 o'clock."

In the latter half of the eighteenth century the North-End coffee house

was celebrated as the highest-class coffee house in Boston. It occupied

the three-storied brick mansion which had been built about 1740 by

Edward Hutchinson, brother of the noted governor. It stood on the west

side of North Street, between Sun Court and Fleet Street, and was one of

the most pretentious of its kind. An eighteenth century writer, in

describing this coffee-house mansion, made much of the fact that it had

forty-five windows and was valued at $4,500, a large sum for those days.

During the Revolution, Captain David Porter, father of Admiral David D.

Porter, was the landlord, and under him it became celebrated throughout

the city as a high-grade eating place. The advertisements of the

North-End coffee house featured its "dinners and suppers--small and

retired rooms for small company--oyster suppers in the nicest manner."

[Illustration: METAL COFFEE POTS USED IN THE NEW YORK COLONY

Left, tin coffee pot, dark brown, with "love apple" decoration in red,

New Jersey Historical Society, Newark; right, weighted bottom tin pot

with rose decoration, private owner]

_A "Skyscraper" Coffee House_

The Boston coffee-house period reached its height in 1808, when the

doors of the Exchange coffee house were thrown open after three years of

building. This structure, situated on Congress Street near State

Street, was the skyscraper of its day, and probably was the most

ambitious coffee-house project the world has known. Built of stone,

marble, and brick, it stood seven stories high, and cost a half-million

dollars. Charles Bulfinch, America's most noted architect of that

period, was the designer.

[Illustration: EXCHANGE COFFEE HOUSE, BOSTON, 1808, PROBABLY THE LARGEST

AND MOST COSTLY IN THE WORLD

Built of stone, marble and brick, it stood seven stories high and cost

$500,000. It was patterned after Lloyd's of London, and was the center

of marine intelligence in Boston]

Like Lloyd's coffee house in London, the Exchange was the center of

marine intelligence, and its public rooms were thronged all day and

evening with mariners, naval officers, ship and insurance brokers, who

had come to talk shop or to consult the records of ship arrivals and

departures, manifests, charters, and other marine papers. The first

floor of the Exchange was devoted to trading. On the next floor was the

large dining room, where many sumptuous banquets were given, notably the

one to President Monroe in July, 1817, which was attended by former

President John Adams, and by many generals, commodores, governors, and

judges. The other floors were given over to living and sleeping rooms,

of which there were more than 200. The Exchange coffee house was

destroyed by fire in 1818; and on its site was erected another, bearing

the same name, but having slight resemblance to its predecessor.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: PRESIDENT-ELECT WASHINGTON WELCOMED AT THE MERCHANTS

COFFEE HOUSE, NEW YORK

The reception took place April 23, 1789, one week before his

inauguration. From a painting by Charles P. Gruppe, owned by the author]

CHAPTER XIII

HISTORY OF COFFEE IN OLD NEW YORK

_The burghers of New Amsterdam begin to substitute coffee for

"must," or beer, at breakfast in 1668--William Penn makes his first

purchase of coffee in the green bean from New York merchants in

1683--The King's Arms, the first coffee house--The historic

Merchants, sometimes called the "Birthplace of our Union"--The

coffee house as a civic forum--The Exchange, Whitehall, Burns,

Tontine, and other celebrated coffee houses--The Vauxhall and

Ranelagh pleasure gardens_

The Dutch founders of New York seem to have introduced tea into New

Amsterdam before they brought in coffee. This was somewhere about the

middle of the seventeenth century. We find it recorded that about 1668

the burghers succumbed to coffee[91]. Coffee made its way slowly, first

in the homes, where it replaced the "must", or beer, at breakfast.

Chocolate came about the same time, but was more of a luxury than tea or

coffee.

After the surrender of New York to the British in 1674, English manners

and customs were rapidly introduced. First tea, and later coffee, were

favorite beverages in the homes. By 1683 New York had become so central

a market for the green bean, that William Penn, as soon as he found

himself comfortably settled in the Pennsylvania Colony, sent over to New

York for his coffee supplies[92]. It was not long before a social need

arose that only the London style of coffee house could fill.

The coffee houses of early New York, like their prototypes in London,

Paris, and other old world capitals, were the centers of the business,

political and, to some extent, of the social life of the city. But they

never became the forcing-beds of literature that the French and English

houses were, principally because the colonists had no professional

writers of note.

There is one outstanding feature of the early American coffee houses,

particularly of those opened in New York, that is not distinctive of the

European houses. The colonists sometimes held court trials in the long,

or assembly, room of the early coffee houses; and often held their

general assembly and council meetings there.

_The Coffee House as a Civic Forum_

The early coffee house was an important factor in New York life. What

the perpetuation of this public gathering place meant to the citizens is

shown by a complaint (evidently designed to revive the declining

fortunes of the historic Merchants coffee house) in the _New York

Journal_ of October 19, 1775, which, in part, said:

To the Inhabitants of New York:

It gives me concern, in this time of public difficulty and danger,

to find we have in this city no place of daily general meeting,

where we might hear and communicate intelligence from every quarter

and freely confer with one another on every matter that concerns

us. Such a place of general meeting is of very great advantage in

many respects, especially at such a time as this, besides the

satisfaction it affords and the sociable disposition it has a

tendency to keep up among us, which was never more wanted than at

this time. To answer all these and many other good and useful

purposes, coffee houses have been universally deemed the most

convenient places of resort, because, at a small expense of time or

money, persons wanted may be found and spoke with, appointments may

be made, current news heard, and whatever it most concerns us to

know. In all cities, therefore, and large towns that I have seen in

the British dominions, sufficient encouragement has been given to

support one or more coffee houses in a genteel manner. How comes it

then that New York, the most central, and one of the largest and

most prosperous cities in British America, cannot support one

coffee house? It is a scandal to the city and its inhabitants to be

destitute of such a convenience for want of due encouragement. A

coffee house, indeed, there is, a very good and comfortable one,

extremely well tended and accommodated, but it is frequented but by

an inconsiderable number of people; and I have observed with

surprise, that but a small part of those who do frequent it,

contribute anything at all to the expense of it, but come in and go

out without calling for or paying anything to the house. In all the

coffee houses in London, it is customary for every one that comes

in to call for at least a dish of coffee, or leave the value of

one, which is but reasonable, because when the keepers of these

houses have been at the expense of setting them up and providing

all necessaries for the accommodation of company, every one that

comes to receive the benefit of these conveniences ought to

contribute something towards the expense of them.

A FRIEND TO THE CITY.

_New York's First Coffee House_

Some chroniclers of New York's early days are confident that the first

coffee house in America was opened in New York; but the earliest

authenticated record they have presented is that on November 1, 1696,

John Hutchins bought a lot on Broadway, between Trinity churchyard and

what is now Cedar Street, and there built a house, naming it the King's

Arms. Against this record, Boston can present the statement in Samuel

Gardner Drake's _History and Antiquities of the City of Boston_ that

Benj. Harris sold books at the "London Coffee House" in 1689.

[Illustration: NEW YORK'S PIONEER COFFEE HOUSE, THE KING'S ARMS, OPENED

IN 1696

This view shows the garden side of the historic old house as it was

conducted by John Hutchins, near Trinity Church, on Broadway. The

observatory may have been added later]

The King's Arms was built of wood, and had a front of yellow brick, said

to have been brought from Holland. The building was two stories high,

and on the roof was an "observatory," arranged with seats, and

commanding a fine view of the bay, the river, and the city. Here the

coffee-house visitors frequently sat in the afternoons. It is not shown

in the illustration.

[Illustration: BURNS COFFEE HOUSE AS IT APPEARED ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE

NINETEENTH CENTURY

It stood for many years on Broadway, opposite Bowling Green, in the old

De Lancey House, becoming known in 1763 as the King's Arms, and later

the Atlantic Garden House]

The sides of the main room on the lower floor were lined with booths,

which, for the sake of greater privacy, were screened with green

curtains. There a patron could sip his coffee, or a more stimulating

drink, and look over his mail in the same exclusiveness affected by the

Londoner of the time.

The rooms on the second floor were used for special meetings of

merchants, colonial magistrates and overseers, or similar public and

private business.

The meeting room, as above described, seems to have been one of the

chief features distinguishing a coffee house from a tavern. Although

both types of houses had rooms for guests, and served meals, the coffee

house was used for business purposes by permanent customers, while the

tavern was patronized more by transients. Men met at the coffee house

daily to carry on business, and went to the tavern for convivial

purposes or lodgings. Before the front door hung the sign of "the lion

and the unicorn fighting for the crown."

For many years the King's Arms was the only coffee house in the city; or

at least no other seems of sufficient importance to have been mentioned

in colonial records. For this reason it was more frequently designated

as "the" coffee house than the King's Arms. Contemporary records of the

arrest of John Hutchins of the King's Arms, and of Roger Baker, for

speaking disrespectfully of King George, mention the King's Head, of

which Baker was proprietor. But it is generally believed that this

public house was a tavern and not rightfully to be considered as a

coffee house. The White Lion, mentioned about 1700, was also a tavern,

or inn.

_The New Coffee House_

Under date of September 22, 1709, the _Journal of the General Assembly

of the Colony of New York_ refers to a conference held in the "New

Coffee House." About this date the business section of the city had

begun to drift eastward from Broadway to the waterfront; and from this

fact it is assumed that the name "New Coffee House" indicates that the

King's Arms had been removed from its original location near Cedar

Street, or that it may have lost favor and have been superseded in

popularity by a newer coffee house. The _Journal_ does not give the

location of the "New" coffee house. Whatever the case may be, the name

of the King's Arms does not again appear in the records until 1763, and

then it had more the character of a tavern, or roadhouse.

The public records from 1709 up to 1729 are silent in regard to coffee

houses in New York. In 1725 the pioneer newspaper in the city, the _New

York Gazette_, came into existence; and four years later, 1729, there

appeared in it an advertisement stating that "a competent bookkeeper may

be heard of" at the "Coffee House." In 1730 another advertisement in the

same journal tells of a sale of land by public vendue (auction) to be

held at the Exchange coffee house.

_The Exchange Coffee House_

By reason of its name, the Exchange Coffee House is thought to have been

located at the foot of Broad Street, abutting the sea-wall and near the

Long Bridge of that day. At that time this section was the business

center of the city, and here was a trading exchange.

That the Exchange coffee house was the only one of its kind in New York

in 1732 is inferred from the announcement in that year of a meeting of

the conference committee of the Council and Assembly "at the Coffee

House." In seeming confirmation of this conclusion, is the advertisement

in 1733 in the _New York Gazette_ requesting the return of "lost sleeve

buttons to Mr. Todd, next door to the Coffee House." The records of the

day show that a Robert Todd kept the famous Black Horse tavern which was

located in this part of the city.

Again we hear of the Exchange coffee house in 1737, and apparently in

the same location, where it is mentioned in an account of the "Negro

plot" as being next door to the Fighting Cocks tavern by the Long

Bridge, at the foot of Broad Street. Also in this same year it is named

as the place of public vendue of land situated on Broadway.

By this time the Exchange coffee house had virtually become the city's

official auction room, as well as the place to buy and to drink coffee.

Commodities of many kinds were also bought and sold there, both within

the house and on the sidewalk before it.

_The Merchants Coffee House_

In the year 1750, the Exchange coffee house had begun to lose its

long-held prestige, and its name was changed to the Gentlemen's Exchange

coffee house and tavern. A year later it had migrated to Broadway under

the name of the Gentlemens' coffee house and tavern. In 1753 it was

moved again, to Hunter's Quay, which was situated on what is now Front

Street, somewhere between the present Old Slip and Wall Street. The

famous old coffee house seems to have gone out of existence about this

time, its passing hastened, no doubt, by the newer enterprise, the

Merchants coffee house, which was to become the most celebrated in New

York, and, according to some writers, the most historic in America.

It is not certain just when the Merchants coffee house was first opened.

As near as can be determined, Daniel Bloom, a mariner, in 1737 bought

the Jamaica Pilot Boat tavern from John Dunks and named it the Merchants

coffee house. The building was situated on the northwest corner of the

present Wall Street and Water (then Queen) Street; and Bloom was its

landlord until his death, soon after the year 1750. He was succeeded by

Captain James Ackland, who shortly sold it to Luke Roome. The latter

disposed of the building in 1758 to Dr. Charles Arding. The doctor

leased it to Mrs. Mary Ferrari, who continued as its proprietor until

she moved, in 1772, to the newer building diagonally across the street,

built by William Brownejohn, on the southeast corner of Wall and Water

Streets. Mrs. Ferrari took with her the patronage and the name of the

Merchants coffee house, and the old building was not used again as a

coffee house.

The building housing the original Merchants coffee house was a two-story

structure, with a balcony on the roof, which was typical of the middle

eighteenth century architecture in New York. On the first floor were the

coffee bar and booths described in connection with the King's Arms

coffee house. The second floor had the typical long room for public

assembly.

During Bloom's proprietorship the Merchants coffee house had a long,

hard struggle to win the patronage away from the Exchange coffee house,

which was flourishing at that time. But, being located near the Meal

Market, where the merchants were wont to gather for trading purposes, it

gradually became the meeting place of the city, at the expense of the

Exchange coffee house, farther down the waterfront.

[Illustration: MERCHANTS COFFEE HOUSE (AT THE RIGHT) AS IT APPEARED FROM

1772 TO 1804

The original coffee house of this name was opened on the northwest

corner of Wall and Water Streets about 1737, the business being moved to

the southeast corner in 1772]

Widow Ferrari presided over the original Merchants coffee house for

fourteen years, until she moved across the street. She was a keen

business woman. Just before she was ready to open the new coffee house

she announced to her old patrons that she would give a house-warming, at

which arrack, punch, wine, cold ham, tongue, and other delicacies of the

day would be served. The event was duly noted in the newspapers, one

stating that "the agreeable situation and the elegance of the new house

had occasioned a great resort of company to it."

Mrs. Ferrari continued in charge until May 1, 1776, when Cornelius

Bradford became proprietor and sought to build up the patronage, that

had dwindled somewhat during the stirring days immediately preceding the

Revolution. In his announcement of the change of ownership, he said,

"Interesting intelligence will be carefully collected and the greatest

attention will be given to the arrival of vessels, when trade and

navigation shall resume their former channels." He referred to the

complete embargo of trade to Europe which the colonists were enduring.

When the American troops withdrew from the city during the Revolution,

Bradford went also, to Rhinebeck on the Hudson.

During the British occupation, the Merchants coffee house was a place of

great activity. As before, it was the center of trading, and under the

British régime it became also the place where the prize ships were sold.

The Chamber of Commerce resumed its sessions in the upper long room in

1779, having been suspended since 1775. The Chamber paid fifty pounds

rent per annum for the use of the room to Mrs. Smith, the landlady at

the time.

In 1781 John Stachan, then proprietor of the Queen's Head tavern, became

landlord of the Merchants coffee house, and he promised in a public

announcement "to pay attention not only as a Coffee House, but as a

tavern, in the truest; and to distinguish the same as the City Tavern

and Coffee House, with constant and best attendance. Breakfast from

seven to eleven; soups and relishes from eleven to half-past one. Tea,

coffee, etc., in the afternoon, as in England." But when he began

charging sixpence for receiving and dispatching letters by man-o'-war to

England, he brought a storm about his ears, and was forced to give up

the practise. He continued in charge until peace came, and Cornelius

Bradford came with it to resume proprietorship of the coffee house.

Bradford changed the name to the New York coffee house, but the public

continued to call it by its original name, and the landlord soon gave

in. He kept a marine list, giving the names of vessels arriving and

departing, recording their ports of sailing. He also opened a register

of returning citizens, "where any gentleman now resident in the city,"

his advertisement stated, "may insert their names and place of

residence." This seems to have been the first attempt at a city

directory. By his energy Bradford soon made the Merchants coffee house

again the business center of the city. When he died, in 1786, he was

mourned as one of the leading citizens. His funeral was held at the

coffee house over which he had presided so well.

The Merchants coffee house continued to be the principal public

gathering place until it was destroyed by fire in 1804. During its

existence it had figured prominently in many of the local and national

historic events, too numerous to record here in detail.

Some of the famous events were: The reading of the order to the

citizens, in 1765, warning them to stop rioting against the Stamp Act;

the debates on the subject of not accepting consignments of goods from

Great Britain; the demonstration by the Sons of Liberty, sometimes

called the "Liberty Boys," made before Captain Lockyer of the tea ship

Nancy which had been turned away from Boston and sought to land its

cargo in New York in 1774; the general meeting of citizens on May 19,

1774, to discuss a means of communicating with the Massachusetts colony

to obtain co-ordinated effort in resisting England's oppression, out of

which came the letter suggesting a congress of deputies from the

colonies and calling for a "virtuous and spirited Union;" the mass

meeting of citizens in the days immediately following the battles at

Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts; and the forming of the Committee

of One Hundred to administer the public business, making the Merchants

coffee house virtually the seat of government.

When the American Army held the city in 1776, the coffee house became

the resort of army and navy officers. Its culminating glory came on

April 23, 1789, when Washington, the recently elected first president of

the United States, was officially greeted at the coffee house by the

governor of the State, the mayor of the city, and the lesser municipal

officers.

As a meeting place for societies and lodges the Merchants coffee house

was long distinguished. In addition to the purely commercial

organizations that gathered in its long room, these bodies regularly met

there in their early days: The Society of Arts, Agriculture and Economy;

Knights of Corsica; New York Committee of Correspondence; New York

Marine Society; Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York; Lodge 169,

Free and Accepted Masons; Whig Society; Society of the New York

Hospital; St. Andrew's Society; Society of the Cincinnati; Society of

the Sons of St. Patrick; Society for Promoting the Manumission of

Slaves; Society for the Relief of Distressed Debtors; Black Friars

Society; Independent Rangers; and Federal Republicans.

Here also came the men who, in 1784, formed the Bank of New York, the

first financial institution in the city; and here was held, in 1790, the

first public sale of stocks by sworn brokers. Here, too, was held the

organization meeting of subscribers to the Tontine coffee house, which

in a few years was to prove a worthy rival.

_Some Lesser Known Coffee Houses_

Before taking up the story of the famous Tontine coffee house it should

be noted that the Merchants coffee house had some prior measure of

competition. For four years the Exchange coffee room sought to cater to

the wants of the merchants around the foot of Broad Street. It was

located in the Royal Exchange, which had been erected in 1752 in place

of the old Exchange, and until 1754 had been used as a store. Then

William Keen and Alexander Lightfoot got control and started their

coffee room, with a ball room attached. The partnership split up in

1756, Lightfoot continuing operations until he died the next year, when

his widow tried to carry it on. In 1758 it had reverted into its

original character of a mercantile establishment.

[Illustration: THE TONTINE COFFEE HOUSE (SECOND BUILDING AT THE LEFT),

OPENED IN 1792

This is the original structure, northwest corner of Wall and Water

Streets, which was succeeded about 1850 by a five-story building (see

page 122) that in turn was replaced by a modern office building]

Then there was the Whitehall coffee house, which two men, named Rogers

and Humphreys, opened in 1762, with the announcement that "a

correspondence is settled in London and Bristol to remit by every

opportunity all the public prints and pamphlets as soon as published;

and there will be a weekly supply of New York, Boston and other American

newspapers." This enterprise had a short life.

The early records of the city infrequently mention the Burns coffee

house, sometimes calling it a tavern. It is likely that the place was

more an inn than a coffee house. It was kept for a number of years by

George Burns, near the Battery, and was located in the historic old De

Lancey house, which afterward became the City hotel.

Burns remained the proprietor until 1762, when it was taken over by a

Mrs. Steele, who gave it the name of the King's Arms. Edward Barden

became the landlord in 1768. In later years it became known as the

Atlantic Garden house. Traitor Benedict Arnold is said to have lodged in

the old tavern after deserting to the enemy.

The Bank coffee house belonged to a later generation, and had few of the

characteristics of the earlier coffee houses. It was opened in 1814 by

William Niblo, of Niblo's Garden fame, and stood at the corner of

William and Pine Streets, at the rear of the Bank of New York. The

coffee house endured for probably ten years, and became the gathering

place of a coterie of prominent merchants, who formed a sort of club.

The Bank coffee house became celebrated for its dinners and dinner

parties.

Fraunces' tavern, best known as the place where Washington bade farewell

to his army officers, was, as its name states, a tavern, and can not be

properly classed as a coffee house. While coffee was served, and there

was a long room for gatherings, little, if any, business was done there

by merchants. It was largely a meeting place for citizens bent on a

"good time."

Then there was the New England and Quebec coffee house, which was also a

tavern.

[Illustration: THE TONTINE BUILDING OF 1850

Northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets; an omnibus of the

Broadway-Wall-Street Ferry line is passing]

_The Tontine Coffee House_

The last of the celebrated coffee houses of New York bore the name,

Tontine coffee house. For several years after the burning of the

Merchants coffee house, in 1804, it was the only one of note in the

city.

Feeling that they should have a more commodious coffee house for

carrying on their various business enterprises, some 150 merchants

organized, in 1791, the Tontine coffee house. This enterprise was based

on the plan introduced into France in 1653 by Lorenzo Tonti, with slight

variations. According to the New York Tontine plan, each holder's share

reverted automatically to the surviving shareholders in the association,

instead of to his heirs. There were 157 original shareholders, and 203

shares of stock valued at £200 each.

[Illustration: NIBLO'S GARDEN, BROADWAY AND PRINCE STREET, 1828]

The directors bought the house and lot on the northwest corner of Wall

and Water Streets, where the original Merchants coffee house stood,

paying £1,970. They next acquired the adjoining lots on Wall and Water

Streets, paying £2,510 for the former, and £1,000 for the latter.

The cornerstone of the new coffee house was laid June 5, 1792; and a

year later to the day, 120 gentlemen sat down to a banquet in the

completed coffee house to celebrate the event of the year before. John

Hyde was the first landlord. The house had cost $43,000.

[Illustration: COFFEE RELICS OF DUTCH NEW YORK

Spice-grinder boat, coffee roaster, and coffee pots at the Van Cortlandt

Museum]

A contemporary account of how the Tontine coffee house looked in 1794 is

supplied by an Englishman visiting New York at the time:

The Tontine tavern and coffee house is a handsome large brick

building; you ascend six or eight steps under a portico, into a

large public room, which is the Stock Exchange of New York, where

all bargains are made. Here are two books kept, as at Lloyd's [in

London] of every ship's arrival and clearance. This house was built

for the accommodation of the merchants by Tontine shares of two

hundred pounds each. It is kept by Mr. Hyde, formerly a woolen

draper in London. You can lodge and board there at a common table,

and you pay ten shillings currency a day, whether you dine out or

not.

[Illustration: NEW YORK'S VAUXHALL GARDEN OF 1803

From an old print]

The stock market made its headquarters in the Tontine coffee house in

1817, and the early organization was elaborated and became the New York

Stock and Exchange Board. It was removed in 1827 to the Merchants

Exchange Building, where it remained until that place was destroyed by

fire in 1835.

It was stipulated in the original articles of the Tontine Association

that the house was to be kept and used as a coffee house, and this

agreement was adhered to up to the year 1834, when, by permission of the

Court of Chancery, the premises were let for general business-office

purposes. This change was due to the competition offered by the

Merchants Exchange, a short distance up Wall Street, which had been

opened soon after the completion of the Tontine coffee house building.

As the city grew, the business-office quarters of the original Tontine

coffee house became inadequate; and about the year 1850 a new five-story

building, costing some $60,000, succeeded it. By this time the building

had lost its old coffee-house characteristics. This new Tontine

structure is said to have been the first real office building in New

York City. Today the site is occupied by a large modern office building,

which still retains the name of Tontine. It was owned by John B. and

Charles A. O'Donohue, well known New York coffee merchants, until 1920,

when it was sold for $1,000,000 to the Federal Sugar Refining Company.

The Tontine coffee house did not figure so prominently in the historic

events of the nation and city as did its neighbor, the Merchants coffee

house. However, it became the Mecca for visitors from all parts of the

country, who did not consider their sojourn in the city complete until

they had at least inspected what was then one of the most pretentious

buildings in New York. Chroniclers of the Tontine coffee house always

say that most of the leaders of the nation, together with distinguished

visitors from abroad, had foregathered in the large room of the old

coffee house at some time during their careers.

It was on the walls of the Tontine coffee house that bulletins were

posted on Hamilton's struggle for life after the fatal duel forced on

him by Aaron Burr.

The changing of the Tontine coffee house into a purely mercantile

building marked the end of the coffee-house era in New York. Exchanges

and office buildings had come into existence to take the place of the

business features of the coffee houses; clubs were organized to take

care of the social functions; and restaurants and hotels had sprung up

to cater to the needs for beverages and food.

_New York's Pleasure Gardens_

There was a fairly successful attempt made to introduce the London

pleasure-garden idea into New York. First, tea gardens were added to

several of the taverns already provided with ball rooms. Then, on the

outskirts of the city, were opened the Vauxhall and the Ranelagh

gardens, so named after their famous London prototypes. The first

Vauxhall garden (there were three of this name) was on Greenwich Street,

between Warren and Chambers Streets. It fronted on the North River,

affording a beautiful view up the Hudson. Starting as the Bowling Green

garden, it changed to Vauxhall in 1750.

Ranelagh was on Broadway, between Duane and Worth Streets, on the site

where later the New York Hospital was erected. From advertisements of

the period (1765-69) we learn that there were band concerts twice a week

at the Ranelagh. The gardens were "for breakfasting as well as the

evening entertainment of ladies and gentlemen." There was a commodious

hall in the garden for dancing. Ranelagh lasted twenty years. Coffee,

tea, and hot rolls could be had in the pleasure gardens at any hour of

the day. Fireworks were featured at both Ranelagh and Vauxhall gardens.

The second Vauxhall was near the intersection of the present Mulberry

and Grand Streets, in 1798; the third was on Bowery Road, near Astor

Place, in 1803. The Astor library was built upon its site in 1853.

William Niblo, previously proprietor of the Bank coffee house in Pine

Street, opened, in 1828, a pleasure garden, that he named Sans Souci, on

the site of a circus building called the Stadium at Broadway and Prince

Street. In the center of the garden remained the stadium, which was

devoted to theatrical performances of "a gay and attractive character."

Later, he built a more pretentious theater that fronted on Broadway. The

interior of the garden was "spacious, and adorned with shrubbery and

walks, lighted with festoons of lamps." It was generally known as

Niblo's garden.

Among other well known pleasure gardens of old New York were Contoit's,

later the New York garden, and Cherry gardens, on old Cherry Hill.

[Illustration: TAVERN AND GROCERS' SIGNS USED IN OLD NEW YORK

Left, Smith Richards, grocer and confectioner, "at the sign of the tea

canister and two sugar loaves" (1773); center, the King's Arms,

originally Burns coffee house (1767); right, George Webster, Grocer, "at

the sign of the three sugar loaves"]

CHAPTER XIV

COFFEE HOUSES OF OLD PHILADELPHIA

_Ye Coffee House, Philadelphia's first coffee house, opened about

1700--The two London coffee houses--The City tavern, or Merchants

coffee house--How these, and other celebrated resorts, dominated

the social, political, and business life of the Quaker City in the

eighteenth century_

William Penn is generally credited with the introduction of coffee into

the Quaker colony which he founded on the Delaware in 1682. He also

brought to the "city of brotherly love" that other great drink of human

brotherhood, tea. At first (1700), "like tea, coffee was only a drink

for the well-to-do, except in sips."[93] As was the case in the other

English colonies, coffee languished for a time while tea rose in favor,

more especially in the home.

Following the stamp act of 1765, and the tea tax of 1767, the

Pennsylvania Colony joined hands with the others in a general tea

boycott; and coffee received the same impetus as elsewhere in the

colonies that became the thirteen original states.

The coffee houses of early Philadelphia loom large in the history of the

city and the republic. Picturesque in themselves, with their distinctive

colonial architecture, their associations also were romantic. Many a

civic, sociological, and industrial reform came into existence in the

low-ceilinged, sanded-floor main rooms of the city's early coffee

houses.

For many years, Ye coffee house, the two London coffee houses, and the

City tavern (also known as the Merchants coffee house) each in its turn

dominated the official and social life of Philadelphia. The earlier

houses were the regular meeting places of Quaker municipal officers,

ship captains, and merchants who came to transact public and private

business. As the outbreak of the Revolution drew near, fiery colonials,

many in Quaker garb, congregated there to argue against British

oppression of the colonies. After the Revolution, the leading citizens

resorted to the coffee house to dine and sup and to hold their social

functions.

When the city was founded in 1682, coffee cost too much to admit of its

being retailed to the general public at coffee houses. William Penn

wrote in his _Accounts_ that in 1683 coffee in the berry was sometimes

procured in New York at a cost of eighteen shillings nine pence the

pound, equal to about $4.68. He told also that meals were served in the

ordinaries at six pence (equal to twelve cents), to wit: "We have seven

ordinaries for the entertainment of strangers and for workmen that are

not housekeepers, and a good meal is to be had there for six pence

sterling." With green coffee costing $4.68 a pound, making the price of

a cup about seventeen cents, it is not likely that coffee was on the

menus of the ordinaries serving meals at twelve cents each. Ale was the

common meal-time beverage.

There were four classes of public houses--inns, taverns, ordinaries, and

coffee houses. The inn was a modest hotel that supplied lodgings, food,

and drink, the beverages consisting mostly of ale, port, Jamaica rum,

and Madeira wine. The tavern, though accommodating guests with bed and

board, was more of a drinking place than a lodging house. The ordinary

combined the characteristics of a restaurant and a boarding house. The

coffee house was a pretentious tavern, dispensing, in most cases,

intoxicating drinks as well as coffee.

_Philadelphia's First Coffee House_

The first house of public resort opened in Philadelphia bore the name of

the Blue Anchor tavern, and was probably established in 1683 or 1684;

colonial records do not state definitely. As its name indicates, this

was a tavern. The first coffee house came into existence about the year

1700. Watson, in one place in his _Annals_ of the city, says 1700, but

in another 1702. The earlier date is thought to be correct, and is

seemingly substantiated by the co-authors Scharf and Westcott in their

_History_ of the city, in which they say, "The first public house

designated as a coffee house was built in Penn's time [1682-1701] by

Samuel Carpenter, on the east side of Front Street, probably above

Walnut Street. That it was the first of its kind--the only one in fact

for some years--seems to be established beyond doubt. It was always

referred to in old times as 'Ye Coffee House.'"

Carpenter owned also the Globe inn, which was separated from Ye coffee

house by a public stairway running down from Front Street to Water

Street, and, it is supposed, to Carpenter's Wharf. The exact location of

the old house was recently established from the title to the original

patentee, Samuel Carpenter, by a Philadelphia real-estate

title-guarantee company, as being between Walnut and Chestnut Streets,

and occupying six and a half feet of what is now No. 137 South Front

Street and the whole of No. 139.

How long Ye coffee house endured is uncertain. It was last mentioned in

colonial records in a real estate conveyance from Carpenter to Samuel

Finney, dated April 26, 1703. In that document it is described as "That

brick Messuage, or Tenement, called Ye Coffee House, in the possession

of Henry Flower, and situate, lying and being upon or before the bank of

the Delaware River, containing in length about thirty feet and in

breadth about twenty-four."

The Henry Flower mentioned as the proprietor of Philadelphia's first

coffee house, was postmaster of the province for a number of years, and

it is believed that Ye coffee house also did duty as the post-office for

a time. Benjamin Franklin's _Pennsylvania Gazette_, in an issue

published in 1734, has this advertisement:

_All persons who are indebted to Henry Flower, late postmaster of

Pennsylvania, for Postage of Letters or otherwise, are desir'd to

pay the same to him at the old Coffee House in Philadelphia._

Flower's advertisement would indicate that Ye coffee house, then

venerable enough to be designated as old, was still in existence, and

that Flower was to be found there. Franklin also seems to have been in

the coffee business, for in several issues of the _Gazette_ around the

year 1740 he advertised: "Very good coffee sold by the Printer."

_The First London Coffee House_

Philadelphia's second coffee house bore the name of the London coffee

house, which title was later used for the resort William Bradford opened

in 1754. The first house of this name was built in 1702, but there seems

to be some doubt about its location. Writing in the _American Historical

Register_, Charles H. Browning says: "William Rodney came to

Philadelphia with Penn in 1682, and resided in Kent County, where he

died in 1708; he built the old London coffee house at Front and Market

Streets in 1702." Another chronicler gives its location as "above Walnut

Street, either on the east side of Water Street, or on Delaware Avenue,

or, as the streets are very close together, it may have been on both.

John Shewbert, its proprietor, was a parishioner of Christ Church, and

his establishment was largely patronized by Church of England people."

It was also the gathering place of the followers of Penn and the

Proprietary party, while their opponents, the political cohorts of

Colonel Quarry, frequented Ye coffee house.

The first London coffee house resembled a fashionable club house in its

later years, suitable for the "genteel" entertainments of the well-to-do

Philadelphians. Ye coffee house was more of a commercial or public

exchange. Evidence of the gentility of the London is given by John

William Wallace:

The appointments of the London Coffee House, if we may infer what

they were from the will of Mrs. Shubert [Shewbert] dated November

27, 1751, were genteel. By that instrument she makes bequest of

two silver quart tankards; a silver cup; a silver porringer; a

silver pepper pot; two sets of silver castors; a silver soup spoon;

a silver sauce spoon, and numerous silver tablespoons and tea

spoons, with a silver tea-pot.

[Illustration: THE SECOND LONDON COFFEE HOUSE, OPENED IN 1754 BY WILLIAM

BRADFORD, THE PRINTER

Up to the outbreak of the American Revolution, it was more frequented

than any other tavern in the Quaker city as a place of resort and

entertainment, and was famous throughout the colonies]

One of the many historic incidents connected with this old house was the

visit there by William Penn's eldest son, John, in 1733, when he

entertained the General Assembly of the province on one day and on the

next feasted the City Corporation.

_Roberts' Coffee House_

Another house with some fame in the middle of the eighteenth century was

Roberts' coffee house, which stood in Front Street near the first London

house. Though its opening date is unknown, it is believed to have come

into existence about 1740. In 1744 a British army officer recruiting

troops for service in Jamaica advertised in the newspaper of the day

that he could be seen at the Widow Roberts' coffee house. During the

French and Indian War, when Philadelphia was in grave danger of attack

by French and Spanish privateers, the citizens felt so great relief when

the British ship Otter came to the rescue, that they proposed a public

banquet in honor of the Otter's captain to be held at Roberts' coffee

house. For some unrecorded reason the entertainment was not given;

probably because the house was too small to accommodate all the citizens

desiring to attend. Widow Roberts retired in 1754.

_The James Coffee House_

Contemporary with Roberts' coffee house was the resort run first by

Widow James, and later by her son, James James. It was established in

1744, and occupied a large wooden building on the northwest corner of

Front and Walnut Streets. It was patronized by Governor Thomas and many

of his political followers, and its name frequently appeared in the news

and advertising columns of the _Pennsylvania Gazette_.

_The Second London Coffee House_

Probably the most celebrated coffee house in Penn's city was the one

established by William Bradford, printer of the _Pennsylvania Journal_.

It was on the southwest corner of Second and Market Streets, and was

named the London coffee house, the second house in Philadelphia to bear

that title. The building had stood since 1702, when Charles Reed, later

mayor of the city, put it up on land which he bought from Letitia Penn,

daughter of William Penn, the founder. Bradford was the first to use the

structure for coffee-house purposes, and he tells his reason for

entering upon the business in his petition to the governor for a

license: "Having been advised to keep a Coffee House for the benefit of

merchants and traders, and as some people may at times be desirous to be

furnished with other liquors besides coffee, your petitioner apprehends

it is necessary to have the Governor's license." This would indicate

that in that day coffee was drunk as a refreshment between meals, as

were spirituous liquors for so many years before, and thereafter up to

1920.

[Illustration: SELLING SLAVES AT THE OLD LONDON COFFEE HOUSE]

Bradford's London coffee house seems to have been a joint-stock

enterprise, for in his _Journal_ of April 11, 1754, appeared this

notice: "Subscribers to a public coffee house are invited to meet at the

Courthouse on Friday, the 19th instant, at 3 o'clock, to choose trustees

agreeably to the plan of subscription."

The building was a three-story wooden structure, with an attic that some

historians count as the fourth story. There was a wooden awning

one-story high extending out to cover the sidewalk before the coffee

house. The entrance was on Market (then known as High) Street.

The London coffee house was "the pulsating heart of excitement,

enterprise, and patriotism" of the early city. The most active citizens

congregated there--merchants, shipmasters, travelers from other colonies

and countries, crown and provincial officers. The governor and persons

of equal note went there at certain hours "to sip their coffee from the

hissing urn, and some of those stately visitors had their own stalls."

It had also the character of a mercantile exchange--carriages, horses,

foodstuffs, and the like being sold there at auction. It is further

related that the early slave-holding Philadelphians sold negro men,

women, and children at vendue, exhibiting the slaves on a platform set

up in the street before the coffee house.

The resort was the barometer of public sentiment. It was in the street

before this house that a newspaper published in Barbados, bearing a

stamp in accordance with the provisions of the stamp act, was publicly

burned in 1765, amid the cheers of bystanders. It was here that Captain

Wise of the brig Minerva, from Pool, England, who brought news of the

repeal of the act, was enthusiastically greeted by the crowd in May,

1766. Here, too, for several years the fishermen set up May poles.

Bradford gave up the coffee house when he joined the newly formed

Revolutionary army as major, later becoming a colonel. When the British

entered the city in September, 1777, the officers resorted to the London

coffee house, which was much frequented by Tory sympathizers. After the

British had evacuated the city, Colonel Bradford resumed proprietorship;

but he found a change in the public's attitude toward the old resort,

and thereafter its fortunes began to decline, probably hastened by the

keen competition offered by the City tavern, which had been opened a few

years before.

Bradford gave up the lease in 1780, transferring the property to John

Pemberton, who leased it to Gifford Dally. Pemberton was a Friend, and

his scruples about gambling and other sins are well exhibited in the

terms of the lease in which said Dally "covenants and agrees and

promises that he will exert his endeavors as a Christian to preserve

decency and order in said house, and to discourage the profanation of

the sacred name of God Almighty by cursing, swearing, etc., and that the

house on the first day of the week shall always be kept closed from

public use." It is further covenanted that "under a penalty of £100 he

will not allow or suffer any person to use, or play at, or divert

themselves with cards, dice, backgammon, or any other unlawful game."

[Illustration: THE CITY TAVERN, BUILT IN 1773, AND KNOWN AS THE

MERCHANTS COFFEE HOUSE

The tavern (at the left) was regarded as the largest inn of the colonies

and stood next to the Bank of Pennsylvania (center). From a print made

from a rare Birch engraving]

It would seem from the terms of the lease that what Pemberton thought

were ungodly things, were countenanced in other coffee houses of the

day. Perhaps the regulations were too strict; for a few years later the

house had passed into the hands of John Stokes, who used it as dwelling

and a store.

_City Tavern or Merchants Coffee House_

The last of the celebrated coffee houses in Philadelphia was built in

1773 under the name of the City tavern, which later became known as the

Merchants coffee house, possibly after the house of the same name that

was then famous in New York. It stood in Second Street near Walnut

Street, and in some respects was even more noted than Bradford's London

coffee house, with which it had to compete in its early days.

The City tavern was patterned after the best London coffee houses; and

when opened, it was looked upon as the finest and largest of its kind in

America. It was three stories high, built of brick, and had several

large club rooms, two of which were connected by a wide doorway that,

when open, made a large dining room fifty feet long.

Daniel Smith was the first proprietor, and he opened it to the public

early in 1774. Before the Revolution, Smith had a hard struggle trying

to win patronage from Bradford's London coffee house, standing only a

few blocks away. But during and after the war, the City tavern gradually

took the lead, and for more than a quarter of a century was the

principal gathering place of the city. At first, the house had various

names in the public mind, some calling it by its proper title, the City

tavern, others attaching the name of the proprietor and designating it

as Smith's tavern, while still others used the title, the New tavern.

The gentlefolk of the city resorted to the City tavern after the

Revolution as they had to Bradford's coffee house before. However,

before reaching this high estate, it once was near destruction at the

hands of the Tories, who threatened to tear it down. That was when it

was proposed to hold a banquet there in honor of Mrs. George Washington,

who had stopped in the city in 1776 while on the way to meet her

distinguished husband, then at Cambridge in Massachusetts, taking over

command of the American army. Trouble was averted by Mrs. Washington

tactfully declining to appear at the tavern.

After peace came, the house was the scene of many of the fashionable

entertainments of the period. Here met the City Dancing Assembly, and

here was held the brilliant fête given by M. Gerard, first accredited

representative from France to the United States, in honor of Louis XVI's

birthday. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other leaders of public

thought were more or less frequent visitors when in Philadelphia.

The exact date when the City tavern became the Merchants coffee house is

unknown. When James Kitchen became proprietor, at the beginning of the

nineteenth century, it was so called. In 1806 Kitchen turned the house

into a bourse, or mercantile exchange. By that time clubs and hotels had

come into fashion, and the coffee-house idea was losing caste with the

élite of the city.

In the year 1806 William Renshaw planned to open the Exchange coffee

house in the Bingham mansion on Third Street. He even solicited

subscriptions to the enterprise, saying that he proposed to keep a

marine diary and a registry of vessels for sale, to receive and to

forward ships' letter bags, and to have accommodations for holding

auctions. But he was persuaded from the idea, partly by the fact that

the Merchants coffee house seemed to be satisfactorily filling that

particular niche in the city life, and partly because the hotel business

offered better inducements. He abandoned the plan, and opened the

Mansion House hotel in the Bingham residence in 1807.

[Illustration: EXCHANGE COFFEE HOUSE SCENE IN "HAMILTON"

In this setting for the first act of the play by Mary P. Hamlin and

George Arliss, produced in 1918, the scenic artist aimed to give a true

historical background, and combined the features of several inns and

coffee houses in Philadelphia, Virginia, and New England as they existed

in Washington's first administration]

CHAPTER XV

THE BOTANY OF THE COFFEE PLANT

_Its complete classification by class, sub-class, order, family,

genus, and species--How the Coffea arabica grows, flowers, and

bears--Other species and hybrids described--Natural caffein-free

coffee--Fungoid diseases of coffee_

The coffee tree, scientifically known as _Coffea arabica_, is native to

Abyssinia and Ethiopia, but grows well in Java, Sumatra, and other

islands of the Dutch East Indies; in India, Arabia, equatorial Africa,

the islands of the Pacific, in Mexico, Central and South America, and

the West Indies. The plant belongs to the large sub-kingdom of plants

known scientifically as the Angiosperms, or _Angiospermæ_, which means

that the plant reproduces by seeds which are enclosed in a box-like

compartment, known as the ovary, at the base of the flower. The word

Angiosperm is derived from two Greek words, _sperma_, a seed, and

_aggeion_, pronounced angeion, a box, the box referred to being the

ovary.

This large sub-kingdom is subdivided into two classes. The basis for

this division is the number of leaves in the little plant which develops

from the seed. The coffee plant, as it develops from the seed, has two

little leaves, and therefore belongs to the class _Dicotyledoneæ_. This

word _dicotyledoneæ_ is made up of the two Greek words, _di(s)_, two,

and _kotyledon_, cavity or socket. It is not necessary to see the young

plant that develops from the seed in order to know that it had two seed

leaves; because the mature plant always shows certain characteristics

that accompany this condition of the seed.

In every plant having two seed leaves, the mature leaves are

netted-veined, which is a condition easily recognized even by the

layman; also the parts of the flowers are in circles containing two or

five parts, but never in threes or sixes. The stems of plants of this

class always increase in thickness by means of a layer of cells known as

a cambium, which is a tissue that continues to divide throughout its

whole existence. The fact that this cambium divides as long as it lives,

gives rise to a peculiar appearance in woody stems by which we can, on

looking at the stem of a tree of this type when it has been sawed

across, tell the age of the tree.

In the spring the cambium produces large open cells through which large

quantities of sap can run; in the fall it produces very thick-walled

cells, as there is not so much sap to be carried. Because these

thin-walled open cells of one spring are next to the thick-walled cells

of the last autumn, it is very easy to distinguish one year's growth

from the next; the marks so produced are called annual rings.

We have now classified coffee as far as the class; and so far we could

go if we had only the leaves and stem of the coffee plant. In order to

proceed farther, we must have the flowers of the plant, as botanical

classification goes from this point on the basis of the flowers. The

class _Dicotyledoneæ_ is separated into sub-classes according to whether

the flower's corolla (the showy part of the flower which ordinarily

gives it its color) is all in one piece, or is divided into a number of

parts. The coffee flower is arranged with its corolla all in one piece,

forming a tube-shaped arrangement, and accordingly the coffee plant

belongs to the sub-class _Sympetalæ_, or _Metachlamydeæ_, which means

that its petals are united.

[Illustration: THE COFFEE TREE, SHOWING DETAILS OF FLOWERS AND FRUIT

From a drawing by Ch. Emonts in Jardin's _Le Caféier et Le Café_]

The next step in classification is to place the plant in the proper

division under the sub-class, which is the order. Plants are separated

into orders according to their varied characteristics. The coffee plant

belongs to an order known as _Rubiales_. These orders are again divided

into families. Coffee is placed in the family _Rubiaceæ_, or Madder

Family, in which we find herbs, shrubs or trees, represented by a few

American plants, such as bluets, or Quaker ladies, small blue spring

flowers, common to open meadows in northern United States; and partridge

berries (_Mitchella repens_).

The Madder Family has more foreign representatives than native genera,

among which are _Coffea_, _Cinchona_, and _Ipecacuanha_ (_Uragoga_), all

of which are of economic importance. The members of this family are

noted for their action on the nervous system. Coffee, as is well known,

contains an active principle known as caffein which acts as a stimulant

to the nervous system and in small quantities is very beneficial.

_Cinchona_ supplies us with quinine, while _Ipecacuanha_ produces

ipecac, which is an emetic and purgative.

The families are divided into smaller sections known as genera, and to

the genus _Coffea_ belongs the coffee plant. Under this genus _Coffea_

are several sub-genera, and to the sub-genus _Eucoffea_ belongs our

common coffee, _Coffea arabica_. _Coffea arabica_ is the original or

common Java coffee of commerce. The term "common" coffee may seem

unnecessary, but there are many other species of coffee besides

_arabica_. These species have not been described very frequently;

because their native haunts are the tropics, and the tropics do not

always offer favorable conditions for the study of their plants.

All botanists do not agree in their classification of the species and

varieties of the _coffea_ genus. M.E. de Wildman, curator of the royal

botanical gardens at Brussels, in his _Les Plantes Tropicales de Grande

Culture_, says the systematic division of this interesting genus is far

from finished; in fact, it may be said hardly to be begun.

_Coffea arabica_ we know best because of the important rôle it plays in

commerce.

COMPLETE CLASSIFICATION OF COFFEE

Kingdom _Vegetable_

Sub-Kingdom _Angiospermæ_

Class _Dicotyledoneæ_

Sub-class _Sympetalæ or Metachlamydeæ_

Order _Rubiales_

Family _Rubiaceæ_

Genus _Coffea_

Sub-genus _Eucoffea_

Species _C. arabica_

The coffee plant most cultivated for its berries is, as already stated,

_Coffea arabica_, which is found in tropical regions, although it can

grow in temperate climates. Unlike most plants that grow best in the

tropics, it can stand low temperatures. It requires shade when it grows

in hot, low-lying districts; but when it grows on elevated land, it

thrives without such protection. Freeman[94] says there are about eight

recognized species of _coffea_.

[Illustration: DETAILS OF THE GERMINATION OF THE COFFEE PLANT

From a drawing by Ch. Emonts in Jardin's _Le Caféier et Le Café_]

_Coffea Arabica_

_Coffea arabica_ is a shrub with evergreen leaves, and reaches a height

of fourteen to twenty feet when fully grown. The shrub produces

dimorphic branches, _i.e._, branches of two forms, known as uprights and

laterals. When young, the plants have a main stem, the upright, which,

however, eventually sends out side shoots, the laterals. The laterals

may send out other laterals, known as secondary laterals; but no lateral

can ever produce an upright. The laterals are produced in pairs and are

opposite, the pairs being borne in whorls around the stem. The laterals

are produced only while the joint of the upright, to which they are

attached, is young; and if they are broken off at that point, the

upright has no power to reproduce them. The upright can produce new

uprights also; but if an upright is cut off, the laterals at that

position tend to thicken up. This is very desirable, as the laterals

produce the flowers, which seldom appear on the uprights. This fact is

utilized in pruning the coffee tree, the uprights being cut back, the

laterals then becoming more productive. Planters generally keep their

trees pruned down to about six feet.

The leaves are lanceolate, or lance-shaped, being borne in pairs

opposite each other. They are three to six inches in length, with an

acuminate apex, somewhat attenuate at the base, with very short petioles

which are united with the short interpetiolar stipules at the base. The

coffee leaves are thin, but of firm texture, slightly coriaceous. They

are very dark green on the upper surface, but much lighter underneath.

The margin of the leaf is entire and wavy. In some tropical countries

the natives brew a coffee tea from the leaves of the coffee tree.

[Illustration: BRAZIL COFFEE PLANTATION IN FLOWER]

The coffee flowers are small, white, and very fragrant, having a

delicate characteristic odor. They are borne in the axils of the leaves

in clusters, and several crops are produced in one season, depending on

the conditions of heat and moisture that prevail in the particular

season. The different blossomings are classed as main blossoming and

smaller blossomings. In semi-dry high districts, as in Costa Rica or

Guatemala, there is one blossoming season, about March, and flowers and

fruit are not found together, as a rule, on the trees. But in lowland

plantations where rain is perennial, blooming and fruiting continue

practically all the year; and ripe fruits, green fruits, open flowers,

and flower buds are to be found at the same time on the same branchlet,

not mixed together, but in the order indicated.

[Illustration: COFFEA ARABICA--PORTO RICO]

The flowers are also tubular, the tube of the corolla dividing into five

white segments. Dr. P.J.S. Cramer, chief of the division of plant

breeding, Department of Agriculture, Netherlands India, says the number

of petals is not at all constant, not even for flowers of the same tree.

The corolla segments are about one-half inch in length, while the tube

itself is about three-eighths of an inch long. The anthers of the

stamens, which are five in number, protrude from the top of the corolla

tube, together with the top of the two-cleft pistil. The calyx, which is

so small as to escape notice unless one is aware of its existence, is

annular, with small, tooth-like indentations.

While the usual color of the coffee flower is white, the fresh stamens

and pistils may have a greenish tinge, and in some cultivated species

the corolla is pale pink.

The size and condition of the flowers are entirely dependent on the

weather. The flowers are sometimes very small, very fragrant, and very

numerous; while at other times, when the weather is not hot and dry,

they are very large, but not so numerous. Both sets of flowers mentioned

above "set fruit," as it is called; but at times, especially in a very

dry season, they bear flowers that are few in number, small, and

imperfectly formed, the petals frequently being green instead of white.

These flowers do not set fruit. The flowers that open on a dry sunny day

show a greater yield of fruit than those that open on a wet day, as the

first mentioned have a better chance of being pollinated by the insects

and the wind. The beauty of a coffee estate in flower is of a very

fleeting character. One day it is a snowy expanse of fragrant white

blossoms for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see, and two days

later it reminds one of the lines from Villon's _Des Dames du Temps

Jadis_.

Where are the snows of yesterday?

The winter winds have blown them all away.

[Illustration: COFFEA ARABICA, FLOWER AND FRUIT--COSTA RICA]

But here, the winter winds are not to blame: the soft, gentle breezes of

the perpetual summer have wrought the havoc, leaving, however, a not

unpleasing picture of dark, cool, mossy green foliage.

The flowers are beautiful, but the eye of the planter sees in them not

alone beauty and fragrance. He looks far beyond, and in his mind's eye

he sees bags and bags of green coffee, representing to him the goal and

reward of all his toil. After the flowers droop, there appear what are

commercially known as the coffee berries. Botanically speaking, "berry"

is a misnomer. These little fruits are not berries, such as are well

represented by the grape; but are drupes, which are better exemplified

by the cherry and the peach. In the course of six or seven months, these

coffee drupes develop into little red balls about the size of an

ordinary cherry; but, instead of being round, they are somewhat

ellipsoidal, having at the outer end a small umbilicus. The drupe of the

coffee usually has two locules, each containing a little "stone" (the

seed and its parchment covering) from which the coffee bean (seed) is

obtained. Some few drupes contain three, while others, at the outer ends

of the branches, contain only one round bean, known as the peaberry. The

number of pickings corresponds to the different blossomings in the same

season; and one tree of the species _arabica_ may yield from one to

twelve pounds a year.

[Illustration: YOUNG COFFEA ARABICA TREE AT KONA, HAWAII]

In countries like India and Africa, the birds and monkeys eat the ripe

coffee berries. The so-called "monkey coffee" of India, according to

Arnold, is the undigested coffee beans passed through the alimentary

canal of the animal.

[Illustration: SURVIVORS OF THE FIRST LIBERIAN COFFEE TREES INTRODUCED

INTO JAVA IN 1876]

The pulp surrounding the coffee beans is at present of no commercial

importance. Although efforts have been made at various times by natives

to use it as a food, its flavor has not gained any great popularity, and

the birds are permitted a monopoly of the pulp as a food. From the human

standpoint the pulp, or sarcocarp, as it is scientifically called, is

rather an annoyance, as it must be removed in order to procure the

beans. This is done in one of two ways. The first is known as the dry

method, in which the entire fruit is allowed to dry, and is then cracked

open. The second way is called the wet method; the sarcocarp is removed

by machine, and two wet, slimy seed packets are obtained. These packets,

which look for all the world like seeds, are allowed to dry in such a

way that fermentation takes place. This rids them of all the slime; and,

after they are thoroughly dry, the endocarp, the so-called parchment

covering, is easily cracked open and removed. At the same time that the

parchment is removed, a thin silvery membrane, the silver skin, beneath

the parchment, comes off, too. There are always small fragments of this

silver skin to be found in the groove of the coffee bean contained

within the parchment packet.

[Illustration: COFFEA ARABICA IN FLOWER ON A JAVA ESTATE

From a photograph made at Dramaga, Preanger, Java, in 1907]

[Illustration: LIBERIAN COFFEE TREE AT LAMOA, P.I.]

We have said that the coffee tree yields from one to twelve pounds a

year, but of course this varies with the individual tree and also with

the region. In some countries the whole year's yield is less than 200

pounds per acre, while there is on record a patch in Brazil which yields

about seventeen pounds to the tree, bringing the yield per acre much

higher.

The beans do not retain their vitality for planting for any considerable

length of time; and, if they are thoroughly dried, or are kept for

longer than three or four months, they are useless for that purpose. It

takes the seed about six weeks to germinate and to appear above ground.

Trees raised from seed begin to blossom in about three years; but a good

crop can not be expected of them for the first five or six years. Their

usefulness, save in exceptional cases, is ended in about thirty years.

The coffee tree can be propagated in a way other than by seeds. The

upright branches can be used as slips, which, after taking root, will

produce seed-bearing laterals. The laterals themselves can not be used

as slips. In Central America the natives sometimes use coffee uprights

for fences and it is no uncommon sight to see the fence posts "growing."

The wood of the coffee tree is used also for cabinet work, as it is much

stronger than many of the native woods, weighing about forty-three

pounds to the cubic foot, having a crushing strength of 5,800 pounds per

square inch, and a breaking strength of 10,900 pounds per square inch.

The propagation of the coffee plant by cutting has two distinct

advantages over propagation by seed, in that it spares the expense of

seed production, which is enormous, and it gives also a method of

hybridization, which, if used, might lead not only to very interesting

but also to very profitable results.

[Illustration: TWO-AND-ONE-HALF-YEAR-OLD C. CONGENSIS]

The hybridization of the coffee plant was taken up in a thoroughly

scientific manner by the Dutch government at the experimental garden

established at Bangelan, Java, in 1900. In his studies, twelve varieties

of _Coffea arabica_ are recognized by Dr. P.J.S. Cramer[95], namely:

_Laurina_, a hybrid of _Coffea arabica_ with C. _mauritiana_,

having small narrow leaves, stiff, dense branches, young leaves

almost white, berry long and narrow, and beans narrow and oblong.

_Murta_, having small leaves, dense branches, beans as in the

typical _Coffea arabica_, and the plant able to stand bitter cold.

_Menosperma_, a distinct type, with narrow leaves and bent-down

branches resembling a willow, the berries seldom containing more

than one seed.

[Illustration: A HEAVY FLOWERING OF FIVE-YEAR-OLD COFFEA EXCELSA

This is a comparatively new species, discovered in the Tchad Lake

district of West Africa in 1905. It is a small-beaned variety of _Coffea

liberica_]

[Illustration: BRANCHES OF COFFEA EXCELSA GROWN AT THE LAMAO EXPERIMENT

STATION, P.I.]

_Mokka_ (_Coffea Mokkæ_), having small leaves, dense foliage, small

round berries, small round beans resembling split peas, and

possessed of a stronger flavor than _Coffea arabica_.