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_

In the history of the coffee trade of the United States, several names

stand out because of sensational accomplishments, and because of notable

contributions made to the development of the industry. In green coffee,

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

"coffee kings"; in the roasting business, there was John Arbuckle, the

original national-package-coffee man; and in the coffee-roasting

machinery business, Jabez Burns, inventor, manufacturer, and writer.

_The First "Coffee King"_

Benjamin Green Arnold came to New York from Rhode Island in 1836 and

took a job as accountant with an east-side grocer. He was thrifty,

industrious, and kept his own counsel. He was a born financial leader.

Fifteen years later he was made a junior partner in the firm. By 1868,

the bookkeeper of 1836 was the head of the business, with a line of

credit amounting to half a million dollars--a notable achievement in

those days.

Mr. Arnold embarked upon his big speculation in coffee in 1869. For ten

years he maintained his mastery of the market, and in that time amassed

a fortune. It is related that one year's operations of this daring

trader yielded his firm a profit of a million and a quarter of dollars.

[Illustration: BENJAMIN GREEN ARNOLD]

B.G. Arnold was the first president of the New York Coffee Exchange. He

was one of the founders of the Down Town Association in 1878. The

president of the United States was his friend, and a guest at his

luxurious home. But the high-price levels to which Arnold had forced the

coffee market started a coffee-planting fever in the countries of

production. Almost before he knew it, there was an overproduction that

swamped the market and forced down prices with so amazing rapidity that

panic seized upon the traders. Few that were caught in that memorable

coffee maelstrom survived financially.

Arnold himself was a victim, but such was the man's character that his

failure was regarded by many as a public misfortune. Some men differed

with him as to the wisdom of promoting a coffee corner, and protested

that it was against public policy; but Arnold's personal integrity was

never questioned, and his mercantile ability and honorable business

dealings won for him an affectionate regard that continued after his

fortune had been swept away.

After the collapse of the coffee corner, Mr. Arnold resumed business

with his son, F.B. Arnold. He died in New York, December 10, 1894, in

his eighty-second year. The son died in Rome in 1906. The business which

the father founded, however, continues today as Arnold, Dorr & Co., one

of the most honored and respected names in Front Street.

_Hermann Sielcken, the Last Coffee King_

If B.G. Arnold was first coffee king, Hermann Sielcken was last, for it

is unlikely that ever again, in the United States, will it be possible

for one man to achieve so absolute a dictatorship of the green coffee

business.

There never was a coffee romance like that of Hermann Sielcken's. Coming

to America a poor boy in 1869, forty-five years later, he left it many

times a millionaire. For a time, he ruled the coffee markets of the

world with a kind of autocracy such as the trade had never seen before

and probably will not see again. And when, just before the outbreak of

the World War, he returned to Germany for the annual visit to his

Baden-Baden estate, from which he was destined never again to sally

forth to deeds of financial prowess, his subsequent involuntary

retirement found him a huge commercial success, where B.G. Arnold was a

colossal failure. It was the World War and a lingering illness that, at

the end, stopped Hermann Sielcken. But, though he had to admit himself

bested by the fortunes of war, he was still undefeated in the world of

commerce. He died in his native Germany in 1917, the most commanding,

and the most cordially disliked, figure ever produced by the coffee

trade.

Hermann Sielcken was born in Hamburg in 1847, and so was seventy years

old when he died at Baden-Baden, October 8, 1917. He was the son of a

small baker in Hamburg; and before he was twenty-one, he went to Costa

Rica to work for a German firm there. He did not like Costa Rica, and

within a year he went to San Francisco, where, with a knowledge of

English already acquired, he got a job as a shipping clerk. This was in

1869. A wool concern engaged him as buyer, and for about six years he

covered the territory between the Rockies and the Pacific, buying wool.

On one of these trips he was in a stage-coach wreck in Oregon and nearly

lost his life. He received injuries affecting his back from which he

never fully recovered, and which caused the stooped posture which marked

his carriage through life thereafter. When he recovered, he came to New

York seeking employment, and obtained a clerical position with L.

Strauss & Sons, importers of crockery and glassware. In 1880, married

Josephine Chabert, whose father kept a restaurant in Park Place.

Sielcken had learned Spanish in Costa Rica, and this knowledge aided him

to a place with W.H. Crossman & Bro. (W.H. and George W. Crossman)

merchandise commission merchants in Broad Street. He was sent to South

America to solicit consignments for the Crossmans, and was surprisingly

successful. For six or eight months every South American mail brought

orders to the house. Then, as the story goes, his reports suddenly

ceased. Weeks and months passed, and the firm heard nothing from him.

The Crossmans speculated concerning his fate. It was thought he might

have caught a fever and died. It was almost impossible to trace him; at

the same time it distressed them to lose so promising a representative.

Giving up all hope of hearing from him again, they began to look around

for some one to take his place. Then, one morning, he walked into the

office and said, "How do you do?" just as if he had left them only the

evening before. The members of the firm questioned him eagerly. He

answered some of their questions; but most of them he did not. Then he

laid a package on the table.

[Illustration: HERMANN SIELCKEN]

"Gentlemen", he said, "I have given a large amount of business to you,

far more than you expected, as the result of my trip. I have a lot more

business which I can give to you. It's all in black and white in the

papers in this package. I think any person who has worked as hard as I

have, and so well, deserves a partnership in this firm. If you want

these orders, you may have them. They represent a big profit to you.

Good work deserves proper reward. Look these papers over, and then tell

me if you want me to continue with you as a member of this firm."

After the Crossmans had looked those papers over they had no doubt of

the advisability of taking Sielcken into partnership. He was admitted as

a junior in 1881-82 and became a full partner in 1885. For more than

twenty years Hermann Sielcken was the human dynamo that pushed the firm

forward into a place of world prominence. He was the best informed man

on coffee in two continents; and when, in 1904, the firm name was

changed to Crossman & Sielcken--W.H. Crossman having died ten years

before--he was well prepared to assert his rights as king of the trade.

He proved his kingship by his masterful handling of valorization three

years later.

Sielcken was many times credited with working "corners" in coffee; but

he would never admit that a corner was possible in anything that came

out of the ground; and to the end, he was insistent in his denials of

ever having cornered coffee. As a daring trader, he won his spurs in a

sensational tilt with the Arbuckles in the bull campaign of 1887.

Because of this, he became one of the most feared and hated men in the

Coffee Exchange. For a while, coffee did not offer enough play for his

tremendous energy and ambition. He embarked in various

enterprises--among them, the steel industry and railroads. No one was

too big for Sielcken to cross lances with. He bested John W. Gates in a

titanic fight, in American Steel and Wire. He quarreled with E.H.

Harriman and George J. Gould over the possession of the Kansas City,

Pittsburgh, and Gulf Railroad, now known as the Kansas City Southern,

and, backed by a syndicate of Hollanders, obtained control.

While still busy with the Kansas City Southern enterprise Sielcken began

work on the coffee valorization scheme that he carried to a successful

conclusion in spite of the law of supply and demand and the interference

of the Congress of the United States. Valorization by the São Paulo

government, and by coffee merchants, having proved a failure; Sielcken

showed how it could be done with all the American coffee merchants

eliminated--except himself. In this way, he secured for himself the

opportunity he had long been seeking--the chance to bestride the coffee

trade like a colossus. The story is told farther along in this chapter.

When his partner, George W. Crossman, died in 1913, it was discovered

that the two men had a remarkable contract. Each had made a will giving

one million dollars to the other. Then Sielcken bought his late

partner's interest in the firm for $5,166,991.

His first wife having died at Mariahalden, his home in Baden-Baden,

seven years before, Sielcken married at Tessin, Germany, in 1913, Mrs.

Clara Wendroth, a widow with two children, and the daughter of the late

Paul Isenberg, a wealthy sugar planter of the Hawaiian Islands. At that

time the coffee king was dividing his time between the Waldorf-Astoria,

New York, which he called his American home, and his wonderful estate in

the fatherland. This latter was a two-hundred-acre private park

containing four villas and a marvelous bath-house for guests besides the

main villa; a rose-garden in which were cultivated one hundred

sixty-eight varieties on some twenty thousand bushes; a special

greenhouse for orchids; and landscaped grounds calling for the service

of six professional gardeners and forty assistants. Here he delighted to

entertain his friends. Frequently, there were fifteen to twenty of them

for dinner on the garden terrace; and, as the moon came up through the

tall hemlocks and shone through the majestic pines brought from Oregon,

a full military band from Heidelberg, adown the hillside among the rose

trees, mingled its music with the dinner discussions. There was nothing

at that dinner table but peace and harmony, although every language in

Europe was spoken; for Sielcken knew them all from his youth. Sometimes

he entertained his guests with stories of his California life, and

sometimes with those of shipwrecks in South America.

All the post-telegraph boys in Baden knew every foot of the sharply

winding road up the Yburg Strasse to Villa Mariahalden; and the guests

therein have counted more than eighty cables received, and more than

thirty sent in a single day. And those daily cable messages were to and

from all quarters of the globe, and to and from the master, who handled

them all, without even a secretary or typewriter. Nowhere in the entire

establishment was there even an appearance of business, except as the

messages came and went on the highway. Sielcken manifested his greatest

delight in showing his friends his orchids, his roses, his pigeons, his

trout, and his trees.

Like Napoleon, this merchant prince required only five hours sleep. It

was his custom to go to bed at one and to be up at six. Did he wish to

know anything that the cables did not bring him, he jumped into his

eighty-horse-power Mercedes with a party of guests and was off with the

sunrise, down the Rhine Valley, on his way to Paris or Hamburg; and

before one realized that he was gone, he was back again.

In 1913, Sielcken admitted to partnership in his firm two employees of

long service, John S. Sorenson and Thorlief S.B. Nielsen. He went to

Germany in 1914, shortly before the beginning of the World War, and

remained at Mariahalden until he died in 1917. Sielcken never would

believe that war was possible until it had actually started. Up to the

last moment in July, 1914, he was cabling his New York partner that

there would probably be no hostilities. He lost a bet of a thousand

pounds made with a visiting Brazilian friend a few days before war was

declared. The guest believed war inevitable and won. A few days before

Sielcken's death the old firm was dissolved under the Trading with the

Enemy Act, being succeeded by the firm of Sorenson & Nielsen. The former

had been with the business thirty-four years, and the latter thirty-two

years. The alien property custodian took over Sielcken's interest for

the duration of the war.

Rumors in 1915 that the German government was extorting large sums of

money from Sielcken brought denials from his associates here. After the

war, it was confirmed that no such extortions took place.

Sielcken always claimed American citizenship. There was a widely

circulated story, never proved, that he tore up his citizenship papers

in 1912 when the United States government began its suit to force the

sale of coffee stocks held here under the valorization agreement. The

Supreme Court of California in 1921 decided that he _was_ a citizen, and

his interests and those of his widow, amounting to $4,000,000, held by

the alien property custodian, were thereupon released to his heirs. It

appeared in evidence that he took out his citizenship papers in San

Francisco in 1873-74, but lost them in a shipwreck off the coast of

Brazil in 1876. The San Francisco fire destroyed the other records; but

under act of legislature re-establishing them, the citizenship claim was

declared valid.

Hermann Sielcken never liked the title of "coffee king." He was once

asked about this appellation, and turned smartly upon the interviewer.

"Nonsense," he said. "I am no king. I don't like the term, because I

never heard of a 'king' who did not fail."

Sielcken had no use for titles. T.S.B. Nielsen says that at a dinner

party in Germany in 1915 he heard Sielcken explain to a large number of

guests that the United States was the best country because there a man

was appraised at his real value. What he did, and how he lived,

counted--not birth or titles.

While his greatest achievement was, of course, the valorization

enterprise, he played a not unimportant rôle in the Havemeyer-Arbuckle

sugar-trust fight. He aided the late Henry O. Havemeyer to secure

control of the Woolson Spice Co. of Toledo in 1896, so as to enable the

Havemeyer's to retaliate with Lion brand coffee for the Arbuckles'

entrance into the sugar business. The Woolson Spice Co. sold the Lion

brand in the middle west, and the American Coffee Co. sold it in the

east. That was the beginning of a losing price-war that lasted ten

years. At the end, Sielcken took over the Woolson property at a price

considerably lower than originally paid for it. In 1919, the Woolson

Spice Co. brought suit against the Sielcken estate, alleging a loss of

$932,000 on valorization coffee sold to it by Sielcken just after the

federal government began its suit in 1912 to break up the valorization

pool in the United States. The Woolson Spice Co. paid the "market

price", as did the rest of the buyers of valorization coffee; but it was

charged that Sielcken, as managing partner of Crossman & Sielcken, sold

the coffee to the Woolson Spice Co., of which he was president, "at

artificially enhanced prices and in quantities far in excess of its

legitimate needs, concealing his knowledge that before the plaintiff

could use the coffee, the price would decline." Sielcken collected for

the coffee sold $3,218,666.

When the United States government crossed lances with Sielcken in 1912

over the valorization scheme, it looked for a time as if he would be

unhorsed. But men and governments were all the same to Sielcken; and at

the end of the fight it was discovered that not only was he

undefeated--for the government never pressed its suit to conclusion--but

that his prestige as king and master mind of the coffee trade had gained

immeasurably by the adventure.

Hermann Sielcken typified German efficiency raised to the nth power. He

was a colossus of commerce with the military alertness of a Bismarck.

His mental processes were profound, and his vision was far-reaching. He

was a resourceful trader, an austere friend, a shrewd and uncompromising

foe. Physically, he was a big man with a bull neck and black, piercing

eyes. His policy in coffee was one of blood and iron. He brooked no

interference with his plans, and he was ruthless in his methods of

dealing with men and governments. Usually silent and uncommunicative,

occasionally he exploded under stress; and when he did so, there was no

mincing of words. He knew no fear. Newspaper criticism annoyed him but

little; and he had a kind of contempt for the fourth estate as a whole,

although he knew how to use it when it suited his purpose. He avoided

the limelight, and never courted publicity for himself. Socially he was

a princely host; but few knew him intimately, except perhaps in his

native Germany.

Sielcken's widow was married in New York, February 11, 1922, to Joseph

M. Schwartz, the Russian baritone of the Chicago Opera Company.

_The Story of John Arbuckle_

John Arbuckle, for nearly fifty years the honored dean of the American

coffee trade, pioneer package-coffee man, some time coffee king, sugar

merchant, philanthropist, and typical American, came from fine, rugged

Scotch stock. He was the son of a well-to-do Scottish woolen-mill owner

in Allegheny, Pa., where he was born, July 11, 1839. He often said he

was raised on skim milk. He received a common school education in

Pittsburgh and Allegheny. He and Henry Phipps, the coke and steel head,

are said to have occupied adjoining desks in one of the public schools,

Andrew Carnegie being at that time in another grade of the same school.

He had a strong bent for science and machinery; and, although he chose

the coffee instead of the steel business for his career, the basis of

his success was invention. He also attended Washington and Jefferson

College at Washington, Pennsylvania.[348]

The Arbuckle business was founded at Pittsburg, in 1859, when Charles

Arbuckle, his uncle Duncan McDonald, and their friend William Roseburg,

organized the wholesale grocery firm of McDonald & Arbuckle. One year

later John Arbuckle, the younger brother of Charles Arbuckle, was

admitted to the firm, and the firm name was changed to McDonald &

Arbuckles. McDonald and Roseburg retired from the firm a few years

later, leaving the business in the hands of the two youthful, hopeful,

and energetic brothers, who under the firm name of Arbuckles & Co., soon

made their firm one of the important wholesale grocery houses in

Pennsylvania. Although little thinking at the time that their greatest

success was to be achieved in coffee, and that a new idea of one of the

partners--that of marketing roasted coffee in original packages--would

make their name familiar in every hamlet in the country, yet the first

two entries in the original day-book of McDonald & Arbuckles record

purchases of coffee.

Prior to the sixties, coffee was not generally sold roasted or ground,

ready for the coffee pot. Except in the big cities, most housewives

bought their coffee green, and roasted it in their kitchen stoves as

needed. John Arbuckle, having become impressed with the wasteful methods

and unsatisfactory results of this kitchen roasting, had already begun

his studies of roasting and packaging problems, studies that he never

gave up. How, first to roast coffee scientifically, and then to preserve

its freshness in the interval between the roaster and the coffee pot,

continued to be an absorbing study until his death. The range of his

work may be illustrated by reference to his first and his last patents.

In 1868, he patented a process of glazing coffee, which had for its

object the preservation of the flavor and aroma of coffee by sealing the

pores of the coffee bean. Thirty-five years later, he patented a huge

coffee roaster in which, more closely than in any other roaster, he felt

he could approach his ideal of roasting coffee--that ideal being to hold

the coffee beans in suspension in superheated air during the entire

roasting process, and not to allow them to come in contact with a heated

iron surface.

By 1865, John Arbuckle had satisfied himself that a carefully roasted

coffee, packed while still warm in small individual containers, would

measurably overcome the objections to selling loose coffee in a roasted

state. So in that year (1865), although not without the misgivings of

his elder brother, and even in the face of the ridicule of competitors,

who derided the plan of selling roasted coffee "in little paper bags

like peanuts", Arbuckles & Co. introduced the new idea, namely, roasted

coffee in original packages. The story of the development of that simple

idea, which soon spread from coast to coast, and of how it laid the

foundations of a great fortune, is one of the romances of American

business.

Although Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java Coffee, a ground-coffee

package, first put on the New York market by Lewis A. Osborn, and later

exploited by Thomas Reid in the early sixties, appears to have been the

original package coffee, much of the fame attached to the name of

Arbuckle comes from its association with the Ariosa coffee package,

which was the first successful national brand of package coffee. It was

launched in 1873. The Ariosa premium list (premiums have been a feature

of the Arbuckle business since 1895) includes a hundred articles. Almost

anything from a pair of suspenders or a toothbrush, to clocks, wringers,

and corsets may be obtained in exchange for Ariosa coupons.

The common belief that the name Ariosa was made up from the words Rio

and Santos (said to be the component parts of the original blend) is

erroneous. It was arbitrarily coined, though it is not known what

considerations prompted it. One story has it that the "A" stands for

Arbuckle, the "rio" for Rio, and the "sa" for South America.

Early in the seventies, the great business opportunities of New York

City had attracted the two brothers, and a branch was established in New

York in charge of John Arbuckle, the main business in Pittsburg being

left in the care of his brother Charles. The growth of the New York

branch soon made it necessary for Charles Arbuckle to leave the

Pittsburg business in charge of trusted employees, and to come to New

York. In time, the coffee business of the New York house overshadowed

the grocery lines; and the latter were abandoned there, so that the

entire energy of the firm in New York might be devoted to the coffee

business, which thenceforth was operated under the firm name of Arbuckle

Bros. The Arbuckle coffee business, which began with a single roaster in

1865, had eighty-five machines running in Pittsburg and New York in

1881.

Charles Arbuckle died in 1891, and John Arbuckle admitted as partners

his nephew, William Arbuckle Jamison, and two employees, William V.R.

Smith and James N. Jarvie, the business continuing under the former name

of Arbuckle Bros. The most important step taken by the firm while thus

constituted was its entrance into the sugar refining business in 1896.

That entrance had to be forced against the bitterest opposition of a

so-called sugar trust, and brought on a "war" signalized by the most

ruthless cutting of prices of both coffee and sugar. This war was costly

to both sides; but when it had ended, Arbuckle Bros. remained unshaken

in the preeminence of their package-coffee business and had acquired

also great publicity and a fine trade in refined sugar.

[Illustration: JOHN ARBUCKLE]

Arbuckles were always large consumers of sugar in connection with their

coffee glaze, and having introduced the package sugar idea with their

customers some years before, they at last made up their minds to refine

for their own needs and thus to save the profits paid to "the

Havemeyers". It is generally conceded that John Arbuckle's shrewdness

and business sagacity in having previously acquired the Smyser patents

on a weighing and packing machine, and his control of it, really led to

the coffee-sugar war. "This packing machine", said the _Spice Mill_,

when Henry E. Smyser died in 1899, "puts him [Smyser] with the greatest

inventors of our day."

The sugar trust met the Arbuckle challenge by invading the

coffee-roasting field. This they accomplished by securing a controlling

interest for $2,000,000 in one of the largest competing roasting plants

in the country, that of the Woolson Spice Co., of Toledo, Ohio, that had

in the Lion brand, a ready-made package coffee wherewith to fight

Ariosa. The re-organization of the Woolson Spice Co. in 1897, when A. M.

Woolson was relieved of the office of president, disclosed, among

others, the names of Hermann Sielcken in close juxtaposition to that of

H.O. Havemeyer on the board of directors. Both men helped to make

coffee-trade history.

The trade found the coffee-sugar war the all-absorbing topic for several

years. Hot debates were held on the question as to whether, on one hand,

the Arbuckles had the right to enter the sugar-refining business and, on

the other, as to whether the sugar-trust had a right to retaliate. The

answer seemed to be "yes" in both instances.

In two years, John Arbuckle's model sugar refinery in Brooklyn was

turning out package sugar at the rate of five thousand barrels a day.

The Woolson Spice Co. was credited with spending unheard-of sums of

money in advertising Lion brand coffee. The eastern newspaper displays

alone exceeded anything ever before attempted in this line. However,

many people are of the opinion that it was a tactical error on the part

of the sugar interests to spend so much money advertising a Rio coffee

in the central and New England states, while John Arbuckle was confining

his activities to the south and the west, where there already existed a

Rio taste among consumers.

The legal fight which the Arbuckles carried on with the Havemeyers for

the control of the sugar business in this celebrated coffee-sugar war is

said to have cost millions on both sides.

Eventually, the Havemeyers were glad to be relieved of their coffee

interests, but John Arbuckle continued to sell both coffee and sugar.

Mr. Arbuckle married Miss Mary Alice Kerr in Pittsburg, in 1868. She

died in 1907. His many charities included boat trips for children,

luxurious farm vacations for tired wage-earners, boat-raising and

life-saving schemes, a low-priced home for working girls and men on an

old full-rigged ship lying off a New York dock, which he called his

"Deep Sea Hotel," and a vacation enterprise for young men and young

women at New Paltz, N.Y., which was known as the "Mary and John Arbuckle

Farm." A magazine for children, called _Sunshine_, was another

benevolent enterprise of his.

When John Arbuckle died at his Brooklyn home, March 27, 1912, he had

been ill only four days. The New York Coffee Exchange closed at two

o'clock the day following, after adopting appropriate resolutions and

appointing a committee to attend the funeral. His estate in New York was

valued at $33,000,000.

W.V.R. Smith and James N. Jarvie retired from the firm in 1906; and John

Arbuckle and his nephew W.A. Jamison continued it as sole owners and

partners until Mr. Arbuckle's death in 1912. Mr. Arbuckle died childless

and a widower, leaving as his only heirs his two sisters, Mrs. Catherine

Arbuckle Jamison and Miss Christina Arbuckle. Mrs. Jamison is the widow

of the late Robert Jamison, who had been a prominent drygoods merchant

in Pittsburg. William A. Jamison is her eldest and only living son.

Following the death of John Arbuckle, a new partnership was formed in

which Mrs. Jamison, Miss Arbuckle, and Mr. Jamison became the partners

and owners, and that partnership, without change of name, continues.

Probably there is no other mercantile establishment of similar size in

the country that is carried on as a partnership, and none which after

more than sixty years is so exclusively owned by members of the

immediate family of its founders.

The Arbuckle business, as it is today, is John Arbuckle's best monument.

All that it is he foresaw; for behind those keen, penetrating eyes,

there was wonderful vision. Simple in his tastes; democratic in his

dress, in his habits and his speech; he was one of the most approachable

of our first captains of industry. Many of the younger generation in the

coffee business have found inspiration in contemplating John Arbuckle's

achievements. As represented in what has been called "the world's

greatest coffee business", these include other package coffees, such as

Yuban, Arbuckle's Breakfast, Arbuckle's Drinksum, and Arbuckle's

Certified Java and Mocha. The pioneer Ariosa brand is still being sold;

although it is interesting to note that the demand for ground Ariosa is

increasing, marking the swing of the pendulum of public taste away from

the original bean package to the so-called "steel-cut," or ground,

coffee package. Will it swing back again, some day? Many coffee men

believe it will. If it does, good old Ariosa, with its coating of sugar

and eggs, will no doubt be on the job to meet it.

Yuban was launched in the fall of 1913. It is a high-grade package

coffee, whereas Ariosa is popular-priced. In addition to the package

coffee business, Arbuckle Bros. have many other activities. They deal in

green coffee as well as roasted coffee in bulk. The wholesale grocery

business in Pittsburg continues under the old name of Arbuckles & Co.;

while in Chicago, Arbuckle Bros. have a branch equipped with a

coffee-roasting-and-packaging plant, also spice-grinding and

extract-manufacturing plants, and do a large business in teas. A branch

in Kansas City distributes the products manufactured in New York and

Chicago. In Brazil, offices are maintained at Rio de Janeiro, Santos,

and Victoria, as Arbuckle & Co. In Mexico, Arbuckle Bros. are

established at Jalapa, with branches at Cordoba and Coatepec. In season,

the warehouses and hulling plants at those points employ as many as 650

hands preparing Mexican coffee for shipment to New York.

Arbuckle Bros. are direct importers of green coffee on a large scale,

and are known also as heavy buyers "on the street." The roasting

capacity of their Brooklyn plant is from 8,000 to 9,000 bags per day.

The cylinder equipment of twenty-four Burns roasters is supplemented by

four "Jumbo" roasters of Arbuckle build, each capable of roasting

thirty-five bags at one time. The Ariosa package business grew from the

smallest beginnings to more than 800,000 packages per day. Individual

brands have not held their lead of late years; but the volume of

package-coffee business is greater than ever. Many jobbers now pack

brands of their own, besides handling the Arbuckle brands.

Distribution of roasted coffees outside Chicago and Kansas City is

accomplished through the medium of more than one hundred stock depots

in as many different cities of the United States.

To operate the world's greatest coffee business is no small undertaking;

and when this is coupled with an important sugar-refining business and a

waterfront warehouse-and-terminal business, plenty of room is needed. So

we find the plant along the Brooklyn waterfront occupying an area of a

dozen city blocks. An idea of the extent and diversity of the activities

of the plant may be gained from a brief reference to the utilities, and

the trades, and even the professions, that are required to make the

wheels go round.

To ship more than one hundred cars of coffee and sugar in a single day

calls for shipping facilities that could be had only by organizing a

railroad and waterfront terminal, known as Jay Street Terminal, equipped

with freight station, locomotives, tugboats, steam lighters, car floats,

and barges. City deliveries of coffee and sugar call for a fleet of

thirty-five large motor trucks that are housed in the firm's own garage

and kept in repair in their own shops. Although motor trucks are fast

replacing the faithful horse; and the time will never come again when

Arbuckle Bros. will boast of their stable of nearly two hundred horses

that were generally acknowledged to be the finest string of draft horses

in the city, some fifty or sixty of their faithful animals still are in

harness; and so the stable, with blacksmith shop, harness shop, and

wagon-repair shops, are serving their respective purposes, though on a

reduced scale. A printing shop vibrates with the whirr of mammoth

printing presses turning out thousands upon thousands of coffee-wrappers

and circulars; and doubtless it will be news to many that the first

three-color printing press ever built was expressly designed and built

for Arbuckle Bros. Then there is a sunny first-aid hospital on top of

the Pearl Street warehouse where a physician is ever ready to relieve

sudden illness and accidental injuries. On the eleventh floor there is a

huge dining room where the Brooklyn clerical forces get their noonday

lunches. This feeding of the inner man (and woman) is matched by the

power-house where twenty-six large steam boilers must be fed their quota

of coal. In the winter months, when Warmth must come for the workers as

well as power for the wheels, the coal consumption runs up as high as

four hundred tons per day.

The barrel factory, with a daily capacity of 6,800 sugar barrels, is

located about a mile away, where barrel staves and heads are received

from the firm's own stave mill in Virginia, made from logs cut on their

own timber lands in Virginia and North Carolina. A more self-contained

plant would be hard to imagine, and so we find that even the last

activity in its operations--that of washing and drying the emptied sugar

bags--is also provided for. That this is "some laundry" goes without

saying, when it is recalled that in the busy sugar season the firm dumps

from eight to ten thousand bags of raw sugar per day, and that these

bags are washed and dried daily as emptied. A huge rotary drier of the

firm's own design does the work of about three miles of clothes lines.

Even after the coffees have been sold and paid for, there still remains

an important task, and that is to redeem the signature coupons which the

consumers cut from the packages and return for premiums. Lest some

regard this as an insignificant phase of the business, it may be stated

that in a single year the premium department has received over one

hundred and eight million coupons calling for more than four million

premiums. These premiums included 818,928 handkerchiefs; 261,000 pairs

of lace curtains; 238,738 shears; and 185,920 Torrey razors. Finger

rings are perennial favorites, and so insistent is the demand for the

rings offered as premiums, that Arbuckle Bros. are regarded as the

largest distributors of finger rings in the world. One of their premium

rings is a wedding ring; and if all the rings of this pattern serve

their intended purpose, it is estimated that the firm has assisted at

eighty thousand weddings in a year.

Turning from the utilities at the plant to the trades and professions

represented, other than the trained sugar and coffee workers, the

following are constantly employed: physicians, chemists, mechanical

engineers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, railroad engineers and

brakemen, steamboat captains and engineers, chauffeurs, teamsters,

wagon-makers, harness-makers, machinists, draughtsmen, blacksmiths,

tinsmiths, coppersmiths, coopers, carpenters, masons, painters,

plumbers, riggers, typesetters and pressmen, and last but not least,

the chef and table waiters.

One of the most remarkable things about the growth of this business

enterprise is that it is not the result of buying out, or consolidating

with, competitors; but has resulted from a steady wholesome growth along

conservative business lines. Consolidations are often desirable and

effective; but when a great business has been built without any such

consolidations, the conclusion is inevitable that somewhere in the

establishment there must have been a corresponding amount of wisdom,

foresight, energy, and honorable business dealing. Those were the things

for which John Arbuckle stood firm, and for which he will always be

remembered.

_Jabez Burns, Inventor, Manufacturer, Writer_

Jabez Burns was a person of real importance to the American coffee trade

from 1864, when he began to manufacture his improved roaster, until his

death, at the age of sixty-two, in 1888. His success depended more on

unusual character than unusual ability, although he was really gifted as

regards mechanical invention. He loved to acquire practical information,

and arrived confidently at common-sense conclusions; and he exercised a

wide and helpful influence, because he liked to give expression to

opinions that he considered sound and useful.

Mr. Burns was born in London in 1826. The family moved soon after to

Dundee, Scotland, and came to New York in 1844. They were people of

small means and independent thinking. The father, William G. Burns, had

been more interested in the Chartist social movement than in any settled

business activity. An uncle, also named Jabez Burns, became a popular

Baptist preacher in London.

The first winter in America found youthful Jabez teaching a country

school at Summit, N.J. Then he began in New York (1844-45) as teamster

for Henry Blair, a prosperous coffee merchant who attended a little

"Disciples" church in lower Sixth Avenue where many Scottish families

congregated. There also Burns met Agnes Brown, daughter of a Paisley

weaver, and married her in 1847. A brave young pair they were, who found

all sorts of odd riches--just as if a fast-growing family could somehow

make up for a slow-growing income. There were hopes, too, that the

contrivances Burns kept inventing might bring wealth; and some extra

money did come from the sale of early patents, including one in 1858 for

the Burns Addometer, a primitive adding machine.

But Mr. Burns had continued regularly in the employ of coffee and spice

firms, and at one time he was bookkeeper for Thomas Reid's Globe Mills.

He advanced slowly, because he lacked real trading talent; but he was

learning all about the handling of goods, from purchase to final

delivery; and when he quit bookkeeping for the old Globe Mills, and

began to build his patent roaster, he could advise clients reliably

about every factory detail.

He was soon looked on as an authority. He wrote some articles for the

_American Grocer_, a series on "Food Adulteration" being reprinted; and

in 1878, he began the quarterly publication of his thirty-two-page

_Spice Mill_, which soon became a monthly, and gained the interested

attention of practically the entire coffee and spice trade.

Through the columns of this paper, in circulars, by letters, and in a

pocket volume called the _Spice Mill Companion_, he distributed

information on coffee, spices, and baking powder, and gave valuable

advice to beginners in the coffee-roasting business. Not a few coffee

roasters were started on the way to fortune by the counsel of Jabez

Burns. He died in New York, September 16, 1888.

Jabez Burns founded the business of Jabez Burns & Sons in 1864,

beginning the manufacture of his patent coffee roaster at 107 Warren

Street, New York. Since then, there have been four removals. In

December, 1908, the business moved to its present uptown location, at

the northwest corner of Eleventh Avenue and Forty-third Street,

occupying a six-story building which was doubled in size in 1917. This

Burns factory has been referred to as "the unique coffee-machinery

workshop", the greatest establishment of its kind in the United States.

Upon the death of its founder the business was continued; first, as the

firm of Jabez Burns & Sons, composed of his sons, Jabez, Robert, and A.

Lincoln Burns; and later, in 1906, incorporated as Jabez Burns & Sons,

Inc., with Robert Burns as president, Jabez Burns as vice-president,

and A. Lincoln Burns as secretary and treasurer. Jabez Burns died August

6, 1908. The present officers are: Robert Burns, president; A. Lincoln

Burns, vice-president; William G. Burns, general manager; and C.H.

Maclachlan, secretary and treasurer.

[Illustration: JABEZ BURNS]

A. Lincoln Burns succeeded his father as editor of the _Spice Mill_.

William H. Ukers was made editor in 1902, and he continued until 1904,

when he left to assume editorial direction of _The Tea and Coffee Trade

Journal_.

_Coffee-Trade Booms and Panics_

In the last fifty years there have been many spectacular attempts to

corner the coffee market in Europe and the United States. The first

notable occurrence of this kind did not originate in the trade itself.

It took place in 1873, and was known as the "Jay Cooke panic", being

brought about by the famous panic of that name in the stock market.

As a result of the Jay Cooke failure, it was impossible to obtain money

from the banks. Hence buyers were forced to keep out of the coffee

market; and as a consequence, the price for Rios dropped from

twenty-four cents to fifteen cents in the course of the trading period

of one day[349].

Another interesting development during that year was of foreign origin.

A coffee syndicate was organized in Europe, financed by the powerful

German Trading Company of Frankfort, with agencies in London, Rotterdam,

Antwerp, and Brazil. For more than eight years this proved to be a

highly successful undertaking, largely controlling the principal

producing and consuming markets.

As far as the American coffee trade is concerned, the first sensational

upheaval took place in 1880-81. This period witnessed the collapse of

the first great coffee trade combination in this country--the so-called

"syndicate", comprising O.G. Kimball, B.G. Arnold, and Bowie Dash,

sometimes known as the "trinity".

The period of high coffee prices, commencing in 1870, had greatly

stimulated production in many Mild-coffee producing countries, as well

as in Brazil, and as a consequence the syndicate found its burden

becoming extremely heavy early in 1880. In January of that year our

visible supply amounted roughly to 767,000 bags. While this was reduced

to about 740,000 bags in July, the latter likewise proved to be

decidedly burdensome, especially as another liberal crop was beginning

to move in producing countries. The excessive volume of supplies was

especially marked, because distributing trade during the summer was

strikingly dull, as the majority of buyers were holding off, in view of

the prospective liberal new crops. At that time Java coffee was a big

item in American markets, whereas Santos was just about beginning to be

a factor.

The syndicate found that it had its hands full supporting the Brazil

grades, and hence had to let the Javas go. As a result, the latter,

which had sold at twenty-four and three-quarters cents in January, 1880,

fell to nineteen and one-half cents in July, to eighteen cents in

November and to sixteen cents in December. As a matter of fact, the

syndicate was practically the only buyer of Brazil coffee during the

fall of 1880; and as a consequence, Rios, which had started the year at

fourteen and one-half to sixteen and one-quarter cents, were down to

twelve and three-quarters cents in December, 1880, and had dropped nine

and one-half cents when the break in the market culminated in June,

1881.

The first whispers of financial troubles growing out of these adverse

conditions were heard in October, 1880; and on the 27th of that month

the first failure was announced--that of C. Risley & Co., with

liabilities placed at $800,000 and assets at $400,000. This firm had

been doing business in the local market for about thirty years. The

efforts of the receivers to dispose of this company's large stock

naturally served to accelerate the decline; and the final impetus came

on December 6, when the New York trade heard of the death, two days

previously, of O.G. Kimball, of Boston, one of the most prominent

merchants there. This precipitated the big crash of December 7, when

B.G. Arnold & Co., the largest New York firm, suspended with estimated

liabilities of $750,000 to $1,000,000. The official statement later

placed the liabilities at $2,157,914, and assets at $1,400,000, of which

$884,198 were secured. Within three days this failure was followed by

the suspension of Bowie Dash & Co., with liabilities estimated at

$1,400,000.

For weeks thereafter there was virtually no market. With all of these

distress holdings pressing for liquidation, buyers, as was natural, were

extremely timid. In the meantime, the import arrivals showed further

enlargement at various southern ports, as well as at New York. Total

arrivals at this port during 1881 were almost 12,400,000 pounds heavier

than for the preceding year. The growing importance of Santos as a

market factor was demonstrated by the fact that shipments from there in

1881 were 1,198,625 bags, compared with about 628,900 bags in 1876-77.

According to the best informed members of the trade at that time, the

losses sustained by the various firms that were forced to the wall

aggregated between $5,000,000 and $7,000,000.

The utterly demoralized conditions prevailing while this collapse was in

progress, and the practical elimination of a market in the true sense of

the word, furnished the principal impetus for the organization of the

New York Coffee Exchange. At that time, the Havre market was the only

one with an exchange. The local body was organized in December, 1881,

and started business in March, 1882.

_The Cable Break of 1884_

The second noteworthy movement, embracing an advance of four to four and

one-half cents and a recession of slightly more than three cents,

covered a period of about eight months shortly after the Exchange was

organized. Various local and out-of-town firms were interested in the

bulge which carried Rio coffee in this market from about seven cents in

July, 1883, up to eleven and one-half cents late in November. By the

middle of December, the price had fallen to nine and one-quarter cents,

the final break to eight and one-quarter cents occurring late in March

of the following year. At that time, there was no direct cable

communication with Brazil; and as a result of a temporary break in the

roundabout service by way of Portugal, the New York and Baltimore agents

of the Brazilian syndicate were unable to put up additional margins in

this market, and their accounts were closed out. This happened on a

Saturday; and by the following Monday, partial cable remittances arrived

and all accounts were settled in full with interest from Saturday to

Monday.

_The Great Boom_

What is generally described as "the great boom" of the coffee trade

occurred in 1886-87, and had its inception in unsatisfactory crop news

from Brazil. The crop of 1887-1888, it was estimated, would be extremely

small; and it turned out to be only 3,033,000 bags. These advices and

low estimates led to the formation of a "bull" clique, comprising

operators in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Brazil, and Europe, who set

a price of twenty-five cents for December contracts as their goal.

Toward the end of June, 1886, when this campaign started, No. 7 Rio in

New York was worth about seven and one-half cents, with June contracts

on the Exchange quoted at seven and sixty-five hundredths cents. With

Brazilian crop news still more discouraging, the advance thereafter was

almost continuous, and on June 1, 1887, December contracts sold at

twenty-two and one-quarter cents--a new high price record, that was not

exceeded for thirty-two years, when twenty-four and sixty-five

hundredths cents were paid for July contracts in June, 1919. After

reaching twenty-two and one-quarter cents, prices suffered an abrupt

reversal. Ten days later the closing price for December was twenty-one

and four-tenth cents. Then the real crash began. On Saturday, June 11,

the panic started with another claim of cable trouble; and in the short

session, December coffee broke from twenty and fifteen-hundredths to

eighteen and sixty-five hundredths cents, closing at a loss for the day

of 275 points. The first sale of December on Monday was at seventeen and

four-tenths cents, or 125 points lower; and after numerous erratic

variations, the price broke to sixteen cents, a drop of six and

one-quarter cents in less than two weeks. Business on that day was of

enormous volume, in round numbers 412,000 bags; and approximately

$1,500,000 was put up in margins. For the next three days the decline

was temporarily halted, and December, at one time, was up three and

one-quarter cents from the bottom (nineteen and one-quarter cents). On

June 17, another battle commenced, December dropping back to seventeen

cents. Then came a rally to eighteen and one-tenth cents, a drop to

sixteen and one-half cents; another rally to eighteen and one-tenth,

and, on June 24, another break to the previous low level of sixteen

cents for December. This sharp reversal in less than a month was

traceable largely to more favorable news from Brazil, the 1888-89 crop

being estimated at 6,827,000 bags.

Following a rally to nineteen and six-tenths cents during the next month

(July, 1887), the pendulum again swung downward. The climax came with

the culmination of the "European fiasco" of the spring of 1888. Reports

were received that various European coffee firms had failed; and future

contracts in the American market sold as low as nine cents in March.

_A Famous European Bull Campaign_

The next campaign of interest lasted more than two and a half years. In

September, 1891, there was a corner in the local market which forced the

September price up to seventeen and one-quarter cents. George

Kaltenbach, a wealthy speculator living in Paris, combining with three

operators in Havre, Hamburg, and Antwerp, succeeded in breaking the

corner, forcing the price down to ten and eight-tenths cents. They then

changed to the bull side, buying heavily in all markets of the world.

This was continued until early in 1893, bringing the price back to

fifteen cents. Although his associates then returned to the bear side,

Kaltenbach kept on buying; and aided by bad crop reports from Brazil, he

worked the price up as high as seventeen and seven-tenths cents. At one

time it was said that his profits were more than one million dollars.

The collapse of this deal occurred in May, 1893, involving thirty firms

in Hamburg, Havre, and Rotterdam. As Kaltenbach could not keep his large

New York holdings margined, they were thrown on the market, bringing

about a sharp break, and causing the failure of his New York agents,

T.M. Barr & Co.

The present era of large crops began in 1894, Brazil's production for

1894-95 being placed at 6,695,000 bags. Nevertheless, Guzman Blanco, a

former president of Venezuela, then living in Paris, and said to be

worth about $20,000,000, attempted to run a corner in April, 1895. He

bought 200,000 bags of spot coffee in Havre warehouses and accumulated a

big line of futures in various markets. Assisted by reports of cholera

in Rio and some reduction in Brazilian crops, he enjoyed temporary

success, the price of Rio 7s in New York rising to fifteen and one-half

cents in October, 1895. Thereafter, there was an almost continuous

decline. In the spring of 1898, a vigorous bear campaign was conducted,

largely in the form of market letters; and by November, Rio 7s here had

dropped to four and one-half cents.

_The Bubonic Plague Boom_

The so-called "bubonic plague boom" halted this prolonged downward

movement for a time in 1899-1900. The boom derived its name from the

outbreak of bubonic plague in Brazil, as a result of which the ports of

that country were quarantined. In addition, Brazilian steamers arriving

at New York were placed in quarantine; and the impossibility of

unloading their cargoes caused a temporary shortage. As a result, prices

rose from four and one-quarter cents in September, 1899, to eight and

one-quarter cents in July, 1900. The quarantine being lifted, the bears

again became aggressive; and by April, 1901, they had forced the price

back to five cents.

There was another short-lived attempt to establish a corner in

September, 1901. Receipts at Rio and Santos had been running light,

encouraging a local clique embracing Skiddy, Minford & Company; W.H.

Crossman & Bro.; and Gruner & Company, to endeavor to gain control. The

arrivals at Brazilian ports suddenly increased to the largest volume

ever known up to that time; and, with vigorous opposition from operators

in Havre, the corner here was speedily broken.

The opening of the new century witnessed the beginning of another new

coffee era, Santos permanently displacing Rio as the world's largest

source of supply. The figures for 1900-01 were: Santos, 2,945,000 bags;

Rio, 2,413,000 bags.

Huge crops then became a regular thing in Brazil. That of 1901-02 was

far in excess of estimates, being 15,000,000 bags; while 20,000,000 bags

were produced in 1902-03. As a result, the world's coffee trade became

completely demoralized for the time being. In August, 1902, contracts

for July, 1903, delivery sold at six and one-tenths cents. By June,

1903, they had fallen to three and fifty-five hundredths cents, the

lowest price ever recorded for coffee.

_The Southern Boom_

As is invariably the case when prices reach extreme levels, either high

or low, the pendulum swung back rapidly in the other direction. Based on

the unprecedentedly low prices, the so-called "cotton crowd" started

what was generally known as "the southern boom". Various cotton traders

in New York and the South, under the leadership of D.J. Sully, the

one-time "cotton king", and ably assisted by prominent local coffee

firms, became extremely active on the buying side; and by February,

1904, they had forced the price up to eleven and eighty-five hundredths

cents. This figure, the highest since 1896, was reached on February 2,

which proved to be another day of enormous speculative dealings,

involving roundly 462,000 bags. This marked another turning point; the

three succeeding days of record-breaking operations on the Exchange

witnessing a break of roughly two cents. Mr. Sully went on a vacation on

February 3, and the Sielcken interests sold on a large scale. Business

for that day was placed at 555,000 bags, closing prices being about

one-half cent lower. This brought on enormous liquidation by western

bulls on the following day, approximately 500,000 bags. As a result,

prices lost twenty-five to sixty-five points on a turn-over of about

642,000 bags. All records for business were smashed on the following

day, February 5. The official record was 689,000 bags, but trade

estimates made it more than 1,000,000 bags. On that day, southern

interests liquidated heavily, causing net losses of eighty to ninety

points. Doubtless the break would have been more severe had it not been

for buying by the Sielcken people and several other strong interests at

and below seven and one-quarter cents for September contracts.

_The Story of Valorization_

The valorization, or equalization, of coffee originated in Brazil. When

the original plan was threatened with disaster, Hermann Sielcken stepped

in and saved the Brazil planters from ruin; the Brazil government from

possible revolution; and, incidentally, won for himself and those who

were his partners in the enterprise much unenviable notoriety.

The principle of valorization is generally conceded to be economically

unsound, because it encourages overproduction. And valorization in

Brazil would have been a failure, had it not been for a fortuitous

combination of short crops, Hermann Sielcken's genius, and the World

War. Because of the lessons learned in this experience, Brazil's

subsequent valorization enterprises have run more smoothly.

A rapidly increasing world demand, a wonderfully fertile soil, and cheap

labor kept the Brazil coffee industry in a flourishing condition nearly

to the close of 1889. Coffee consumption was increasing, especially in

the United States. By April 1890, the average import price per pound of

Rio No. 7 in this country was nineteen cents; and Brazil was supplying

only about half our needs. Virgin soil was still available in Brazil,

and immigration furnished all the needful labor. Easy profits led to

increased investment and careless methods. Her planters were drunk with

prosperity. For six years, nearly all the three million inhabitants of

São Paulo, Brazil's largest coffee producing state, "entirely gave up

planting corn, rice, beans, everything they needed. They bought them

because coffee was so immensely profitable that they put all their labor

in coffee."

Brazil had been going through a period of low exchange. Paper money fell

below par. The exaggerated issues of it, which provoked the collapse of

exchange, suddenly endowed Brazil with an abundant circulation of money.

Production was enormously stimulated. New undertakings sprang up on

every hand. Armies of agricultural laborers were recruited in Europe and

shipped into the coffee districts. And then, to make the story short,

supply passed demand, surplus stocks began to appear, prices began to

fall, and fell until they dropped below the cost of production.

It was in 1896-97, when the new trees came into bearing by the tens and

hundreds of thousands, that São Paulo's folly began to tell. By October

of that year the price of Rio No. 7 in New York had fallen to about

seven cents. The decline continued, until, in 1903, it hung around five

cents. Then began the winter of São Paulo's discontent. Too late, the

state government tried by taxing new coffee estates, to force the

planters to raise crops to supply their own necessities. The times grew

harder.

Mortgages held by large coffee houses and bankers were being foreclosed.

The industry was passing into European hands. The smaller planters were

becoming desperate; and desperation is only a step from revolution. The

government of the state of São Paulo knew this; and to save the state,

it finally promised it would buy the next coffee crop, and would hold it

for the planters at such a price as would be necessary to continue the

industry. The protagonists of this plan to valorize coffee were Dr.

Jorge Tibiriçá, Dr. Augusto Ramos, and Dr. Albuquerque Lins.

During all the period covering São Paulo's rise and fall in coffee, the

financial genius who was to lead her again into the land of plenty had

been quietly acquiring a knowledge of her problems--also, the ability to

make money out of their solution.

Valorization was undertaken to save the coffee industry. Its intent was

good, even if the theory was bad. The scheme was not new, and there were

no encouraging precedents to augur its success. The situation was

desperate and seemed to justify the trial of a desperate remedy. São

Paulo attempted to carry the load; but her resources were insufficient.

The bumper world crop of 19,090,000 bags in 1901-02 was followed, in

1906-07, with another extraordinary yield of 24,307,000 bags, of which

Brazil alone produced 20,192,000 bags. To make good its promise to the

planters, ready cash was needed; and so the São Paulo government sent a

special commissioner to Europe to get it. For sixty years the

Rothschilds had acted as Brazil's bankers. The commissioner went to the

Rothschilds first. He was flatly refused. After that, he was turned down

by practically every bank on the continent. It looked as if the bankers

had entered into a gentlemen's agreement to make it unanimous. Then the

commissioner bethought himself of the coffee merchants; and that thought

naturally suggested Hermann Sielcken, who, singularly enough, happened

to be conveniently resting at nearby Baden-Baden. In August, 1906, the

commissioner waited upon Mr. Sielcken and begged his aid.

It was Sielcken's hour of triumph. For years he had been soliciting

Brazil. Now the tables were turned, and Brazil was asking favors of

Sielcken.

The rest of the story is best told by Robert Sloss, who wrote it for

_World's Work_ from information furnished by trade authorities--and even

by Mr. Sielcken, himself, in various speeches, newspaper articles, and

on the witness stand. It is presented here with certain minor

corrections by the author:

"Well, what do you want me to do?" asked Hermann Sielcken of the

commissioner from the state of São Paulo.

"We want you to finance for us five to eight million bags of

coffee," said the commissioner blandly.

Here was an adventure. Here was a proposition to lift bodily out of

the market half as much coffee as the world's total production had

averaged for the ten preceding years when prices had been so low.

Presumably, if this were done, prices would be doubled. But Hermann

Sielcken shook his head.

"No," he said, "there is not the slightest chance for it, not the

slightest." And then he pointed out that there would be "no

financial assistance coming from anywhere" if the São Paulo

planters kept on raising such ridiculously large crops of coffee.

The commissioner assured him that the prospect was for smaller

crops in future. Hermann Sielcken was not so sure about it "At a

price low enough," he mused, "I might be able to raise funds to pay

eighty percent on a value of seven cents a pound for Rio No. 5."

The commissioner was dismayed. His government had already promised

to take coffee from the planters at about a cent a pound above the

market, and the market then stood at nearly eight cents. The

government would have to dig to make up the difference. Hermann

Sielcken's terms were the best that could be got, however, and the

commissioner accepted them.

From that time forth Hermann Sielcken was the head of the movement.

He approached a few large coffee merchants, including his former

rivals, Arbuckle Brothers, and drew up a contract. The merchants

agreed to advance eighty percent of the sum required to buy two

million bags of coffee at seven cents a pound. If the market went

above seven cents, the government was to make no purchases. If it

fell below seven cents, the government was to make good the

difference to the merchants by cable.

Before the season was well advanced the unexpected happened. Brazil

was reaping the largest coffee harvest in the history of the world.

The two million bags of coffee purchased by the government were as

a drop in a bucket. Financed by Hermann Sielcken, Schroeder, the

great London banker, and a few prominent European merchants, the

government was forced to buy almost nine million bags. Toward the

end of 1907, the government had lifted half of the world's visible

supply of coffee, but the market stood only a trifle above six

cents a pound. The government was practically bankrupt.

Hermann Sielcken now enlisted the Rothschilds on his side, and

shifted the financial burden from the shoulders of the coffee

merchants to those of the Paris bankers and their American

associates. Then the Rothschilds imposed their conditions on the

government of Brazil. A national law was passed determining a heavy

penalty for any one who planted a new coffee tree in Brazil. The

government guaranteed that not more than mine million bags of the

next coffee crop and not more than ten million bags of any

succeeding crop should be exported.

By the end of 1911, the coffee market stood well above thirteen

cents. Here was a rise of more than one hundred percent in two

years, more than sixty percent in six months. Evidently,

valorization coffee in the hands of the bankers' committee had

become a gilt-edged security. But how?

During the five crop years since the "plan" was launched on the

heights above Baden, nearly 90,000,000 bags of coffee had been

raised in the world. The bankers' committee still held 5,108,000

bags of this. At the highest estimate, consumption had exceeded

production by only 4,000,000 bags. Here was a shortage of only a

little more than ten percent in supply as against demand, so far as

crops go. Yet there had been a rise of more than one hundred

percent in two years in the price of coffee on the New York Coffee

Exchange.... Upon the merchant's ability to deliver coffee on the

New York Coffee Exchange depends the price of coffee in the world.

That explains why the bankers' committee from the beginning refused

absolutely to sell valorization coffee on the public exchanges of

the world. In Europe, they put it up at auction; and when it didn't

go, it was bought in for them. In America, they announced in a

printed circular that valorization coffee would be sold only on

condition that the purchaser would not deliver it on the New York

Coffee Exchange.

Hermann Sielcken absolutely refused to sell coffee to the merchants

on the Exchange. Arbuckle Brothers kept on buying coffee heavily,

as if they would corner the market. They resold the coffee,

however, at private sales, exacting a written contract from the

buyer that he would not deliver the coffee on the New York Coffee

Exchange, or resell it to any one that would so deliver it. The

Coffee Exchange began an investigation, but nothing ever came of

it.

Shortly after the valorization committee had apparently cleared up

$25,000,000 in one year, the restriction as to the delivery of

valorization coffee on the New York Coffee Exchange was officially

removed. Yet neither from Hermann Sielcken nor from Arbuckle

Brothers, it is charged, could one buy any coffee to deliver for

that purpose. In 1911, coffee rose to sixteen cents per pound.

At the end, it was found that the committee's holdings had been marketed

at the various sales on a basis, for Santos 4s, from eight and

five-eighths cents minimum, to the final sale here forced by the United

States government, at which time the price realized was sixteen and

three-quarter cents for Santos 4s, and fourteen cents for Rio 7s.

The one fly in the valorization ointment was Senator G.W. Norris, of

Nebraska, who early in 1911 called for a congressional investigation of

the operations of the valorization syndicate, which he said was costing

the American people $35,000,000 a year. The attorney-general was

instructed to report as to whether or not there was a coffee trust. It

was a leisurely investigation, which encountered many snags placed in

its way by those who believed it would be against international policy

to question too closely the participation of the Brazil government in

the enterprise. Politics played no inconsiderable part in the

investigation, which dragged along until May 18, 1912, when an action

was begun in the Federal District Court for the southern district of New

York, alleging conspiracy in restraint of trade on the part of Hermann

Sielcken; Bruno Schroeder, of J. Henry Schroeder & Co.; Edouard Bunge;

the Vicomte des Touches; Dr. Paulo da Silva Prado; Theodor Wille; the

Société Generale; and the New York Dock Co.; also praying for injunction

and receivership of the valorization coffee then stored in the United

States, and amounting to 746,539 bags. The injunction was denied.

Immediately thereafter, rumors began to circulate that the government's

coffee suit would never be tried. The Brazilian ambassador threatened

diplomatic interference, and Attorney-General Wickersham let it be known

that a friendly settlement might be effected. Sielcken boldly challenged

the authorities to prosecute the case, and even seemed to invite

criminal proceedings against himself. Saving the government's face, and

Brazil's face, at one and the same time, proved to be a long and tedious

process.

Meanwhile, Senator Norris introduced in Congress a bill designed to give

the government power to seize importations of coffee when restraint of

trade was proved. It was vigorously opposed by many prominent

green-coffee men and roasters; but in February, 1913, it became enacted

into a law. It effectively killed all future valorization schemes in so

far as direct participation by this country is concerned.

About December 1, 1912, Attorney-General Wickersham accepted good-faith

assurances from Mr. Sielcken's attorney--who represented also the Brazil

government--and agreed that if the valorization coffee stored here was

sold to bona-fide purchasers before April 1, 1913, the government's suit

would be dismissed. In May, 1913, the attorney-general of the new Wilson

administration, which came into office in March of that year, issued a

statement saying that, good-faith assurances having been received from

the Brazil government that the understanding was fulfilled in letter and

spirit before the date set by the previous attorney-general, and the

entire amount of coffee disposed of to eighty dealers in thirty-three

cities, the suit would be dismissed.

In the United States Senate about the same time, Senator Norris renewed

his attack on "the international coffee trust". He charged that the

coffee sale was not as represented, but merely a transfer, and called

upon the Department of Justice for the facts, with names of the alleged

purchasers.

Attorney-General McReynolds, on May 7, 1913, declined to send to the

Senate the official correspondence in regard to the Brazil

coffee-valorization matter, because it was "incompatible with the public

interests." He did, however, send other papers on the subject. The

secretary of state sent copies of some correspondence; but the documents

were not made public. This ended the matter, although Senator Norris

called for a congressional investigation, charging that the

attorney-general had been handed a "gold brick".

Sielcken contented himself with remarking that the suit was a mistake in

the first place, and that it was a foregone conclusion the government

would be defeated. Also, he offered $5,000 to any one who could explain

the Norris bill.

Valorization, then, was started by the state of São Paulo in 1905, when

a law was passed authorizing the state to enter into an agreement with

the other Brazil states and the federal government for the adoption of

measures which would assure the valorization of coffee and facilitate a

propaganda abroad for increased consumption.

The states of São Paulo, Minãs Geraes, and Rio de Janeiro proposed,

early in 1906, to withdraw from the markets such quantities of coffee as

would keep down exports and maintain profitable prices. The plan

comprehended the interested states borrowing about $75,000,000 from

European and United States bankers with which to buy up the surplus

coffee. To take care of interest and amortization, a tax of three francs

per bag of 132 pounds (about 57 cents) was to be levied on all coffee

exports, collectable at Santos and Rio de Janeiro. Further

coffee-planting was to be checked by enforcing the law which carried a

tax sufficiently high to operate toward restriction.

When it was understood that Brazil's federal government would not

endorse the plan _in toto_, it was abandoned by Rio de Janeiro and Minãs

Geraes. However, the state of São Paulo in the course of the next two

years borrowed some $30,000,00 on its own account for valorization

purposes, obtaining half the amount direct from foreign banking

interests, and the remainder, through the Brazilian federal government,

from London sources.

This first valorization was abandoned in favor of the Sielcken plan,

which the federal government ratified in July, 1908. By this new plan

São Paulo borrowed $75,000,000 from the syndicate composed of American,

English, German, French, and Belgian bankers. Out of this it repaid the

$30,000,000 loan. The 1908 loan was to expire in ten years, in 1919.

Under the plan of the new loan, it was agreed that certain amounts of

the valorized coffee should be stored as collateral in warehouses in

New York and Europe in charge of a committee of seven, who were

authorized to sell the coffee in the market in specified quantities and

at prices that would not disturb the price of other coffees. The

composition of the committee was as follows: Dr. Francisco Ferreira

Ramos, of São Paulo and Antwerp; who was succeeded by Dr. Paulo da Silva

Prado; the Vicomte des Touches, of Havre; the Société Generale, of

Paris; the firm of Theodor Wille, of Hamburg; Hermann Sielcken, of New

York; Edouard Bunge, of Antwerp; and Baron Bruno Schroeder, of J. Henry

Schroeder & Co., of London.

Brazil agreed to purchase 10,000,000 bags and to hold them off the

market until conditions warranted their sale. It was also agreed that

the total exports of unvalorized stocks from Brazil would be restricted

to 10,000,000 bags for 1907-08, and to 10,500,000 bags for 1909-10. In

addition, a surtax of five francs gold per bag (96-1/4 cents) was placed

on every bag exported to pay carrying charges. The management of the

government's holdings was placed in the hands of the international

committee. This committee issued bonds which were quickly subscribed

for; and because of its efficient handling of its huge holdings, prices

held steady in spite of the record-breaking Brazilian crop of nearly

20,192,000 bags in 1906-07, and a later one in 1909-10 of about

15,000,000 bags. Indeed, there was an advance of about ten dollars a bag

between 1904 and 1911.

Valorization had the effect of stabilizing the Brazil market, and giving

the planters and allied interests the assistance they needed to ward off

the disaster that threatened them through overproduction. The United

States government action in 1912 forced the sale of the valorized stocks

held in this country, and the Congress passed the law making it

impossible again to offer for sale in America stocks of coffee held

under similar valorization agreements.

The coffee situation became so serious in 1913, that São Paulo again

entered the money market for another loan, borrowing $37,500,000 through

the good offices of the Brazilian federal government, following this up

two years later with another loan of $21,000,000. According to a

semi-official statement issued in Brazil early in 1919, the status of

valorization at that time was that the first loan of $75,000,000 of

1908, had been entirely liquidated, and the two later loans were greatly

reduced. At the same time, it was announced by the president of the

state of São Paulo that the surtax of five frances would be withdrawn as

soon as the liquidation of the loans had been completed. This surtax,

however, is still in effect. In 1919, the São Paulo government proposed

advancing the _pauta_, or export duty, very materially. A strong protest

was made by all the exporters; and a compromise was at last effected by

which the proposed increase in the _pauta_ was canceled, and the

existing surtax of five francs per bag continued as an offset.

The valorization project just described was the second of its kind, a

former attempt having proved a failure. At that time (1870), the

Brazilian government had been a large purchaser of Rio coffee, buying it

in lieu of exchange, as it had large remittances to make. The coffee was

sold through G. Amsinck & Co., and it is believed that heavy losses were

sustained.

Since the Sielcken valorization enterprise, the Brazilian government has

promoted two more valorizations, one in 1918, another early in 1922.

_War-Time Government Control of Coffee_

The board of managers of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, Inc.,

had realized, late in 1917, that war-time government control of coffee

trading was likely in view of the government's activities in other

commodities. To guard against the danger of a sudden announcement of

such action, the president of the Exchange was empowered from month to

month, at each meeting of the board, to suspend trading at any time that

conditions warranted; so that, when President Wilson announced, on

January 31, 1918, that all dealers in green coffees were to be licensed,

the Exchange was fully prepared. Trading was suspended pending further

information, and owing to the farsightedness of the board of managers,

all danger of a panic in the market was averted.

By 1917, the allies had stopped shipments of coffee to Germany through

neighbors who had been her sole source of supply. Stocks in all the

producing countries were accumulating, and São Paulo had embarked on

another valorization scheme to protect her planters. The markets of

Europe were entirely controlled by the governments; and the United

States was practically the only free and open market. The market here

was steady and without particular animation, and showed none until the

end of November, 1917. At that time, speculation activities, steamer

scarcity, and the steady advance in freights, became decided influences

in the market; and prices began to advance.

Freights on shipments from Brazil had advanced from one dollar and

twenty cents per bag early in the year to unheard-of prices; and, before

the bubble burst, had reached as high as four dollars per bag. With this

steadily advancing freight, speculation in coffee became more active;

and prices naturally began to rise. The relative cheapness of coffee

compared with all other commodities; the fact that coffee here had shown

very little advance; the prospect of an early peace; the large European

demand to follow; were favorite bull arguments. The market became

excited; speculative buying was general, every one, apparently, wanted

to buy coffee; and twenty cents per pound for Santos 4s in the near

future was a common prediction.

The United States food administrator had shown his antipathy to

uncontrolled exchange operations by his action on sugar, wheat, corn,

and other commodities, dealt in on the exchanges; consequently, the

proclamation of President Wilson regarding coffee was not a surprise to

those who had been watching the situation closely, especially as on

January 30, 1918 (the day before the proclamation) the president of the

Coffee Exchange was summoned by telegraph to appear in Washington to

discuss ways for a proper control of the article, and the best means to

bring about such control. As a result of this summons, a committee of

the entire trade, representing the Exchange, the green-coffee dealers

and importers, the roasters, and the brokers, was appointed by the

Exchange to confer with the food administrator at once, in order to work

out a plan whereby the business could be kept going. After a long

conference, rules agreed upon were approved that became the basis on

which business was conducted until the withdrawal of all regulations

regarding coffee in January, 1919. Much trade criticism followed the

publication of some of these rules.

George W. Lawrence, president of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange,

was called to Washington on February 28, 1918, to take charge of a newly

created coffee division under Theodore F. Whitmarsh, chief of the

distribution division of the food administration. In this position he

rendered a signal service to the trade and to his country. Although

subjected to a cross-fire of criticism from many green and roasted

coffee interests, he never wavered in the performance of his full duty;

and his good judgment, tact, and loyalty to American ideals, won for him

a high place in the regard of all those who had the best interests of

the country at heart. He was ably assisted in his work by Walter F.

Blake, of Williams, Russell & Company, New York; and by F.T. Nutt, Jr.,

treasurer of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange.

A coffee advisory board was appointed in June 1918, to serve as a

go-between for the trade and the food administration. Those who served

on this committee were: Henry Schaefer, of S. Gruner & Co., New York,

chairman; Carl H. Stoffregen, of Steinwender, Stoffregen & Co., New

York, secretary; and William Bayne, Jr., of William Bayne & Co., New

York; S.H. Dorr, of Arnold, Dorr & Co., New York; A. Schierenberg, of

Corn, Schwarz & Co., New York; Leon Israel, of Leon Israel & Bro., New

York; Joseph Purcell, of Hard & Rand, New York; B.F. Peabody, of T.

Barbour Brown & Co., New York; J.D. Pickslay, of Williams, Russell &

Co., New York; Charles L. Meehan, of P.C. Meehan & Co., New York; B.C.

Casanas, of Merchants Coffee Co., New Orleans; John R. Moir, of Chase &

Sanborn, Boston; and B. Meyer, of Stewart, Carnal & Co., New Orleans.

Others in the trade who served the food administration during the period

of the World War were George E. Lichty, president of the Black Hawk

Coffee & Spice Co., Waterloo, Iowa; and Theodore F. Whitmarsh,

vice-president and treasurer of Francis H. Leggett & Co., New York.

The visible supply of coffee for the United States on January 1, 1918,

was 2,887,308 bags. The world's visible supply was given as 10,012,000

bags; but to be added to this were more than 3,000,000 bags held by the

São Paulo government. Thus there was little reason to fear a coffee

shortage. That coffee should be permitted, with this large amount in

view, to run wild as to price, was certainly not the intention of the

food administrator, whose purpose was to keep foods moving to the United

States forces and allies, and as far as possible, to keep reasonable

prices for the United States consumers. Steadily advancing prices of

foods meant increasing cost of labor, general unrest, and a difficult

situation to meet at a period when the situation as a whole was most

critical.

Trouble for the coffee trade was imminent early in 1918, when the

shipping board, backed by experts, decided, or attempted to decide, that

coffee was not a food product; that no vessels could be had for its

transportation; and that it must be put on the list of prohibited or

restricted commodities. Mr. Hoover, however, insisted that coffee was a

very necessary essential, and that tonnage must be provided for an

amount sufficient at all times to keep the visible supply for the United

States up to at least 1,500,000 bags of Brazil coffee; and this figure

was ultimately accepted and carried out by the shipping board.

These figures, based on the deliveries of the two preceding years, and

with dealers limited to ninety days stock in the country, were deemed

ample to care for all requirements. It was figured that by November 1,

1918, the freight situation would be relieved to such an extent by the

new vessels building, that the amount could be increased should it be

found necessary. The food administration, through the war trade board,

offered steamer room to importers of record of the years 1916-17 at

$1.70 per bag. The first few vessels were promptly filled on a basis of

nine and one-quarter to nine and five-eighths cents, c. & f., for Santos

4s, well described. About the same time, our army and navy were able to

buy at eight to eight and three-eighths cents f.o.b. Santos, for

shipment by their own vessels. After the first few vessels offered by

the War Trade Board were filled, the trade became indifferent. The

warehouses in Brazil were loaded with stocks; vessels to carry coffee

were assured buyers at a fixed rate (profits limited); and, as there was

no apparent reason for an advance, buyers were willing to let the

producing countries carry the stock.

The last week in June brought very cold weather in São Paulo, and cables

reported heavy frost. The news was not taken seriously by the trade at

large. "Frost news" from Brazil was no novelty, and in the past had

always been looked upon as a regular and seasonable method of bulling

the market. This year, however, the frost was a fact, and the market

began to move upward with surprising speed. Reports of the damage to the

trees varied from forty to eighty percent. Quotations from Santos

advanced two cents per pound in as many days. United States buyers were

not disposed to follow the advance; offerings of steamer room were

declined; and boats booked for coffee, owing to the lack of cargoes,

were transferred elsewhere. Meanwhile the market continued to advance

rapidly. The allies were holding the enemy, and peace prospects were

brighter. From September 1 to November 15, the records of the food

administration showed very small purchases. The buyers did not believe

in the frost. With the news of the armistice, Brazil markets went wild;

and Santos 4s, which had sold at eight and one-quarter cents in May,

were quoted at twenty and one-half cents by December 10.

The food administration had decided, on February 6, 1918, after

consulting the committee appointed by the Exchange, and on their advice

and recommendation, to permit trading in futures on the following plan:

a fixed maximum price of eight and one-half cents per pound for the spot

month, with a carrying charge not to exceed fifteen points per pound for

delivery for each succeeding month. Thus the price for March delivery

was fixed at eight and one-half cents, while July delivery could be sold

at nine and one-tenths cents; but when July arrived, it became the spot

month, and eight and one-half cents was the maximum at which it could be

sold.

This rule effectively stopped speculation, but failed to work out

satisfactorily to the trade. Experience proved that a maximum fixed

price at which coffee could be traded in would have produced much better

results. Business on the Exchange followed its usual course, and the

customary hedging of purchases was done by dealers. The indifference of

buyers, already referred to, had resulted in a heavy decrease of the

United States visible supply; and it had shrunk to 2,445,000 bags on

September 1; to 2,173,098 bags on October 1; to 1,857,260 bags on

November 1. Included in these amounts were at least 500,000 bags, held

in New York by foreign owners, which could not be sold; and of the

balance left, there was undoubtedly a liberal amount sold against on the

Exchange for future delivery. By October, the situation had become

acute. Dealers who had classified themselves as jobbers or importers had

gone into the retail classification in order to evade the limitations of

profit allowed jobbers, and were limiting their sales to lots of

twenty-five bags or fewer. Dealers who had legitimately hedged their

holdings were unable to buy in.

The Exchange officials showed no disposition to relieve the situation;

and as all prices had reached the maximum price for every month

permitted, the food administration, on November 1, 1918, ordered the

liquidation of all contracts outstanding, bought or sold, by not later

than November 9. This was done; and the coffee covered by such contracts

was released to the trade.

The regulations governing transactions on the Exchange were withdrawn on

December 5, 1918; and, after a long argument, the Exchange decided to

re-open for trading on December 26, 1918. Opening transactions amounted

to 25,000 bags on a basis of seventeen and one-half cents per pound or

nine cents over the prices at which contracts had been liquidated. On

December 28 the price had declined to fifteen and one-half cents. In the

opinion of many of our best merchants, the Exchange should have been

closed during the war, as it failed to be of any real service. That it

was operating at a fixed price for the spot month only, made it of no

value to the trade during this period. Of its loyalty to the government,

and its evident desire to assist there can be no question; but its

cheerful acceptance of the burdens laid upon it proved largely futile.

The action of the food administration in confining the coffee business

solely to licensed dealers and to a fixed profit on actual cost; in

limiting dealers to ninety days stock; and in prohibiting resales, was

the cause of much unjust criticism. The regulations were based on the

general rules of the food administration, and applied to coffee quite as

equitably as did the regulations governing other food commodities under

control and license. As a matter of fact, they were much less rigorous

in some ways than the regulations applying to many other articles. For

example, ninety days stock based on sales for 1916-17 was allowed on

coffee. There was no other article on the food list to which this

liberality was permitted. A forty to sixty days stock would probably be

found to be the maximum permitted to be carried of other food products.

The general proclamation of the food administration of November 1, 1917,

declared:

These general and special rules and regulations are promulgated by

the President to accomplish three principal objects, viz: 1st, to

limit the prices charged by every licensee "to a reasonable amount

over expenses and forbid the acquisition of speculative profits

from a rising market"; 2d, to keep all food commodities moving in

as direct a line as possible and with as little delay as

practicable to the consumer; 3d, to limit as far as practicable

contracts for future delivery and dealing in future contracts.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that a profit to be allowed based

on "market value" for coffees was an impossibility, unless this law had

been altered to allow all licensees of other commodities to share.

Coffee profits were fixed by the food administration on the advice of,

and with acceptance by, the coffee committee. They started too low; and

were made more liberal, when the first figures were shown to be

impossible. George W. Lawrence reports a conversation that he had with

the food administrator on this particular subject, and that was

characteristic of his broadness. Mr. Hoover said, "The coffee dealers

are complaining of the profits permitted them. I want them satisfied;

and if the profits are not reasonable, I shall put them where they will

be. This war is not going to last always; and at its conclusion I want

every American merchant in a position to be able to continue his

business and be no worse off than when the war started."

Resales were prohibited, or limited to one transaction, in order to

prevent an accumulation of profits, that, added to each transfer, would

result ultimately in higher prices to the consumer.

The fixing of profit based on cost, and not on market or replacement

value, is a thing that is impossible in normal times. Carried to the

last degree, it would mean ruination; for no provision is made for

declines in the market, and resulting losses. As a war measure it was

inevitable, and so endured. In normal times it is like trying to make

water run uphill. With a united people, it worked; but one can not have

a World War always to unite the people. It has been said that government

regulation of coffees caused a large increase in price to the consumer.

This would be hard to prove. The trade, generally, that refused to buy

at ten to twelve cents per pound because it did not, or would not

believe the reports of frost damage, and thought prices too high, was

frantically bidding up to twenty and twenty-two cents for 4s in March

and April, 1919. According to the ideas of some enthusiasts, fifty cents

was not an impossibility. Naturally such a bubble must burst eventually.

Government control had nothing to do with such natural conditions as

frost, or as the buyers' indifference. Expansion and inflation were in

the air, and had to run their course. The year 1920 brought the

aftermath; and in the deflation, coffee, with all other commodities,

went down to prices far below its intrinsic value. The expected European

demand did not materialize; the interior buyer was overloaded with

stock; and the losses of the coffee trade in 1920 will, it is to be

hoped, never be repeated.

_The Story of Soluble Coffee_

For nearly two decades, many coffee men and chemists have been seeking a

soluble coffee, or dried coffee extract, that would simplify the

preparation of the beverage. Thus far, all the products that have

appeared on the market are somewhat deficient in aroma and in the more

delicate flavors of coffee. A satisfying average cup of coffee can be

prepared from the better brands; the chief advantages of which are

rapidity of preparation, absence of any grounds, and uniformity of

drink.

Considerable progress has been made in certain directions; enough to

warrant telling here, though briefly, the story of soluble coffee to

date.

Some there are among trade experts and coffee connoisseurs who maintain

soluble coffee is an _ignis fatuus_; that it can never be manufactured

without destroying the aromatic principle; that at best it is a delusion

and a snare. Certainly, many absurd claims have been made for some of

the soluble coffees on the market. However, there are others that are

not without their merits; and the story of their introduction to the

trade and the consuming public is entertaining and instructive.

Dr. Sartori Kato, a Japanese chemist, of Tokio, brought a soluble tea to

Chicago about 1899. It was not a commercial success; but it served to

bring him in touch with some coffee men and chemists, for whom he

produced a soluble coffee in the same year. A company was organized to

promote the product. It was called the Kato Coffee Co., and included, in

addition to Dr. Kato; Fillip Kreissel, a chemist; W.R. Ruffner, a

green-coffee broker; and I.D. Richheimer, a coffee roaster. Kato's

soluble coffee was first sold to the public at the Pan-American

Exposition in 1901. The first quantity order was received from Captain

Baldwin and by him used with satisfaction on the Ziegler Arctic

expedition. United States patents on a coffee concentrate, and process

for making the same (soluble coffee), were granted to Sartori Kato of

Chicago, assignor to the Kato Coffee Co., of the same place, on August

11, 1903.

G. Washington, who was born in Belgium of English parents, and who was

living temporarily in Guatemala City, invented about 1906, a soluble

coffee that was made ready for the market in 1909.

The George Washington Coffee Refining Co. was organized in 1910 to put

the Washington product on the market, which it did first under the name,

Red E coffee. This was later changed to G. Washington's Prepared Coffee,

as an alternative to Washington's Coffee Extract, a name which was

favorably regarded by all except certain authorities at the national

capital. Associated with Mr. Washington at the start of the enterprise

were: E. Van Etten, former vice-president of the New York Central

Railroad; W.J. Arkell; Bartlett Arkell, of the Beechnut Packing Co.;

C.M. Warner, of the Warner Sugar Refining Co.; and Charles E. Proctor,

of the Singer Sewing Machine Co.

The G. Washington Coffee Refining Company has its coffee-roasting and

preparing plant in Brooklyn; but its process is a secret one, and has

never been patented.

F. Lehnhoff Wyld, who was the Washingtons' family physician when they

lived in Guatemala City, and with whom Mr. Washington had discussed his

work in soluble coffee, duplicated the Washington product in 1913; and,

with E.T. Cabarrus, he organized the _Société du Café Soluble Belna_,

Brussels, Belgium, to put on the European market a refined soluble

coffee under the brand name Belna.

Eight or ten United States patents have been granted on soluble coffees

that have never been applied commercially.

Nowhere has soluble coffee met with such success as in the United

States, where a number of brands followed the Kato and G. Washington

products. Among them, mention should be made of the C.F. Blanke Tea &

Coffee Company's Magic Cup, afterward Fairy Cup, and later, Faust brand,

brought out in 1912; the Baker Importing Co.'s Barrington Hall Soluble

Coffee, brought out in 1917; and the Charles G. Hires Co.'s brand,

introduced to the trade in 1918.

It was the World War that brought soluble coffee to the front. E.F.

Holbrook, formerly in charge of the coffee section, subsistence

division, United States War Department, said, "The use of mustard gas by

the Germans made it one of the most important articles of subsistence

used by the army." Early in the war, soluble coffee was added to the

reserve ration, three-quarters of an ounce being considered at first the

proper amount per ration. After trying to put it up in sticks, tablets,

capsules, and other forms, it was determined that the best method was to

pack it in envelopes. A month before the signing of the armistice, the

New York depot was notified that after January 1, 1919, the requirements

of soluble coffee were to be 25,000 pounds per day in addition to

quantities packed in reserve rations, bringing the total daily output to

42,500 pounds per day. Arrangements were made to have the total output

of the New York zone, 40,000 pounds per day, packed in quarter-ounce

envelopes, twenty-four to a sealed can.

I.D. Richheimer, promoter of the original soluble coffee of Kato and the

Kato patent, organized the Soluble Coffee Co. of America in 1918, to

supply soluble coffee to the American army overseas. After the

armistice, the company began licensing other merchants under the Kato

patent or offering to process the merchants' own coffee for them if

desired.

William A. Hamor and Charles W. Trigg, Pittsburgh, assignors to John E.

King, Detroit, were granted a United States patent in 1919 on a process

for making a new soluble coffee. Their process consists in bringing the

volatilized caffeol in contact with a petrolatum, or absorbing medium,

where it is held until needed for combination with the evaporated coffee

extract. The King Coffee Products Corp. of Detroit was organized in 1920

to manufacture this product, known as Minute coffee, and a coffee base

for soft drinks, the latter being marketed under the name of Coffee Pep.

Mr. King had believed for many years that soluble coffee was destined to

solve many of the vexations of the coffee business, and had been

experimenting with the idea since 1906. To facilitate his

investigations, he established a fellowship at the Mellon Institute of

Industrial Research, Pittsburgh, in 1914, in charge of Charles W. Trigg.

This chemically controlled research evolved a product which, after

passing through the laboratory stage, was placed upon a small unit plan

basis, and then patented. Five additional patents on the product were

granted Messrs. Trigg and David S. Pratt in 1921; and all were assigned

to John E. King.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: THE EARLIEST COFFEE MANUSCRIPT, 1587

Pages from the Arabian writing by Abd-al-Kâdir, photographed for this

work in the Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris.]

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_

Any study of the literature of coffee comprehends a survey of selections

from the best thought of civilized nations, from the time of Rhazes

(850-922) to Francis Saltus. We have seen in chapter III how Rhazes, the

physician-philosopher, appears to have been the first writer to mention

coffee; and was followed by other great physicians, like Bengiazlah, a

contemporary, and Avicenna (980-1037).

Then arose many legends about coffee, that served as inspiration for

Arabian, French, Italian, and English poets.

Sheik Gemaleddin, mufti of Mocha, is said to have discovered the virtues

of coffee about 1454, and to have promoted the use of the drink in

Arabia. Knowledge of the new beverage was given to Europeans by the

botanists Rauwolf and Alpini toward the close of the sixteenth century.

The first authentic account of the origin of coffee was written by

Abd-al-Kâdir in 1587. It is the famous Arabian manuscript commending the

use of coffee, preserved in the Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris, and

catalogued as "Arabe, 4590."

Its title written in Arabic is as follows:

[Arabic]

___ ___ ___ ___

4 3 2 1

which is pronounced (reading right to left):

omdat as safwa fi hall al kahwa

___ ___ ___ _____

1 2 3 4

or; in the literary style: omdatu s safwati fi hallu 'l kahwati which

means--literally, (the corresponding words being underlined and

numbered)

"The maintenance of purity as

___________ ______

1 2

regards the legitimacy of coffee."

_________ ______

3 4

or, more freely, "Argument in favor of the legitimate use of coffee."

[Arabic] kahwa, is the Arabic word for coffee.

The author is Abd-al-Kâdir ibn Mohammad al Ansâri al Jazari al Hanbali.

That is, he was named Abd-al-Kâdir, son of Mohammed.

_Abd-al-Kâdir_ means "slave of the strong one" (i.e., of God); while _al

Ansâri_ means that he was a descendant of the _Ansâri_ (i.e., "helpers"),

the people of Medina who received and protected the Prophet Mohammed

after his flight from Mecca; _al Jazari_ means that he was a man of

Mesopotamia; and _al Hanbali_ that in law and theology he belonged to

the well known sect, or school, of the Hanbalites, so called after the

great jurist and writer, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who died at Bagdad A.H. 241

(A.D. 855). The Hanbalites are one of the four great sects of the Sunni

Mohammedans.

Abd-al-Kâdir ibn Mohammed lived in the tenth century of the Hegira--the

sixteenth of our era--and wrote his book in 996 A.H., or 1587 A.D.

Coffee had then been in common use since about 1450 A.D. in Arabia. It

was not in use in the time of the Prophet, who died in 632 A.D.; but he

had forbidden the drink of strong liquors which affect the brain, and

hence it was argued that coffee, as a stimulant, was unlawful. Even

today, the community of the Wahabis, very powerful in Arabia a hundred

years ago, and still dominant in part of it, do not permit the use of

coffee.

Abd-al-Kâdir's book is thought to have been based on an earlier writing

by Shihâb-ad-Dîn Ahmad ibn Abd-al-Ghafâr al Maliki, as he refers to the

latter on the third page of his manuscript; but if so, this previous

work does not appear to have been preserved. La Roque says Shihâb-ad-Dîn

was an Arabian historian who supplied the main part of Abd-al-Kâdir's

story. La Roque refers also to a Turkish historian.

Research by the author has failed to disclose anything about

Shihâb-ad-Dîn save his name (_al Maliki_ means that he belonged to the

Malikites, another of the four great Sunni sects), and that he wrote

about a hundred years before Abd-al-Kâdir. No copy of his writings is

known to exist.

The illustrations show the title page of Abd-al-Kâdir's manuscript, the

first page, the third page, and the fly leaf of the cover, the latter

containing an inscription in Latin made at the time the manuscript was

first received or classified. It reads:

Omdat al safouat fl hall al cahuat.

De usu legitimo et licito potionis quae vulgo Café nuncupatur.

Authore Abdalcader Ben Mohammed al Ansâri. Constat hic liber

capitibus septem, et ab authore editus est anno hegirae 996 quo

anno centum et viginti anni effluxerant ex quo huius potionis usus

in Arabia felice invaluerat

The translation of the Latin is:

Concerning the legitimate and lawful use of the drink commonly

known as café by Abdalcader Ben Mohammed al Ansâri. The book is

composed in seven chapters and was brought out by the author in the

year of the Hegira 996 at which time a hundred and twenty years had

passed since the use of this drink had become firmly established in

Arabia Felix.

_Coffee in Poetry_

The Abd-al-Kâdir work immortalized coffee. It is in seven chapters. The

first treats of the etymology and significance of the word cahouah

(kahwa), the nature and properties of the bean, where the drink was

first used, and describes its virtues. The other chapters have to do

largely with the church dispute in Mecca in 1511, answer the religious

objectors to coffee, and conclude with a collection of Arabic verses

composed during the Mecca controversy by the best poets of the time.

De Nointel, ambassador from the court of Louis XIV to the Ottoman Porte,

brought back with him to Paris from Constantinople the Abd-al-Kâdir

manuscript, and another by Bichivili, one of the three general

treasurers of the Ottoman Empire. The latter work is of a later date

than the Abd-al-Kâdir manuscript, and is concerned chiefly with the

history of the introduction of coffee into Egypt, Syria, Damascus,

Aleppo, and Constantinople.

The following are two of the earliest Arabic poems in praise of coffee.

They are about the period of the first coffee persecution in Mecca

(1511), and are typical of the best thought of the day:

IN PRAISE OF COFFEE

_Translation from the Arabic_

O Coffee! Thou dost dispel all cares, thou art the object of desire

to the scholar.

This is the beverage of the friends of God; it gives health to

those in its service who strive after wisdom.

Prepared from the simple shell of the berry, it has the odor of

musk and the color of ink.

The intelligent man who empties these cups of foaming coffee, he

alone knows truth.

May God deprive of this drink the foolish man who condemns it with

incurable obstinacy.

Coffee is our gold. Wherever it is served, one enjoys the society

of the noblest and most generous men.

O drink! As harmless as pure milk, which differs from it only in

its blackness.

Here is another, rhymed version of the same poem:

IN PRAISE OF COFFEE

_Translation from the Arabic_

O coffee! Doved and fragrant drink, thou drivest care away,

The object thou of that man's wish who studies night and day.

Thou soothest him, thou giv'st him health, and God doth favor those

Who walk straight on in wisdom's way, nor seek their own repose.

Fragrant as musk thy berry is, yet black as ink in sooth!

And he who sips thy fragrant cup can only know the truth.

Insensate they who, tasting not, yet vilify its use;

For when they thirst and seek its help, God will the gift refuse.

Oh, coffee is our wealth! for see, where'er on earth it grows,

Men live whose aims are noble, true virtues who disclose.

COFFEE COMPANIONSHIP

_Translation from the Arabic_

Come and enjoy the company of coffee in the places of its

habitation; for the Divine Goodness envelops those who partake of

its feast.

There the elegance of the rugs, the sweetness of life, the society

of the guests, all give a picture of the abode of the blest.

It is a wine which no sorrow could resist when the cup-bearer

presents thee with the cup which contains it.

It is not long since Aden saw thy birth. If thou doubtest this, see

the freshness of youth shining on the faces of thy children.

Grief is not found within its habitations. Trouble yields humbly to

its power.

It is the beverage of the children of God, it is the source of

health.

It is the stream in which we wash away our sorrows. It is the fire

which consumes our griefs.

Whoever has once known the chafing-dish which prepares this

beverage, will feel only aversion for wine and liquor from casks.

Delicious beverage, its color is the seal of its purity.

Reason pronounces favorably on the lawfulness of it.

Drink of it confidently, and give not ear to the speech of the

foolish, who condemn it without reason.

During the period of the second religious persecution of coffee in the

latter part of the sixteenth century, other Arabian poets sang the

praises of coffee. The learned Fakr-Eddin-Aboubeckr ben Abid Iesi wrote

a book entitled _The Triumph of Coffee_, and the poet-sheikh

Sherif-Eddin-Omar-ben-Faredh sang of it in harmonious verse, wherein,

discoursing of his mistress, he could find no more flattering comparison

than coffee. He exclaims, "She has made me drink, in long draughts, the

fever, or, rather, the coffee of love!"

The numerous contributions by early travelers to the literature of

coffee have been mentioned in chronological order in the history

chapters. After Rauwolf and Alpini, there were Sir Antony Sherley,

Parry, Biddulph, Captain John Smith, Sir George Sandys, Sir Thomas

Herbert, and Sir Henry Blount in England; Tavernier, Thévenot, Bernier,

P. de la Roque, and Galland in France; Delia Valle in Italy; Olearius

and Niebhur in Germany; Nieuhoff in Holland, and others.

Francis Bacon wrote about coffee in his _Hist. Vitae et Mortis_ and

_Sylva Sylvarum_, 1623-27. Burton referred to it in his "_Anatomy of

Melancholy_" in 1632. Parkinson described it in his _Theatrum Botanicum_

in 1640. In 1652, Pasqua Rosée published his famous handbill in London,

a literary effort as well as a splendid first advertisement.

Faustus Nairon (Banesius) produced in Rome, in 1671, the first printed

treatise devoted solely to coffee. The same year Dufour brought out the

first treatise in French. This he followed in 1684 with his work, _The

manner of making coffee, tea, and chocolate_. John Ray extolled the

virtues of coffee in his _Universal Botany of Plants_, published in

London in 1686. Galland translated the Abd-al-Kâdir manuscript into

French in 1699, and Jean La Roque published his _Voyage de l'Arabie

Heureuse_ in Paris in 1715. Excerpts from nearly all these works appear

in various chapters of this work.

Leonardus Ferdinandus Meisner published a Latin treatise on coffee, tea,

and chocolate in 1721. Dr. James Douglas published in London (1727) his

_Arbor yemensis fructum cofè ferens, or a description and history of the

Coffee Tree_. This work laid under contribution many of the Italian,

German, French, and English scholars mentioned above; and the author

mentioned as other sources of information: Dr. Quincy, Pechey, Gaudron,

de Fontenelle, Professor Boerhaave, Figueroa, Chabraeus, Sir Hans

Sloane, Langius, and Du Mont.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the poets and dramatists of

France, Italy, and England found a plentiful supply in what had already

been written on coffee; to say nothing of the inspiration offered by the

drink itself, and by the society of the cafés of the period.

French poets, familiar with Latin, first took coffee as the subject of

their verse. Vaniére sang its praises in the eighth book of his

_Praedium rusticum_; and Fellon, a Jesuit professor of Trinity College,

Lyons, wrote a didactic poem called, _Faba Arabica, Carmen_, which is

included in the _Poemata didascalica_ of d'Olivet.

Abbé Guillaume Massieu's _Carmen Caffaeum_, composed in 1718, has been

referred to in chapter III. It was read at the Academy of Inscriptions.

One of the panegyrists of this author, de Boze, in his _Elogé de

Massieu_, says that if Horace and Virgil had known of coffee, the poem

might easily have been attributed to them; and Thery, who translated it

into French, says "it is a pearl of elegance in a rare jewel case."

The following translation of the poem from the Latin original was made

for this work:

COFFEE

_A Poem by Guillaume Massieu of the French Academy_

(A literal prose translation from the original Latin in the British

Museum.)

How coffee first came to our shores,

What the nature of the divine drink is, what its use,

How it brings ready aid to man against every kind of evils,

I shall here begin to tell in simple verse.

You soft-spoken men, who have often tried the sweetness of this drink,

If it has never deceived your wishes or mocked your hopes

With its empty results, be propitious and lend a willing ear to our song.

And may you, O Phoebus, kindly be present, to acknowledge

As your gift the power of herbs and healthful plants, and to

Dispel sad diseases from our bodies; for they say you are

The author of this blessing, and may you spread your

Gifts among peoples, and everywhere far and wide throughout the entire

world.

Across Libya afar, and the seven mouths of the swollen Nile,

Where Asia most joyfully spreads in immense fields

Rich in various resources and filled with fragrant woods,

A region extends. The Sabeans of old inhabited it.

I believe indeed Nature, that best parent of all things,

Loved this place more than all others with a tender love.

Here the air of Heaven always breathes more mildly.

The sun has a gentler power; here are flowers of a different clime;

And the earth with fertile bosom brings forth various fruits,

Cinnamon, casia, myrrh, and fragrant thyme.

Amid the resources and gifts of this blessed land,

Turned to the sun and the warm south winds,

A tree spontaneously lifts itself into the upper air.

Growing nowhere else, and unknown in earlier centuries,

By no means great in size, it stretches not far its

Spreading branches, nor lifts a lofty top to heaven;

But lowly, after the manner of myrtle or pliant broom,

It rises from the ground. Many a nut bends its rich branches.

Small, like a bean, dark and dull in color,

Marked by a slight groove in the centre of its hull.

To transplant this growth to our own fields

Many have tried, and to cultivate it with great care.

In vain; for the plant has not responded to the zeal

And desires of the planters, and has rendered vain their long labor;

Before day the root of the tender herb has withered away.

Either this has happened through fault of climate, or grudging

Earth refuses to furnish fit nourishment to the foreign plant.

Therefore come thou, whoever shall be possesed by a love for coffee,

Do not regret having brought the healthful bean from the far

Remote world of Arabia; for this is its bountiful mother country.

The soothing draught first flowed from those regions through other

Peoples; thence through all Europe and Asia,

and next made its way through the entire world.

Therefore, what you shall know to be sufficient for your needs,

Do you prepare long beforehand; let it be your care to have collected

Yearly a copious store, and providently fill small granaries,

As of yore the farmer, early mindful and provident of the future,

Collected crops from his fields and garnered them in his barns,

And turned his attention to the coming year.

None the less, meanwhile, must the utensils for coffee be cared for. Let

not vessels suited for drinking the beverage be lacking, And a pot,

whose narrow neck should be topped by a small cover And whose body

should swell gradually into an oblong shape. When these things shall

have been provided by you, let your Next care be to roast well the beans

with flames, and to grind them when roasted. Nor should the hammer cease

to crush them with many a blow, Until they lay aside their hardness, and

when thoroughly ground, Become fine powder; which forthwith pack either

in a bag or a box made for such uses. And wrap it in leather, and smear

it over with soft wax, lest Narrow chinks be open, or hidden channels.

Unless you prevent these, by a secret path gradually small Particles and

whatever of value exists, and the entire strength, Would leave, wasting

into empty air.

[Illustration: CAMEL TRANSPORT BETWEEN HARAR AND DIRE-DAOUA, ABYSSINIA]

[Illustration: SUN-DRYING IN LA LAGUNA, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS]

[Illustration: COFFEE SCENES IN THE NEAR AND THE FAR EAST]

There is also a hollow machine, like a small tower, which they

Call a mill, in which you can bruise the useful fruit of the

Roasted bean and crush it with frequent rubbing;

A revolving pivot in the middle, on an easy wheel turning,

Twists its metal joints on a creaking stem.

The top of the wheel, you know, is pierced with an ivory handle

Which will have to be turned by hand, through a thousand revolutions,

And through a thousand circles it moves the pivot.

When you put a kernel in, you will turn the handle with quick hand--

No delay--and you will wonder how the crackling kernel is

With much grinding quickly reduced to a powder.

Once only the lower compartment receives on its kindly bosom

The crushed grains, which are placed in the very depths of the box.

But why do we linger over these less important matters? Greater things

call us. Then is it time to drain the sweet Draught, either under the

new light of the early sun In the morning, when an empty stomach demands

food; Or, when, after the splendid feasts of a magnificent table The

overburdened stomach suffers from too heavy load, and Unequal to the

demands made upon it, seeks the aid of external heat. Then come, when

now the pot grows ruddy in the fire Crackling beneath, and you shall

behold the liquid, swelling With mingled powdered coffee, now bubble

around the brim, Draw it from the fire. Unless you should do this, the

force of The water would break forth suddenly, overflowing, and would

Sprinkle the beverage on the fire beneath. Therefore, let no such

accident disturb your joys. You should keep watch carefully when the

water no longer Restrains itself and bubbles with the heat; then return

The pot to the fire thrice and four times, until the powdered Coffee

steams in the midst of the fire and blends thoroughly with the

surrounding water.

This soothing drink ought to be boiled with skill, to be drunk With

art--not in the way men are wont to drink other beverages--And with

reason; for when you shall have taken it steaming from A quick fire, and

gradually all the dregs have settled to the Very bottom, you shall not

drink it impatiently at one gulp. But rather, sip it little by little,

and between draughts Contrive pleasant delays; and sipping, drain it in

long draughts, So long as it is still hot and burns the palate. For then

it is better, then it permeates our inmost bones, and Penetrating within

to the center of our vitals and our marrow, It pervades all our body

with its vivifying strength. Often even merely inhaling the odor with

their nostrils, men Have welcomed it, when it has bubbled up from the

bottom, More refreshing than the breeze. So much pleasure is there in a

delicious odor.

And now there remains awaiting us the other part of our task, To make

known the secret strength of the divine draught. But who could hope to

understand this wonderful blessing Or to be able to pursue so great a

miracle in verse? For really, when coffee has quietly glided into your

body, Taking itself within, it sheds a vital warmth through your Limbs,

and inspires joyous strength in your heart. Then if There is anything

undigested, with fire's help, it heats the Hidden channels, and loosens

the thin pores, through which the Useless moisture exudes, and seeds of

diseases flee from all your veins.

Wherefore come, O you who have a care for your health! You, whose triple

chin hangs on your breast, Who drag your heavy stomach of great bulk, It

is fitting for you, first of all, to indulge in the warm Beverage; for

indeed it will dry the hideous flow of moisture Which oppresses your

limbs, and sends forth streams of perspiration from your whole body. And

in a short time, the swelling of your fat belly will Gradually begin to

decrease, and it will lighten your members, now oppressed by their heavy

weight.

O happy peoples, on whom Titan, rising, looks with his first light!

Here, a rather free use of wine has never done harm. Law and religion

forbid us to quaff the flowing wine. Here one lives on coffee. Here,

then, flourishing with joyous strength One pursues life and knows not

what diseases are, Nor that child of Bacchus and companion of high

living--Gout; Nor what innumerable diseases through this union are ready

to attack our world.

Yet, indeed, the soothing power of this invigorating drink Drives sad

cares from the heart, and exhilarates the spirits. I have seen a man,

when he had not yet drained a mighty Draught of this sweet nectar, walk

silently with slow gait, His brow sad, and forehead rough with

forbidding wrinkles. This same man who had hardly bathed his throat with

the sweet Drink--no delay--clouds fled from his wrinkled brow; and He

took pleasure in teasing all with his witty sayings. Nor yet did he

pursue any one with bitter laughter. For this Harmless drink inspires no

desire of offending, the venom Is lacking, and pleasant laughter without

bitterness pleases.

And in the entire East this custom of coffee drinking Has been accepted.

And, now, France; you adopt the foreign custom, So that public shops,

one after the other, are opened for Drinking Coffee. A hanging sign of

either ivy or laurel invites the passers-by. Hither in crowds from the

entire city they assemble, and While away the time in pleasant drinking.

And when once the feelings have grown warm, acted upon by The gentle

heat, then good-humored laughter, and pleasant Arguments increase.

General gaiety ensues, the places about resound with joyous applause.

But never does the liquid imbibed overpower weary minds, but Rather, if

ever slumber presses their heavy eyes and dulls The brain; and their

strength, blunted, grows torpid in the Body, coffee puts sleep to flight

from the eyes, and slothful inactivity from the whole frame. Therefore

to absorb the sweet draught would be an advantage For those whom a great

deal of long-continued labor awaits And those who need to extend their

study far into the night.

And here I shall make known who taught the use of this pleasant Drink;

for its virtue, unknown, has lain hidden through many Years; and

reviewing, I shall relate the matter from the very beginning.

An Arab shepherd was driving his young goats to the well-known Pastures.

They were wandering through lonely wastes and cropping The grasses, when

a tree heavy with many berries--never seen before--met their eyes. At

once, as they were able to reach the low branches, they began To pull

off the leaves with many a nibble, and to pluck the tender Growth. Its

bitterness attracts. The shepherd, not knowing this, Was meanwhile

singing on the soft grass and telling the story of his loves to the

woods. But when the evening star, rising, warned him to leave the field,

And he led back his well-fed flock to their stalls, he perceived That

the beasts did not close their eyes in sweet sleep, but Joyous beyond

their wont, with wonderful delight throughout the Whole night jumped

about with wanton leaps. Trembling with sudden Fear, the shepherd stood

amazed; and crazed by the sound, he Thought these things were being done

through some wicked trick of a neighbor, or by magic art.

Not far from here a holy band of brethren had built their Humble home in

a remote valley; their lot it was to chant Praises of God, and to load

his altars with fitting gifts. Although throughout the night the

deep-toned bell resounded With great din, and summoned them to the

sacred temple, often The coming of dawn found them lingering on their

couches, Having forgotten to rise in the middle of the night. So great

was their love of sleep!

In charge of the sacred temple, revered and obeyed by his Willing

brethren, was the master, an aged man, a heavy mass of white hair on

head and chin. The shepherd, hastening, came to him and told him the

story, Imploring his aid. The old man smiled to himself; but He agreed

to go, and investigate the hidden cause of the miracle.

When he has come to the hills, he observes the lambs, together With

their mothers, gnawing the berries of an unknown plant, And cries, "This

is the cause of the trouble!" And saying no More, he at once picks the

smooth fruit from the heavily-laden Tree, and carries it home, places

it, when washed, in pure Water, cooking it over the fire, and fearlessly

drinks a large Cup of it. Forthwith a warmth pervades his veins, a

living Force is diffused through his limbs, and weariness is dispelled

from his aged body. Then, at length, the old man exulting in the

blessing thus found, Rejoices, and kindly shares with all his brothers.

They eagerly At early night-fall, indulge in pleasant banquets and drain

great bowls. No longer is it hard for them to break off sweet sleep and

to leave their soft beds as formerly. O fortunate ones! whose hearts the

sweet draught has often Bathed. No sluggish torpor holds their minds,

they briskly Rise for their prescribed duties and rejoice to outstrip

the rays of the first light.

You also, whose care it is to feed minds with divine eloquence And to

terrify with your words the souls of the guilty, you also Should indulge

in the pleasant drink; for, as you know, it Strengthens weakness. Keen

vigor is gained for the limbs from This source, and spreads through the

whole body. From this source, Too, shall come new strength and new power

to your voice. You also, whom oft harmful vapors harass, whose sick

brain the dangerous vertigo shakes, Ah, come! In this sweet liquid is a

ready medicine And none other better to calm undue agitation. Apollo

planted this power for himself, they say, The story is worthy to be

sung.

Once a disease most deadly to life assailed the disciples of Apollo's

Mount. It spread far and wide, and attacked the brain itself. Already

all the people of genius were suffering with this Disease; and the arts,

deserted, were languishing along with The workers. Some even pretended

to have the disease, and Assuming feigned suffering, gave themselves

over to an idle life. Unpleasing work grew distasteful, and deadly

inertia increased Everywhere. It pleased all, now released from work and

labors, To indulge in care-free quiet. Apollo, full of indignation, did

not endure longer that the deadly Contagion of such easy ruin should

creep over them thus. And, That he might take away from seers all means

of deception, he Enticed from the rich bosom of the earth this friendly

plant, Than which no other is more ready either to refresh for work the

Mind wearied by long studies, or to sooth troublesome sorrows of the

head.

O plant, given to the human race by the gift of the Gods! No other out

of the entire list of plants has ever vied with you. On your account

sailors sail from our shores And fearlessly conquer the threatening

winds, sandbanks and Dreadful rocks. With your nourishing growth you

surpass dittany, Ambrosia, and fragrant panacea. Grim diseases flee from

you. To You trusting health clings as a companion, and also the merry

Crowd, conversation, amusing jokes, and sweet whisperings.

The poet Belighi toward the close of the sixteenth century composed a

poem, which, freely translated, runs:

In Damascus, in Aleppo, in great Cairo,

At every turn is to be found

That mild fruit which gives so beloved a drink,

Before coming to court to triumph.

There this seditious disturber of the world,

Has, by its unparalleled virtue,

Supplanted all wines from this blessed day.

Jacques Delille (1738-1813) the didactic poet of nature, in _chant vi_

of his "_Three Reigns of Nature_," thus apostrophizes the "divine

nectar" and describes its preparation:

DIVINE COFFEE

_Translation from the French_

A liquid there is to the poet most dear,

'T was lacking to Virgil, adored by Voltaire,

'T is thou, divine coffee, for thine is the art,

Without turning the head yet to gladden the heart.

And thus though my palate be dulled by age,

With joy I partake of thy dear beverage.

How glad I prepare me thy nectar most precious,

No soul shall usurp me a rite so delicious;

On the ambient flame when the black charcoal burns,

The gold of thy bean to rare ebony turns,

I alone, 'gainst the cone, wrought with fierce iron teeth.

Make thy fruitage cry out with its bitter-sweet breath;

Till charmed with such perfume, with care I entrust

To the pot on my hearth the rare spice-laden dust:

First to calm, then excite, till it seethingly whirls,

With an eye all attention I gaze till it boils.

At last now the liquid comes slow to repose;

In the hot, smoking vessel its wealth I depose,

My cup and thy nectar; from wild reeds expressed,

America's honey my table has blest;

All is ready; Japan's gay enamel invites--

And the tribute of two worlds thy prestige unites:

Come, Nectar divine, inspire thou me,

I wish but Antigone, dessert and thee;

For scarce have I tasted thy odorous steam,

When quick from thy clime, soothing warmths round me stream,

Attentive my thoughts rise and flow light as air,

Awaking my senses and soothing my care.

Ideas that but late moved so dull and depressed,

Behold, they come smiling in rich garments dressed!

Some genius awakes me, my course is begun;

For I drink with each drop a bright ray of the sun.

Maumenet addressed to Galland the following verses:

If slumber, friend, too near, with some late glass should creep--

Dull, poppy-perfumed sleep--

If a too fumous wine confounds at length thy brain--

Take coffee then--this juice divine

Shall banish sleep and steam of vap'rous wine,

And with its timely aid fresh vigor thou shalt find.

Castel, in his poem, _Les Plantes_ (The Plants) could not omit the

coffee trees of the tropics. He thus addressed them in 1811:

Bright plants, the favorites of Phoebus,

In these climes the rarest virtues offer,

Delicious Mocha, thy sap, enchantress,

Awakens genius, outvalues Parnasse!

In a collection of the _Songs of Brittany_ in the Brest library there

are many stanzas in praise of coffee. A Breton poet has composed a

little piece of ninety-six verses in which he describes the powerful

attraction that coffee has for women and the possible effects on

domestic happiness. The first time that coffee was used in Brittany,

says an old song of that country, only the nobility drank it, and now

all the common people are using it, yet the greater part of them have

not even bread.

A French poet of the eighteenth century produced the following:

LINES ON COFFEE

_Translation from the French_

Good coffee is more than a savory cup,

Its aroma has power to dry liquor up.

By coffee you get upon leaving the table

A mind full of wisdom, thoughts lucid, nerves stable;

And odd tho' it be, 't is none the less true,

Coffee's aid to digestion permits dining anew.

And what 's very true, tho' few people know it,

Fine coffee 's the basis of every fine poet;

For many a writer as windy as Boreas

Has been vastly improved by the drink ever glorious.

Coffee brightens the dullness of heavy philosophy,

And opens the science of mighty geometry.

Our law-makers, too, when the nectar imbibing,

Plan wondrous reforms, quite beyond the describing;

The odor of coffee they delight in inhaling,

And promise the country to alter laws ailing.

From the brow of the scholar coffee chases the wrinkles,

And mirth in his eyes like a firefly twinkles;

And he, who before was but a hack of old Homer,

Becomes an original, and that 's no misnomer.

Observe the astronomer who 's straining his eyes

In watching the planets which soar thro' the skies;

Alas, all those bright bodies seem hopelessly far

Till coffee discloses his own guiding star.

But greatest of wonders that coffee effects

Is to aid the news-editor as he little expects;

Coffee whispers the secrets of hidden diplomacy,

Hints rumors of wars and of scandals so racy.

Inspiration by coffee must be nigh unto magic,

For it conjures up facts that are certainly tragic;

And for a few pennies, coffee's small price per cup,

"Ye editor's" able to swallow the Universe up.

Esménard celebrated Captain de Clieu's romantic voyage to Martinique

with the coffee plants from the Jardin des Plantes, in some admirable

verses quoted in chapter II.

Among other notable poetic flights in praise of coffee produced in

France mention should be made of: "_L'Elogé du Café_" (Eulogy of Coffee)

a song in twenty-four couplets, Paris, Jacques Estienne, 1711; _Le Café_

(Coffee), a fragment from the fourth _chant_ (song) of _La Grandeur de

Dieu dans les merveilles de la Nature_ (The Grandeur of God in the

Wonders of Nature) Marseilles; _Le Café_, extract from the fourth

gastronomic song, by Berchoux; "_A Mon Café_" (To My Coffee), stanzas

written by Ducis; _Le Café_, anonymous stanzas inserted in the

_Macedoine Poetique_, 1824; a poem in Latin in the Abbé Olivier's

collection; _Le Bouquet Blanc et le Bouquet Noir, poesie en quatre

chants; Le Café_, C.D. Mery, 1837; _Elogé du Café_, S. Melaye, 1852.

Many Italian poets have sung the praises of coffee. L. Barotti wrote his

poem, _Il Caffè_ in 1681. Giuseppe Parini (1729-1799), Italy's great

satirical and lyric poet and critic of the eighteenth century, in _Il

Giorno_ (_The Day_), gives a delightful pen picture of the manners and

customs of Milan's polite society of the period. William Dean Howells

quotes as follows from these poems (his own translation) in his _Modern

Italian Poets_. The feast is over, and the lady signals to the cavalier

that it is time to leave the table:

Spring to thy feet

The first of all, and, drawing near thy lady,

Remove her chair and offer her thy hand,

And lead her to the other room, nor suffer longer

That the stale reek of viands shall offend

Her delicate sense. Thee with the rest invites

The grateful odor of the coffee, where

It smokes upon a smaller table hid

And graced with Indian webs. The redolent gums

That meanwhile burn, sweeten and purify

The heavy atmosphere, and banish thence

All lingering traces of the feast. Ye sick

And poor, whom misery or whom hope, perchance!

Has guided in the noonday to these doors.

Tumultuous, naked, and unsightly throng,

With mutilated limbs and squalid faces,

In litters and on crutches from afar

Comfort yourselves, and with expanded nostrils

Drink in the nectar of the feast divine

That favourable zephyrs waft to you;

But do not dare besiege these noble precincts,

Importunately offering her that reigns

Within your loathsome spectacle of woe!

And now, sir, 't is your office to prepare

The tiny cup that then shall minister,

Slow sipped, its liquor to thy lady's lips;

And now bethink thee whether she prefer

The boiling beverage much or little tempered

With sweet; or if, perchance, she likes it best,

As doth the barbarous spouse, then when she sits

Upon brocades of Persia, with light fingers,

The bearded visage of her lord caressing.

This is from _Il Mezzogiorno_ (_Noon_). The other three poems, rounding

out _The Day_, are _Il Mattino_ (_Morning_), _Il Vespre_ (_Evening_),

and _La Notte_ (_Night_). In _Il Mattino_, Parini sings:

Should dreary hypochondria's woes oppress thee,

Should round thy charming limbs in too great measure

Thy flesh increase, then with thy lips do honor

To that clear beverage, made from the well-bronzed,

The smoking, ardent beans Aleppo sends thee,

And distant Mocha too, a thousand ship-loads;

When slowly sipped it knows no rival.

Belli's _Il Caffè_ supplies a partial bibliography of the Italian

literature on coffee. There are many poems, some of them put to music.

As late as 1921, there were published in Bologna some advertising verses

on coffee by G.B. Zecchini with music by Cesare Cantino.

Pope Leo XIII, in his Horatian poem on _Frugality_ composed in his

eighty-eighth year, thus verses his appreciation of coffee:

Last comes the beverage of the Orient shore,

Mocha, far off, the fragrant berries bore.

Taste the dark fluid with a dainty lip,

Digestion waits on pleasure as you sip.

Peter Altenberg, a Vienna poet, thus celebrated the cafés of his native

city:

TO THE COFFEE HOUSE!

When you are worried, have trouble of one sort or another--to the coffee

house!

When she did not keep her appointment, for one reason or other--to the

coffee house!

When your shoes are torn and dilapidated--coffee house!

When your income is four hundred crowns and you spend five hundred--coffee

house!

You are a chair warmer in some office, while your ambition led you to seek

professional honors--coffee house!

You could not find a mate to suit you--coffee house!

You feel like committing suicide--coffee house!

You hate and despise human beings, and at the same time you can not be

happy without them--coffee house!

You compose a poem which you can not inflict upon friends you meet in the

street--coffee house!

When your coal scuttle is empty, and your gas ration exhausted--coffee

house!

When you need money for cigarettes, you touch the head waiter in

the--coffee house!

When you are locked out and haven't the money to pay for unlocking the

house door--coffee house!

When you acquire a new flame, and intend provoking the old one, you take

the new one to the old one's--coffee house!

When you feel like hiding you dive into a--coffee house!

When you want to be seen in a new suit--coffee house!

When you can not get anything on trust anywhere else--coffee house!

English poets from Milton to Keats celebrated coffee. Milton (1608-1674)

in his _Comus_ thus acclaimed the beverage:

One sip of this

Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight

Beyond the bliss of dreams.

Alexander Pope, poet and satirist (1688-1744), has the oft-quoted lines:

Coffee which makes the politician wise,

And see through all things with his half-shut eyes.

In Carruthers' _Life of Pope_, we read that this poet inhaled the steam

of coffee in order to obtain relief from the headaches to which he was

subject. We can well understand the inspiration which called forth from

him the following lines when he was not yet twenty:

As long as Mocha's happy tree shall grow,

While berries crackle, or while mills shall go;

While smoking streams from silver spouts shall glide,

Or China's earth receive the sable tide,

While coffee shall to British nymphs be dear,

While fragrant steams the bended head shall cheer,

Or grateful bitters shall delight the taste,

So long her honors, name and praise shall last.

Pope's famous _Rape of the Lock_ grew out of coffee-house gossip. The

poem contains the passage on coffee already quoted:

For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned;

The berries crackle and the mill turns round;

On shining altars of Japan they raise

The silver lamp: the fiery spirits blaze:

From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,

While China's earth receives the smoking tide.

At once they gratify their scent and taste.

And frequent cups prolong the rich repast

Straight hover round the fair her airy band;

Some, as she sipped, the fuming liquor fanned:

Some o'er her lap their careful plumes displayed,

Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.

Coffee (which makes the politician wise,

And see through all things with his half-shut eyes.)

Sent up in vapors to the baron's brain

New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain.

Pope often broke the slumbers of his servant at night by calling him to

prepare a cup of coffee; but for regular serving, it was his custom to

grind and to prepare it upon the table.

William Cowper's fine tribute to "the cups that cheer but not

inebriate", a phrase which he is said to have borrowed from Bishop

Berkeley, was addressed to tea and not to coffee, to which it has not

infrequently been wrongfully attributed. It is one of the most pleasing

pictures in _The Task_.

Cowper refers to coffee but once in his writings. In his _Pity for Poor

Africans_ he expresses himself as "shocked at the ignorance of slaves":

I pity them greatly, but I must be mum

For how could we do without sugar and rum?

Especially sugar, so needful we see;

What! Give up our desserts, our coffee and tea?

thus contenting himself, like many others, with words of pity where more

active protest might sacrifice his personal ease and comfort.

Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), and John Keats (1795-1834), were worshippers at

the shrine of coffee; while Charles Lamb, famous poet, essayist,

humorist, and critic, has celebrated in verse the exploit of Captain de

Clieu in the following delightful verses:

THE COFFEE SLIPS

Whene'er I fragrant coffee drink,

I on the generous Frenchman think,

Whose noble perseverance bore

The tree to Martinico's shore.

While yet her colony was new,

Her island products but a few;

Two shoots from off a coffee tree

He carried with him o'er the sea.

Each little tender coffee slip

He waters daily in the ship.

And as he tends his embryo trees.

Feels he is raising 'midst the seas

Coffee groves, whose ample shade

Shall screen the dark Creolian maid.

But soon, alas! His darling pleasure

In watching this his precious treasure

Is like to fade--for water fails

On board the ship in which he sails.

Now all the reservoirs are shut.

The crew on short allowance put;

So small a drop is each man's share.

Few leavings you may think there are

To water these poor coffee plants--

But he supplies their grasping wants,

Even from his own dry parched lips

He spares it for his coffee slips.

Water he gives his nurslings first,

Ere he allays his own deep thirst,

Lest, if he first the water sip,

He bear too far his eager lip.

He sees them droop for want of more;

Yet when they reach the destined shore,

With pride the heroic gardener sees

A living sap still in his trees.

The islanders his praise resound;

Coffee plantations rise around;

And Martinico loads her ships

With produce from those dear-saved slips.

In John Keats' amusing fantasy, _Cap and Bells_, the Emperor Elfinan

greets Hum, the great soothsayer, and offers him refreshment:

"You may have sherry in silver, hock in gold, or glass'd champagne

... what cup will you drain?"

"Commander of the Faithful!" answered Hum,

"In preference to these, I'll merely taste

A thimble-full of old Jamaica rum."

"A simple boon," said Elfinan; "thou mayst

Have Nantz, with which my morning coffee's laced."

But Hum accepts the glass of Nantz, without the coffee, "made racy with

the third part of the least drop of _crème de citron_, crystal clear."

Numerous broadsides printed in London, 1660 to 1675, have been referred

to in chapter X. Few of them possess real literary merit.

"Coffee and Crumpets" has been much quoted. It was published in

_Fraser's Magazine_, in 1837. Its author calls himself "Launcelot

Littledo". The poem is quite long, and only those portions are printed

here that refer particularly to "Yemen's fragrant berry":

COFFEE AND CRUMPETS

_By Launcelot Littledo of Pump Court, Temple, Barrister-at-law._

There's ten o'clock! From Hampstead to the Tower

The bells are chanting forth a lusty carol;

Wrangling, with iron tongues, about the hour,

Like fifty drunken fishwives at a quarrel;

Cautious policemen shun the coming shower;

Thompson and Fearon tap another barrel;

"_Dissolve frigus, lignum super foco.

Large reponens._" Now, come Orinoco!

To puff away an hour, and drink a cup,

A brimming _breakfast_-cup of ruddy Mocha--

Clear, luscious, dark, like eyes that lighten up

The raven hair, fair cheek, and _bella boca_

Of Florence maidens. I can never sup

Of perigourd, but (_guai a chi la tocca!_)

I'm doomed to indigestion. So to settle

This strife eternal,--Betty, bring the kettle!

Coffee! oh, Coffee! Faith, it is surprising.

'Mid all the poets, good, and bad, and worse.

Who've scribbled (Hock or Chian eulogizing)

Post and papyrus with "Immortal verse"--

Melodiously similitudinising

In Sapphics languid or Alcaics terse

No one, my little brown Arabian berry,.

Hath sung thy praises--'tis surprising! very!

Were I a poet now, whose ready rhymes.

Like Tommy Moore's, came tripping to their places--

Reeling along a merry troll of chimes,

With careless truth,--a dance of fuddled Graces;

Hear it--_Gazette_, _Post_, _Herald_, _Standard_, _Times_,

I'd write an epic! Coffee for its basis;

Sweet as e'er warbled forth from cockney throttles

Since Bob Montgomery's or Amos Cottle's.

Thou sleepy-eyed Chinese--enticing siren,

Pekoe! the Muse hath said in praise of thee,

"That cheers but not inebriates"; and Byron

Hath called thy sister "Queen of Tears", Bohea!

And he, Anacreon of Rome's age of iron,

Says, how untruly "_Quis non potius te_."

While coffee, thou--bill-plastered gables say,

Art like old Cupid, "roasted every day."

I love, upon a rainy night, as this is,

When rarely and more rare the coaches rattle

From street to street, to sip thy fragrant kisses;

While from the Strand remote some drunken battle

Far-faintly echoes, and the kettle hisses

Upon the glowing hob. No tittle-tattle

To make a single thought of mine an alien

From thee, my coffee-pot, my fount Castalian.

The many intervening verses cover an unhappy termination to an otherwise

delightful ball. He is sitting with his charming "Mary", about to ask

her to be his bride, when the unfortunate overturning of a glass of red

wine into her white satin gown, at the same time overthrows all his

dreams of bliss, "for the shrew displaces the angel he adored", and he

resigns himself to the life of "a man in chambers."

'Tis thus I sit and sip, and sip and think.

And think and sip again, and dip in _Fraser_,

A health, King Oliver! to thee I drink:

Long may the public have thee to amaze her.

Like _Figaro_, thou makest one's eyelids wink,

Twirling on practised palm thy polished razor--

True Horace temper, smoothed on attic strop;

Ah! thou couldst "_faire la barbe a tout l'Europe_."

* * * * *

Come, Oliver, and tell us what the news is;

An easy chair awaits thee--come and fill 't.

Come, I invoke thee, as they do the muses,

And thou shalt choose thy tipple as thou wilt.

And if thy lips my sober cup refuses,

For ruddier drops the purple grape has spilt,

We can sing, sipping in alternate verses,

Thy drink and mine, like Corydon and Thyrsis.

* * * * *

Fill the bowl, but not with wine.

Potent port, or fiery sherry;

For this milder cup of mine

Crush me Yemen's fragrant berry.

* * * * *

Gentle is the grape's deep cluster,

But the wine's a wayward child;

Nectar _this_! of meeker lustre--

_This_ the cup that "draws it mild."

Deeply drink its streams divine--

Fill the cup, but not with wine.

Prior and Montague inserted the following poetic vignette in their _City

Mouse and Country Mouse_, written in burlesque of Dryden's _Hind and

Panther_:

Then on they jogg'd; and since an hour of talk

Might cut a banter on the tedious walk,

As I remember, said the sober mouse,

I've heard much talk of the Wits' Coffee-house;

Thither, says Brindle, thou shalt go and see

Priests supping coffee, sparks and poets tea;

Here rugged frieze, there quality well drest,

These baffling the grand Senior, those the Test,

And there shrewd guesses made, and reasons given,

That human laws were never made in heaven;

But, above all, what shall oblige thy sight,

And fill thy eyeballs with a vast delight,

Is the poetic judge of sacred wit,

Who does i' th' darkness of his glory sit;

And as the moon who first receives the light,

With which she makes these nether regions bright,

So does he shine, reflecting from afar

The rays he borrowed from a better star;

For rules, which from Corneille and Rapin flow,

Admired by all the scribbling herd below,

From French tradition while he does dispense

Unerring truths, 't is schism, a damned offense,

To question his, or trust your private sense.

Geoffrey Sephton, an English poet and novelist, many years resident in

Vienna, whose fantastic stories and fairy tales are well known in

Europe, has written the following sonnets on coffee:

TO THE MIGHTY MONARCH, KING KAUHEE[350]

_By Geoffrey Sephton_

I

Away with opiates! Tantalising snares

To dull the brain with phantoms that are not.

Let no such drugs the subtle senses rot

With visions stealing softly unawares

Into the chambers of the soul. Nightmares

Ride in their wake, the spirits to besot.

Seek surer means, to banish haunting cares:

Place on the board the steaming Coffee-pot!

O'er luscious fruit, dessert and sparkling flask,

Let proudly rule as King the Great Kauhee,

For he gives joy divine to all that ask,

Together with his spouse, sweet _Eau de Vie_

Oh, let us 'neath his sovran pleasure bask.

Come, raise the fragrant cup and bend the knee!

II

O great Kauhee, thou democratic Lord,

Born 'neath the tropic sun and bronzed to splendour

In lands of Wealth and Wisdom, who can render

Such service to the wandering Human Horde

As thou at every proud or humble board?

Beside the honest workman's homely fender,

'Mid dainty dames and damsels sweetly tender,

In china, gold and silver, have we poured

Thy praise and sweetness, Oriental King.

Oh, how we love to hear the kettle sing

In joy at thy approach, embodying

The bitter, sweet and creamy sides of life;

Friend of the People, Enemy of Strife,

Sons of the Earth have born thee labouring.

In America, too, poets have sung in praise of coffee. The somewhat

doubtful "kind that mother used to make" is celebrated in James Whitcomb

Riley's classic poem:

LIKE HIS MOTHER USED TO MAKE[351]

_"Uncle Jake's Place," St. Jo., Mo., 1874._

"I was born in Indiany," says a stranger, lank and slim,

As us fellers in the restaurant was kindo' guyin' him,

And Uncle Jake was slidin' him another punkin pie

And a' extry cup o' coffee, with a twinkle in his eye--

"I was born in Indiany--more'n forty years ago--

And I hain't ben back in twenty--and I'm work-in' back'ards slow;

But I've et in ever' restarunt twixt here and Santy Fee,

And I want to state this coffee tastes like gittin' home, to me!"

"Pour us out another. Daddy," says the feller, warmin' up,

A-speakin' crost a saucerful, as Uncle tuk his cup--

"When I see yer sign out yander," he went on, to Uncle Jake--

"'Come in and git some coffee like yer mother used to make'--

I thought of _my_ old mother, and the Posey county farm,

And me a little kid again, a-hangin' in her arm,

As she set the pot a-bilin', broke the eggs and poured 'em in"--

And the feller kindo' halted, with a trimble in his chin;

And Uncle Jake he fetched the feller's coffee back, and stood

As solemn, fer a minute, as a' undertaker would;

Then he sorto' turned and tiptoed to'rds the kitchen door--and next,

Here comes his old wife out with him, a-rubbin' of her specs--

And she rushes fer the stranger, and she hollers out, "It's him!--

Thank God we've met him comin'!--Don't you know yer mother, Jim?"

And the feller, as he grabbed her, says,--"You bet I hain't forgot--

But," wipin' of his eyes, says he, "yer coffee's mighty hot!"

One of the most delightful coffee poems in English is Francis Saltus'

(d. 1889) sonnet on "the voluptuous berry", as found in _Flasks and

Flagons_:

COFFEE

Voluptuous berry! Where may mortals find

Nectars divine that can with thee compare,

When, having dined, we sip thy essence rare,

And feel towards wit and repartee inclined?

Thou wert of sneering, cynical Voltaire,

The only friend; thy power urged Balzac's mind

To glorious effort; surely Heaven designed

Thy devotees superior joys to share.

Whene'er I breathe thy fumes, 'mid Summer stars,

The Orient's splendent pomps my vision greet.

Damascus, with its myriad minarets, gleams!

I see thee, smoking, in immense bazaars,

Or yet, in dim seraglios, at the feet

Of blond Sultanas, pale with amorous dreams!

Arthur Gray, in _Over the Black Coffee_ (1902) has made the following

contribution to the poetry of coffee, with an unfortunate reflection on

tea, which might well have been omitted:

COFFEE

O, boiling, bubbling, berry, bean!

Thou consort of the kitchen queen--

Browned and ground of every feature,

The only aromatic creature,

For which we long, for which we feel,

The breath of morn, the perfumed meal.

For what is tea? It can but mean,

Merely the mildest go-between.

Insipid sobriety of thought and mind

It "cuts no figure"--we can find--

Save peaceful essays, gentle walks,

Purring cats, old ladies' talks--

* * * * *

But coffee! can other tales unfold.

Its history's written round and bold--

Brave buccaneers upon the "Spanish Main",

The army's march across the lenght'ning plain,

The lone prospector wandering o'er the hill,

The hunter's camp, thy fragrance all distill.

So here's a health to coffee! Coffee hot!

A morning toast! Bring on another pot.

_The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_ published in 1909 the following

excellent stanzas by William A. Price:

AN ODE TO COFFEE

Oh, thou most fragrant, aromatic joy, impugned, abused, and often stormed

against,

And yet containing all the blissfulness that in a tiny cup could be

condensed!

Give thy contemners calm, imperial scorn--

For thou wilt reign through ages yet unborn!

Some ancient Arab, so the legend tells, first found thee--may his memory be

blest!

The world-wide sign of brotherhood today, the binding tie between the East

and West!

Good coffee pleases in a Persian dell,

And Blackfeet Indians make it more than well.

The lonely traveler in the desert range, if thou art with him, smiles at

eventide--

The sailor, as thy perfume bubbles forth, laughs at the ocean as it rages

wide--

And where the camps of fighting men are found

Thy fragrance hovers o'er each battleground.

"Use, not abuse, the good things of this life"--that is a motto from the

Prophet's days,

And, dealing with thee thus, we ne'er shall come to troublous times or

parting of the ways.

Comfort and solace both endure with thee,

Rich, royal berry of the coffee tree!

The _New York Tribune_ published in 1915 the following lines by Louis

Untermeyer, which were subsequently included in his "---- _and Other

Poets_."[352]

GILBERT K. CHESTERTON RISES TO THE TOAST OF COFFEE

Strong wine it is a mocker; strong wine it is a beast.

It grips you when it starts to rise; it is the Fabled Yeast.

You should not offer ale or beer from hops that are freshly picked,

Nor even Benedictine to tempt a benedict.

For wine has a spell like the lure of hell, and the devil has mixed the

brew;

And the friends of ale are a sort of pale and weary, witless crew--

And the taste of beer is a sort of a queer and undecided brown--

But, comrades, I give you coffee--drink it up, drink it down.

With a fol-de-rol-dol and a fol-de-rol-dee, etc.

Oh, cocoa's the drink for an elderly don who lives with an elderly niece;

And tea is the drink for studios and loud and violent peace--

And brandy's the drink that spoils the clothes when the bottle breaks in

the trunk;

But coffee's the drink that is drunken by men who will never be drunk.

So, gentlemen, up with the festive cup, where Mocha and Java unite;

It clears the head when things are said too brilliant to be bright!

It keeps the stars from the golden bars and the lips of the tipsy town;

So, here's to strong, black coffee--drink it up, drink it down!

With a fol-de-rol-dol and a fol-de-rol-dee, etc.

The American breakfast cup is celebrated in up-to-date American style in

the following by Helen Rowland in the _New York Evening World_:

WHAT EVERY WIFE KNOWS

Give me a man who drinks good, hot, dark, strong coffee for breakfast!

A man who smokes a good, dark, fat cigar after dinner!

You may marry your milk-faddist, or your anti-coffee crank, as you will!

But I know the magic of the coffee pot!

Let me make my Husband's coffee--and I care not who makes eyes at him!

Give me two matches a day--

One to start the coffee with, at breakfast, and one for his cigar, after

dinner!

And I defy all the houris in Christendom to light a new flame in his heart!

Oh, sweet supernal coffee-pot!

Gentle panacea of domestic troubles,

Faithful author of that sweet nepenthe which deadens all the ills that

married folks are heir to.

Cheery, glittering, soul-soothing, warmed hearted, inanimate friend!

What wife can fail to admit the peace and serenity she owes to _you_?

To you, who stand between her and all her early morning troubles--

Between her and the before-breakfast grouch--

Between her and the morning-after headache--

Between her and the cold-gray-dawn scrutiny?

To you, who supply the golden nectar that stimulates the jaded masculine

soul,

Soothes the shaky masculine nerves, stirs the fagged masculine mind,

inspires the slow masculine sentiment,

And starts the sluggish blood a-flowing and the whole day right!

What is it, I ask you, when he comes down to breakfast dry of mouth, and

touchy of temper--

That gives him pause, and silences that scintillating barb of sarcasm on

the tip of his tongue,

With which he meant to impale you?

It is the sweet aroma of the coffee-pot--the thrilling thought of that

first delicious sip!

What is it, on the morning after the club dance,

That hides your weary, little, washed-out face and straggling, uncurled

coiffure from his critical eyes?

It is the generous coffee-pot, standing like a guardian angel between you

and him!

And in those many vital psychological moments, during the honeymoon, which

decide for or against the romance and happiness of all the rest of married

life--

Those critical before-breakfast moments when temperament meets temperament,

and will meets "won't"--

What is it that halts you on the brink of tragedy,

And distracts you from the temptation to answer back?

It is the absorbing anxiety of watching the coffee boil!

What is it that warms his veins and soothes your nerves,

And turns all the world suddenly from a dismal gray vale of disappointment

to a bright rosy garden of hope--

And starts _another_ day gliding smoothly along like a new motor car?

What is it that will do more to transform a man from a fiend into an angel

than baptism in the River Jordan?

_It is the first cup of coffee in the morning!_

_Coffee in Dramatic Literature_

Coffee was first "dramatized", so to speak, in England, where we read

that Charles II and the Duke of Yorke attended the first performance of

_Tarugo's Wiles, or the Coffee House_, a comedy, in 1667, which Samuel

Pepys described as "the most ridiculous and insipid play I ever saw in

my life." The author was Thomas St. Serf. The piece opens in a lively

manner, with a request on the part of its fashionable hero for a change

of clothes. Accordingly, Tarugo puts off his "vest, hat, perriwig, and

sword," and serves the guests to coffee, while the apprentice acts his

part as a gentleman customer. Presently other "customers of all trades

and professions" come dropping into the coffee house. These are not

always polite to the supposed coffee-man; one complains of his coffee

being "nothing but warm water boyl'd with burnt beans," while another

desires him to bring "chocolette that's prepar'd with water, for I hate

that which is encouraged with eggs." The pedantry and nonsense uttered

by a "schollar" character is, perhaps, an unfair specimen of

coffee-house talk; it is especially to be noticed that none of the

guests ventures upon the dangerous ground of politics.

In the end, the coffee-master grows tired of his clownish visitors,

saying plainly, "This rudeness becomes a suburb tavern rather than my

coffee house"; and with the assistance of his servants he "thrusts 'em

all out of doors, after the schollars and customers pay."

In 1694, there was published Jean Baptiste Rosseau's comedy, _Le Caffè_,

which appears to have been acted only once in Paris, although a later

English dramatist says it met with great applause in the French capital.

_Le Caffè_ was written in Laurent's café, which was frequented by

Fontenelle, Houdard de la Motte, Dauchet, the abbé Alary Boindin, and

others. Voltaire said that "this work of a young man without any

experience either of the world of letters or of the theater seems to

herald a new genius."

About this time it was the fashion for the coffee-house keepers of

Paris, and the waiters, to wear Armenian costumes; for Pascal had

builded better than he knew. In _La Foire Saint-Germain_, a comedy by

Dancourt, played in 1696, one of the principal characters is old

"Lorange, a coffee merchant clothed as an Armenian". In scene 5, he says

to Mlle. Mousset, "a seller of house dresses" that he has been "a

naturalized Armenian for three weeks."

Mrs. Susannah Centlivre (1667?-1723), in her comedy, _A Bold Stroke for

a Wife_, produced about 1719, has a scene laid in Jonathan's coffee

house about that period. While the stock jobbers are talking in the

first scene of act II, the coffee boys are crying, "Fresh Coffee,

gentlemen, fresh coffee?... Bohea tea, gentlemen?"

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) published "_The Coffee-House Politician, or

Justice caught in his own trap_," a comedy, in 1730.

_The Coffee House, a dramatick Piece by James Miller_, was performed at

the Theater Royal in Drury Lane in 1737. The interior of Dick's coffee

house figured as an engraved frontispiece to the published version of

the play.

The author states in the preface that "this piece is partly taken from a

comedy of one act written many years ago in French by the famous

Rosseau, called 'Le Caffè', which met with great applause in Paris."

The coffee house in the play is conducted by the Widow Notable, who has

a pretty daughter for whom, like all good mothers, she is anxious to

arrange a suitable marriage.

In the first scene, an acrimonious conversation takes place between

Puzzle, the Politician, and Bays, the poet, in which squabble the Pert

Beau and the Solemn Beau, and other habitués of the place take part.

Puzzle discovers that a comedian and other players are in the room, and

insists that they be ejected or forbidden the house. The Widow is justly

incensed, and indignantly replies:

Forbid the Players my House, Sir! Why, Sir, I get more by them in a

Week than I do by you in seven Years. You come here and hold a

paper in your hand for an Hour, disturb the whole Company with your

Politics, call for Pen and Ink, Paper and Wax, beg a Pipe of

Tobacco, burn out half a Candle, eat half a Pound of Sugar, and

then go away, and pay Two-pence for a Dish of Coffee. I could soon

shut up my doors, if I had not some other good People to make

amends for what I lose by such as you, Sir.

All join the Widow in scoffing and jeering, and exit the highly

discomfited Puzzle. The pretty little Kitty tricks her mother with the

aid of the Player, and marries the man of her choice, but is forgiven

when he is found to be a gentleman of the Temple.

The play is in one act and has several songs. The last is one of five

stanzas, with music "set by Mr. Caret:"

SONG

What Pleasures a Coffee-House daily bestows!

To read and hear how the World merrily goes;

To laugh, sing and prattle of This, That, and T' other;

And be flatter'd and ogl'd and kiss'd too, like Mother.

Here the Rake, after Roving and Tipling all Night,

For his Groat in the Morning may set his Head right.

And the Beau, who ne'er fouls his White fingers with Brass,

May have his Sixpen' worth of--Stare in the Glass.

The Doctor, who'd always be ready to kill,

May ev'ry Day here take his Stand, if he will;

And the soldier, who'd bluster and challenge secure,

May draw boldly here, for--we'll hold him he's sure.

The Lawyer, who's always in quest of his Prey,

May find fools here to feed upon every Day;

And the sage Politician, in Coffee-Grounds known,

May point out the Fate of each Crown but--his own.

Then, Gallants, since ev'rything here you may find

That pleasures the Fancy or profits the Mind,

Come all, and take each a full Dish of Delight,

And crowd up our Coffee-House every night.

[Illustration: SONG FROM "THE COFFEE HOUSE"]

John Timbs tells us this play "met with great opposition on its

representation, owing to its being stated that the characters were

intended for a particular family (that of Mrs. Yarrow and her daughter)

who kept Dick's, the coffee-house which the artist had inadvertently

selected as the frontispiece. It appears," Timbs continues, "that the

landlady and her daughter were the reigning toast of the Templars, who

then frequented Dick's; and took the matter up so strongly that they

united to condemn the farce on the night of its production; they

succeeded, and even extended their resentment to everything suspected to

be this author's (the Rev. James Miller) for a considerable time after."

Carlo Goldoni, who has been called the Molière of Italy, wrote _La

Bottega di Caffè_, (The Coffee House), a naturalistic comedy of

bourgeois Venice, satirizing scandal and gambling, in 1750. The scene is

a Venetian coffee house (probably Florian's), where several actions take

place simultaneously. Among several remarkable studies is one of a

prattling slanderer, Don Marzio, which ranks as one of the finest bits

of original character drawing the stage has ever seen. The play was

produced in English by the Chicago Theatre Society in 1912.

Chatfield-Taylor[353] thinks Voltaire probably imitated _La Bottega di

Caffè_ in his _Le Café, ou l'Ecossaise_. Goldoni was a lover of coffee,

a regular frequenter of the coffee houses of his time, from which he

drew much in the way of inspiration. Pietro Longhi, called the Venetian

Hogarth, in one of his pictures presenting life and manners in Venice

during the years of her decadence, shows Goldoni as a visitor in a café

of the period, with a female mendicant soliciting alms. It is in the

collection of Professor Italico Brass.

Goldoni, in the comedy _The Persian Wife_, gives us a glimpse of coffee

making in the middle of the eighteenth century. He puts these words into

the mouth of Curcuma, the slave:

Here is the coffee, ladies, coffee native of Arabia,

And carried by the caravans into Ispahan.

The coffee of Arabia is certainly always the best.

While putting forth its leaves on one side, upon the other the flowers

appear;

Born of a rich soil, it wishes shade, or but little sun.

Planted every three years is this little tree in the surface of the soil.

The fruit, though truly very small,

Should yet grow large enough to become somewhat green.

Later, when used, it should be freshly ground.

Kept in a warm and dry place and jealously guarded.

* * * * *

But a small quantity is needed to prepare it.

Put in the desired quantity and do not spill it over the fire;

Heat it till the foam rises, then let it subside again away from the fire;

Do this seven times at least, and coffee is made in a moment.

In 1760 there appeared in France _Le Café, ou l'Ecossaise, comédie_,

which purported to have been written by a Mr. Hume, an Englishman, and

to have been translated into French. It was in reality the work of

Voltaire, who had brought out another play, _Socrates_, in the same

manner a short time before. _Le Café_, was translated into English the

same year under the title _The Coffee House, or Fair Fugitive_. The

title page says the play is written by "Mr. Voltaire" and translated

from the French. It is a comedy in five acts. The principal characters

are: Fabrice, a good-natured man and the keeper of the coffee house;

Constantia, the fair fugitive; Sir William Woodville, a gentleman of

distinction under misfortune; Belmont, in love with Constantia, a man of

fortune and interest; Freeport, a merchant and an epitome of English

manners; Scandal, a sharper; and Lady Alton, in love with Belmont.

_Il Caffè di Campagna_, a play with music by Galuppi, appeared in Italy

in 1762.

Another Italian play, a comedy called _La Caffettiéra da Spirito_ was

produced in 1807.

_Hamilton_, a play by Mary P. Hamlin and George Arliss, the latter also

playing the title rôle, was produced in America by George C. Tyler in

1918. The first-act scene is laid in the Exchange coffee house of

Philadelphia, during the period of Washington's first administration.

Among the characters introduced in this scene are James Monroe, Count

Tallyrand, General Philip Schuyler, and Thomas Jefferson.

The authors very faithfully reproduce the atmosphere of the coffee house

of Washington's time. As Tallyrand remarks, "Everybody comes to see

everybody at the Exchange Coffee House.... It is club, restaurant,

merchants' exchange, everything."

_The Autocrat of the Coffee Stall_, a play in one act, by Harold Chapin,

was published in New York in 1921.

_Coffee and Literature in General_

An interesting book might be written on the transformation that tea and

coffee have wrought in the tastes of famous literary men. And of the two

stimulants, coffee seems to have furnished greater refreshment and

inspiration to most. However, both beverages have made civilization

their debtor in that they weaned so many fine minds from the heavy wines

and spirits in which they once indulged.

Voltaire and Balzac were the most ardent devotees of coffee among the

French _literati_. Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), the Scottish

philosopher and statesman, was so fond of coffee that he used to assert

that the powers of a man's mind would generally be found to be

proportional to the quantity of that stimulant which he drank. His

brilliant schoolmate and friend, Robert Hall (1764-1831), the Baptist

minister and pulpit orator, preferred tea, of which he sometimes drank a

dozen cups. Cowper; Parson and Parr, the famous Greek scholars; Dr.

Samuel Johnson; and William Hazlitt, the writer and critic, were great

tea drinkers; but Burton, Dean Swift, Addison, Steele, Leigh Hunt, and

many others, celebrated coffee.

Dr. Charles B. Reed, professor in the medical school of Northwestern

University, says that coffee may be considered as a type of substance

that fosters genius. History seems to bear him out. Coffee's essential

qualities are so well defined, says Dr. Reed, that one critic has

claimed the ability to trace throughout the works of Voltaire those

portions that came from coffee's inspiration. Tea and coffee promote a

harmony of the creative faculties that permits the mental concentration

necessary to produce the masterpieces of art and literature.

Voltaire (1694-1778) the king of wits, was also king of coffee drinkers.

Even in his old age he was said to have consumed fifty cups daily. To

the abstemious Balzac (1799-1850) coffee was both food and drink.

In Frederick Lawton's _Balzac_ we read: "Balzac worked hard. His habit

was to go to bed at six in the evening, sleep till twelve, and, after,

to rise and write for nearly twelve hours at a stretch, imbibing coffee

as a stimulant through these spells of composition."

In his _Treatise on Modern Stimulants_, Balzac thus describes his

reaction to his most beloved stimulant:

This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a

general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the

Grand Army on the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things

remembered arrive at full gallop, ensign to the wind. The light

cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the

artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the

shafts of wit start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper

is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded

with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.

When Balzac tells how Doctor Minoret, Ursule Minoret's guardian, used to

regale his friends with a cup of "Moka," mixed with Bourbon and

Martinique, which the Doctor insisted on personally preparing in a

silver coffee pot, it is his own custom that he is detailing. His

Bourbon he bought only in the rue Mont Blanc (now the chaussé d'Antin);

the Martinique, in the rue des Vielles Audriettes; the Mocha, at a

grocer's in the rue de l'Université. It was half a day's journey to

fetch them.

There have been notable contributions to the general literature of

coffee by French, Italian, English, and American writers. Space does not

permit of more than passing mention of some of them.

The reactions of the early French and English writers have been touched

upon in the chapters on the coffee houses of old London and the early

Parisian coffee houses, and in the history chapters dealing with the

evolution of coffee drinking and coffee manners and customs.

After Dufour, Galland, and La Roque in France, there were Count Rumford,

John Timbs, Douglas Ellis, and Robinson in England; Jardin and Franklin

in France; Belli in Italy; Hewitt, Thurber, and Walsh in America.

Mention has been made of coffee references in the works of Aubrey,

Burton, Addison, Steele, Bacon, and D'Israeli.

Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) the great French epicure, knew coffee as few

men before him or since. In his historical elegy, contained in

_Gastronomy as a Fine Art, or the Science of Good Living_, he exclaims:

You crossed and mitred abbots and bishops who dispensed the favors

of Heaven, and you the dreaded templars who armed yourselves for

the extermination of the Saracens, you knew nothing of the sweet

restoring influence of our modern chocolate, nor of the

thought-inspiring bean of Arabia--how I pity you!

O. de Gourcuff's _De la Café, épître attribué à Senecé_, is deserving of

honorable mention.

An early French writer pays this tribute to the inspirational effects of

coffee:

It is a beverage eminently agreeable, inspiring and wholesome. It

is at once a stimulant, a cephalic, a febrifuge, a digestive, and

an anti-soporific; it chases away sleep, which is the enemy of

labor; it invokes the imagination, without which there can be no

happy inspiration. It expels the gout, that enemy of pleasure,

although to pleasure gout owes its birth; it facilitates digestion,

without which there can be no true happiness. It disposes to

gaiety, without which there is neither pleasure nor enjoyment; it

gives wit to those who already have it, and it even provides wit

(for some hours at least) to those who usually have it not. Thank

heaven for Coffee, for see how many blessings are concentrated in

the infusion of a small berry. What other beverage in the world can

compare with it? Coffee, at once a pleasure and a medicine; Coffee,

which nourishes at the same moment the mind, body and imagination.

Hail to thee! Inspirer of men of letters, best digestive of the

gourmand. Nectar of all men.

In Bologna, 1691, Angelo Rambaldi published _Ambrosia arabica, caffè

discorso_. This work is divided into eighteen sections, and describes

the origin, cultivation, and roasting of the bean, as well as telling

how to prepare the beverage.

During the time that Milan was under Spanish rule, Cesare Beccaria

directed and edited a publication entitled _Il Caffè_, which was

published from June 4, 1764, to May, 1766, "edited in Brescia by

Giammaria Rizzardi and undertaken by a little society of friends,"

according to the salutatory. Besides the Marchese Beccaria, other

editors and contributors were Pietro and Alexander Verri, Baillon,

Visconti, Colpani, Longhi, Albertenghi, Frisi, and Secchi. The same

periodical, with the same editorial staff, was published also in Venice

in the Typografia Pizzolato.

Another publication called _Il Caffè_, devoted to arts, letters, and

science, was published in Venice in 1850-52. Still another, having the

same name, a national weekly journal, was published in Milan, 1884-89.

An almanac, having the title _Il Caffè_, was published in Milan in 1829.

A weekly paper, called _Il Caffè Pedrocchi_, was published in Padua in

1846-48. It was devoted to art, literature and politics.

A publication called _Coffee and Surrogates_ (tea, chocolate, saffron,

pepper, and other stimulants) was founded by Professor Pietro Polli, in

Milan, in 1885; but was short-lived.

An early English magazine (1731) contains an account of divination by

coffee-grounds. The writer pays an unexpected visit, and "surprised the

lady and her company in close cabal over their coffee, the interest very

intent upon one whom, by her address and intelligence, he guessed was a

tire woman, to which she added the secret of divining by coffee grounds.

She was then in full inspiration, and with much solemnity observing the

atoms around the cup; on the one hand sat a widow, on the other a maiden

lady. They assured me that every cast of the cup is a picture of all

one's life to come, and every transaction and circumstance is delineated

with the exactest certainty."

The advertisement used by this seer is quite interesting:

An advise is hereby given that there has lately arrived in this

city (Dublin) the famous Mrs. Cherry, the only gentlewoman truly

learned in the occult science of _tossing of coffee grounds_; who

has with uninterrupted success for some time past practiced to the

general satisfaction of her female visitants. Her hours are after

prayers are done at St. Peter's Church, until dinner.

(N.B. She never requires more than 1 oz. of coffee from a single

gentlewoman, and so proportioned for a second or third person, but

not to exceed that number at any one time.)

If the one ounce of coffee represented her payment for reading the

future, the charge could not be considered exorbitant!

English writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were

noticeably affected by coffee, and the coffee-houses of the times have

been immortalized by them; and in many instances they themselves were

immortalized by the coffee houses and their frequenters. In the chapters

already referred to and at the close of this chapter, will be found

stories, quips, and anecdotes, in which occur many names that are now

famous in art and literature.

Modern journalism dates from the publication, April 12, 1709, of the

_Tatler_, whose editor was Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) the Irish

dramatist and essayist. He received his inspiration from the coffee

houses; and his readers were the men that knew them best. In the first

issue he announced:

All accounts of gallantry, pleasure and entertainment shall be

under the article of White's Coffee House; poetry under that of

Will's Coffee House; learning under the title of Grecian; foreign

and domestic news you will have from St. James's Coffee House, and

what else I shall on any other subject offer shall be dated from my

own apartment.

Steele's _Tatler_ was issued three times weekly until 1711, when it

suspended to be succeeded by the _Spectator_, whose principal

contributor was Joseph Addison (1672-1719), the essayist and poet, and

Steele's school-fellow.

Sir Richard Steele immortalized the Don and Don Saltero's coffee house

in old Chelsea in No. 34 of the _Tatler_, wherein he tells us of the

necessity of traveling to know the world, by his journey for fresh air,

no farther than the village of Chelsea, of which he fancied that he

could give an immediate description--from the five fields, where the

the robbers lie in wait, to the coffee house, where the literati sit in

council. But he found, even in a place so near town as this, that there

were enormities and persons of eminence, whom he before knew nothing of.

The coffee house was almost absorbed by the museum, Steele says:

When I came into the coffee-house, I had not time to salute the

company, before my eyes were diverted by ten thousand gimcracks

round the room, and on the ceiling. When my first astonishment was

over, comes to me a sage of thin and meagre countenance, which

aspect made me doubt whether reading or fretting had made it so

philosophic; but I very soon perceived him to be that sort which

the ancients call "gingivistee", in our language "tooth-drawers". I

immediately had a respect for the man; for these practical

philosophers go upon a very practical hypothesis, not to cure, but

to take away the part affected. My love of mankind made me very

benevolent to Mr. Salter, for such is the name of this eminent

barber and antiquary.

The Don was famous for his punch, and for his skill on the fiddle. He

drew teeth also, and wrote verses; he described his museum in several

stanzas, one of which is:

Monsters of all sorts are seen:

Strange things in nature as they grew so;

Some relicks of the Sheba Queen,

And fragments of the fam'd Bob Crusoe.

Steele then plunges into a deep thought why barbers should go farther in

hitting the ridiculous than any other set of men; and maintains that Don

Saltero is descended in a right line, not from John Tradescant, as he

himself asserts, but from the memorable companion of the Knight of

Mancha. Steele certifies to all the worthy citizens who travel to see

the Don's rarities, that his double-barreled pistols, targets, coats of

mail, his sclopeta (hand-culverin) and sword of Toledo, were left to his

ancestor by the said Don Quixote; and by his ancestor to all his progeny

down to Saltero. Though Steele thus goes far in favor of Don Saltero's

great merit, he objects to his imposing several names (without his

license) on the collection he has made, to the abuse of the good people

of England; one of which is particularly calculated to deceive religious

persons, to the great scandal of the well-disposed and may introduce

heterodox opinions. (Among the curiosities presented by Admiral Munden

was a coffin, containing the body or relics of a Spanish saint, who had

wrought miracles.) Says Steele:

He shows you a straw hat, which I know to be made by Madge Peskad,

within three miles of Bedford; and tells you "It is Pontius

Pilate's wife's chambermaid's sister's hat." To my knowledge of

this very hat, it may be added that the covering of straw was never

used among the Jews, since it was demanded of them to make bricks

without it. Therefore, this is nothing but, under the specious

pretense of learning and antiquities, to impose upon the world.

There are other things which I can not tolerate among his rarities,

as, the china figure of the lady in the glass-case; the Italian

engine, for the imprisonment of those who go abroad with it; both

of which I hereby order to be taken down, or else he may expect to

have his letters patent for making punch superseded, be debarred

wearing his muff next winter, or ever coming to London without his

wife.

Babillard says that Salter had an old grey muff, and that, by wearing it

up to his nose, he was distinguishable at the distance of a quarter of a

mile. His wife was none of the best, being much addicted to scolding;

and Salter, who liked his glass, if he could make a trip to London by

himself, was in no haste to return.

Don Saltero's proved very attractive as an exhibition, and drew crowds

to the coffee house. A catalog was published of which were printed more

than forty editions. Smollett, the novelist, was among the donors. The

catalog, in 1760, comprehended the following rarities:

Tigers' tusks; the Pope's candle; the skeleton of a Guinea-pig; a

fly-cap monkey, a piece of the true Cross; the Four Evangelists'

heads cut out on a cherry stone; the King of Morocco's

tobacco-pipe; Mary Queen of Scots' pincushion; Queen Elizabeth's

prayer-book; a pair of Nun's stockings; Job's ears, which grew on a

tree; a frog in a tobacco stopper; and five hundred more odd

relics!

The Don had a rival, as appears by _A Catalogue of the Rarities to be

seen at Adam's, at the Royal Swan, in Kingsland-road, leading from

Shoreditch Church, 1756_. Mr. Adams exhibited, for the entertainment of

the curious:

Miss Jenny Cameron's shoes; Adam's eldest daughter's hat; the heart

of the famous Bess Adams, that was hanged at Tyburn with Lawyer

Carr, January 18, 1736-37; Sir Walter Raleigh's tobacco pipe; Vicar

of Bray's clogs; engine to shell green peas with; teeth that grew

in a fish's belly; Black Jack's ribs; the very comb that Abraham

combed his son Isaac and Jacob's head with; Wat Tyler's spurs;

rope that cured Captain Lowry of the head-ach, ear-ach, tooth-ach,

and belly-ach; Adam's key of the fore and back door of the Garden

of Eden, etc., etc.

These are only a few out of five hundred other equally marvellous

exhibits.

The success of Don Saltero in attracting visitors to his coffee house,

induced the proprietor of the Chelsea bunhouse to make a similar

collection of rarities, to attract customers for his buns; and to some

extent it was successful.

In the first number of the _Spectator_, Addison says:

There is no place of general resort wherein I do not often make my

appearance. Sometimes I am seen thrusting my head into a round of

politicians at Will's, and listening with great attention to the

narratives that are made in those little circular audiences.

Sometimes I smoke a pipe at Child's, and while I seem attentive to

nothing but the _Postman_, overhear the conversation of every table

in the room. I appear on Sunday nights at St. James' coffee house,

and _sometimes_ join the little committee of politics in the inner

room as one who comes there to hear and improve. My face is

likewise very well known at the Grecian, the Cocoa Tree, and in the

theatres both of Drury Lane and the Hay Market. I have been taken

for a merchant upon the Exchange for above these ten years, and

sometimes pass for a Jew in the assembly of stock jobbers at

Jonathan's; in short, wherever I see a cluster of people, I always

mix with them, though I never open my lips, but in my own club.

In the second number he tells that:

I am now settled with a widow woman, who has a great many children

and complies with my humor in everything. I do not remember that we

have exchanged a word together for these five years; my coffee

comes into my chamber every morning without asking for it, if I

want fire I point to the chimney, if water, to my basin; upon which

my landlady nods as much as to say she takes my meaning, and

immediately obeys my signals.

Three of Addison's papers in the _Spectator_ (Nos. 402, 481, and 568)

are humorously descriptive of the coffee houses of the period. No. 403

opens with the remark that:

The courts of two countries do not so much differ from one another,

as the Court and the City, in their peculiar ways of life and

conversation. In short, the inhabitants of St. James,

notwithstanding they live under the same laws, and speak the same

language, are a distinct people from those of Cheapside, who are

likewise removed from those of the Temple on the one side, and

those of Smithfleld on the other, by several climates and degrees

in their way of thinking and conversing together.

For this reason, the author takes a ramble through London and

Westminster, to gather the opinions of his ingenious countrymen upon a

current report of the king of France's death.

I know the faces of all the principal politicians within the bills

of mortality; and as every coffee-house has some particular

statesman belonging to it, who is the mouth of the street where he

lives, I always take care to place myself near him, in order to

know his judgment on the present posture of affairs. And, as I

foresaw the above report would produce a new face of things in

Europe, and many curious speculations in our British coffee-houses,

I was very desirous to learn the thoughts of our most eminent

politicians on that occasion.

That I might begin as near the fountain-head as possible, I first

of all called in at St. James's, where I found the whole outward

room in a buzz of politics; the speculations were but very

indifferent towards the door, but grew finer as you advanced to the

upper end of the room, and were so much improved by a knot of

theorists, who sat in the inner room, within the steams of the

coffee-pot, that I there heard the whole Spanish monarchy disposed

of, and all the line of Bourbons provided for in less than a

quarter of an hour.

I afterwards called in at Giles's, where I saw a board of French

gentlemen sitting upon the life and death of their grand monarque.

Those among them who had espoused the Whig interest very positively

affirmed that he had departed this life about a week since, and

therefore, proceeded without any further delay to the release of

their friends in the galleys, and to their own re-establishment;

but, finding they could not agree among themselves, I proceeded on

my intended progress.

Upon my arrival at Jenny Man's I saw an alert young fellow that

cocked his hat upon a friend of his, who entered just at the same

time with myself, and accosted him after the following manner:

"Well, Jack, the old prig is dead at last. Sharp's the word. Now or

never, boy. Up to the walls of Paris, directly;" with several other

deep reflections of the same nature.

I met with very little variation in the politics between Charing

Cross and Covent Garden. And, upon my going into Will's, I found

their discourse was gone off, from the death of the French King, to

that of Monsieur Boileau, Racine, Corneille, and several other

poets, whom they regretted on this occasion as persons who would

have obliged the world with very noble elegies on the death of so

great a prince, and so eminent a patron of learning.

At a coffee-house near the Temple, I found a couple of young

gentlemen engaged very smartly in a dispute on the succession to

the Spanish monarchy. One of them seemed to have been retained as

advocate for the Duke of Anjou, the other for his Imperial Majesty.

They were both for regarding the title to that kingdom by the

statute laws of England; but finding them going out of my depth, I

pressed forward to Paul's Churchyard, where I listened with great

attention to a learned man, who gave the company an account of the

deplorable state of France during the minority of the deceased

king.

I then turned on my right hand into Fish-street, where the chief

politician of that quarter, upon hearing the news, (after having

taken a pipe of tobacco, and ruminated for some time) "If," says

he, "the King of France is certainly dead, we shall have plenty of

mackerel this season: our fishery will not be disturbed by

privateers, as it has been for these ten years past." He afterwards

considered how the death of this great man would affect our

pilchards, and by several other remarks infused a general joy into

his whole audience.

I afterwards entered a by-coffee-house that stood at the upper end

of a narrow lane, where I met with a Nonjuror engaged very warmly

with a laceman who was the great support of a neighboring

conventicle. The matter in debate was whether the late French King

was most like Augustus Caesar, or Nero. The controversy was carried

on with great heat on both sides, and as each of them looked upon

me very frequently during the course of their debate, I was under

some apprehension that they would appeal to me, and therefore laid

down my penny at the bar and made the best of my way to Cheapside.

I here gazed upon the signs for some time before I found one to my

purpose. The first object I met in the coffee-room was a person who

expressed a great grief for the death of the French King; but upon

his explaining himself, I found his sorrow did not arise from the

loss of the monarch, but for his having sold out of the Bank about

three days before he heard the news of it. Upon which a

haberdasher, who was the oracle of the coffee-house, and had his

circle of admirers about him, called several to witness that he had

declared his opinion, above a week before, that the French King was

certainly dead; to which he added, that considering the late

advices we had received from France, it was impossible that it

could be otherwise. As he was laying these together, and debating

to his hearers with great authority, there came a gentlemen from

Garraway's, who told us that there were several letters from France

just come in, with advice that the King was in good health, and was

gone out a hunting the very morning the post came away; upon which

the haberdasher stole off his hat that hung upon a wooden peg by

him, and retired to his shop with great confusion. This

intelligence put a stop to my travels, which I had prosecuted with

so much satisfaction; not being a little pleased to hear so many

different opinions upon so great an event, and to observe how

naturally, upon such a piece of news, every one is apt to consider

it to his particular interest and advantage.

Johnson wrote in his _Life of Addison_ concerning the _Tatler_ and the

_Spectator_ that they were:

Published at a time when two parties, loud, restless and violent,

each with plausible declarations, and both perhaps without any

distinct determination of its views, were agitating the nation; to

minds heated with political contest they supplied cooler and more

inoffensive reflections.... They had a perceptible influence on the

conversation of the time, and taught the frolic and the gay to

unite merriment with decency, effects which they can never wholly

lose.

Harold Routh in the Cambridge _History of Literature_, speaking of the

_Spectator_, says:

It surpassed the _Tatler_ in style and in thought. It gave

expression to the _power_ of commerce. For more than a century

traders had been characterized as dishonest and avaricious, because

playwrights and pamphleteers generally wrote for the leisure

classes, and were themselves too poor to have any but unpleasant

relations with men of business. Now merchants were becoming

ambassadors of civilization, and had developed intellect so as to

control distant and, as it seemed, mysterious sources of wealth; by

a stroke of the pen and largely through the coffee houses they had

come to know their own importance and power.

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was very fond of good eating, and almost daily

entries were made in his _Diary_ of dinner delicacies that he had

enjoyed. One dinner, that he considered a great success, was served to

eight persons, and consisted of oysters, a hash of rabbits, a lamb, a

rare chine of beef; next a great dish of roasting fowl ("cost me about

30 s.") a tart, then fruit and cheese. "My dinner was noble enough ... I

believe this day's feast will cost me near 5 pounds." But it will be

noted that coffee was not mentioned as a part of the menu.

He makes countless references to visits paid to this and that coffee

house, but records only one instance of actually drinking coffee:

Up betimes to my office, and thence at seven o'clock to Sir G.

Carteret, and there with Sir J. Minnes made an end of his accounts,

but staid not to dinner my Lady having made us drink our morning

draft there of several wines, but I drank nothing but some of her

coffee, which was poorly made, with a little sugar in it.

This note which he considered worthy of record was certainly not

inspired by the excellence of the good lady's matutinal coffee.

William Cobbett (1762-1835) the English-American politician, reformer,

and writer on economics, denounced coffee as "slops"; but he was one of

a remarkably small minority. Before his day, one of England's greatest

satirists, Dean Swift, (1667-1745) led a long roll of literary men who

were devotees of coffee.

Swift's writings are full of references to coffee; and his letters from

Stella came to him under cover, at the St. James coffee house. There is

scarcely a letter to Esther (Vanessa) Vanhomrigh which does not contain

a significant reference to coffee, by which the course of their

friendship and clandestine meetings may be traced. In one dated August

13, 1720, written while traveling from place to place in Ireland, he

says:

We live here in a very dull town, every valuable creature absent,

and Cad says he is weary of it, and would rather prefer his coffee

on the barrenest mountain in Wales than be king here.

A fig for partridges and quails,

Ye dainties I know nothing of ye;

But on the highest mount in Wales,

Would choose in peace to drink my coffee.

In another letter, about two years later, replying to one in which

Vanessa has reproached him and begged him to write her soon, he advises:

The best maxim I know in life, is to drink your coffee when you

can, and when you cannot, to be easy without it; while you continue

to be splenetic, count upon it I will always preach. Thus much I

sympathize with you, that I am not cheerful enough to write, for, I

believe, coffee once a week is necessary, and you know very well

that coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical.

These various references to coffee are thought to have been based upon

an incident in the early days of their friendship, when on the occasion

of the Vanhomrigh family journeying from Dublin to London, Vanessa

accidentally spilt her coffee in the chimney-place at a certain inn,

which Swift considered a premonition of their growing friendship.

Writing from Clogher, Swift reminds Vanessa:

Remember that riches are nine parts in ten of all that is good in

life, and health is the tenth--drinking coffee comes long after,

and yet it is the eleventh, but without the two former you cannot

drink it right.

In another letter he writes facetiously, in memory of her playful

badinage:

I long to drink a dish of coffee in the sluttery and hear you dun

me for a secret, and "Drink your coffee; why don't you drink your

coffee?"

Leigh Hunt had very pleasant things to say about coffee, giving to it

the charm of appeal to the imagination, which he said one never finds in

tea. For example:

Coffee, like tea, used to form a refreshment by itself, some hours

after dinner; it is now taken as a digester, right upon that meal

or the wine, and sometimes does not even close it; or the digester

itself is digested by a liquor of some sort called a _Chasse-Café_

[coffee-chaser]. We like coffee better than tea for taste, but tea

"for a constancy." To be perfect in point of relish (we do not say

of wholesomeness) coffee should be strong and hot, with little milk

and sugar. It has been drunk after this mode in some parts of

Europe, but the public have nowhere, we believe, adopted it. The

favorite way of taking it at a meal, abroad, is with a great

superfluity of milk--very properly called, in France _café au lait_

(coffee _to the_ milk). One of the pleasures we receive in drinking

coffee is that, being the universal drink in the East, it reminds

of that region of the "Arabian Nights" as smoking does for the same

reason; though neither of these refreshments, which are identified

with Oriental manners, is to be found in that enchanting work. They

had not been discovered when it was written; the drink then was

sherbet. One can hardly fancy what a Turk or a Persian could have

done without coffee and a pipe, any more than the English ladies

and gentlemen, before the civil wars, without tea for breakfast.

In his old age, Immanuel Kant, the great metaphysician, became extremely

fond of coffee; and Thomas de Quincey relates a little incident showing

Kant's great eagerness for the after-dinner cup.

At the beginning of the last year of his life, he fell into a

custom of taking, immediately after dinner, a cup of coffee,

especially on those days when it happened that I was of his party.

And such was the importance that he attached to his little pleasure

that he would even make a memorandum beforehand, in the blank paper

book that I had given him, that on the next day I was to dine with

him, and consequently "_that there was to be coffee_." Sometimes in

the interest of conversation, the coffee was forgotten, but not for

long. He would remember and with the querulousness of old age and

infirm health would demand that coffee be brought "upon the spot."

Arrangements had always been made in advance, however; the coffee

was ground, and the water was boiling: and in the very moment the

word was given, the servant shot in like an arrow and plunged the

coffee into the water. All that remained, therefore, was to give it

time to boil up. But this trifling delay seemed unendurable to

Kant. If it were said, "Dear Professor, the coffee will be brought

up in a moment," he would say, _"Will be!_ There's the rub, that it

only _will_ be." Then he would quiet himself with a stoical air,

and say, "Well, one can die after all; it is but dying; and in the

next world, thank God, there is no drinking of coffee and

consequently no waiting for it."

When at length the servant's steps were heard upon the stairs, he

would turn round to us, and joyfully call out: "Land, land! my dear

friends, I see land."

Thackeray (1811-1863) must have suffered many tea and coffee

disappointments. In the _Kickleburys on the Rhine_ he asks: "Why do they

always put mud into coffee aboard steamers? Why does the tea generally

taste of boiled boots?"

In _Arthur's_, A. Neil Lyons has preserved for all time the atmosphere

of the London coffee stall. "I would not," he says, "exchange a night at

Arthur's for a week with the brainiest circle in London." The book is a

collection of short stories. As already recorded, Harold Chapin

dramatized this picturesque London institution in _The Autocrat of the

Coffee Stall_.

In General Horace Porter's _Campaigning with Grant_, we have three

distinct coffee incidents within fifty-odd pages; or explicitly, see

pages 47, 56, 101; where, deep in the fiercest snarls of The Wilderness

campaign we are treated to:

General Grant, slowly sipping his coffee ... a full ration of that

soothing army beverage.... The general made rather a singular meal

preparatory to so exhausting a day as that which was to follow. He

took a cucumber, sliced it, poured some vinegar over it, and

partook of nothing else except a cup of strong coffee.... The

general seemed in excellent spirits, and was even inclined to be

jocose. He said to me, "We have just had our coffee, and you will

find some left for you." ... I drank it with the relish of a

shipwrecked mariner.

One of the first immediate supplies General Sherman desired from

Wilmington, on reaching Fayetteville and lines of communication in

March, 1865, was, expressly, coffee; does he not say so himself, on page

297 of the second volume of his _Memoirs_?

Still more expressly, towards the close of his _Memoirs_, and among

final recommendations, the fruit of his experiences in that whole vast

war, General Sherman says this for coffee:

Coffee has become almost indispensable, though many substitutes

were found for it, such as Indian corn, roasted, ground and boiled

as coffee, the sweet potato, and the seed of the okra plant

prepared in the same way. All these were used by the people of the

South, who for years could procure no coffee, but I noticed that

the women always begged of us real coffee, which seemed to satisfy

a natural yearning or craving more powerful than can be accounted

for on the theory of habit. Therefore I would always advise that

the coffee and sugar ration be carried along, even at the expense

of bread, for which there are many substitutes.

George Agnew Chamberlain's novel _Home_ contains a vivid description of

coffee-making on an old plantation, and could only have been written by

a devoted lover of this drink. Gerry Lansing, the American, has escaped

drowning in the river, and is now lost in the Brazilian forest. He finds

his way at last to an old plantation house:

A stove was built into the masonry, and a cavernous oven gaped from

the massive wall. At the stove was an old negress, making coffee

with shaky deliberation.... The girl and the wrinkled old woman

made him sit down at the table, and then placed before him crisp

rusks of mandioc flour and steaming coffee whose splendid aroma

triumphed over the sordidness of the scene and through the nostrils

reached the palate with anticipatory touch. It was sweetened with

dark, pungent syrup and was served black in a capacious bowl, as

though one could not drink too deeply of the elixir of life. Gerry

ate ravenously and sipped the coffee, at first sparingly, then

greedily.... Gerry set down the empty bowl with a sigh. The rusks

had been delicious. Before the coffee the name of nectar dwindled

to impotency. Its elixir rioted in his veins.

In the _Rosary_, Florence L. Barclay has a Scotch woman tell how she

makes coffee. She says:

Use a jug--it is not what you make it in; it is how ye make it. It

all hangs upon the word fresh--freshly roasted--freshly

ground--water freshly boiled. And never touch it with metal. Pop it

into an earthenware jug, pour in your boiling water straight upon

it, stir it with a wooden spoon, set it on the hob ten minutes to

settle; the grounds will all go to the bottom, though you might not

think it, and you pour it out, fragrant, strong and clear. But the

secret is, _fresh, fresh, fresh_, and don't stint your coffee.

Cyrus Townsend Brady's _The Corner in Coffee_ is "a thrilling romance of

the New York coffee market."

Coffee, Du Barry, and Louis XV figure in one scene of the story of _The

Moat with the Crimson Stains_, as told by Elizabeth W. Champney in her

_Romance of the Bourbon Chateaux_.[354] It tells of the German

apprentice Riesener, who assisted his master Oeben in designing for

Louis XV a beautiful desk with a secret drawer, which it took ten years

of unremitting industry to execute. At the end, Riesener was to be

accepted by his master as a partner and a son-in-law. Little Victoire,

who loved to sit in a punt and trail her doll in the waters of the

Bievre to see to what color its frock would be changed by the dyes of

the Gobelin factory, was then only five, and Madam Oeben twenty-three.

As the years rolled by, Riesener grew to love the mother and not the

daughter, who, meanwhile, shot up into a slim girl, not of her mother's

beauty, but of a loveliness all her own. Then there was a quarrel

because the young apprentice thought the master should have resented the

suggestion of M. Duplessis that his wife pose in the nude for the

statuettes which were to hold the sconces on the king's desk; and

Riesener left in a fine youthful frenzy, vowing he would never return

while the _maître_ lived. The latter, unable to complete the masterpiece

which he loved more than anything else on earth, sought death, and

perished in the crimson waters of the Bievre.

The _maître_ had no enemies, but his quarrel with Riesener caused a fear

to spring up in the widow's heart that the apprentice might have been

guilty of his murder, so she refused to see him when, hearing of his

master's death, he returned, stricken with remorse, to finish the desk.

On it were the statuettes modeled in perfect likeness of Mlle. de

Vaubernier, a wily little milliner of Riesener's bohemian set who had

taken this way to bring herself to the attention of Louis XV. The ruse

was successful; and after the acceptance of the desk, there was

installed a new _maîtresse en titre_, the notorious Madame Du Barry,

erstwhile the pretty milliner, Mlle. de Vaubernier.

Later, Madame Du Barry sent for the now famous _ebeniste_ (cabinet

maker); and, when her negro page Zamore admitted him, he found His

Majesty Louis XV kneeling in front of the fireplace, making coffee for

her while she laughed at him for scalding his fingers. He had been

summoned to show the king the mechanism of the secret drawer, so

cunningly concealed in the king's desk that no one could find it. But

Riesener knew not the secret of his master, who had died without

revealing it. Then the red revolution came; and when the pretty pavilion

at Louveciennes was sacked, and its costly furniture hurled down the

cliff to the Seine, the king's desk, shattered almost beyond repair, was

carried to the Gobelins' factory and presented to Mme. Oeben in

recognition of her husband's workmanship. Then the secret compartment

was found to have been disclosed, and Riesener was absolved by a letter

therein, from the _maître_, who intimated he was about to end it all

because of paralysis. Riesener marries the widow and all ends happily.

James Lane Allen, in _The Kentucky Warbler_, tells a tale of the Blue

Grass country and of a young hero who wanders after a bird's note to

find romance and the key to his own locked nature. Here is an incident

from his first forest adventure:

There was one tree he curiously looked around for, positive that he

should not be blind to it if fortunate enough to set his eyes on

one--the coffee tree. That is, he felt sure he'd recognize it if it

yielded coffee ready to drink, of which never in his life had they

given him enough. Not once throughout his long troubled experience

as to being fed had he been allowed as much coffee as he craved.

Once, when younger, he had heard some one say that the only tree in

all the American forests that bore the name of Kentucky was the

Kentucky coffee tree, and he had instantly conceived a desire to

pay a visit in secret to that corner of the woods. To take his cup

and a few lumps of sugar and sit under the boughs and catch the

coffee as it dripped down.... No one to hold him back ... as much

as he wanted at last.... The Kentucky coffee tree--his favorite in

Nature!

John Kendrick Bangs relates, in _Coffee and Repartee_[355], some amusing

skirmishes indulged in at the boarding-house table, between the Idiot

and the guests, where coffee served the purpose of enlivening the tilt:

"Can't I give you another cup of coffee?" asked the landlady of the

School Master.

"You may," returned the School Master, pained at the lady's

grammar, but too courteous to call attention to it save by the

emphasis with which he spoke the word "may".

Said the Idiot: "You may fill my cup too, Mrs. Smithers."

"The coffee is all gone," returned the landlady, with a snap.

"Then, Mary," said the Idiot, gracefully turning to the maid, "you

may give me a glass of ice water. It is quite as warm, after all,

as the coffee and not quite so weak."

One other little skit remains at the expense of Mrs. Smithers' coffee.

At the breakfast table, where the air, as usual, is charged with

repartee, Mr. Whitechoker, the minister, says to his landlady:

"Mrs. Smithers, I'll have a dash of hot water in my coffee, this

morning." Then with a glance toward the Idiot, he added, "I think it

looks like rain."

"Referring to the coffee, Mr. Whitechoker?" queried the Idiot....

"Ah,--I don't quite follow you," replied the Minister with some

annoyance.

"You said something looked like rain, and I asked you if the thing

referred to was the coffee, for I was disposed to agree with you,"

said the Idiot.

"I am sure," put in Mrs. Smithers, "that a gentleman of Mr.

Whitechoker's refinement would not make any such insinuation, sir.

He is not the man to quarrel with what is set before him."

"I must ask your pardon, Madam," returned the Idiot politely. "I

hope I am not the man to quarrel with my food, either. Indeed, I

make it a rule to avoid unpleasantness of all sorts, particularly

with the weak, under which category I find your coffee."

_Coffee Quips and Anecdotes_

Coffee literature is full of quips and anecdotes. Probably the most

famous coffee quip is that of Mme. de Sévigné, who, as already told in

chapter XI, was wrongfully credited with saying, "Racine and coffee will

pass." It was Voltaire in his preface to _Irene_ who thus accused the

amiable letter-writer; and she, being dead, could not deny it.

That Mme. de Sévigné was at one time a coffee drinker is apparent from

this quotation from one of her letters: "The cavalier believes that

coffee gives him warmth, and I at the same time, foolish as you know me,

do not take it any longer."

La Roque called the beverage "the King of Perfumes", whose charm was

enriched when vanilla was added.

Emile Souvestre (1806-1854) said: "Coffee keeps, so to say, the balance

between bodily and spiritual nourishment."

Isid Bourdon said: "The discovery of coffee has enlarged the realm of

illusion and given more promise to hope."

An old Bourbon proverb says: "To an old man a cup of coffee is like the

door post of an old house--it sustains and strengthens him."

Jardin says that in the Antilles, instead of orange blossoms, the brides

carry a spray of coffee blossoms; and when a woman remains unmarried,

they say she has lost her coffee branch. "We say in France, that she has

_coiffé_ Sainte-Catherine."

Fontenelle and Voltaire have both been quoted as authors of the famous

reply to the remark that coffee was a slow poison: "I think it must be,

for I've been drinking it for eighty-five years and am not dead yet."

In Meidinger's _German Grammar_ the "slow-poison" _bon mot_ is

attributed to Fontenelle.

It seems reasonable to give Fontenelle credit for this _bon mot_.

Voltaire died at eighty-four. Fontenelle lived to be nearly a hundred

years. Of his cheerfulness at an advanced age an anecdote is related. In

conversation, one day, a lady a few years younger than Fontenelle

playfully remarked, "Monsieur, you and I stay here so long, methinks

Death has forgotten us." "Hush! Speak in a whisper, madame," replied

Fontenelle, "_tant mieux!_ (so much the better!) don't remind him of

us."

Flaubert, Hugo, Baudelaire, Paul de Kock, Théophile Gautier, Alfred de

Musset, Zola, Coppée, George Sand, Guy de Maupassant, and Sarah

Bernhardt, all have been credited with many clever or witty sallies

about coffee.

Prince Talleyrand (1754-1839), the French diplomat and wit, has given us

the cleverest summing up of the ideal cup of coffee. He said it should

be "_Noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, doux

comme l'amour._" Or in English, "black as the devil, hot as hell, pure

as an angel, sweet as love."

This quip has been wrongfully attributed to Brillat-Savarin. Talleyrand

said also:

A cup of coffee lightly tempered with good milk detracts nothing

from your intellect; on the contrary, your stomach is freed by it,

and no longer distresses your brain; it will not hamper your mind

with troubles, but give freedom to its working. Suave molecules of

Mocha stir up your blood, without causing excessive heat; the organ

of thought receives from it a feeling of sympathy; work becomes

easier, and you will sit down without distress to your principal

repast, which will restore your body, and afford you a calm

delicious night.

Among coffee drinkers a high place must be given to Prince Bismarck

(1815-1898). He liked coffee unadulterated. While with the Prussian army

in France, he one day entered a country inn and asked the host if he had

any chicory in the house. He had. Bismarck said: "Well, bring it to me;

all you have." The man obeyed, and handed Bismarck a canister full of

chicory.

"Are you sure this is all you have?" demanded the chancellor.

"Yes, my lord, every grain."

"Then," said Bismarck, keeping the canister by him, "go now and make me

a pot of coffee."

This same story has been related of François Paul Jules Grévy

(1807-1891), president of France, 1879-1887. According to the French

story, Grévy never took wine, even at dinner. He was, however,

passionately fond of coffee. To be certain of having his favorite

beverage of the best quality, he always, when he could, prepared it

himself. Once he was invited, with a friend, M. Bethmont, to a hunting

party by M. Menier, the celebrated manufacturer of chocolate, at

Noisiel. It happened that M. Grévy and M. Bethmont lost themselves in

the forest. Trying to find their way out, they stumbled upon a little

wine house, and stopped for a rest. They asked for something to drink.

M. Bethmont found his wine excellent; but, as usual, Grévy would not

drink. He wanted coffee, but he was afraid of the decoction which would

be brought him. He got a good cup, however, and this is how he managed

it:

"Have you any chicory?" he said to the man.

"Yes, sir."

"Bring me some."

Soon the proprietor returned with a small can of chicory.

"Is that all you have?" asked Grévy.

"We have a little more."

"Bring me the rest."

When he came again, with another can of chicory, Grévy said:

"You have no more?"

"No, sir."

"Very well. Now go and make me a cup of coffee."

As already told, Louis XV had a great passion for coffee, which he made

himself. Lenormand, the head gardener at Versailles, raised six pounds

of coffee a year which was for the exclusive use of the king. The king's

fondness for coffee and for Mme. Du Barry gave rise to a celebrated

anecdote of Louveciennes which was accepted as true by many serious

writers. It is told in this fashion by Mairobert in a pamphlet

scandalizing Du Barry in 1776:

His Majesty loves to make his own coffee and to forsake the cares

of the government. One day the coffee pot was on the fire and, his

Majesty being occupied with something else, the coffee boiled over.

"Oh France, take care! Your coffee _f---- le camp_!" cried the

beautiful favorite.

Charles Vatel has denied this story.

It is related of Jean Jacques Rousseau that once when he was walking in

the Tuileries he caught the aroma of roasting coffee. Turning to his

companion, Bernardino de Saint-Pierre, he said, "Ah, that is a perfume

in which I delight; when they roast coffee near my house, I hasten to

open the door to take in all the aroma." And such was the passion for

coffee of this philosopher of Geneva that when he died, "he just missed

doing it with a cup of coffee in his hand".

Barthez, confidential physician of Napoleon the first, drank a great

deal of it, freely, calling it "the intellectual drink."

Bonaparte, himself, said: "Strong coffee, and plenty, awakens me. It

gives me a warmth, an unusual force, a pain that is not without

pleasure. I would rather suffer than be senseless."

Edward R. Emerson[356] tells the following story of the Café Procope.

One day while M. Saint-Foix was seated at his usual table in this café

an officer of the king's body-guard entered, sat down, and ordered a cup

of coffee, with milk and a roll, adding, "It will serve me for a

dinner." At this, Saint-Foix remarked aloud that a cup of coffee, with

milk and a roll, was a confoundedly poor dinner. The officer

remonstrated. Saint-Foix reiterated his remark, adding that nothing he

could say to the contrary would convince him that it was _not_ a

confoundedly poor dinner. Thereupon a challenge was given and accepted,

and the whole company present adjourned as spectators to a duel which

ended by Saint-Foix receiving a wound in the arm.

"That is all very well," said the wounded combatant; "but I call you to

witness, gentlemen, that I am still profoundly convinced that a cup of

coffee, with milk and a roll, is a confoundedly poor dinner."

At this moment the principals were arrested and carried before the Duke

de Noailles, in whose presence Saint-Foix, without waiting to be

questioned, said:

"Monseigneur, I had not the slightest intention of offending this

gallant officer who, I doubt not, is an honorable man; but your

excellency can never prevent my asserting that a cup of coffee, with

milk and a roll, is a confoundedly poor dinner."

"Why, so it is," said the Duke.

"Then I am not in the wrong," persisted Saint-Foix; "and a cup of

coffee"--at these words magistrates, delinquents, and auditory burst

into a roar of laughter, and the antagonists forthwith became warm

friends.

"Boswell in his _Life of Johnson_ tells a story of an old chevalier de

Malte, of _ancienne noblesse_, but in low circumstances, who was in a

coffee house in Paris, where was also Julien, the great manufacturer at

Gobelins, of fine tapestry, so much distinguished for the figures and

the colours. The chevalier's carriage was very old. Says Julien with a

plebeian insolence, 'I think, sir, you had better have your carriage new

painted.'

"The chevalier looked at him with indignant contempt, and answered:

"'Well, sir, you may take it home and dye it.'

"All the coffee house rejoiced at Julien's confusion."

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) the English clergyman and humorist, once said:

"If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee; it is the

intellectual beverage."

Our own William Dean Howells pays the beverage this tribute: "This

coffee intoxicates without exciting, soothes you softly out of dull

sobriety, making you think and talk of all the pleasant things that ever

happened to you."

The wife of the president of the United States prefers coffee to tea.

Afternoon guests at the White House may be refreshed, if they choose, by

a sip of tea. But while tea is on tap for callers, Mrs. Harding always

has coffee for those who, like herself, prefer it.

_Old London Coffee-House Anecdotes_

A good-sized volume might be compiled of the many anecdotes that have

been written about habitués of the London coffee houses of the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

[Illustration: DR. JOHNSON'S SEAT AT THE CHESHIRE CHEESE]

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the lexicographer, was one of the most

constant frequenters of the coffee houses of his day. His big, awkward

figure was a familiar sight as he went about attended by his satellite,

young James Boswell, who was to write about him for the delight of

future generations in his marvelous _Life of Johnson_. The intellectual

and moral peculiarities of the man found a natural expression in the

coffee house. Johnson was fifty-four and Boswell only twenty-three when

the two first met in Tom Davies' book-shop in Covent Garden. The story

is told by Boswell with great particularity and characteristic naiveté:

Mr. Davies mentioned my name, and respectfully introduced me to

him. I was much agitated, and recollecting his prejudice against

the Scotch, of which I had heard so much, I said to Davies, "Don't

tell him where I come from." "From Scotland," cried Davies

roguishly. "Mr. Johnson," said I, "I do indeed come from Scotland,

but I cannot help it." I am willing to flatter myself that I meant

this as a light pleasantry to sooth and conciliate him, and not as

a humiliating abasement at the expense of my country. But however

that might be, this speech was somewhat unlucky, for with that

quickness of wit for which he was so remarkable, he seized the

expression, "come from Scotland!" which I used In the sense of

being of that country; and, as if I had come away from it, or left

it, he retorted, "That, sir, I find is what a great many of your

countrymen cannot help."

Nothing daunted, however, Boswell within a week called upon Johnson in

his chambers. This time the doctor urged him to tarry. Three weeks later

he said to him, "Come to me as often as you can." Within a fortnight

thereafter Boswell was giving the great man a sketch of his own life and

Johnson was exclaiming, "Give me your hand; I have taken a liking to

you."

[Illustration: ORIGINAL COFFEE ROOM, OLD COCK TAVERN]

When people began to ask, "Who is this Scotch cur at Johnson's heels?"

Goldsmith replied: "He is not a cur; he is only a bur. Tom Davies flung

him at Johnson in sport, and he has the faculty of sticking."

Thus began one of the strangest friendships, out of which developed the

most delightful biography in all literature. Boswell's taste for

literary adventures, and Johnson's literary vagrancy met in a

companionship that found much satisfaction in the bohemianism of the

inns and coffee houses of old London. Boswell thus describes the

eccentric doctor's outlook on this mode of living:

We dined today at an excellent inn at Chapel-House, where Mr.

Johnson commented on English coffee houses and inns remarking that

the English triumphed over the French in one respect, in that the

French had no perfection of tavern life. There is no private house,

(said he) in which people can enjoy themselves so well, as at a

capital tavern. Let there be ever so great plenty of good things,

ever so much grandeur, ever so much elegance, ever so much desire

that everybody should be easy; in the nature of things it cannot

be: there must always be some degree of care and anxiety. The

master of the house is anxious to entertain his guests; the guests

are anxious to be agreeable to him; and no man, but a very impudent

dog indeed, can as freely command what is in another man's house,

as if it were his own. Whereas, at a tavern, there is a general

freedom from anxiety. You are sure you are welcome: and the more

noise you make, the more trouble you give, the more good things you

call for, the welcomer you are. No servants will attend you with

the alacrity which waiters do, who are incited by the prospect of

an immediate reward in proportion as they please. No, Sir, there is

nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much

happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn. He then repeated,

with great emotion, Shenstone's lines:

"Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round,

Where'er his stages may have been,

May sigh to think he still has found

His warmest welcome at an inn."

Patient delving into Johnsoniana is rewarded with many anecdotes about

the mad doctor philosopher and his faithful reporter who delighted in

translating his genius to the world.

Boswell was a wine-bibber, but Johnson confessed to being "a hardened

and shameless tea drinker." When Boswell twigged him for abstaining from

the stronger drink, the doctor replied: "Sir, I have no objection to a

man's drinking wine if he can do it in moderation. I find myself apt to

go to excess in it and therefore, after having been for some time

without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to

it."

Another time he said of tea: "What a delightful beverage must that be

that pleases all palates at a time when they can take nothing else at

breakfast."

[Illustration: FIREPLACE IN THE COFFEE ROOM OF THE OLD COCK TAVERN]

[Illustration: MORNING GOSSIP IN THE COFFEE ROOM OF THE OLD COCK

TAVERN]

In his early days Johnson had David Garrick as an unwilling pupil. After

the actor had become famous and his prosperity had turned his head, he

was wont to "put the table in a roar" by mimicking the doctor's

grimaces. There is a story that on the occasion of a certain dinner

party where both were guests, Garrick indulged in a coarse jest on the

great man's table manners. After the merriment had subsided, Doctor

Johnson arose solemnly and said:

"Gentlemen, you must doubtless suppose from the extreme familiarity with

which Mr. Garrick has thought fit to treat me that I am an acquaintance

of his; but I can assure you that until I met him here, I never saw him

but once before--and then I paid five shillings for the sight."

A certain sycophant, thinking to curry favor with Johnson, took to

laughing loud and long at everything he said. Johnson's patience at last

became exhausted, and after a particularly objectionable outburst, he

turned upon the boor with:

"Pray sir, what is the matter? I hope I have not said anything which you

can comprehend!"

Because of his physical and mental disabilities Dr. Johnson was not a

good social animal. Nevertheless, when it pleased his humor, he could be

the cavalier, for his mind overcame every impediment.

It is related of him that once when a lady who was showing him around

her garden expressed her regret at being unable to bring a particular

flower to perfection, he arose gallantly to the occasion by taking her

hand and remarking:

"Then, madam, permit me to bring perfection to the flower!"

Again, when Mrs. Siddons, the great English tragedienne, called upon him

in his chambers and the servant did not promptly bring her a chair, his

quick wit made capital of the incident by the remark:

"You see, madam, wherever you go there are no seats to be had!"

John Thomas Smith in his _Antiquarian Rambles in the Streets of London_

(1846), tells an amusing incident in the life of Sir George Etherege,

the playright, who having run up a bill at Locket's ordinary, a coffee

house much frequented by dramatists of the period, and finding himself

unable to pay, began to absent himself from the place. Mrs. Locket

thereupon sent a man to dun and to threaten him with prosecution if he

did not pay. Sir George sent back word that if she stirred a step in the

matter he would kiss her. On receiving this answer, the good lady, much

exasperated, called for her hood and scarf, and told her husband, who

interposed, that "she would see if there was any fellow alive who would

have the impudence--" "Prithee! my dear, don't be so rash," said her

husband; "there is no telling what a man may do in his passion."

Richard Savage, the English poet and friend of Johnson, who included him

in his famous _Lives of the Poets_, was arrested for the murder of James

Sinclair after a drunken brawl in Robinson's coffee house in 1727. He

was found guilty, but narrowly escaped the death penalty by the

intercession of the countess of Hertford. A feature of his trial was the

extraordinary charge to the jury of Judge Page, who for his hard words

and his love of hanging, is damned to everlasting fame in the verse of

Pope. The charge was:

Gentlemen of the jury! You are to consider that Mr. Savage is a

very great man, a much greater man than you or I, gentlemen of the

jury; that he wears very fine clothes, much finer than you or I,

gentlemen of the jury; that he has an abundance of money in his

pocket, much more money than you or I, gentlemen of the jury; but,

gentlemen of the jury, is it not a very hard case, gentlemen of the

jury, that Mr. Savage should therefore kill you or me, gentlemen of

the jury?

Albert V. Lally[357] has made a collection of old coffee-house

anecdotes. Among them are the following:

The story is told of how Sir Richard Steele in Button's Coffee

House was once made the umpire in an amusing difference between two

unnamed disputants. These two were arguing about religion, when one

of them said: "I wonder, sir, you should talk of religion, when

I'll hold you five guineas you can't say the Lord's prayer."

"Done," said the other, "and Sir Richard Steele shall hold the

stakes." The money being deposited the gentleman began with, "I

believe in God", and so went right through the creed. "Well," said

the other when he had finished, "I didn't think he could have done

it."

* * * * *

There is another story of a famous judge, Sir Nicholas Bacon, who

was importuned by a criminal to spare his life on account of

kinship. "How so," demanded the judge. "Because my name is Hog and

yours is Bacon; and hog and bacon are so near akin that they cannot

be separated."

"Ay," responded the judge dryly, "but you and I cannot yet be

kindred, for hog is not bacon until it is well hanged."

* * * * *

On another occasion a nervous barrister, pleading before this same

judge, began with repeated references to his "unfortunate client."

"Go on, sir," said the judge, "so far the Court is with you."

* * * * *

Of Jonathan Swift it is related that a gentleman who had sought to

persuade him to accept an invitation to dinner said, in way of

special inducement, "I'll send you my bill of fare." "Send me

rather your bill of company," retorted Swift, showing his

appreciation of the truth that not that which is eaten, but those

who eat, form the more important part of a good dinner.

On the occasion when the "dreadful Judge Jeffreys" was trying Compton,

bishop of London, before the Court of High Commission, that prelate, as

Campbell relates in his _Lives of the Lord Chancellors_, complained of

having no copy of the indictment. Jeffreys replied to this excuse that

"all the coffee houses had it for a penny." The case being resumed after

the lapse of a week, the bishop again protested that he was unprepared,

owing to his continued difficulty in obtaining a copy of the necessary

document. Jeffreys was obliged once more to adjourn the case, and in so

doing offered this bantering apology:

"My lord," said he, "in telling you our commission was to be seen in

every coffee house, I did not speak with any design to reflect on your

lordship, as if you were a haunter of coffee houses. I abhor the

thoughts of it!"

As the Judge had once been distinctly opposed to the party and

principles which he went to such a length in supporting, so had he

formerly owed something to the very institution against which his last

blow was directed. Roger North relates (and Campbell repeats the story)

that, "after he was called to the bar, he used to sit in coffee houses

and order his man to come and tell him that company attended him at his

chamber; at which he would huff and say, 'let them stay a little, I will

come presently,' and thus made a show of business."

John Timbs, in his _Clubs and Club Life in London_, has a host of

anecdotes and stories of the old London coffee houses, among them the

following:

Garraway's noted coffee-house, situated in Change-alley, Cornhill,

had a threefold celebrity; tea was first sold in England here; it

was a place of great resort in the time of the South Sea Bubble;

and was later a place of great mercantile transactions. The

original proprietor was Thomas Garway, tobacconist and coffee-man,

the first who retailed tea, recommending it as a cure of all

disorders.

[Illustration: "HIS WARMEST WELCOME AT AN INN"

The George Inn of today has retained a portion of its old

galleries, the original of which completely surrounded the

courtyard in typical "Dickens Inn" style. The visitor can imagine

Mr. Pickwick emerging from the door of one of the bedrooms and

calling into the yard to Sam Weller. In the old-fashioned coffee

room on the ground floor one may still lunch and dine enclosed in

high bench seats]

Ogilby, the compiler of the _Britannia_, had his standing lottery

of books at Mr. Garway's Coffee-house from April 7, 1673, till

wholly drawn off. And, in the "Journey through England," 1722,

Garraway's, Robins's, and Joe's are described as the three

celebrated coffee-houses: "In the first, the People of Quality, who

have business in the City, and the most considerable and wealthy

citizens frequent. In the second the Foreign Banquiers, and often

even Foreign Ministers. And in the third, the buyers and sellers of

stock."

Wines were sold at Garraway's in 1673, "by the candle", that is, by

auction, while an inch of candle burns. In the _Tatler_, No. 147,

we read: "Upon my coming home last night, I found a very handsome

present of French wine, left for me, as a taste of 216 hogshead,

which are to be put on sale at 20£ a hogshead, at Garraway's

Coffee-house, in Exchange alley" etc. The sale by candle is not,

however, by candlelight, but during the day. At the commencement of

the sale, when the auctioneer has read a description of the

property, and the conditions on which it is to be disposed of, a

piece of candle, usually an inch long, is lighted, and he who is

the last bidder at the time the light goes out is declared the

purchaser.

Swift, in his _Ballad on the South Sea Scheme_, 1721, did not

forget Garraway's:

There is a gulf, where thousands fell,

Here all the bold adventurers came,

A narrow sound, though deep as hell,

'Change alley is the dreadful name.

Subscribers here by thousands float,

And jostle one another down,

Each paddling in his leaky boat,

And here they fish for gold and drown.

Now buried in the depths below,

Now mounted up to heaven again,

They reel and stagger to and fro,

At their wits' end, like drunken men.

Meantime secure on Garway cliffs,

A savage race, by shipwrecks fed,

Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs,

And strip the bodies of the dead.

Dr. Jno. Radcliff, who was a rash speculator in the South Sea

Scheme, was usually planted at a table at Garraway's about Exchange

time, to watch the turn of the market; and here he was seated when

the footman of his powerful rival, Dr. Edward Hannes, came into

Garraway's and inquired by way of a puff, if Dr. H. was there. Dr.

Radcliff, who was surrounded with several apothecaries and

chirurgeons that flocked about him, cried out, "Dr. Hannes is not

here," and desired to know "who wants him?" The fellow's reply was,

"such a lord and such a lord;" but he was taken up with the dry

rebuke, "No, no, friend, you are mistaken; the Doctor wants those

lords." One of Radcliff's ventures was five thousand guineas upon

one South Sea project. When he was told at Garraway's that 'twas

all lost, "Why," said he, "'tis but going up five thousand pair of

stairs more." "This answer," says Tom Brown, "deserved a statue."

* * * * *

Jonathan's Coffee-house was another Change-alley coffee-house,

which is described in the _Tatler_, No. 38, as "the general mart of

stock-jobbers," and the _Spectator_, No. 1, tells us that he

"sometimes passes for a Jew in the assembly of stock-jobbers at

Jonathan's." This was their rendezvous, where gambling of all sorts

was carried on, notwithstanding a former prohibition against the

assemblage of the jobbers, issued by the City of London, which

prohibition continued unrepealed until 1825.

* * * * *

The _Spectator_, No. 16, notices some gay frequenters of the

Rainbow Coffee-house in Fleet Street: "I have received a letter

desiring me to be very satirical upon the little muff that is now

in fashion; another informs me of a pair of silver garters buckled

below the knee, that have been lately seen at the Rainbow

Coffee-house in Fleet Street."

Mr. Moncrieff, the dramatist, used to tell that about 1780, this

house was kept by his grandfather, Alexander Moncrieff, when it

retained its original title of "The Rainbow Coffee-house."

* * * * *

Nando's Coffee-house at the east corner of Inner Temple-lane, No.

17, Fleet-Street, by some confused with Groom's house, No. 16, was

the favourite haunt of Lord Thurlow before he dashed into law

practice. At this coffee-house a large attendance of professional

loungers was attracted by the fame of the punch and the charms of

the landlady, which, with the small wits, were duly admired by and

at the bar. One evening, the famous cause of Douglas _v._ the Duke

of Hamilton was the topic of discussion, when Thurlow being

present, it was suggested, half in earnest, to appoint him junior

counsel, which was done. This employment brought him acquaintance

with the Duchess of Queensberry, who saw at once the value of a man

like Thurlow, and recommended Lord Bute to secure him by a silk

gown.

* * * * *

Dick's Coffee-house, at No. 8, Fleet-street, (south side, near

Temple Bar) was originally "Richard's", named from Richard Torner,

or Turner, to whom the house was let in 1680. Richard's was

frequented by Cowper, when he lived in the Temple. In his own

account of his insanity, Cowper tells us:

"At breakfast I read the newspaper, and in it a letter, which, the

further I perused it, the more closely engaged my attention. I

cannot now recollect the purport of it; but before I had finished

it, it appeared demonstratively true to me that it was a libel or

satire upon me. The author appeared to be acquainted with my

purpose of self-destruction, and to have written that letter on

purpose to secure and hasten the execution of it. My mind,

probably, at this time began to be disordered; however it was, I

was certainly given to a strong delusion. I said within myself,

'Your cruelty shall be gratified; you shall have your revenge,' and

flinging down the paper in a fit of strong passion, I rushed

hastily out of the room; directing my way towards the fields, where

I intended to find some house to die in; or, if not, determined to

poison myself in a ditch, where I could meet with one sufficiently

retired."

* * * * *

Lloyd's Coffee-house was one of the earliest establishments of its

kind; it is referred to in a poem printed in the year 1700, called

the _Wealthy Shopkeeper, or Charitable Christian_:

Now to Lloyd's Coffee-house he never fails,

To read the letters, and attend the sales.

In 1710, Steele (_Tatler_, No. 246) dates from Lloyd's his Petition

on Coffee-house Orators and Newsvendors. And Addison, in

_Spectator_, April 23, 1711, relates this droll incident: "About a

week since there happened to me a very odd accident, by reason of

one of these my papers of minutes which I had accidentally dropped

at Lloyd's Coffee-house, where the auctions are usually kept.

Before I missed it, there were a cluster of people who had found

it, and were diverting themselves with it at one end of the

coffee-house. It had raised so much laughter among them before I

observed what they were about, that I had not the courage to own

it. The boy of the coffee-house, when they had done with it,

carried it about in his hand, asking everybody if they had dropped

a written paper; but nobody challenging it, he was ordered by those

merry gentlemen who had before perused it, to get up into the

auction pulpit, and read it to the whole room, that if anybody

would own it they might. The boy accordingly mounted the pulpit,

and with a very audible voice read what proved to be minutes, which

made the whole coffee-house very merry; some of them concluded it

was written by a madman, and others by somebody that had been

taking notes out of the _Spectator_. After it was read, and the boy

was coming put of the pulpit, the _Spectator_ reached his arm out,

and desired the boy to given it him; which was done according. This

drew the whole eyes of the company upon the _Spectator_; but after

casting a cursory glance over it, he shook his head twice or thrice

at the reading of it, twisted it into a kind of match, and lighted

his pipe with it. 'My profound silence,' says the _Spectator_,

'together with the steadiness of my countenance, and the gravity of

my behaviour during the whole transaction, raised a very loud

laugh on all sides of me; but as I had escaped all suspicion of

being the author, I was very well satisfied, and applying myself to

my pipe and the _Postman_, took no further notice of anything that

passed about me.'"

* * * * *

The Smyrna Coffee-house in Pall Mall, was, in the reign of Queen

Anne, famous for "that cluster of wise-heads" found sitting every

evening from the left side of the fire to the door. The following

announcement in the _Tatler_, No. 78, is amusing: "This is to give

notice to all ingenious gentlemen in and about the cities of London

and Westminster, who have a mind to be instructed in the noble

sciences of music, poetry and politics, that they repair to the

Smyrna Coffee-house, in Pall Mall, betwixt the hours of eight and

ten at night, where they may be instructed gratis, with elaborate

essays 'by word of mouth', on all or any of the above-mentioned

arts."

* * * * *

St. James's Coffee-house was the famous Whig coffee-house from the

time of Queen Anne till late in the reign of George III. It was the

last house but one on the southwest corner of St. James's street,

and is thus mentioned in No. 1 of the _Tatler_: "Foreign and

Domestic News you will have from St. James's Coffee-house." It

occurs also in the passage quoted previously from the _Spectator_.

The St. James's was much frequented by Swift; letters for him were

left here. In his Journal to Stella he says: "I met Mr. Harley, and

he asked me how long I had learnt the trick of writing to myself?

He had seen your letter through the glass case at the Coffee-house,

and would swear it was my hand."

Elliott, who kept the coffee-house, was, on occasions, placed on a

friendly footing with his guests. Swift, in his Journal to Stella,

November 19, 1710, records an odd instance of this familiarity:

"This evening I christened our coffee-man Elliott's child; when the

rogue had a most noble supper, and Steele and I sat amongst some

scurvy company over a bowl of punch."

In the first advertisement of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's "Town

Eclogues," they are stated to have been read over at the St.

James's Coffee-house, when they were considered by the general

voice to be productions of a Lady of Quality. From the proximity of

the house to St. James's Palace, it was much frequented by the

Guards; and we read of its being no uncommon circumstance to see

Dr. Joseph Warton at breakfast in the St. James's Coffee-house,

surrounded by officers of the Guards, who listened with the utmost

attention and pleasure to his remarks.

To show the order and regularity observed at the St. James's, we

may quote the following advertisement, appended to the _Tatler_.

No. 25; "To prevent all mistakes that may happen among gentlemen of

the other end of the town, who come but once a week to St. James's

Coffee-house, either by miscalling the servants, or requiring such

things from them as are not properly within their respective

provinces, this is to give notice that Kidney, keeper of the

book-debts of the outlying customers, and observer of those who go

off without paying, having resigned that employment, is succeeded

by John Sowton; to whose place of enterer of messages and first

coffee-grinder, William Bird is promoted; and Samuel Burdock comes

as shoe-cleaner in the room of the said Bird."

But the St. James's is more memorable as the house where originated

Goldsmith's celebrated poem, "Retaliation." The poet belonged to a

temporary association of men of talent, some of them members of the

Club, who dined together occasionally here. At these dinners he was

generally the last to arrive. On one occasion, when he was later

than usual, a whim seized the company to write epitaphs on him as

"the late Dr. Goldsmith", and several were thrown off in a playful

vein. The only one extant was written by Garrick, and has been

preserved, very probably, by its pungency:

Here lies poet Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll;

He wrote like an angel, but talked like poor Poll.

Goldsmith did not relish the sarcasm, especially coming from such a

quarter; and, by way of _retaliation_, he produced the famous poem,

of which Cumberland has left a very interesting account, but which

Mr. Forster, in his "Life of Goldsmith", states to be "pure

romance". The poem itself, however, with what was prefixed to it

when published, sufficiently explains its own origin. What had

formerly been abrupt and strange in Goldsmith's manners, had now so

visibly increased, as to become matter of increased sport to such

as were ignorant of its cause; and a proposition made at one of the

dinners, when he was absent, to write a series of epitaphs upon him

(his "country dialect" and his awkward person) was agreed to, and

put in practice by several of the guests. The active aggressors

appear to have been Garrick, Doctor Bernard, Richard Burke, and

Caleb Whitefoord. Cumberland says he, too, wrote an epitaph; but it

was complimentary and grave, and hence the grateful return he

received. Mr. Forster considers Garrick's epitaph to indicate the

tone of all. This, with the rest, was read to Goldsmith when he

next appeared at the St. James's Coffee-house, where Cumberland,

however, says he never again met his friends. But "the Doctor was

called on for Retaliation," says the friend who published the poem

with that name, "and at their next meeting produced the following,

which I think adds one leaf to his immortal wreath."

"'Retaliation'", says Sir Walter Scott, "had the effect of placing

the author on a more equal footing with his Society than he had

ever before assumed."

Cumberland's account differs from the version formerly received,

which intimates that the epitaphs were written before Goldsmith

arrived: whereas the pun, "the late Dr. Goldsmith" appears to have

suggested the writing of the epitaphs. In the "Retaliation",

Goldsmith has not spared the characters and failings of his

associates, but has drawn them with satire, at once pungent and

good-humoured. Garrick is smartly chastised; Burke, the Dinner-bell

of the House of Commons, is not let off; and of all the more

distinguished names of the Club, Thomson, Cumberland, and Reynolds

alone escape the lash of the satirist. The former is not mentioned,

and the two latter are even dismissed with unqualified and

affectionate applause.

Still we quote Cumberland's account of the "Retaliation" which is

very amusing from the closely circumstantial manner in which the

incidents are narrated, although they have so little relationship

to truth: "It was upon a proposal started by Edmund Burke, that a

party of friends who had dined together at Sir Joshua Reynolds's

and my house, should meet at the St. James's Coffee-house, which

accordingly took place, and was repeated occasionally with much

festivity and good fellowship. Dr. Bernard, Dean of Derry; a very

amiable and old friend of mine, Dr. Douglas, since Bishop of

Salisbury; Johnson, David Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Oliver

Goldsmith, Edmund and Richard Burke, Hickey, with two or three

others, constituted our party. At one of these meetings, an idea

was suggested of extemporary epitaphs upon the parties present; pen

and ink were called for, and Garrick, offhand, wrote an epitaph

with a good deal of humour, upon poor Goldsmith, who was the first

in jest, as he proved to be in reality, that we committed to the

grave. The Dean also gave him an epitaph, and Sir Joshua

illuminated the Dean's verses with a sketch of his bust in pen and

ink, inimitably caricatured. Neither Johnson nor Burke wrote

anything, and when I perceived that Oliver was rather sore, and

seemed to watch me with that kind of attention which indicated his

expectation of something in the same kind of burlesque with theirs;

I thought it time to press the joke no further, and wrote a few

couplets at a side-table, which, when I had finished, and was

called upon by the company to exhibit, Goldsmith, with much

agitation, besought me to spare him; and I was about to tear them,

when Johnson wrested them out of my hand, and in a loud voice read

them at the table. I have now lost recollection of them, and, in

fact, they were little worth remembering; but as they were serious

and complimentary, the effect upon Goldsmith was the more pleasing

for being so entirely unexpected. The concluding line, which was

the only one I can call to mind, was:

"All mourn the poet, I lament the man.

"This I recollect, because he repeated it several times, and seemed

much gratified by it. At our next meeting he produced his epitaphs

... and this was the last time he ever enjoyed the company of his

friends."

* * * * *

Will's Coffee-house, the predecessor of Button's, and even more

celebrated than that coffee-house, was kept by William Urwin. It

first had the title of the Red Cow, then of the Rose, and, we

believe, is the same house alluded to in the pleasant story in the

second number of the _Tatler_. "Supper and friends expect we at the

Rose."

Dean Lockier has left this life-like picture of his interview with

the presiding genius (Dryden) at Will's.

"I was about seventeen when I first came up to town," says the

Dean, "an odd-looking boy, with short rough hair, and that sort of

awkwardness which one always brings up at first out of the country

with one. However, in spite of my bashfulness and appearance, I

used, now and then, to thrust myself into Will's to have the

pleasure of seeing the most celebrated wits of that time, who then

resorted thither. The second time that ever I was there, Mr. Dryden

was speaking of his own things, as he frequently did, especially of

such as had been lately published. 'If anything of mine is good,'

says he, ''tis 'Mac-Flecno', and I value myself the more upon it,

because it is the first piece of ridicule written in heroics.' On

hearing this I plucked up my spirit so far as to say, in a voice

but just loud enough to be heard, 'that "Mac-Flecno" was a very

fine poem, but that I had not imagined it to be the first that was

ever writ that way.' On this, Dryden turned short upon me, as

surprised at my interposing; asked me how long 'I had been a dealer

in poetry'; and added, with a smile, 'Pray, Sir, what is it that

you did imagine to have been writ so before?'--I named Boileau's

'Lutrin' and Tassoni's 'Secchia Rapita,' which I had read, and knew

Dryden had borrowed some strokes from each. ''Tis true,' said

Dryden, 'I had forgot them.' A little after, Dryden went out, and

in going, spoke to me again, and desired me to come and see him the

next day. I was highly delighted with the invitation; went to see

him accordingly; and was well acquainted with him after, as long as

he lived."

* * * * *

Will's Coffee-house was the open market for libels and lampoons,

the latter named from the established burden formerly sung to them:

_Lampone, lampone, camerada lampone._

There was a drunken fellow, named Julian, who was a characterless

frequenter of Will's, and Sir Walter Scott has given this account

of him and his vocation:

"Upon the general practice of writing lampoons, and the necessity

of finding some mode of dispersing them, which should diffuse the

scandal widely while the authors remained concealed, was founded

the self-erected office of Julian, Secretary, as he called himself,

to the Muses. This person attended Will's, the Wits' Coffee-house,

as it was called; and dispersed among the crowds who frequented

that place of gay resort copies of the lampoons which had been

privately communicated to him by their authors. 'He is described,'

says Mr. Malone, 'as a very drunken fellow, and at one time was

confined for a libel.'"

* * * * *

Tom Brown describes 'a Wit and a Beau set up with little or no

expense. A pair of red stockings and a swordknot set up one, and

peeping once a day in at Will's, and two or three second-hand

sayings, the other.'

* * * * *

Pepys, one night, going to fetch home his wife, stopped in Covent

Garden, at the Great Coffee-house there, as he called Will's, where

he never was before: "Where," he adds, "Dryden, the poet (I knew at

Cambridge), and all the Wits of the town, and Harris the player,

and Mr. Hoole of our College. And had I had time then, or could at

other times, it will be good coming thither, for there, I perceive,

is very witty and pleasant discourse. But I could not tarry, and,

as it was late, they were all ready to go away."

Addison passed each day alike, and much in the manner that Dryden

did. Dryden employed his mornings in writing, dined _en famille_,

and then went to Will's, "only he came home earlier o' nights."

Pope, when very young, was impressed with such veneration for

Dryden, that he persuaded some friends to take him to Will's

Coffee-house, and was delighted that he could say that he had seen

Dryden. Sir Charles Wogan, too, brought up Pope from the Forest of

Windsor, to dress _a la mode_, and introduce at Will's

Coffee-house. Pope afterwards described Dryden as "a plump man with

a down look, and not very conversible," and Cibber could tell no

more "but that he remembered him a decent old man, arbiter of

critical disputes at Will's." Prior sings of--

The younger Stiles,

Whom Dryden pedagogues at Will's!

Most of the hostile criticism on his Plays, which Dryden has

noticed in his various Prefaces, appear to have been made at his

favourite haunt, Will's Coffee-house.

Dryden is generally said to have been returning from Will's to his

house in Gerard Street, when he was cudgelled in Rose Street by

three persons hired for the purpose by Wilmot, Earl of Rochester,

in the winter of 1679. The assault, or "the Rose-alley Ambuscade,"

certainly took place; but it is not so certain that Dryden was on

his way from Will's, and he then lived in Long-acre, not Gerard

Street.

It is worthy of remark that Swift was accustomed to speak

disparagingly of Will's, as in his "Rhapsody on Poetry:"

Be sure at Will's the following day

Lie snug, and hear what critics say;

And if you find the general vogue

Pronounces you a stupid rogue,

Damns all your thoughts as low and little;

Sit still, and swallow down your spittle.

Swift thought little of the frequenters of Will's: "he used to say,

the worst conversation he ever heard in his life was at Will's

Coffee-house, where the wits (as they were called) used formerly to

assemble; that is to say, five or six men who had writ plays or at

least prologues, or had a share in a miscellany, came thither, and

entertained one another with their trifling composures, in so

important an air as if they had been the noblest efforts of human

nature, or that the fate of kingdoms depended on them."

In the first number of the _Tatler_, poetry is promised under the

article of Will's Coffee-house. The place, however, changed after

Dryden's time: "you used to see songs, epigrams, and satires in the

hands of every man you met, you have now only a pack of cards; and

instead of the cavils about the turn of the expression, the

elegance of the style, and the like, the learned now dispute only

about the truth of the game." "In old times, we used to sit upon a

play here, after it was acted, but now the entertainment's turned

another way."

The _Spectator_ is sometimes seen "thrusting his head into a round

of politicians at Will's, and listening with great attention to the

narratives that are made in these little circular audiences." Then,

we have as an instance of no one member of human society but that

would have some little pretension for some degree in it, "like him

who came to Will's Coffee-house upon the merit of having writ a

posie of a ring." And, "Robin, the porter who waits at Will's, is

the best man in town for carrying a billet: the fellow has a thin

body, swift step, demure looks, sufficient sense, and knows the

town."

After Dryden's death, in 1701, Will's continued for about ten years

to be still the Wits' Coffee-house, as we see by Ned Ward's

account, and by the "Journey through England" in 1722.

Pope entered with keen relish into society, and courted the

correspondence of the town wits and coffee-house critics. Among his

early friends was Mr. Henry Cromwell, one of the _cousinry_ of the

Protector's family: he was a bachelor, and spent most of his time

in London; he had some pretensions to scholarship and literature,

having translated several of Ovid's Elegies, for Tonson's

Miscellany. With Wycherly, Gay, Dennis, the popular actors and

actresses of the day, and with all the frequenters of Will's,

Cromwell was familiar. He had done more than take a pinch out of

Dryden's snuff-box, which was a point of high ambition and honor at

Will's; he had quarrelled with him about a frail poetess, Mrs.

Elizabeth Thomas, whom Dryden had christened Corinna, and who was

also known as Sappho. Gay characterized this literary and eccentric

beau as

Honest, hatless Cromwell, with red breeches:

it being his custom to carry his hat in his hand when walking with

ladies. What with ladies and literature, rehearsals and reviews,

and critical attention to the quality of his coffee and Brazil

snuff, Henry Cromwell's time was fully occupied in town. Cromwell

was a dangerous acquaintance for Pope at the age of sixteen or

seventeen, but he was a very agreeable one. Most of Pope's letters

to his friends are addressed to him at the Blue Hall, in Great

Wild-street, near Drury Lane, and others to "Widow Hambledon's

Coffee-house, at the end of Princes-street, near Drury-lane,

London." Cromwell made one visit to Binfield; on his return to

London, Pope wrote to him, "referring to the ladies in particular,"

and to his favorite coffee.

* * * * *

Will's was the great resort for the wits of Dryden's time, after

whose death it was transferred to Button's. Pope describes the

houses as "opposite each other, in Russell-street, Covent Garden,"

where Addison established Daniel Button, in a new house, about

1712; and his fame, after the production of _Cato_, drew many of

the Whigs thither. Button had been servant to the Countess of

Warwick. The house is more correctly described as "over against

Tom's, near the middle of the south side of the street."

Addison was the great patron of Button's; but it is said that when

he suffered any vexation from his Countess, he withdrew from

Button's house. His chief companions, before he married Lady

Warwick, were Steele, Budgell, Philips, Carey, Davenant, and

Colonell Brett. He used to breakfast with one or other of them in

St. James's-place, dine at taverns with them, then to Button's, and

then to some tavern again, for supper in the evening; and this was

the usual round of his life, as Pope tells us in Spencer's

Anecdotes, where Pope also says: "Addison usually studied all the

morning, then met his party at Button's, dined there, and stayed

five or six hours; and sometimes far into the night. I was of the

company for about a year, but found it too much for me; it hurt my

health, and so I quitted it." Again: "There had been a coldness

between me and Mr. Addison for some time, and we had not been in

company together for a good while anywhere but at Button's

Coffee-house, where I used to see him almost every day."

Here Pope is reported to have said of Patrick, the lexicographer,

that "a dictionary-maker might know the meaning of one word, but

not of two put together."

Button's was the receiving house for contributions to _The

Guardian_, for which purpose was put up a lion's head letter box,

in imitation of the celebrated lion at Venice, as humorously

announced. Thus:

"N.B.--Mr. Ironside has, within five weeks last past, muzzled three

lions, gorged five, and killed one. On Monday next the skin of the

dead one will be hung up, _in terrorem_, at Button's Coffee-house."

* * * * *

"I intend to publish once every week the roarings of the Lion, and

hope to make him roar so loud as to be heard over all the British

nation. I have, I know not how, been drawn into tattle of myself,

more majorum, almost the length of a whole _Guardian_. I shall

therefore fill up the remaining part of it with what still relates

to my own person, and my correspondents. Now I would have them all

know that on the 20th instant, it is my intention to erect a Lion's

Head, in imitation of those I have described in Venice, through

which all the private commonwealth is said to pass. This head is to

open a most wide and voracious mouth, which shall take in such

letters and papers as are conveyed to me by my correspondents, it

being my resolution to have a particular regard to all such matters

as come to my hands through the mouth of the Lion. There will be

under it a box, of which the key will be in my own custody, to

receive such papers as are dropped into it. Whatever the Lion

swallows I shall digest for the use of the publick. This head

requires some time to finish, the workmen being resolved to give it

several masterly touches, and to represent it as ravenous as

possible. It will be set up in Button's Coffee-house, in Covent

Garden, who is directed to show the way to the Lion's Head, and to

instruct any young author how to convey his works into the mouth of

it with safety and secrecy."

* * * * *

"I think myself obliged to acquaint the publick, that the Lion's

Head, of which I advertised them about a fortnight ago, is now

erected at Button's Coffee-house, in Russell-street, Covent Garden,

where it opens its mouth at all hours for the reception of such

intelligence as shall be thrown into it. It is reckoned an

excellent piece of workmanship, and was designed by a great hand in

imitation of the antique Egyptian lion, the face of it being

compounded out of that of a lion and a wizard. The features are

strong and well furrowed. The whiskers are admired by all that have

seen them. It is planted on the western side of the Coffee-house,

holding its paws under the chin, upon a box, which contains

everything that he swallows. He is, indeed, a proper emblem of

knowledge and action, being all head and paws."

* * * * *

"Being obliged, at present, to attend a particular affair of my

own, I do empower my printer to look into the arcana of the Lion,

and select out of them such as may be of publick utility; and Mr.

Button is hereby authorized and commanded to give my said printer

free ingress and egress to the lion, without any hindrance, let, or

molestation whatsoever, until such time as he shall receive orders

to the contrary. And, for so doing, this shall be his warrant."

* * * * *

"My Lion, whose jaws are at all times open to intelligence, informs

me that there are a few enormous weapons still in being; but that

they are to be met with only in gaming houses and some of the

obscure retreats of lovers, in and about Drury-lane and Covent

Garden."

* * * * *

This memorable Lion's Head was tolerably well carved: through the

mouth the letters were dropped into a till at Button's; and beneath

were inscribed these two lines from Martial:

_Cervantur magnis isti Cervicibus ungues;

Non nisi delicta pascitur ille fera._

The head was designed by Hogarth, and is etched in Ireland's

"Illustrations." Lord Chesterfield is said to have once offered for

the Head fifty guineas. From Button's it was removed to the

Shakspeare's Head Tavern, under the Piazza, kept by a person named

Tomkyns; and in 1751, was, for a short time, placed in the Bedford

Coffee-house immediately adjoining the Shakspeare, and there

employed as a letter-box by Dr. John Hill, for his _Inspector_. In

1769, Tomkyns was succeeded by his waiter, Campbell, as proprietor

of the tavern and lion's head, and by him the latter was retained

until November 8, 1804, when it was purchased by Mr. Charles

Richardson, of Richardson's Hotel, for 17£ 10s., who also possessed

the original sign of the Shakspeare's Head. After Mr. Richardson's

death in 1827, the Lion's Head devolved to his son, of whom it was

bought by the Duke of Bedford, and deposited at Woburn Abbey, where

it still remains.

Pope was subjected to much annoyance and insult at Button's. Sir

Samuel Garth wrote to Gay, that everybody was pleased with Pope's

Translation, "but a few at Button's;" to which Gay adds, to Pope,

"I am confirmed that at Button's your character is made very free

with, as to morals, etc."

[Illustration: ALEXANDER POPE AT BUTTON'S COFFEE HOUSE--1730

From a drawing by Hogarth. The man opposite the seated figure is thought

to be Pope]

Cibber, in a letter to Pope, says: "When you used to pass your

hours at Button's, you were even there remarkable for your

satirical itch of provocation; scarce was there a gentleman of any

pretension to wit, whom your unguarded temper had not fallen upon

in some biting epigram, among which you once caught a pastoral

Tartar, whose resentment, that your punishment might be

proportionate to the smart of your poetry, had stuck up a birchen

rod in the room, to be ready whenever you might come within reach

of it; and at this rate you writ and rallied and writ on, till you

rhymed yourself quite out of the coffee-house." The "pastoral

Tartar" was Ambrose Philips, who, says Johnson, "hung up a rod at

Button's, with which he threatened to chastise Pope."

Pope, in a letter to Crags, thus explains the affair: "Mr. Philips

did express himself with much indignation against me one evening at

Button's Coffee-house (as I was told), saying that I was entered

into a cabal with Dean Swift and others, to write against the Whig

interest, and in particular to undermine his own reputation and

that of his friends, Steele and Addison; but Mr. Philips never

opened his lips to my face, on this or any like occasion, though I

was almost every night in the same room with him, nor ever offered

me any indecorum. Mr. Addison came to me a night or two after

Philips had talked in this idle manner, and assured me of his

disbelief of what had been said, of the friendship we should always

maintain, and desired I would say nothing further of it. My Lord

Halifax did me the honour to stir in this matter, by speaking to

several people to obviate a false aspersion, which might have done

me no small prejudice with one party. However, Philips did all he

could secretly to continue to report with the Hanover Club, and

kept in his hands the subscriptions paid for me to him, as

secretary to that Club. The heads of it have since given him to

understand, that they take it ill; but (upon the terms I ought to

be with such a man) I would not ask him for this money, but

commissioned one of the players, his equals, to receive it. This is

the whole matter; but as to the secret grounds of this malignity,

they will make a very pleasant history when we meet."

Another account says that the rod was hung up at the bar of

Button's, and that Pope avoided it by remaining at home--"his

usual custom." Philips was known for his courage and superior

dexterity with the sword; he afterwards became justice of the

peace, and used to mention Pope, whenever he could get a man in

authority to listen to him, as an enemy to the Government.

At Button's the leading company, particularly Addison and Steele,

met in large flowing flaxen wigs. Sir Godfrey Kneller, too, was a

frequenter.

The master died in 1731, when in the _Daily Advertiser_, October 5

appeared the following:

"On Sunday morning, died, after three days' illness, Mr. Button,

who formerly kept Button's Coffee-house, in Russell-street, Covent

Garden: a very noted house for wits, being the place where the Lyon

produced the famous _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_, written by the late

Mr. Secretary Addison and Sir Richard Steele, Knt., which works

will transmit their names with honour to posterity."

* * * * *

Among other wits who frequented Button's were Swift, Arbuthnot,

Savage, Budgell, Martin Folkes, and Drs. Garth and Armstrong. In

1720, Hogarth mentions "four drawings in Indian ink" of the

characters at Button's Coffee-house. In these were sketches of

Arbuthnot, Addison, Pope (as it is conjectured) and a certain Count

Viviani, identified years afterwards by Horace Walpole, when the

drawings came under his notice. They subsequently came into

Ireland's possession.

Jemmy Maclaine, or M'Clean, the fashionable highwayman, was a

frequent visitor at Button's. Mr. John Taylor, of the _Sun_

newspaper, describes Maclaine as a tall, showy, good-looking man. A

Mr. Donaldson told Taylor that, observing Maclaine paid particular

attention to the barmaid of the Coffee-house, the daughter of the

landlord, he gave a hint to the father of Maclaine's dubious

character. The father cautioned the daughter against the

highwayman's addresses, and imprudently told her by whose advice he

put her on her guard; she as imprudently told Maclaine. The next

time Donaldson visited the coffee-room, and sitting in one of the

boxes, Maclaine entered, and in a loud tone said, "Mr. Donaldson, I

wish to _spake_ to you in a private room." Mr. D. being unarmed,

and naturally afraid of being alone with such a man, said, in

answer, that as nothing could pass between them that he did not

wish the whole world to know, he begged leave to decline the

invitation. "Very well," said Maclaine, as he left the room, "we

shall meet again." A day or two after, as Mr. Donaldson was walking

near Richmond, in the evening, he saw Maclaine on horseback; but

fortunately, at that moment, a gentleman's carriage appeared in

view, when Maclaine immediately turned his horse towards the

carriage, and Donaldson hurried into the protection of Richmond as

fast as he could. But for the appearance of the carriage, which

presented better prey, it is possible that Maclaine would have shot

Mr. Donaldson immediately.

Maclaine's father was an Irish Dean; his brother was a Calvinist

minister in great esteem at the Hague. Maclaine himself had been a

grocer in Welbeck-street, but losing a wife that he loved

extremely, and by whom he had one little girl, he quitted his

business with two hundred pounds in his pockets which he soon

spent, and then took to the road with only one companion, Plunket,

a journeyman apothecary.

Maclaine was taken in the autumn of 1750, by selling a laced

waistcoat to a pawnbroker in Monmouth-street, who happened to carry

it to the very man who had just sold the lace. Maclaine impeached

his companion, Plunket, but he was not taken. The former got into

verse: Gray, in his "Long Story," sings:

A sudden fit of ague shook him;

He stood as mute as poor M'Lean.

Button's subsequently became a private house, and here Mrs.

Inchbald lodged, probably, after the death of her sister, for whose

support she practised such noble and generous self-denial. Mrs.

Inchbald's income was now 172£ a year, and we are told that she now

went to reside in a boarding-house, where she enjoyed more of the

comforts of life. Phillips, the publisher, offered her a thousand

pounds for her Memoirs, which she declined. She died in a

boarding-house at Kensington, on the 1st of August, 1821, leaving

about 6,000£ judiciously divided amongst her relatives. Her simple

and parsimonious habits were very strange. "Last Thursday," she

writes, "I finished scouring my bedroom, while a coach with a

coronet and two footmen waited at my door to take me an airing."

"One of the most agreeable memories connected with Button's," says

Leigh Hunt, "is that of Garth, a man whom, for the sprightliness

and generosity of his nature, it is a pleasure to name. He was one

of the most amiable and intelligent of a most amiable and

intelligent class of men--the physicians."

It was just after Queen Anne's accession that Swift made

acquaintance with the leaders of the wits at Button's. Ambrose

Philips refers to him as the strange clergyman whom the frequenters

of the Coffee-house had observed for some days. He knew no one, no

one knew him. He would lay his hat down on a table, and walk up and

down at a brisk pace for half an hour without speaking to any one,

or seeming to pay attention to anything that was going forward.

Then he would snatch up his hat, pay his money at the bar, and walk

off, without having opened his lips. The frequenters of the room

had christened him "the mad parson." One evening, as Mr. Addison

and the rest were observing him, they saw him cast his eyes several

times upon a gentleman in boots, who seemed to be just come out of

the country. At last, Swift advanced towards this bucolic

gentleman, as if intending to address him. They were all eager to

hear what the dumb parson had to say, and immediately quitted their

seats to get near him. Swift went up to the country gentleman, and

in a very abrupt manner, without any previous salute, asked him,

"Pray, Sir, do you know any good weather in the world?" After

staring a little at the singularity of Swift's manner and the

oddity of the question, the gentleman answered, "Yes, Sir, I thank

God I remember a great deal of good weather in my time."--"That is

more," replied Swift, "than I can say; I never remember any weather

that was not too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry; but, however

God Almighty contrives it, at the end of the year 'tis all very

well."

* * * * *

Sir Walter Scott gives, upon the authority of Dr. Wall, of

Worcester, who had it from Dr. Arbuthnot himself, the following

anecdote--less coarse than the version generally told. Swift was

seated by the fire at Button's; there was sand on the floor of the

coffee-room, and Arbuthnot, with a design to play upon this

original figure, offered him a letter, which he had been just

addressing, saying at the same time, "There--sand that"--"I have

got no sand," answered Swift, "but I can help you to a little

_gravel_." This he said so significantly, that Arbuthnot hastily

snatched back his letter, to save it from the fate of the capital

of Lilliput.

* * * * *

Tom's Coffee-house in Birchin-lane, Cornhill, though in the main a

mercantile resort, acquired some celebrity from its having been

frequented by Garrick, who, to keep up an interest in the City,

appeared here about twice in a winter at 'Change time, when it was

the rendezvous of young merchants.

* * * * *

Hawkins says: "After all that has been said of Mr. Garrick, envy

must own that he owed his celebrity to his merit; and yet, of that

himself so diffident, that he practiced sundry little but innocent

arts, to insure the favour of the public:" yet, he did more. When a

rising actor complained to Mrs. Garrick that the newspapers abused

him, the widow replied, "You should write your own criticisms;

David always did."

* * * * *

One evening, Murphy was at Tom's, when Colley Cibber was playing at

whist, with an old general for his partner. As the cards were dealt

to him, he took up every one in turn, and expressed his

disappointment at each indifferent one. In the progress of the game

he did not follow suit, and his partner said, "What! have you not a

spade, Mr. Cibber?" The latter, looking at his cards, answered, "Oh

yes, a thousand;" which drew a very peevish comment from the

general. On which, Cibber, who was shockingly addicted to swearing,

replied, "Don't be angry, for--I can play ten times worse if I

like."

* * * * *

The celebrated Bedford Coffee-house, in Covent Garden, once

attracted so much attention as to have published, "Memoirs of the

Bedford Coffee-house," two editions, 1751 and 1763. It stood "under

the Piazza, in Covent Garden," in the northwest corner, near the

entrance to the theatre, and has long ceased to exist.

* * * * *

In the _Connoisseur_, No. 1, 1754, we are assured that "this

Coffee-house is every night crowded with men of parts. Almost every

one you meet is a polite scholar and a wit. Jokes and bon-mots are

echoed from box to box: every branch of literature is critically

examined, and the merit of every production of the press, or

performance of the theatres, weighed and determined."

And in the above-named "Memoirs" we read that "this spot has been

signalized for many years as the emporium of wit, the seat of

criticism, and the standard of taste.--Names of those who

frequented the house: Foote, Mr. Fielding, Mr. Woodward, Mr. Leone,

Mr. Murphy, Mopsy, Dr. Arne. Dr. Arne was the only man in a suit of

velvet in the dog-days."

Stacie kept the Bedford when John and Henry Fielding, Hogarth,

Churchill, Woodward, Lloyd, Dr. Goldsmith and many others met there

and held a gossiping shilling rubber club. Henry Fielding was a

very smart fellow.

The _Inspector_ appears to have given rise to this reign of the

Bedford, when there was placed here the Lion from Button's, which

proved so serviceable to Steele, and once more fixed the dominion

of wit in Covent Garden.

The reign of wit and pleasantry did not, however, cease at the

Bedford at the demise of the _Inspector_. A race of punsters next

succeeded. A particular box was allotted to this occasion, out of

hearing of the lady of the bar, that the _double entendres_, which

were sometimes very indelicate, might not offend her.

The Bedford was beset with scandalous nuisances, of which the

following letter, from Arthur Murphy to Garrick, April 10, 1768,

presents a pretty picture:

"Tiger Roach (who used to bully at the Bedford Coffee-house because

his name was Roach) is set up by Wilke's friends to burlesque

Luttrel and his pretensions. I own I do not know a more ridiculous

circumstance than to be a joint candidate with the Tiger. O'Brien

used to take him off very pleasantly, and perhaps you may, from his

representation, have some idea of this important wight. He used to

sit with a half-starved look, a black patch upon his cheek, pale

with the idea of murder, or with rank cowardice, a quivering lip,

and a downcast eye. In that manner he used to sit at a table all

alone, and his soliloquy, interrupted now and then with faint

attempts to throw off a little saliva, was to the following

effect:--'Hut! hut! a mercer's 'prentice with a bag-wig;--d---- n

my s---- l, if I would not skiver a dozen of them like larks! Hut!

hut! I don't understand such airs!--I'd cudgel him back, breast and

belly, for three skips of a louse!--How do you do, Pat? Hut! hut!

God's blood--Larry, I'm glad to see you; 'Prentices! a fine thing

indeed!--Hut! hut! How do you do, Dominick!--D---- n my s---- l,

what's here to do!' These were the meditations of this agreeable

youth. From one of these reveries he started up one night, when I

was there, called a Mr. Bagnell out of the room, and most

heroically stabbed him in the dark, the other having no weapon to

defend himself with. In this career, the Tiger persisted, till at

length a Mr. Lennard brandished a whip over his head, and stood in

a menacing attitude, commanding him to ask pardon directly. The

Tiger shrank from the danger, and with a faint voice

pronounced--'Hut! what signifies it between you and me? Well! well!

I ask your pardon.' 'Speak louder, Sir; I don't hear a word you

say.' And indeed he was so very tall, that it seemed as if the

sound, sent feebly from below, could not ascend to such a height.

This is the hero who is to figure at Brentford."

* * * * *

Foote's favourite coffee-house was the Bedford. He was also a

constant frequenter of Tom's, and took a lead in the Club held

there, and already described.

Dr. Barrowby, the well-known newsmonger of the Bedford, and the

satirical critic of the day, has left this whole-length sketch of

Foote:

"One evening (he says) he saw a young man extravagantly dressed out

in a frock suit of green and silver lace, bag-wig, sword, bouquet,

and point ruffles, enter the room (at the Bedford), and immediately

join the critical circle at the upper end. Nobody recognized him;

but such was the ease of his bearing, and the point of humor and

remark with which he at once took up the conversation, that his

presence seemed to disconcert no one, and a sort of pleased buzz of

'who is he?' was still going round the room unanswered, when a

handsome carriage stopped at the door; he rose, and quitted the

room, and the servants announced that his name was Foote, and that

he was a young gentleman of family and fortune, a student of the

Inner Temple, and that the carriage had called for him on its way

to the assembly of a lady of fashion". Dr. Barrowby once turned the

laugh against Foote at the Bedford, when he was ostentatiously

showing his gold repeater, with the remark--'Why, my watch does not

go!' 'It soon _will go_,' quietly remarked the Doctor. Young

Collins, the poet, who came to town in 1744 to seek his fortune,

made his way to the Bedford, where Foote was supreme among the wits

and critics. Like Foote, Collins was fond of fine clothes, and

walked about with a feather in his hat, very unlike a young man who

had not a single guinea he could call his own. A letter of the time

tells us that "Collins was an acceptable companion everywhere; and

among the gentlemen who loved him for a genius, may be reckoned the

Doctors Armstrong, Barrowby, Hill, Messrs. Quin, Garrick, and

Foote, who frequently took his opinions upon their pieces before

they were seen by the public. He was particularly noticed by the

geniuses who frequented the Bedford and Slaughter's Coffee-houses."

* * * * *

Ten years later (1754) we find Foote again supreme in his critical

corner at the Bedford. The regular frequenters of the room strove

to get admitted to his party at supper; and others got as near as

they could to the table, as the only humor flowed from Foote's

tongue. The Bedford was now in its highest repute.

Foote and Garrick often met at the Bedford, and many and sharp were

their encounters. They were the two great rivals of the day. Foote

usually attacked, and Garrick, who had many weak points, was mostly

the sufferer. Garrick, in early life, had been in the wine trade,

and had supplied the Bedford with wine; he was thus described by

Foote as living in Durham-yard, with three quarts of vinegar in the

cellar, calling himself a wine-merchant. How Foote must have abused

the Bedford wine of this period!

One night, Foote came into the Bedford, where Garrick was seated,

and there gave him an account of a most wonderful actor he had just

seen. Garrick was on the tenters of suspense, and there Foote kept

him a full hour. Foote brought the attack to a close by asking

Garrick what he thought of Mr. Pitt's histrionic talents, when

Garrick, glad of the release, declared that if Pitt had chosen the

stage, he might have been the first actor upon it.

Another night, Garrick and Foote were about to leave the Bedford

together, when the latter, in paying the bill, dropped a guinea;

and not finding it at once, said, "Where on earth can it be gone

to?"--"Gone to the devil, I think," replied Garrick, who had

assisted in the search.--"Well said, David!" was Foote's reply,

"let you alone for making a guinea go further than anybody else."

Churchill's quarrel with Hogarth began at the shilling rubber club,

in the parlour of the Bedford; when Hogarth used some very

insulting language towards Churchill, who resented it in the

_Epistle_. This quarrel showed more venom than wit. "Never," says

Walpole, "did two angry men of their abilities throw mud with less

dexterity."

Woodward, the comedian, mostly lived at the Bedford, was intimate

with Stacie, the landlord, and gave him his (W.'s) portrait, with a

mask in his hand, one of the early pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Stacie played an excellent game at whist. One morning about two

o'clock, one of the waiters awoke him to tell him that a nobleman

had knocked him up, and had desired him to call his master to play

a rubber with him for one hundred guineas. Stacie got up, dressed

himself, won the money, and was in bed and asleep, all within an

hour.

* * * * *

After Macklin had retired from the stage, in 1754, he opened that

portion of the Piazza-houses, in Covent Garden, afterwards known as

the Tavistock Hotel. Here he fitted up a large coffee-room, a

theatre for oratory, and other apartments. To a three-shilling

ordinary he added a shilling lecture, or "School of Oratory and

Criticism;" he presided at the dinner table, and carved for the

company; after which he played a sort of "Oracle of Eloquence."

Fielding has happily sketched him in his "Voyage to Lisbon":

"Unfortunately for the fishmongers of London, the Dory only resides

in the Devonshire seas; for could any of this company only convey

one to the Temple of luxury under the piazza, where Macklin, the

high priest, daily serves up his rich offerings, great would be the

reward of that fishmonger."

In the Lecture, Macklin undertook to make each of his audience an

orator, by teaching him how to speak. He invited hints and

discussions; the novelty of the scheme attracted the curiosity of

numbers; and this curiosity he still further excited by a very

uncommon controversy which now subsisted, either in imagination or

reality, between him and Foote, who abused one another very

openly--"Squire Sammy," having for his purpose engaged the Little

Theatre in the Haymarket.

Besides this personal attack, various subjects were debated here

in the manner of the Robin Hood Society, which filled the Orator's

pocket, and proved his rhetoric of some value.

Here is one of his combats with Foote. The subject was Duelling In

Ireland, which Macklin had illustrated as far as the reign of

Elizabeth. Foote cried, "Order;" he had a question to put. "Well,

Sir," said Macklin, "what have you to say on this subject," "I

think, Sir" said Foote, "this matter might be settled in a few

words. What o'clock is it, Sir?" Macklin could not possibly see

what the clock had to do with a dissertation upon Duelling, but

gruffly reported the hour to be half-past nine. "Very well," said

Foote, "about this time of the night every gentleman in Ireland

that can possibly afford it is in his third bottle of claret, and

therefore in a fair way of getting drunk; and from drunkenness

proceeds quarrelling, and from quarrelling, duelling, and so

there's an end of the chapter." The company were much obliged to

Foote for his interference, the hour being considered; though

Macklin did not relish this abridgment.

The success of Foote's fun upon Macklin's Lectures, led him to

establish a summer entertainment of his own at the Haymarket. He

took up Macklin's notion of applying Greek tragedy to modern

subjects, and the squib was so successful that Foote cleared by it

500£ in five nights, while the great Piazza Coffee-room in Covent

Garden was shut up, and Macklin in the _Gazette_ as a bankrupt.

But when the great plan of Mr. Macklin proved abortive, when as he

said in a former prologue, upon a nearly similar occasion--

From scheming, fretting, famine and despair.

We saw to grace restor'd an exiled player;

when the town was sated with the seemingly-concocted quarrel

between the two theatrical geniuses, Macklin locked his doors, all

animosity was laid aside, and they came and shook hands at the

Bedford; the group resumed their appearance, and, with a new

master, a new set of customers was seen.

* * * * *

Tom King's Coffee-house was one of the old night-houses of Covent

Garden Market; it was a rude shed immediately beneath the portico

of St. Paul's Church, and was one "well known to all gentlemen to

whom beds are unknown." Fielding in one of his Prologues says:

What rake is ignorant of King's Coffee-house?

It is in the background of Hogarth's print of _Morning_ where the

prim maiden lady, walking to church, is soured with seeing two

fuddled _beaux_ from King's Coffee-house caressing two frail women.

At the door there is a drunken row, in which swords and cudgels are

the weapons[358].

Harwood's _Alumni Etonenses_, p. 239, in the account of the Boys

elected from Eton to King's College, contains this entry: "A.D.

1713, Thomas King, born at West Ashton, in Wiltshire, went away

scholar in apprehension that his fellowship would be denied him;

and afterwards kept that Coffee-house in Covent Garden, which was

called by his own name."

Moll King was landlady after Tom's death: she was witty, and her

house was much frequented, though it was little better than a shed.

"Noblemen and the first _beaux_," said Stacie, "after leaving Court

would go to her house in full dress, with swords and bags, and in

rich brocaded silk coats, and walked and conversed with persons of

every description. She would serve chimney-sweepers, gardeners, and

the market-people in common with her lords of the highest rank. Mr.

Apreece, a tall thin man in rich dress, was her constant customer.

He was called Cadwallader by the frequenters of Moll's." It is not

surprising that Moll was often fined for keeping a disorderly

house. At length, she retired from business--and the pillory--to

Hempstead, where she lived on her ill-earned gains, but paid for a

pew in church, and was charitable at appointed seasons, and died in

peace in 1747.

* * * * *

The Piazza Coffee-house at the northeastern angle of Covent Garden

Piazza, appears to have originated with Macklin's; for we read in

an advertisement in the _Publick Adviser_, March 5, 1756; "The

Great Piazza Coffee-room, in Covent Garden."

The Piazza was much frequented by Sheridan; and here is located the

well-known anecdote told of his coolness during the burning of

Drury-lane Theatre, in 1809. It is said that as he sat at the

Piazza, during the fire, taking some refreshment, a friend of his

having remarked on the philosophical calmness with which he bore

his misfortune, Sheridan replied:

"A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his _own

fireside_."

* * * * *

Sheridan and John Kemble often dined together at the Piazza, to be

handy to the theatre. During Kemble's management, Sheridan had

occasion to make a complaint, which brought a "nervous" letter from

Kemble, to which Sheridan's reply is amusing enough. Thus, he

writes: "that the management of a theatre is a situation capable of

becoming _troublesome_, is information which I do not want, and a

discovery which I thought you made long ago." Sheridan then treats

Kemble's letter as "a nervous flight," not to be noticed seriously,

adding his anxiety for the interest of the theatre, and alluding to

Kemble's touchiness and reserve; and thus concludes:

"If there is anything amiss in your mind not arising from the

_troublesomeness_ of your situation, it is childish and unmanly not

to disclose it. The frankness with which I have dealt towards you

entitles me to expect that you should have done so.

"But I have no reason to believe this to be the case; and

attributing your letter to a disorder which I know ought not to be

indulged, I prescribe that thou shalt keep thine appointment at the

Piazza Coffee-house, tomorrow at five, and, taking four bottles of

claret instead of three, to which in sound health you might stint

yourself, forget that you ever wrote the letter, as I shall that I

ever received it."

"R.B. Sheridan."

The Piazza facade, and interior, were of Gothic design. When the

house was demolished, in its place was built the Floral Hall, after

the Crystal Palace model.

* * * * *

The Chapter Coffee-house was a literary place of resort in

Paternoster Row, more especially in connection with the

Wittinagemot of the last century. A very interesting account of the

Chapter, at a later period (1848) is given by Mrs. Gaskell.

Goldsmith frequented the Chapter, and always occupied one place,

which for many years after was the seat of literary honor there.

There are leather tokens of the Chapter Coffee-house in existence.

* * * * *

Child's Coffee-house, in St. Paul's Churchyard, was one of the

_Spectator's_ houses. "Sometimes," he says, "I smoke a pipe at

Child's and whilst I seem attentive to nothing but the _Postman_,

overhear the conversation of every table in the room." It was much

frequented by the clergy; for the _Spectator_, No. 609, notices the

mistake of a country gentleman in taking all persons in scarfs for

Doctors of Divinity, since only a scarf of the first magnitude

entitles him to "the appellation of Doctor from his landlady and

the _Boy at Child's_."

Child's was the resort of Dr. Mead, and other professional men of

eminence. The Fellows of the Royal Society came here. Whiston

relates that Sir Hans Sloane, Dr. Halley and he were once at

Child's when Dr. H. asked him, W., why he was not a member of the

Royal Society? Whiston answered, because they durst not choose a

heretic. Upon which Dr. H. said, if Sir Hans Sloane would propose

him, W., he, Dr. H., would second it, which was done accordingly.

The propinquity of Child's to the Cathedral and Doctors' Commons,

made it the resort of the clergy, and ecclesiastical loungers. In

that respect, Child's was superseded by the Chapter, in Paternoster

Row.

* * * * *

The London Coffee-house was established previous to the year 1731,

for we find of it the following advertisement:

"May, 1731.

"Whereas, it is customery for Coffee-houses and other

Public-houses, to take 8s. for a quart of Arrack, and 6s. for a

quart of Brandy or Rum, made into Punch:

"This is to give notice,

"That James Ashley has opened on Ludgate Hill, the London

Coffee-house, Punch-house, Dorchester Beer and Welsh Ale Warehouse,

where the finest and best old Arrack, Rum and French Brandy is made

into Punch, with the other of the finest Ingredients--viz., A quart

of Arrack made into Punch for six shillings; and so in proportion

to the smallest quantity, which is half-a-quartern for fourpence

half-penny. A quart of Rum or Brandy made into Punch for four

shillings; and so in proportion to the smallest quantity, which is

half-a-quartern for fourpence half-penny; and gentlemen may have it

as soon made as a gill of Wine can be drawn."

The premises occupied a Roman site; for, in 1800, in the rear of

the house, in a bastion of the City Wall, was found a sepulchral

monument dedicated to Claudina Martina by her husband, a provincial

Roman soldier; here also were found a fragment of a statue of

Hercules and a female head. In front of the Coffee-house

immediately west of St. Martin's Church, stood Ludgate.

* * * * *

The London Coffee-house was noted for its publishers' sales of

stock and copyrights. It was within the rules of the Fleet prison;

and in the Coffee-house were "locked up" for the night such juries

from the Old Bailey Sessions, as could not agree upon verdicts. The

house was long kept by the grandfather and father of Mr. John

Leech, the celebrated artist.

A singular incident occurred at the London Coffee-house, many years

since: Mr. Brayley, the topographer, was present at a party here,

when Mr. Broadhurst, the famous tenor, by singing a high note,

caused a wine-glass on the table to break, the bowl being separated

from the stem.

* * * * *

From _The Kingdom's Intelligencer_, a weekly paper, published by

authority, in 1662, we learn that there had just been opened a "new

coffee-house," with the sign of the Turk's Head, where was sold by

retail "the right coffee-powder," from 4s. to 6s. 8d. per pound;

that pounded in a mortar, 2s; East Indian berry, 1s. 6d.; and the

right Turkie berry, well garbled, at 3s. "The ungarbled for lesse,

with directions how to use the same." Also Chocolate at 2s. 6d. per

pound; the perfumed from 4s. to 10s.; "also, Sherbets made in

Turkie, of lemons, roses and violets perfumed; and Tea, or Chaa,

according to its goodness. The house seal is Morat the Great.

Gentlemen customers and acquaintances are (the next New Year's Day)

invited to the sign of the Great Turk at this new Coffee-house,

where Coffee will be on free cost." Morat figures as a tyrant in

Dryden's "Aurung Zebe." There is a token of this house, with the

sultan's head, in the Beaufoy collection[359].

Another token in the same collection, is of unusual excellence,

probably by John Roettier. It has on the obverse, Morat ye Great

Men did mee call,--Sultan's head; reverse, Where eare I came I

conquered all.--In the field, Coffee, Tobacco, Sherbet, Tea,

Chocolate, retail in Exchange Alee. "The word Tea," says Mr. Burn,

"occurs on no other tokens than those issued from 'the Great Turk'

Coffee-house, in Exchange alley;" in one of its advertisements,

1662, tea is from 6s. to 60s. a pound.

Competition arose. One Constantine Jennings in Threadneedle-street,

over against St. Christopher's Church, advertised that coffee,

chocolate, sherbet, and tea, the right Turkey berry, may be had as

cheap and as good of him as is anywhere to be had for money; and

that people may there be taught to prepare the said liquors gratis.

Pepys, in his "Diary," tells, September 25, 1669, of his sending

for "a cup of Tea, a China Drink, he had not before tasted." Henry

Bennet, Earl of Arlington, about 1666, introduced tea at Court.

And, in his "Sir Charles Sedley's Mulberry Garden," we are told

that "he who wished to be considered a man of fashion always drank

wine-and-water at dinner, and a dish of tea afterwards." These

details are condensed from Mr. Burn's excellent "Beaufoy

Catalogue," 2nd edition, 1855.

* * * * *

In Gerard-street, Soho, also, was another Turk's Head Coffee-house,

where was held a Turk's Head Society; in 1777, we find Gibbon

writing to Garrick: "At this time of year (August 14) the Society

of the Turk's Head can no longer be addressed as a corporate body,

and most of the individual members are probably dispersed: Adam

Smith, in Scotland; Burke in the shades of Beaconsfield; Fox, the

Lord or the devil knows where."

The place was a kind of headquarters for the Loyal Association

during the Rebellion of 1745. Here was founded "The Literary Club"

and a select body for the Protection and Encouragement of Art.

Another Society of Artists met in Peter's-court, St. Martin's-lane,

from the year 1739 to 1769. After continued squabbles, which lasted

for many years, the principal artists met together at the Turk's

Head, where many others having joined them, they petitioned the

King (George III) to become patron of a Royal Academy of Art. His

Majesty consented; and the new Society took a room in Pall Mall,

opposite to Market-lane, where they remained until the King, in the

year 1771, granted them apartments in Old Somerset House.

* * * * *

The Turk's Head Coffee-house, No. 142, in the Strand, was a

favourite supping-house with Dr. Johnson and Boswell, in whose Life

of Johnson are several entries, commencing with 1763--"At night,

Mr. Johnson and I supped in a private room at the Turk's Head

Coffee-house, in the Strand; 'I encourage this house,' said he,

'for the mistress of it is a good civil woman, and has not much

business'." Another entry is--"We concluded the day at the Turk's

Head Coffee-house very socially." And, August 3, 1673--"We had our

last social meeting at the Turk's Head Coffee-house, before my

setting out for foreign parts."

The name was afterwards changed to "The Turk's Head, Canada and

Bath Coffee-house," and was a well frequented tavern and hotel.

* * * * *

At the Turk's Head, or Miles's Coffee-house, New Palace-yard,

Westminster, the noted Rota Club met, founded by Harrington, in

1659; where was a large oval table, with a passage in the middle,

for Miles to deliver his coffee.[360]

* * * * *

For many years previous to the streets of London being completely

paved, "Slaughter's Coffee-house" was called "The Coffee-house on

the Pavement." Besides being the resort of artists, Old Slaughter's

was the house of call for Frenchmen.

St. Martin's-lane was long one of the headquarters of the artists

of the last century. "In the time of Benjamin West," says J.T.

Smith, "and before the formation of the Royal Academy,

Greek-street, St. Martin's-lane, and Gerard-street, was their only

colony. Old Slaughter's Coffee-house, in St. Martin's-lane, was

their grand resort in the evenings, and Hogarth was a constant

visitor." He lived at the Golden Head, on the eastern side of

Leicester Fields, in the northern half of the Sabloniere Hotel. The

head he cut out himself from pieces of cork, glued and bound

together; it was placed over the street-door. At this time, young

Benjamin West was living in chambers, in Bedford-street, Covent

Garden, and had there set up his easel; he was married in 1765, at

St. Martin's Church. Roubiliac was often to be found at Slaughter's

in early life; probably before he gained the patronage of Sir

Edward Walpole, through finding and returning to the baronet the

pocket-book of bank-notes which the young maker of monuments had

picked up in Vauxhall Gardens. Sir Edward, to remunerate his

integrity, and his skill, of which he showed specimens, promised to

patronize Roubiliac through life, and he faithfully performed this

promise. Young Gainsborough, who spent three years amid the works

of the painters in St. Martin's-lane, Hayman, and Cipriani, who

were all eminently convival, were, in all probability, frequenters

of Slaughter's. Smith tells us that Quin and Hayman were

inseparable friends, and so convival, that they seldom parted till

daylight.

Mr. Cunningham relates that here, "in early life, Wilkie would

enjoy a small dinner at a small cost. I have been told by an old

frequenter of the house, that Wilkie was always the last dropper-in

for dinner, and that he was never seen to dine in the house by

daylight. The truth is, he slaved at his art at home till the last

glimpse of daylight had disappeared."

Haydon was accustomed, in the early days of his fitful career, to

dine here with Wilkie. In his "Autobiography," in the year 1808,

Haydon writes: "This period of our lives was one of great

happiness; painting all day, then dining at the Old Slaughter

Chop-house, then going to the Academy until eight to fill up the

evening, then going home to tea--that blessing of a studious

man--talking over respective exploits, what he, Wilkie, had been

doing and what I had been doing, and, then frequently to relieve

our minds fatigued by their eight and twelve hours' work, giving

vent to the most extraordinary absurdities. Often have we made

rhymes on odd names, and shouted with laughter at each new line

that was added. Sometimes lazily inclined after a good dinner, we

have lounged about, near Drury Lane or Covent Garden, hesitating

whether to go in, and often have I (knowing first that there was

nothing I wished to see) assumed a virtue I did not possess, and

pretending moral superiority, preached to Wilkie on the weakness of

not resisting such temptations for the sake of our art and our

duty, and marched him off to his studies, when he was longing to

see Mother Goose."

J.T. Smith refers to Old Slaughter's as "formerly the rendezvous of

Pope, Dryden and other wits, and much frequented by several

eminently clever men of his day."

Thither came Ware, the architect, who, when a little sickly boy,

was apprenticed to a chimney-sweeper, and was seen chalking the

street-front of Whitehall, by a gentleman who purchased the

remainder of the boy's time; gave him an excellent education; then

sent him to Italy, and, upon his return, employed him, and

introduced him to his friends as an architect. Ware was heard to

tell this story while he was sitting to Roubiliac for his bust.

Ware built Chesterfield House and several other noble mansions, and

compiled a Palladio, in folio: he retained the soot in his skin to

the day of his death. He was very intimate with Roubiliac, who was

an opposite eastern neighbour of Old Slaughter's. Another

architect, Gwynn, who competed with Mylne for designing and

building Blackfriars Bridge, was also a frequent visitor at Old

Slaughter's, as was Gravelot, who kept a drawing-school in the

Strand, nearly opposite to Southampton-street.

Hudson, who painted the Dilettanti portraits; M'Ardell, the

mezzotinto-scraper; and Luke Sullivan, the engraver of Hogarth's

March to Finchley, also frequented Old Slaughter's; likewise

Theodore Gardell, the portrait painter, who was executed for the

murder of his landlady: and Old Moser, keeper of the Drawing

Academy in Peter's-court.

Parry, the Welsh harper, though totally blind, was one of the first

draught-players in England, and occasionally played with the

frequenters of Old Slaughter's; and here in consequence of a bet.

Roubiliac introduced Nathaniel Smith (father of John Thomas), to

play at draughts with Parry; the game lasted about half an hour;

Parry was much agitated, and Smith proposed to give in; but as

there were bets depending, it was played out, and Smith won. This

victory brought Smith numerous challenges; and the dons of the

Barn, a public-house, in St. Martin's-lane, nearly opposite the

church, invited him to become a member; but Smith declined. The

Barn, for many years, was frequented by all the noted players of

chess and draughts; and it was there that they often decided games

of the first importance, played between persons of the highest

rank.

* * * * *

The Grecian Coffee-house, Devereux-court, Strand, (closed in 1843)

was named from Constantine, of Threadneedle street, the _Grecian_

who kept it. In the _Tatler_ announcement, all accounts of learning

are to be "under the title of the Grecian;" and, in the _Tatler_,

No. 6: "While other parts of the town are amused with the present

actions (Marlborough's) we generally spend the evening at this

table (at the Grecian) in inquiries into antiquity, and think

anything new, which gives us new knowledge. Thus, we are making a

very pleasant entertainment to ourselves in putting the actions of

Homer's Iliad into an exact journal."

The _Spectator's_ face was very well known at the Grecian, a

coffee-house "adjacent to the law." Occasionally it was the scene

of learned discussion. Thus Dr. King relates that one evening, two

gentlemen, who were constant companions, were disputing here,

concerning the accent of a Greek word. This dispute was carried to

such a length, that the two friends thought proper to determine it

with their swords; for this purpose they stepped into

Devereux-court, where one of them (Dr. King thinks his name was

Fitzgerald) was run through the body, and died on the spot.

The Grecian was Foote's morning lounge. It was handy, too, for the

young Templar, Goldsmith, and often did it echo with Oliver's

boisterous mirth; for "it had become the favourite resort of the

Irish and Lancashire Templars, whom he delighted in collecting

around him, in entertaining with a cordial and unostentatious

hospitality, and in occasionally amusing with his flute, or with

whist, neither of which he played very well!" Here Goldsmith

occasionally wound up his "Shoemaker's Holiday" with supper.

It was at the Grecian that Fleetwood Shephard told this memorable

story to Dr. Tancred Robinson, who gave Richardson permission to

repeat it. "The Earle of Dorset was in Little Britain, beating

about for books to his taste: there was 'Paradise Lost'. He was

surprised with some passages he struck upon, dipping here and there

and bought it; the bookseller begged him to speak in his favour, if

he liked it, for they lay on his hands as waste paper.... Shephard

was present. My Lord took it home, read it, and sent it to Dryden,

who in a short time returned it. 'This man,' says Dryden, 'cuts us

all out, and the ancients, too!'"

* * * * *

George's Coffee-house, No. 213, Strand, near Temple Bar, was a

noted resort in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. When it

was a coffee-house, one day, there came in Sir James Lowther, who

after changing a piece of silver with the coffee-woman, and paying

twopence for his dish of coffee, was helped into his chariot, for

he was very lame and infirm, and went home: some little time

afterwards, he returned to the same coffee-house, on purpose to

acquaint the woman who kept it, that she had given him a bad

half-penny, and demanded another in exchange for it. Sir James had

about £40,000 per annum.

Shenstone, who found "the warmest welcome at an inn," found

George's to be economical. "What do you think," he writes, "must be

my expense, who love to pry into everything of the kind? Why, truly

one shilling. My company goes to George's Coffee-house, where, for

that small subscription I read all pamphlets under a three

shillings' dimension; and indeed, any larger would not be fit for

coffee-house perusal." Shenstone relates that Lord Oxford was at

George's, when the mob, that were carrying his Lordship in effigy,

came into the box where he was, to beg money of him, amongst

others; this story Horace Walpole contradicts, adding that he

supposes Shenstone thought that after Lord Oxford quitted his place

he went to the coffee-house to learn news.

Arthur Murphy frequented George's, "where the town wits met every

evening." Lloyd, the law-student, sings:

By law let others toil to gain renown!

Florio's a gentleman, a man o' the town.

He nor courts clients, or the law regarding,

Hurries from Nando's down to Covent Garden.

Yet, he's a scholar; mark him in the pit,

With critic catcall sound the stops of wit!

Supreme at George's, he harangues the throng,

Censor of style, from tragedy to song.

* * * * *

The Percy Coffee-house, Rathbone-place, Oxford-street, no longer

exists; but it will be kept in recollection for its having given

name to one of the most popular publications of its class, namely,

the "Percy Anecdotes," by Sholto and Reuben Percy, Brothers of the

Benedictine Monastery of Mont Benger, in forty-four parts,

commencing in 1820. So said the title pages, but the names and the

locality were _supposé_. Reuben Percy was Thomas Byerly, who died

in 1824; he was the brother of Sir John Byerley, and the first

editor of the _Mirror_, commenced by John Limbird, in 1822. Sholto

Percy was Joseph Clinton Robertson, who died in 1852; he was the

projector of the _Mechanics' Magazine_, which he edited from its

commencement to his death. The name of the collection of Anecdotes

was not taken, as at the time supposed, from the popularity of the

"Percy Reliques," but from the Percy Coffee-house, where Byerley

and Robertson were accustomed to meet to talk over their joint

work. The _idea_ was, however, claimed by Sir Richard Phillips, who

stoutly maintained that it originated in a suggestion made by him

to Dr. Tilloch and Mr. Mayne, to cut the anecdotes from the many

years' files of the _Star_ newspaper, of which Dr. Tilloch was the

editor; and Mr. Byerley assistant editor; and to the latter

overhearing the suggestion, Sir Richard contested, might the "Percy

Anecdotes" be traced. They were very successful, and a large sum

was realised by the work.

* * * * *

Peele's Coffee-house, Nos. 177 and 178, Fleet-street, east corner

of Fetter-lane, was one of the coffee-houses of the Johnsonian

period; and here was long preserved a portrait of Dr. Johnson, on

the keystone of a chimney-piece, stated to have been painted by Sir

Joshua Reynolds. Peele's was noted for files of newspapers from

these dates: _Gazette_, 1759; _Times_, 1780; _Morning Chronicle_,

1773; _Morning Post_, 1773; _Morning Herald_, 1784; _Morning

Advertiser_, 1794; and the evening papers from their commencement.

The house is now a tavern.

_Coffee Literature and Ideals_

The bibliography at the end of this work will serve to indicate the

nature and extent of the general literature of coffee. Not that it is

complete or nearly so; it would require twice the space to include

mention of all the fugitive bits of verse, essays, and miscellaneous

writings in newspapers, and periodicals, dealing with the poetry and

romance, history, chemistry, and physiological effects of coffee. Only

the early works, and the more notable contributions of the last three

centuries, are included in the bibliography; but there is sufficient to

enable the student to analyze the lines of general progress.

A study of the literature of coffee shows that the French really

internationalized the beverage. The English and Italians followed. With

the advent of the newspaper press, coffee literature began to suffer

from its competition.

The complexities of modern life suggest that coffee drinking in

perfection, the esthetics, and a new literature of coffee may once more

become the pleasure of a small caste. Are the real pleasures of life,

the things truly worth while, only to the swift--the most efficient? Who

shall say? Are not some of us, particularly in America, rather prone to

glorify the gospel of work to such an extent that we are in danger of

losing the ability to understand or to enjoy anything else?

Granted that this is so, coffee, already recognized as the most grateful

lubricant known to the human machine, is destined to play another part

of increasing importance in our national life as a kind of national

shock-absorber as well. But its rôle is something more than this,

surely. When life is drab, it takes away its grayness. When life is sad,

it brings us solace. When life is dull, it brings us new inspiration.

When we are a-weary, it brings us comfort and good cheer.

The lure of coffee lies in its appeal to our finer sensibilities; and

signs are not wanting that that pursuit of the long, sweet happiness

that every one is seeking will lead some of us (even in big bustling

America) into footpaths that end in places where coffee will offer much

of its pristine inspiration and charm. It probably will not be a coffee

house anything like that of the long ago, but perhaps it will be a kind

of modernized coffee club. Why not?

[Illustration: A COFFEE HOUSE IN HOLLAND, ABOUT 1650

After the etching by J. Beauvarlet from a painting by Adriaen Van Ostade

(1610-1675), which is said to be the earliest picture of a coffee house

in western Europe]

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_

Coffee has inspired the imagination of many poets, musicians, and

painters. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries those whose genius

was dedicated to the fine arts seem to have fallen under its spell and

to have produced much of great beauty that has endured. To the painters,

engravers, and caricaturists of that period we are particularly indebted

for pictures that have added greatly to our knowledge of early coffee

customs and manners.

Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1685), the Dutch genre painter and etcher,

pupil of Frans Hals, in his "Dutch Coffee House" (1650), shows the

genesis of the coffee house of western Europe about the time it still

partook of some of the tavern characteristics. Coffee is being served to

a group in the foreground. It is believed to be the oldest existing

picture of a coffee house. The illustration is after the etching by J.

Beauvarlet in the graphic collection at Munich.

William Hogarth (1697-1764), the famous English painter and engraver of

satirical subjects, chose the coffee houses of his time for the scenes

of a number of his social caricatures. In his series, "Four Times of the

Day," which throws a vivid light on the street life of London of the

period of 1738, we are shown Covent Garden at 7:55 A.M. by the clock on

St. Paul's Church. A prim maiden lady (said to have been sketched from

an elderly relation of the artist, who cut him out of her will) on her

way home from early service, accompanied by a shivering foot-boy, is

scandalized by the spectacle presented by some roystering blades issuing

from Tom King's notorious coffee house to the right. The _beaux_ are

forcing their attentions upon the more comely of the market women in the

foreground. Tom King was a scholar at Eton before he began his ignoble

career. At the date of this picture, it is thought he had been succeeded

by his widow, Moll King, also of scandalous repute.

Scene VI of the "Rake's Progress" by Hogarth is laid at the club in

White's chocolate (coffee) house, which Dr. Swift described as "the

common rendezvous of infamous sharpers and noble cullies." The rake has

lost all his recently acquired wealth, pulls off his wig and flings

himself upon the floor in a paroxysm of fury and execration. In allusion

to the burning of White's in 1733, flames are seen bursting from the

wainscot, but the pre-occupied gamblers take no heed, even of the

watchman crying "Fire!" To the left is seated a highwayman, with horse

pistol and black mask in a skirt pocket of his coat. He is so engrossed

in his thoughts that he does not notice the boy at his side offering a

glass of liquor on a tray. The scene well depicts the low estate to

which White's had fallen. It recalls a bit of dialogue from Farquhar's

_Beaux' Stratagem_ (act III, scene 2), where Aimwell says to Gibbet, who

is a highwayman: "Pray, sir, ha'nt I seen your face at Will's Coffee

House?" "Yes sir, and at White's, too," answers the highwayman.

[Illustration: IN THE CLUB AT WHITE'S COFFEE HOUSE, 1733

From a painting in the series, "The Rake's Progress," by William

Hogarth]

After the fire, the club and chocolate house were removed to Gaunt's

coffee house. The removal was thus announced in the _Daily Post_ of May

3:

This is to acquaint all noblemen and gentlemen that Mr. Arthur

having had the misfortune to be burnt out of White's Chocolate

House is removed to Gaunt's Coffee House, next the St. James Coffee

House in St. James Street, where he humbly begs they will favour

him with their company as usual.

Alessandro Longhi (1733-1813) the Italian painter and engraver, called

the Venetian Hogarth, in one of his pictures presenting life and manners

in Venice during the years of her decadence, shows Goldoni, the

dramatist, as a visitor in a café of the period, with a female mendicant

soliciting alms.

In the Louvre at Paris hangs the "Petit Déjeuner" by François Boucher

(1703-1770), famous court painter of Louis XV. It shows a French

breakfast-room of the period of 1744, and is interesting because it

illustrates the introduction of coffee into the home; it shows also the

coffee service of the time.

In Van Loo's portrait of Madame de Pompadour, second mistress and

political adviser of Louis XV of France, the coffee service of a later

period of the eighteenth century appears. The Nubian servant is shown

offering the marquise a demi-tasse which has just been poured from the

covered oriental pot which succeeded the original Arabian-Turkish

boiler, and was much in vogue at the time.

Coffee and Madame du Barry (or would it be more polite to say Madame du

Barry and coffee?) inspired the celebrated painting of Madame de

Pompadour's successor in the affections of Louis "the well beloved."

This is entitled "Madame du Barry at Versailles", and in the Versailles

catalog it is described as painted by Decreuse after Drouais. Decreuse

was a pupil of Gros, and painted many of the historical portraits at

Versailles.

[Illustration: TOM KING'S COFFEE HOUSE IS COVENT GARDEN, 1738

From a printing in the series, "Four Times of the Day," by William

Hogarth]

Malcolm C. Salaman, in his _French Color Prints of the XVIII Century_,

referring to Dagoty's print of this picture, done in 1771, says, "the

original has been attributed to François Hubert Drouais, but there can

be little doubt that the original portraiture was from the hand of the

engraver (Dagoty), as the style is far inferior to Drouais." He thus

describes it:

Here we see the last of Louis XV's mistresses, sitting in her

bedroom in that alluring retreat of hers at Louveciennes, near the

woods of Marly, as she takes her cup of coffee from her pet

attendant, the little negro boy, Zamore, as the Prince de Conti had

named him, all brave in red and gold. Doubtless she is expecting

the morning visit of the King, no longer the handsome young

gallant, but old and leaden-eyed, and puffy-cheeked; and perhaps it

will be on this very morning that she will wheedle Louis, in a

moment of extravagant badinage, into appointing the negro boy to be

Governor of the Chateau and Pavilion of Louveciennes at a handsome

salary, just as, on another day, she playfully teased the jaded old

sensualist into decorating with the cordon bleu her cuisinière when

it was triumphantly revealed to him that the dinner he had been

praising with enthusiastic gusto was, after all, the work of a

woman cook, the very possibility of which he had contemptuously

doubted. But as we look at these two, the royal mistress and her

little black favorite, we forget the "well beloved" and his

voluptuous pleasures and indulgences, for in the shadows we see

another picture, some twenty years on, when the proud

unconscionable beauty, no longer _reine de la main gauche_, stands

before the dreaded Tribunal of the Terror, while Zamore, the

treacherous, ungrateful negro, dismissed from his service at

Louveciennes and now devoted to the committee of public safety, and

one of her implacable accusers, sends her shrieking to the

guillotine.

[Illustration: "PETIT DÉJEUNER," BY BOUCHER

Showing the home coffee service of the period of 1744]

[Illustration: COFFEE SERVICE IN THE HOME OF MADAME DE

POMPADOUR--PAINTING BY VAN LOO]

The introduction of the coffee house into Europe was memorialized by

Franz Schams, the genre painter, pupil of the Vienna Academy, in a

beautiful picture entitled "The First Coffee House in Vienna, 1684,"

owned by the Austrian Art Society. A lithographic reproduction was

executed by the artist and printed by Joseph Stoufs in Vienna. There are

several specimens in the United States; and the illustration printed on

page 48 has been made from one of these in the possession of the author.

The picture shows the interior of the Blue Bottle, where Kolschitzky

opened the first coffee house in Vienna. The hero-proprietor stands in

the foreground pouring a cup of the beverage from an oriental coffee

pot, and another is suspended from the coffee-house sign that hangs over

the fireplace. In the fire alcove a woman is pounding coffee in a

mortar. Men and women in the costumes of the period are being served

coffee by a Vienna _mädchen_.

[Illustration: MADAME DU BARRY AND HER SLAVE BOY ZAMORE--PAINTING BY

DECREUSE]

The painters Marilhat, Descamps, and de Tournemine have pictured café

scenes; the first in his "Café sur une route de Syrie", which was shown

at the Salon of 1844; the second in his "Café Turc", which figured at

the Exposition of 1855; and the third in his "Café en Asia Mineure",

which received honors at the Salon of 1859, and attracted attention at

the Universal Exposition of 1867.

A decorative panel designed for the buffet at the Paris Opera House by

S. Mazerolles was shown at the Exposition of 1878. A French artist,

Jacquand, has painted two charming compositions; one representing the

reading room, and the other the interior, of a café.

Many German artists have shown coffee manners and customs in pictures

that are now hanging in well known European galleries. Among others,

mention should be made of C. Schmidt's "The Sweets Shop of Josty in

Berlin", 1845; Milde's "Pastor Rautenberg and His Family at the Coffee

Table", 1833; and his "Manager Classen and His Family at the Afternoon

Coffee Table", 1840; Adolph Menzel's "Parisian Boulevard Café", 1870;

Hugo Meith's "Saturday Afternoon at the Coffee Table"; John Philipp's

"Old Woman with Coffee Cup"; Friedrich Walle's "Afternoon Coffee in the

Court Gardens at Munich"; Paul Meyerheim's "Oriental Coffee House"; and

Peter Philippi's (Dusseldorf) "Kaffeebesuch."

At the Exposition des Beaux Arts, Salon of 1881, there was shown P.A.

Ruffio's picture, "Le café vient au secours de la Muse" (Coffee comes to

the aid of the Muse), in which the graceful form of an oriental ewer

appears.

The "Coffee House at Cairo," a canvas by Jean Léon Gérôme (1824-1904)

that hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, has been much

admired. It shows the interior of a typical oriental coffee house with

two men near a furnace at the left preparing the beverage; a man seated

on a wicker basket about to smoke a hooka; a dervish dancing; and

several persons seated against the wall in the background.

[Illustration: COFFEE HOUSE AT CAIRO--PAINTING BY GÉRÔME IN THE

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK]

The New York Historical Society acquired in 1907 from Miss Margaret A.

Ingram an oil painting of the "Tontine Coffee House." It was painted in

Philadelphia by Francis Guy, and was sold at a raffle, after having been

admired by President John Adams. It shows lower Wall Street in

1796-1800, with the Tontine coffee house on the northwest corner of Wall

and Water Streets, where its more famous predecessor, the Merchants

coffee house, was located before it moved to quarters diagonally

opposite.

Charles P. Gruppe's (_b._ 1860) painting showing General "Washington's

Official Welcome to New York by City and State Officials at the

Merchants Coffee House," April 23, 1789, just one week before his

inauguration as first president of the United States, is a colorful

canvas that has been much praised for its atmosphere and historical

associations. It is the property of the author.

The art museums and libraries of every country contain many beautiful

water-colors, engravings, prints, drawings, and lithographs, whose

creators found inspiration in coffee. Space permits the mention of only

a few.

T.H. Shepherd has preserved for us Button's, afterward the Caledonien

coffee house, Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, in a water-color

drawing of 1857; Tom's coffee house, 17 Great Russell Street, Covent

Garden, 1857; Slaughter's coffee house in St. Martin's Lane, 1841; also,

in 1857, the Lion's Head at Button's, put up by Addison and now the

property of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn.

[Illustration: "KAFFEEBESUCH"

From the painting by Peter Philippi]

[Illustration: "COFFEE COMES TO THE AID OF THE MUSE"

From the painting by Ruffio]

Hogarth figures in the Sam Ireland collection with several original

drawings of frequenters of Button's in 1730.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) the great English caricaturist and

illustrator, has given us several fine pictures of English coffee-house

life. His "Mad Dog in a Coffee House" presents a lively scene; and his

water-color of "The French Coffee House" is one of the best pictures we

have of the French coffee house in London as it looked during the latter

half of the eighteenth century.

During the campaign in France in 1814, Napoleon arrived one day,

unheralded, in a country presbytery, where the good curé was quietly

turning his hand coffee-roaster. The emperor asked him, "What are you

doing there, abbé?" "Sire", replied the priest, "I am doing like you. I

am burning the colonial fodder." Charlet (1792-1845) made a lithograph

of the incident.

Several French poet-musicians resorted to music to celebrate coffee.

Brittany has its own songs in praise of coffee, as have other French

provinces. There are many epics, rhapsodies, and cantatas--and even a

comic opera by Meilhat, music by Deffes, bearing the title, _Le Café du

Roi_, produced at the Théâtre Lyrique, November 16, 1861.

[Illustration: "MAD DOG IN A COFFEE HOUSE"--CARICATURE BY ROWLANDSON]

Fuzelier wrote, in honor of coffee, a cantata, set to music by Bernier.

This is the burden of the poet's song:

Ah coffee, what climes yet unknown,

Ignore the clear fires that thy vapors inspire!

Thou countest, in thy vast empire

Those realms that Bacchus' reign disown.

Favored liquid, which fills all my soul with delights,

Thy enchantments to life happy hours persuade,

We vanquish e'en sleep by thy fortunate aid,

Thou hast rescued the hours sleep would rob from our nights.

Favored liquid which fills all my soul with delights,

Thy enchantments to life happy hours persuade.

Oh liquid that I love,

Triumphant stream of sable,

E'en for the gods above,

Drive nectar from the table.

Make thou relentless war

On treacherous juices sly,

Let earth taste and adore

The sweet calm of the sky.

Oh liquid that I love,

Triumphant stream of sable,

E'en for the gods above,

Drive nectar from the table.

During the early vogue of the café in Paris, a _chanson_, entitled

_Coffee_, reproduced here, was set to music with accompaniment for the

piano by M.H. Colet, a professor of harmony at the Conservatoire.

Printed in the form of a placard, and put up in cafés, it received the

approbation of, and was signed by, de Voyer d'Argenson, at that time

(1711) lieutenant of police. The poetry is not irreproachable. It can

hardly be attributed to any of the well known poets of the time; but

rather to one of those bohemian rimesters that wrote all too abundantly

on all sorts of subjects. It is the development of a theory concerning

the properties of coffee and the best method of making it. It is

interesting to note that the uses of advertising were known and

appreciated in Paris in 1711; for in the _chanson_ there appears the

name and address of one Vilain, a merchant, rue des Lombards, who was

evidently in fashion at that period. The translation of the stanza

reproduced is as follows:

COFFEE--A CHANSON

If you, with mind untroubled,

Would flourish, day by day,

Let each day of the seven

Find coffee on your tray.

It will your frame preserve from every malady,

Its virtues drive afar, la! la!

Migrain and dread catarrh--ha! ha!

Dull cold and lethargy.

The most notable contribution to the "music of coffee," if one may be

permitted the expression, is the _Coffee Cantata_ of Johann Sebastian

Bach (1685-1750) the German organist and the most modern composer of the

first half of the eighteenth century. He hymned the religious sentiment

of protestant Germany; and in his _Coffee Cantata_ he tells in music the

protest of the fair sex against the libels of the enemies of the

beverage, who at the time were actively urging in Germany that it should

be forbidden women, because its use made for sterility! Later on, the

government surrounded the manufacture, sale, and use of coffee with many

obnoxious restrictions, as told in chapter VIII.

[Illustration: NAPOLEON AND THE CURÉ--LITHOGRAPH BY CHARLET]

Bach's _Coffee Cantata_ is No. 211 of the _Secular Cantatas_, and was

published in Leipzig in 1732. In German it is known as _Schweigt stille,

plaudert nicht_ (Be silent, do not talk). It is written for soprano,

tenor, and bass solos and orchestra. Bach used as his text a poem by

Piccander. The cantata is really a sort of one-act operetta--a jocose

production representing the efforts of a stern parent to check his

daughter's propensities in coffee drinking, the new fashioned habit. One

seldom thinks of Bach as a humorist; but the music here is written in a

mock-heroic vein, the recitatives and arias having a merry flavor,

hinting at what the master might have done in light opera.

[Illustration: COFFEE--A CHANSON; MUSIC BY COLET, 1711]

The libretto shows the father Schlendrian, or Slowpoke, trying by

various threats to dissuade his daughter from further indulgence in the

new vice, and, in the end, succeeding by threatening to deprive her of a

husband. But his victory is only temporary. When the mother and the

grandmother indulge in coffee, asks the final trio, who can blame the

daughter?

Bach uses the spelling coffee--not _kaffee_. The cantata was sung as

recently as December 18, 1921, at a concert in New York by the Society

of the Friends of Music, directed by Arthur Bodanzky.

Lieschen, or Betty, the daughter, has a delightful aria, beginning, "Ah,

how sweet coffee tastes--lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far

than muscatel wine!" the opening bars of which are reproduced on page

598.

As the text is not long, it is printed here in its entirety.

[Illustration: STATUE OF KOLSCHITZKY IN VIENNA]

_CHARACTERS_

MESSENGER AND NARRATOR _Tenor_

SLOWPOKE _Bass_

BETTY, DAUGHTER TO SLOWPOKE _Soprano_

TENOR (_Recitative_): Be silent, do not talk, but notice what will

happen! Here comes old Slowpoke with his daughter Betty. He's

grumbling like a common bear--just listen to what he says.

(_Enter_ SLOWPOKE _muttering_): What vexatious things one's

children are! A hundred thousand naughty ways! What I tell my

daughter Betty might as well be told to the moon! (_Enter_ BETTY.)

SLOWPOKE (_Recitative_): You naughty child, you mischievous girl,

oh when can I have my way--give up your coffee!

BETTY: Dear father, do not be so strict! If I can't have my little

demi-tasse of coffee three times a day, I'm just like a dried up

piece of roast goat!

BETTY (_Aria_): Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a

thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! I must have my

coffee, and if any one wishes to please me, let him present me

with--coffee!

SLOWPOKE _(Recitative_): If you won't give up coffee, young lady, I

won't let you go to any wedding feasts--I won't even let you go

walking!

BETTY: O yes! Do let me have my coffee!

SLOWPOKE: What a little monkey you are, anyway! I will not let you

have any whale-bone skirts of the present fashionable size!

BETTY: Oh, I can easily fix _that_!

SLOWPOKE: But I won't let you stand at the window and watch the new

styles!

BETTY: That doesn't bother me, either. But be good and let me have

my coffee!

SLOWPOKE: But from my hands you'll get no silver or gold ribbon for

your hair!

BETTY: Oh well! so long as I have what does satisfy me!

SLOWPOKE: You wretched Betty, you! You won't give in to me?

SLOWPOKE (_Air_): Oh these girls--what obstinate dispositions they

do have! They certainly are not easy to manage! But if one hits the

right spot--oh well, one _may_ succeed!

SLOWPOKE, _with an air of being sure of success this time_

(_Recitative_): Now please do what father says.

BETTY: In everything, except about coffee.

SLOWPOKE: Well, then, you must make up your mind to do without a

husband.

BETTY: Oh--yes? Father, a husband?

SLOWPOKE: I swear you can't have him--

BETTY: Till I give up coffee? Oh well--coffee--let it be

forgotten--dear father--I will not drink--none!

SLOWPOKE: _Then_ you can have one!

BETTY (_Aria_): Today, dear father--do it _today_. (_He goes out._)

Ah, a husband! Really this suits me exactly! When they know I must

have coffee, why, before I go to bed to-night I can have a valiant

lover! (_Goes out._)

TENOR (_Recitative_): Now go hunt up old Slowpoke, and just watch

him get a husband for his daughter--for Betty is secretly making it

known "that no wooer may come to the house, unless he promises me

himself, and has it put in the marriage contract that he will allow

me to make coffee whenever I will!"

[Illustration: "AH, HOW SWEET COFFEE TASTES--LOVELIER THAN A THOUSAND

KISSES, SWEETER FAR THAN MUSCATEL WINE!"

Opening bars of Betty's aria in Bach's _Coffee Cantata_, 1732]

(_Enter_ SLOWPOKE _and_ BETTY, _singing--as chorus--with_ TENOR.)

TRIO: The cat will not give up the mouse, old maids continue

"coffee-sisters!"--the mother loves her drink of coffee--grandma,

too, is a coffee fiend--_who_ now will blame the daughter!

[Illustration: THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COFFEE HOUSE IN THE WORLD

The Caffè Pedrocchi in Padua, Italy, empire period, erected by the poor

lemonade vendor and coffee seller, Antonio Pedrocchi.]

Research has discovered only one piece of sculpture associated with

coffee--the statue of the Austrian hero Kolschitzky, the patron saint of

the Vienna coffee houses. It graces the second-floor corner of a house

in the Favoriten Strasse, where it was erected in his honor by the

Coffee Makers' Guild of Vienna. The great "brother-heart" is shown in

the attitude of pouring coffee into cups on a tray from an oriental

service pot.

The celebrated Caffè Pedrocchi, the center of life in the city of Padua,

Italy, in the early part of the nineteenth century, is one of the most

beautiful buildings erected in Italy. Its use is apparent at first

glance. It was begun in 1816, opened June 9, 1831, and completed in

1842. Antonio Pedrocchi (1776-1852), an obscure Paduan coffee-house

keeper, tormented by a desire for glory, conceived the idea of building

the most beautiful coffee house in the world, and carried it out.

Artists and craftsmen of all ages since the discovery of coffee have

brought their genius into play to fashion various forms of apparatus

associated with the preparation of the coffee drink. Coffee roasters and

grinders have been made of brass, silver, and gold; coffee mortars, of

bronze; and coffee making and serving pots, of beautiful copper, pewter,

pottery, porcelain, and silver designs.

In the Peter collection in the United States National Museum there is to

be seen a fine specimen of the Bagdad coffee pot made of beaten copper

and used for making and serving; also, a beautiful Turkish coffee set.

In the Metropolitan Museum in New York there are some beautiful

specimens of Persian and Egyptian ewers in faience, probably used for

coffee service. Also, in American and continental museums are to be seen

many examples of seventeenth-century German, Dutch, and English bronze

mortars and pestles used for "braying" coffee beans to make coffee

powder.

[Illustration: COFFEE GRINDER SET WITH JEWELS

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]

A very beautiful specimen of the oriental coffee grinder, made of brass

and teakwood, set with red and green glass jewels, and inlaid in the

teakwood with ivory and brass, is at the Metropolitan. This is of

Indo-Persian design of the nineteenth century.

The Metropolitan Museum shows also many specimens of pewter coffee pots

used in India, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Russia, and England in

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

One can guess at the luxuriousness of the coffee pots in use in France

throughout the eighteenth century by noting that from March 20, 1754, to

April 16, 1755, Louis XV bought no fewer than three gold coffee pots of

Lazare Duvaux. They had carved branches, and were supplied with "chafing

dishes of burnished steel" and lamps for spirits of wine. They cost,

respectively, 1,950, 1,536, and 2,400 francs. In the "inventory of

Marie-Josephe de Saxe, Dauphine of France", we note, too, a "two cup

coffee pot of gold with its chafing dish for spirits of wine in a

leather case."

The Italian wrought-iron coffee roaster of the seventeenth century was

often a work of art. The specimen illustrated is rich in decorative

motifs associated with the best in Florentine art.

Madame de Pompadour's inventory disclosed a "gold coffee mill, carved in

colored gold to represent the branches of a coffee tree." The art of

gold, which sought to embellish everything, did not disdain these homely

utensils; and one may see at the Cluny Museum in Paris, among many mills

of graceful form, a coffee mill of engraved iron dating from the

eighteenth century, upon which are represented the four seasons. We are

told, however, that it graced the "sale after the death of Mme. de

Pompadour", which, of course, makes it much more valuable.

[Illustration: ITALIAN WROUGHT-IRON COFFEE ROASTER

Courtesy of _Edison Monthly_]

"The tea pot, coffee pot and chocolate pot first used in England closely

resembled each other in form", says Charles James Jackson in his

_Illustrated History of English Plate_, "each being circular in plan,

tapering towards the top, and having its handle fixed at a right angle

with the spout."

[Illustration: Tea Pot, 1670

Coffee Pot, 1681

Coffee Pot, 1689

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY TEA POTS AND COFFEE POTS]

He says further:

The earliest examples were of oriental ware and the form of these

was adopted by the English plate workers as a model for others of

silver. It apparently was not until after both tea and coffee had

been used for several years in this country [England] that the tea

pot was made proportionately less in height and greater in diameter

than the coffee pot. This distinction, which was probably due to

copying the forms of Chinese porcelain tea pots, was afterwards

maintained, and to the present day the difference between the tea

pot and the coffee pot continued to be mainly one of height.

The coffee pot illustrated (1681) formerly belonged to the East India

Company, and is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is

almost identical with a tea pot (1670) in the same museum, except that

its straight spout is fixed nearer to the base, as is its

leather-covered handle, which, with the sockets into which it fits,

forms a long recurving scroll fixed opposite to and in line with the

spout. Its cover, which is hinged to the upper handle socket, is high

like that of the 1670 tea-pot; but instead of the straight outline of

that cover, this is slightly waved and surmounted by a somewhat flat

button-shaped knob. Engraved on the body is a shield of arms, a chevron

between three crosses fleury, surrounded by tied feathers. The

inscription is, "The Guift of Richard Sterne Eq to ye Honorable East

India Compa."

This pot is nine and three-quarters inches in height by four and

seven-eighths inches in diameter at the base; it bears the London

hall-marks of 1681-82 and the maker's mark "G.G." in a shaped shield,

thought by Jackson to be George Garthorne's mark.

The 1689 coffee pot illustrated is the property of King George V. It

bears the London hall-marks of 1689-90, and the mark of Francis

Garthorne. Its tall, round body tapers toward the top, and has applied

moldings on the base and rim. Its spout is straight and tapers upward to

the level of the rim of the pot. Its handle is of ebony,

crescent-shaped, and riveted into two sockets fixed at a right angle

with the spout. The lid is a high cone surmounted by a small vase-shaped

finial, and is hinged to the upper socket of the handle. On no part of

the pot is there any ornamentation other than the royal cipher of King

William III and Queen Mary, which is engraved on the reverse side of the

body. This example, which measures nine inches in height to the top of

its cover, resembles very closely in form the East India Company's

tea-pot just referred to; but as teapots with much lower bodies appear

to have come into fashion before 1689, this pot was probably used as a

coffee pot from the first.

The 1692 coffee pot of lantern shape is the property of H.D. Ellis, and

has its spout curved upward at the top, being furnished with a small,

hinged flap and a scroll-shaped thumb-piece attached to the rim of the

cover. The body and cover were originally quite plain, the embossing and

chasing with symmetrical rococo decoration being added later, probably

about 1740. Jackson says the wooden handle is not the original one,

which was probably C-shaped. The pot bears the usual London hall-marks

for the year 1692 and the maker's mark is "G G" upon a shaped shield, a

mark recorded upon the copper plate belonging to the Goldsmiths'

company, which Mr. Cripps thinks was that of George Garthorne. The

characteristics of this lantern shaped coffee pot are:

1. The straight sides, so rapidly tapering from the base upward

that in a height of only six inches the base diameter of four and

three-eighths inches tapers to a diameter of no more than two and

one-half inches at the rim.

2. The nearly straight spout, furnished with a flap or shutter.

3. The true cone of the lid.

4. The thumb-piece, which is a familiar feature upon the tankards

of the period.

5. The handle fixed at right angles to the spout.

[Illustration: LANTERN COFFEE POT, 1692]

[Illustration: FOLKINGHAM POT, 1715-16]

Mr. Ellis, in a paper before the Society of Antiquaries[361] on the

earliest form of coffee pot, says:

If coffee was first introduced into this country by the Turkey

merchants, nothing is more probable than that those who first

brought the berry, brought also the vessel in which it was to be

served. Such a vessel would be the Turkish ewer whose shape is

familiar to us, the same today as two hundred years ago, for in the

East things are slow to change. And throughout the reign of the

second Charles, so long as the extended use of coffee in the houses

of the people was retarded by the opposition of the Women of

England, and by the scarcely less powerful influence of the King's

Court, the small requirements of a mere handful of coffee-houses

would be easily met by the importation of Turkish vessels.

Reference to the coffee-house keepers' tokens in the Beaufoy

collection in the Guildhall Museum shows that many of the traders

of 1660-1675 adopted as their trade sign a hand pouring coffee from

a pot. This pot is invariably of the Turkish ewer pattern. It is

true that there is nothing to show that the Turks themselves ever

served coffee from the ewer, but it is scarcely conceivable that

the English coffee-house keepers should have adopted as their trade

sign, their pictorial advertisement, so to speak, a vessel which

had no connection with the commodity in which they dealt, and which

would convey no meaning associated with coffee to the public. But

as soon as the extended use of the beverage created a demand which

stimulated a home manufacture of coffee-pots, a new departure is

apparent. The undulating outlines beloved by the Orientals, bowed

as their scimitars, curvilinear as their graceful flowing script,

do not commend themselves to the more severe Western taste of the

period which had then declared its preference for sweet simplicity

in silversmiths' work, such as we see in the basons, cups, and

especially the flat-topped tankards of that day. The beauty of the

straight line had asserted its power, and fashion felt its sway.

Such was the feeling that produced the coffee-pot of 1692, the

straight lines of which continued in vogue until the middle of the

following century, when a reaction in favour of bulbous bodies and

serpentine spouts set in.

[Illustration: WASTELL POT, 1720-21]

Some of the more notable of the coffee-house-keepers' tokens in the

Guildhall Museum were photographed for this work. They are described and

illustrated in chapter X.

There are illustrated other silver coffee pots in the Victoria and

Albert Museum, by Folkingham (1715-16), and by Wastell (1720-21), the

latter pot being octagonal.

There is illustrated also a design in tiles that were let into the wall

of an ancient coffee house in Brick Lane, Spitalfields, known as the

"Dish of Coffee Boy" in the catalog of the collection of London

antiquities in the Guildhall Museum. Mr. Ellis thinks this belongs to a

period a little earlier, but certainly not later, than 1692; the coffee

pot represented being exactly of the lantern shape. It is an oblong sign

of glazed Delft tiles, decorated in blue, brown, and yellow,

representing a youth pouring coffee. Upon a table, by his side, are a

gazette, two pipes, a bowl, a bottle, and a mug; above, on a scroll, is,

"dish of coffee boy."

[Illustration: "DISH OF COFFEE BOY" DESIGN IN DELFT TILES 1692]

Modifications of the lantern began to appear with great rapidity in

England. In the coffee pot of Chinese porcelain, illustrated, probably

made in China from an English model a few years later than the 1692 pot,

Mr. Ellis observes that "the spout has already lost its straightness,

the extreme taper of the body is diminished, and the lid betrays the

first tendency to depart from the straightness of the cone to the curved

outline of the dome." He adds:

These variations rapidly intensified, and at the commencement of

the eighteenth century we find the body still less tapering and the

lid has become a perfect dome. As we approach the end of Queen

Anne's reign the thumb piece disappears and the handle is no longer

set on at right angles to the spout. Through the reign of George I

but little modification took place, save that the taper of the body

became less and less. In the Second George's time we find the

taper has almost entirely disappeared, so that the sides are

nearly parallel, while the dome of the lid has been flattened down

to a very low elevation above the rim. In the second quarter of the

eighteenth century the pear shaped coffee pot was the vogue. In the

earlier years of George III, when many new and beautiful designs in

silversmiths' work were created, a complete revolution in

coffee-pots takes place, and the flowing outlines of the new

pattern recall the form of the Turkish ewer, which had been

discarded nearly one hundred years previously.

[Illustration: CHINESE PORCELAIN COFFEE POT

Late seventeenth century]

The evolution is shown by illustrations of Lord Swaythling's pot of

1731; the coffee jug of 1736; the Vincent pot of 1738; the Viscountess

Wolseley's coffee pot of copper plated with silver; the Irish coffee pot

of 1760; and the silver coffee pots of 1773-76 and of 1779-80 (see

illustrations on pages 604, 605 and 607).

[Illustration: Vincent Pot, Hall-marked, London, 1738

Lord Swaythling's Pot, 1731

SILVER COFFEE POTS, EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

From Jackson's "Illustrated History of English Plate"]

There are illustrated in this connection specimens of coffee pots in

stoneware by Elers (1700), and in salt glaze by Astbury, and another of

the period about 1725. These are in the department of British and

medieval antiquities of the British Museum, where are to be seen also

some beautiful specimens of coffee-service pots in Whieldon ware, and in

Wedgwood's jasper ware.

[Illustration: IRISH COFFEE POT, 1760

Hall-marked Dublin; the property of Col. Moore-Brabazon]

[Illustration: VISCOUNTESS WOLSELEY'S COFFEE POT]

[Illustration: A SCOFIELD POT OF 1779-80]

[Illustration: COFFEE JUG, 1736]

[Illustration: SILVER COFFEE POTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]

[Illustration: SALT-GLAZE POT

By John Astbury]

[Illustration: ELERS WARE COFFEE POT

Stoneware, about 1700]

[Illustration: SALT-GLAZE POT

About 1725]

[Illustration: POTS IN POTTERY AND PORCELAIN 18TH TO 20TH CENTURIES

1--Staffordshire; 2--English, eighteen to twentieth centuries;

3--English, blue printed ware, eighteenth to nineteenth centuries;

4--Leeds, 1760-1790; 5--Staffordshire, nineteenth to twentieth

centuries]

Illustrated, too, are some beautiful examples of the art of the potter,

applied to coffee service, as found in the Metropolitan Museum, where

they have been brought from many countries. Included are Leeds and

Staffordshire examples of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth

centuries; a Sino-Lowestoft pot of the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries;

an Italian (_capodimonte_) pot of the eighteenth century; German pots of

the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; a Vienna coffee pot of the

eighteenth century; a French (_La Seine_) coffee pot of 1774-1793, a

Sèvres pot of 1792-1804; and a Spanish eighteenth-century coffee pot

decorated in copper luster.

At the Metropolitan may be seen also Hatfield and Sheffield-plate pots

of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and many examples of silver

tea and coffee service and coffee pots by American silversmiths.

[Illustration: SILVER COFFEE POTS, LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Left, 1776-77. Right, 1773-4.]

Silver tea pots and coffee pots were few in America before the middle of

the eighteenth century. Early coffee-pot examples were tapering and

cylindrical in form, and later matched the tea pots with swelling drums,

molded bases, decorated spouts, and molded lids with finials.

From notes by R.T. Haines Halsey and John H. Buck, collected by Florence

N. Levy and woven into an introduction to the Metropolitan Museum's art

exhibition catalog for the Hudson-Fulton celebration of 1909, we learn

that:

The first silver made in New England was probably fashioned by

English or Scotch emigrants who had served their time abroad. They

were followed by craftsmen who were either born here, or, like John

Hull, arriving at an early age, learned their trade on this side.

In England it was required that every master goldsmith should have

his mark and set it upon his work after it was assayed and marked

with the king's mark (hall-mark) testifying to the fineness of the

metal.

[Illustration: Sino-Lowestoft, Eighteenth To Nineteenth Centuries]

[Illustration: ITALIAN CAPODIMONTE, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]

[Illustration: LA SEINE, 1774

SÈVRES, 1792

GERMAN POTS, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]

[Illustration: PORCELAIN POTS IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK]

The Colonial silversmiths marked their wares with their initials,

with or without emblems, placed in shields, circles, etc., without

any guide as to place of manufacture or date. After about 1725 it

was the custom to use the surname, with or without an initial, and

sometimes the full name. Since the establishment of the United

States the name of the town was often added and also the letters D

or C in a circle, probably meaning dollar or coin, showing the

standard or coin from which the wares were made.

In the New York colony there were evolved silver tea pots of a unique

design, that was not used elsewhere in the colonies. Mr. Halsey says

they were used indiscriminately for both tea and coffee. In style they

followed, to a certain extent, the squat pear-shaped tea pots of the

period of 1717-18 in England, but had greater height and capacity.

The colonial silversmiths wrought many beautiful designs in coffee, tea,

and chocolate pots. Fine specimens are to be seen in the Halsey and

Clearwater loan collections in the Metropolitan Museum. Included in the

Clearwater collection is a coffee pot by Pygan Adams (1712-1776); and

recently, there was added a coffee pot by Ephraim Brasher, whose name

appears in the _New York City Directory_ from 1786 to 1805. He was a

member of the Gold and Silversmiths' Society, and he made the die for

the famous gold doubloon, known by his name, a specimen of which

recently sold in Philadelphia for $4,000. His brother, Abraham Brasher,

who was an officer in the continental army, wrote many popular ballads

of the Revolutionary period, and was a constant contributor to the

newspapers.

[Illustration: VIENNA COFFEE POT, 1830

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art]

[Illustration: SPANISH COFFEE POT, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

In the Metropolitan Museum]

Judge Clearwater's collection of colonial silver in the Metropolitan

Museum, to which he is constantly adding, is a magnificent one; and the

coffee pot is worthy of it. It is thirteen and one-half inches high,

weighs forty-four ounces, exclusive of the ebony handle, has a curved

body and splayed base, with a godrooned band to the base and a similar

edge to the cover. The spout is elaborate and curved; the cover has an

urn-shaped finial; and there is a decoration of an engraved medallion

surrounded by a wreath with a ribbon forming a true lover's knot.

[Illustration:

By Samuel Minott By Charles Hatfield By Pygan Adams

Halsey Collection Metropolitan Museum of Art Clearwater Collection

]

[Illustration:

London Pot, 1773-74 By Jacob Hurd By Paul Revere

FROM FRANCIS HILL BIGELOW'S "HISTORIC SILVER OF THE COLONIES"

]

[Illustration: ENGLISH SHEFFIELD PLATE COFFEE POTS AND COFFEE URN,

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]

[Illustration: SILVER COFFEE POTS IN AMERICAN COLLECTIONS]

[Illustration: COFFEE POT BY WM. SHAW AND WM. PRIEST

Made for Peter Faneuil (about 1751-52), who gave to Boston Faneuil Hall,

called the cradle of American liberty]

[Illustration: POT OF SHEFFIELD PLATE, 18TH CENTURY

In the Metropolitan Museum]

[Illustration: SILVER POT BY EPHRAIM BRASHER

In the Clearwater Collection, Metropolitan Museum]

In the Halsey collection is shown a silver coffee pot by Samuel Minott,

and several beautiful specimens of the handiwork of Paul Revere, whose

name is more often connected with the famous "midnight ride" than with

the art of the silversmith. Of all the American silversmiths, Paul

Revere was the most interesting. Not only was he a silversmith of

renown, but a patriot, soldier, grand master Mason, confidential agent

of the state of Massachusetts Bay, engraver, picture-frame designer, and

die-sinker. He was born in Boston in 1735, and died in 1818. He was the

most famous of all the Boston silversmiths, although he is more widely

known as a patriot. He was the third of a family of twelve children, and

early entered his father's shop. When only nineteen, his father died;

but he was able to carry on the business. The engraving on his silver

bears witness to his ability. He engraved also on copper, and made many

political cartoons. He joined the expedition against the French at Crown

Point, and in the war of the Revolution was a lieutenant-colonel of

artillery. After the close of the war, he resumed his business of a

goldsmith and silversmith in 1783. Decidedly a man of action, he well

played many parts; and in all his manifold undertakings achieved

brilliant success. There clings, therefore, to the articles of silver

made by him an element of romantic and patriotic association which

endears them to those who possess them.

[Illustration: FRENCH SILVER COFFEE POT

Grand Prize, Union Centrale, 1886.]

Revere had a real talent that enabled him to impart an unwonted elegance

to his work, and he was famous as an engraver of the beautiful crests,

armorial designs, and floral wreaths that adorn much of his work. His

tea pots and coffee pots are unusually beautiful.

Revere coffee pots are to be seen in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts as

well as in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The Boston Museum of

Fine Arts has also a coffee pot made by William Shaw and William Priest

in 1751-52 for Peter Faneuil, the wealthiest Bostonian of his time, who

gave to Boston Faneuil Hall, New England's cradle of American liberty.

Among other American silversmiths who produced striking designs in

coffee pots, mention should be made of G. Aiken (1815); Garrett Eoff

(New York, 1785-1850); Charles Faris (who worked in Boston about 1790);

Jacob Hurd (1702-1758, known in Boston as Captain Hurd); John McMullin

(mentioned in the Philadelphia _Directory_ for 1796); James Musgrave

(mentioned in Philadelphia directories of 1797, 1808, and 1811); Myer

Myers (admitted as freeman, New York, 1746; active until 1790; president

of the New York Silversmiths Society, 1786); and Anthony Rasch (who is

known to have worked in Philadelphia, 1815).

In the museums of the many historical societies throughout the United

States are to be seen interesting specimens of coffee pots in pewter,

Britannia metal, and tin ware, as well as in pottery, porcelain, and

silver. Some of these are illustrated.

[Illustration: THE GREEN DRAGON TAVERN COFFEE URN]

As in other branches of art during the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries, the United States were indebted to England, Holland, and

France for much of the early pottery and porcelain. Elers, Astbury,

Whieldon, Wedgwood, their imitators, and the later Staffordshire

potters, flooded the American market with their wares. Porcelain was not

made in this country previous to the nineteenth century. Decorative

pottery was made here, however, from an early period. Britannia ware

began to take the place of pewter in 1825; and the introduction of

japanned tin ware and pottery gradually caused the manufacture of pewter

to be abandoned.

[Illustration:

By an unknown silversmith By Paul Revere By Paul Revere

COFFEE POTS BY AMERICAN SILVERSMITHS]

[Illustration: TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN COFFEE SERVICE

The Portsmouth Pattern, by the Gorham Co.]

An interesting relic is in the collection of the Bostonian Society. It

is a coffee urn of Sheffield ware, formerly in the Green Dragon tavern,

which stood on Union Street from 1697 to 1832, and was a famous meeting

place of the patriots of the Revolution. It is globular in form, and

rests on a base; and inside is still to be seen the cylindrical piece of

iron which, when heated, kept the delectable liquid contents of the urn

hot until imbibed by the frequenters of the tavern. The iron bar was set

in a zinc or tin jacket to keep such fireplace ashes as still clung to

it from coming in contact with the coffee, which was probably brewed in

a stew kettle before being poured into the urn for serving. The Green

Dragon tavern site, now occupied by a business structure, is owned by

the St. Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons of Boston; and at a recent

gathering of the lodge on St. Andrew's Day, the urn was exhibited to the

assembled brethren.

When the contents of the tavern were sold, the urn was bought by Mrs.

Elizabeth Harrington, who then kept a famous boarding-house on Pearl

Street, in a building owned by the Quincy family. The house was razed in

1847, and was replaced by the Quincy Block; and Mrs. Harrington removed

to High Street, and from there to Chauncey Place. Some of the prominent

men of Boston boarded with her for many years. At her death, the urn was

given to her daughter, Mrs. John R. Bradford. It was presented to the

society by Miss Phebe C. Bradford, of Boston, granddaughter of Mrs.

Elizabeth Harrington.

A somewhat similar urn, made of pewter, is in the Museum of the Maine

Historical Society of Portland, Me.; another in the Museum of the Essex

Institute at Salem, Mass.

Among the many treasured relics of Abraham Lincoln is an old Britannia

coffee pot from which he was regularly served while a boarder with the

Rutledge family at the Rutledge inn in New Salem (now Menard), Ill. It

was a valued utensil, and Lincoln is said to have been very fond of it.

It is illustrated on page 690.

The pot is now the property of the Old Salem Lincoln League, of

Petersburg, Ill., and was donated to it, with other relics, by Mrs.

Saunders, of Sisquoc, Cal., the only surviving child of James and Mary

Ann Rutledge. Mrs. Rutledge carefully preserved this and other relics of

New Salem days; and shortly before her death in 1878, she gave them into

the keeping of her daughter, Mrs. Saunders, advising her to preserve

them until such time as a permanent home for them would be provided by a

grateful people back at New Salem, where they were associated with the

immortal Lincoln and his tragic romance with her daughter Ann.

[Illustration: TURKISH COFFEE SET, PETER COLLECTION, UNITED STATES

NATIONAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON]

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_

A book could be written on the subject of this chapter. We shall have to

be content to touch briefly upon the important developments in the

devices employed. The changes that have taken place in the preparation

of the drink itself will be discussed in chapter XXXVI.

In the beginning, that is, in Ethiopia, about 800 A.D., coffee was

looked upon as a food. The whole ripe berries, beans and hulls, were

crushed, and molded into food balls held in shape with fat. Later, the

dried berries were so treated. So the primitive stone mortar and pestle

were the original coffee grinder.

The dried hulls and the green beans were first roasted, some time

between 1200 and 1300, in crude burnt clay dishes or in stone vessels,

over open fires. These were the original roasting utensils.

Next, the coffee beans were ground between little mill-stones, one

turning above the other. Then came the mill used by the Greeks and

Romans for grain. This mill consisted of two conical mill stones, one

hollow and fitted over the other, specimens of which have been found in

Pompeii. The idea is the same as that employed in the most modern metal

grinder.

Between 1400 and 1500, individual earthenware and metal coffee-roasting

plates appeared. These were circular, from four to six inches in

diameter, about 1/16 inch thick, slightly concave and pierced with small

holes, something like the modern kitchen skimmer. They were used in

Turkey and Persia for roasting a few beans at a time over braziers (open

pans, or basins, for holding live coals). The braziers were usually

mounted on feet and richly ornamented.

About the same time we notice the first appearance of the familiar

Turkish pocket cylinder coffee mill and the original Turkish _ibrik_, or

coffee boiler, made of metal. Little drinking cups of Chinese porcelain

completed the service.

The original coffee boiler was not unlike the English ale mug with no

cover, smaller at the top than at the bottom, fitted with a grooved lip

for pouring, and a long straight handle. They were made of brass, and in

sizes to hold from one to six tiny cupfuls. A later improvement was of

the ewer design, with bulbous body, collar top, and cover.

The Turkish coffee grinder seems to have suggested the individual

cylinder roaster which later (1650) became common, and from which

developed the huge modern cylinder commercial roasting machines.

[Illustration: THE OLDEST COFFEE GRINDER

Ancient Egyptian mortar and pestle, probably used for pounding coffee]

The individual coffee service of early civilization first employed crude

clay bowls or dishes for drinking; but as early as 1350, Persian,

Egyptian, and Turkish ewers, made of pottery, were used for serving. In

the seventeenth century, ewers of similar pattern, but made of metal,

were the favorite coffee-serving devices in oriental countries and in

western Europe.

Between 1428 and 1448, a spice grinder standing on four legs was

invented; and this was later used for grinding coffee. The drawer to

receive the ground coffee was added in the eighteenth century.

Between 1500 and 1600, shallow iron dippers with long handles and

foot-rests, designed to stand in open fires, were used in Bagdad, and by

the Arabs in Mesopotamia, for roasting coffee. These roasters had

handles about thirty-four inches long, and the bowls were eight inches

in diameter. They were accompanied by a metal stirrer (spatula) for

turning the beans.

[Illustration: GRAIN MILL OF GREEKS AND ROMANS

Also used for grinding coffee]

Another type of roaster was developed about 1600. It was in the shape of

an iron spider on legs, and was designed, like that just described, to

sit in open fires. At this period pewter serving pots were first used.

Between 1600 and 1632, mortars and pestles of wood, iron, brass, and

bronze came into common use in Europe for braying the roasted beans. For

several centuries, coffee connoisseurs held that pounding the beans in a

mortar was superior to grinding in the most efficient mill. Peregrine

White's parents brought to America on the _Mayflower_, in 1620, a wooden

mortar and pestle that were used for braying coffee to make coffee

"powder."

[Illustration: THE FIRST COFFEE ROASTER, ABOUT 1400]

When La Roque speaks of his father bringing back to Marseilles from

Constantinople in 1644 the instruments for making coffee, he undoubtedly

refers to the individual devices which at that time in the Orient

included the roaster plate, the cylinder grinder, the small long-handled

boiler, and _fenjeyns_ (findjans), the little porcelain drinking cups.

[Illustration: THE FIRST CYLINDER ROASTER, ABOUT 1650]

When Bernier visited Grand Cairo about the middle of the seventeenth

century, in all the city's thousand-odd coffee houses he found but two

persons who understood the art of roasting the bean.

About 1650, there was developed the individual cylinder coffee roaster

made of metal, usually tin plate or tinned copper, suggested by the

original Turkish pocket grinder. This was designed for use over open

fires in braziers. There appeared about this time also a combined

making-and-serving metal pot which was undoubtedly the original of the

common type of pot that we know today.

There appeared in England about 1660, Elford's white iron machine (sheet

iron coated with tin) which was "turned on a spit by a jack.[362]" This

was simply a larger size of the individual cylinder roaster, and was

designed for family or commercial use. Modifications were developed by

the French and Dutch. In the seventeenth century the Italians produced

some beautiful designs in wrought-iron coffee roasters.

[Illustration: HISTORICAL RELICS IN THE PETER COLLECTION, UNITED STATES

NATIONAL MUSEUM

1--Bagdad coffee-roasting pan and stirrer. 2--Iron mortar and pestle

used for pounding coffee. 3--Coffee mill used by General and Mrs.

Washington. 4--Coffee-roasting pan used at Mt. Vernon. 5--Bagdad coffee

pot with crow-bill spout]

Before the advent of the Elford machine, and indeed, for two centuries

thereafter, it was the common practise in the home to roast coffee in

uncovered earthenware tart dishes, old pudding pans, and fry pans.

Before the time of the modern kitchen stove, it was usually done over

charcoal fires without flame.

The improved Turkish combination coffee grinder with folding handle and

cup receptacle for the beans, used for grinding, boiling, and drinking,

was first made in Damascus in 1665. About this period, the Turkish

coffee set, including the long-handled boiler and the porcelain drinking

cups in brass holders, also came into vogue.

In 1665, Nicholas Book, "living at the Sign of the Frying Pan in St.

Tulies street," London, advertised that he was "the only known man for

making of mills for grinding of coffee powder, which mills are sold by

him from forty to forty-five shillings the mill."

By combining the long-handle idea contained in the Bagdad roaster with

that of the original cylinder roaster, the Dutch perfected a small,

closed, sheet-iron cylinder-roaster with a long handle that permitted

its being held and turned in open fire places. From 1670, and well into

the middle of the nineteenth century, this type of family roaster

enjoyed great favor in Holland, France, England, and the United States,

more especially in the country districts. The museums of Europe and the

United States contain many specimens. The iron cylinder measured about

five inches in diameter, and was from six to eight inches long, being

attached to a three or four foot iron rod provided with a wooden handle.

The green coffee was put into the cylinder through a sliding door.

Balancing the roaster over the blaze by resting the end of the iron rod

projecting from the far end of the roasting cylinder in a hook of the

usual fireplace crane, the housekeeper was wont slowly to revolve the

cylinder until the beans had turned the proper color.

[Illustration: TURKISH COFFEE MILL

A fine specimen in the Peter collection, United States National Museum]

Portable coffee-making outfits to fit the pocket were much in vogue in

France in 1691. These included a roaster, a grinder, a lamp, the oil,

cups, saucers, spoons, coffee, and sugar. The roaster was first made of

tin plate or tinned copper; but for the aristocracy silver and gold were

used. In 1754, a white-silver coffee roaster eight inches long and four

inches in diameter was mentioned among the deliveries made to the army

of the king at Versailles.

[Illustration: EARLY FRENCH WALL AND TABLE GRINDERS

Left, seventeenth-century coffee grinder in the Musée de la Porte de

Hal--Center, wall mill, eighteenth century--Right, iron mill, eighteenth

century]

Humphrey Broadbent, "the London coffee man" wrote in 1722:

I hold it best to roast coffee berries in an iron vessel full of

little holes, made to turn on a spit over a charcoal fire, keeping

them continually turning, and sometimes shaking them that they do

not burn, and when they are taken out of the vessel, spread 'em on

some tin or iron plate 'till the vehemency of the heat is vanished;

I would recommend to every family to roast their own coffee, for

then they will be almost secure from having any damaged berries, or

any art to increase the weight, which is very injurious to the

drinkers of coffee. Most persons of distinction in Holland roast

their own berries.

[Illustration: BRONZE AND BRASS MORTARS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY USED

FOR MAKING COFFEE POWDER

Left, bronze (Germany)--Center, brass (England)--Right, bronze (Holland,

1632)]

Between 1700 and 1800, there was developed a type of small portable

household stove to burn coke or charcoal, made of iron and fitted with

horizontal revolving cylinders for coffee roasting. These were provided

with iron handles for turning. A modification of this type of roaster

under a three-sided hood, and standing on three legs, was designed to

sit on the hearth of open fireplaces, close to the fire or in the

smoldering ashes. Because of its greater capacity, it was probably used

in the inns and coffee houses for roasting large batches. Still another

type, which made its appearance late in the eighteenth century, was the

sheet-iron roaster suspended at the top of a tall, iron, box-like

compartment, or stove, in which the fire was built. This, too, was

designed to roast coffee in comparatively large quantities. In some

examples it was provided with legs.

Great silver coffee pots ("with all the utensils belonging to them of

the same metal") were first used by Pascal at St.-Germain's fair in

Paris in 1672. It remained for the English and American silversmiths to

produce the most beautiful forms of silver coffee pots; and there are

some notable collections of these in England and the United States.

The oriental serving pot was nearly always of metal, tall, and, in old

models, of graceful curve, with a slightly twisted ornamental beak in

the form of an S, attached below the middle of the vessel. A handle

ornamented in the same way formed a decorative balance.

In 1692, the lantern straight-line coffee serving pot with true cone

lid, thumb-piece, and handle fixed at right angle to the spout, was

introduced into England, succeeding the curved oriental serving pot. In

1700, coffee pots made of cheaper metals, like tin and Britannia ware,

began to appear on the home tables of the people. In 1701, silver coffee

pots appeared in England having perfect domes and bodies less tapering.

Between 1700 and 1800, silver, gold, and delicate porcelain serving pots

were the vogue among European royalty.

[Illustration: EARLY AMERICAN COFFEE ROASTERS

Both the cast-iron spiders and the long-handled roasters were used in

open fireplaces previous to 1770]

In 1704, Bull's machine for roasting coffee was patented in England.

This probably marks the first use of coal for commercial roasting.

In 1710, the popular coffee roaster in French homes was a dish of

varnished earthenware. This same year a novelty was introduced in France

in the shape of a fustian (linen) bag for infusing ground coffee.

By 1714, the thumb-piece on English serving pots had disappeared, and

the handle was no longer set at a right angle to the spout. English

coffee-pot bodies showed a further modification in 1725, the taper

becoming less and less.

Coffee grinders were so common in France in 1720 that they were to be

had for a dollar and twenty cents each. Their development by the French

had been rapid from the original spice grinder. At first, they were

known as coffee mills; but in the eighteenth century, roasters came to

be known by that name. They were made of iron, retaining the same

principle of the horizontal mill-stones--one of which is fixed while the

other moves--that the ancients employed for grinding wheat. They were

squat, box-shaped affairs, having in the center a shank of iron that

revolved upon a fixed, corrugated iron plate. There was also the style

that fastened to the wall. At first, the drawer to receive ground coffee

was missing, but this was supplied in later types. Before its invention,

the ground coffee was received in a sack of greased leather, or in one

treated on the outside with beeswax--probably the original of the duplex

paper bag for conserving the flavor.

[Illustration: ROASTER WITH THREE-SIDED HOOD

It succeeded the cast-iron spider, and was suspended from a crane, or

stood in the embers]

[Illustration: ROASTING, MAKING, AND SERVING DEVICES

Early seventeenth century, as pictured by Dufour]

The French brought their innate artistic talents to bear upon coffee

grinders, just as they did upon roasters and serving pots. In many

instances they made the outer parts of silver and of gold.

By 1750, the straight-line serving pot in England had begun to yield to

the reactionary movement in art favoring bulbous bodies and serpentine

spouts.

About 1760, French inventors began to devote themselves to improvements

in coffee-making devices. Donmartin, a Paris tinsmith, in 1763, invented

an urn pot that employed a flannel sack for infusing. Another infusion

device, produced the same year by L'Ainé, also a tinsmith of Paris, was

known as a _diligence_.

A complete revolution in the style of English serving pots took place in

1770, with a return to the flowing lines of the Turkish ewer; and

between 1800 and 1900, there was a gradual return to the style of

serving pot having the handle at a right angle to the spout.

[Illustration: ENGLISH AND FRENCH COFFEE GRINDERS

Nineteenth century]

In 1779, Richard Dearman was granted an English patent on a new method

of making mills for grinding coffee. In 1798, the first American patent

on an improved coffee grinding mill was granted to Thomas Bruff, Sr. It

was a wall mill, fitted with iron plates, in which the coffee was ground

between two circular nuts, three inches broad and having coarse teeth

around their centers and fine shallow teeth at the edges.

De Belloy's (or Du Belloy's) coffee pot appeared in Paris about 1800. It

was first made of tin; but later, of porcelain and silver--the original

French drip pot. This device was never patented; but it appears to have

furnished the inspiration for many inventors in France, England, and the

United States. The first French patent on a coffee maker was granted to

Denobe, Henrion, and Rouch in 1802. It was for a

"pharmacological-chemical coffee-making device by infusion." Charles

Wyatt obtained a patent the same year in London on an apparatus for

distilling coffee. The De Belloy pot is illustrated on page 622.

In 1806, Hadrot was granted a French patent on a device "for filtering

coffee without boiling and bathed in air." This use of the word

filtering was misleading, as it was many times after in French, English,

and American patent nomenclature, where it often meant percolation or

something quite different from filtration. True percolation means to

drip through fine interstices of china or metal. Filtration means to

drip through a porous substance, usually cloth or paper. De Belloy's pot

was a percolator. So was Hadrot's. The improvement on which Hadrot got

his patent was to "replace the white iron filter (sic) used in ordinary

filtering pots by a filter composed of hard tin and bismuth" and to use

"a rammer of the same metal, pierced with holes." The rammer was

designed to press down and to smooth out the powdered coffee in an even

and uniform fashion. "It also," says Hadrot in his specification, "stops

the derangement which boiling water poured from a height can produce. It

is held by its stem a half inch from the surface of the powder so that

it receives only the action of the water which it divides and

facilitates thus the extraction which it must produce in each of the

particles."

[Illustration: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ROASTER

Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.]

A coffee percolator was invented in Paris about 1806 by Benjamin

Thompson, F.R.S., an American-British scientist, philanthropist, and

administrator. He was known as Count Rumford, a title bestowed on him by

the Pope. Rumford's invention was first given to the public in London in

1812. He has gained great credit for his device, because of an elaborate

essay that he wrote on it in Paris under the title of _The excellent

qualities of coffee and the art of making it in the highest perfection_,

and that he caused to be published in London in 1812. It was a simple

percolator pot provided with a hot-water jacket, and was a real

improvement on the French drip or percolator coffee pot invented by De

Belloy, but not at all unlike Hadrot's patented device. Count Rumford,

however, was a picturesque character, and a good advertiser. He is

generally credited with the invention of the coffee percolator; but

examination of his device shows that, strictly speaking, the De Belloy

pot was just as much a percolator, and apparently antedated it by about

six years.

[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL FRENCH DRIP POT

_Cafetière à la_ De Belloy]

De Belloy employed the principle of having the boiling water drip

through the ground coffee when held in suspension by a perforated metal

or porcelain grid. This is true percolation. Hadrot did the same thing

with the improvements noted above. Count Rumford in his essay admits

that this method of making coffee was not new, but claims his

improvement was. This was to provide a rammer for compressing the ground

coffee in the upper or percolating device into a definite thickness,

this being accomplished by providing the perforated circular tin disk

water-spreader that rested on the ground coffee with four projections,

or feet, that kept the spreader within half an inch of the grid holding

the powder in suspension and free from "agitation."

His argument was that two-thirds of an inch of ground coffee should be

leveled and compressed into a half-inch thickness before the boiling

water was introduced. Practically the same result was achieved in the De

Belloy and Hadrot pots, also provided with water-spreaders and pluggers,

but the same mathematical exactitude in the matter of the depth of the

ground coffee before the percolation started was not assured. De

Belloy's spreader did not have the projections on the under side upon

which Count Rumford laid such stress. Then there was the hot-water

jacket, which was an improvement on Hadrot's hot air bath. Inventors

that followed Rumford have made light of the importance that he attached

to scientific accuracy in coffee-making; but it is interesting to note

how many of the features of the De Belloy, Hadrot, and Rumford pots have

been retained in the modern complex coffee machines, and in most of the

filtration devices.

[Illustration: BELGIAN, RUSSIAN, AND FRENCH PEWTER SERVING POTS

These are in the Metropolitan Museum and are of nineteenth century

design]

French inventors continued to apply themselves to coffee-roasting and

coffee-making problems, and many new ideas were evolved. Some of these

were improved upon by the Dutch, the Germans, and the Italians; but the

best work in the line of improvements that have survived the test of

time was done in England and the United States.

In 1815, Sené was granted a French patent on "a device to make coffee

without boiling." In 1819, Laurens produced the original of the

percolation device in which the boiling water is raised by a tube and

sprayed over the ground coffee. The same year Morize, a Paris tinsmith

and lamp-maker, followed with a reversible, double drip pot which was

the pioneer of all the reversible filtration pots of Europe and America.

Gaudet, another tinsmith, in 1820, patented an improvement on the

percolator idea, that employed a cloth filter. By 1825, the pumping

percolator, working by steam pressure and by partial vacuum, was much

used in France, Holland, Germany, and Austria.

Meanwhile, it was common practise to roast coffee in England in "an iron

pan or in hollow cylinders made of sheet iron"; while in Italy, the

practise was to roast it in glass flasks, which were fitted with loose

corks. The flasks were "held over clear fires of burning coals and

continually agitated." Anthony Schick was granted an English patent in

1812, on a method, or process, for roasting coffee; but as he never

filed his specifications, we shall probably never know what the process

was. The custom of the day in England was to pound the roasted beans in

a mortar, or to grind them in a French mill.

[Illustration: COUNT RUMFORD'S PERCOLATOR]

In 1822, Louis Bernard Rabaut was granted an English patent in which the

French drip process was reversed by using steam pressure to force the

boiling water upward through the coffee mass. Casseneuve, a Paris

tinsmith, seems to have patented practically the same idea in France in

1824. Casseneuve employed a paper filter in his machine.

In America, a United States patent was granted in 1813 to Alexander

Duncan Moore of New Haven on a mill "for grinding and pounding coffee."

This was followed by a patent granted to Increase Wilson, of New London,

in 1818, on a steel mill for grinding coffee.

[Illustration: PEWTER POTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

Left to right, they are German, Flemish, English, and Dutch specimens in

the Metropolitan Museum]

[Illustration: PATENT DRAWINGS OF EARLY FRENCH COFFEE MAKERS

Left, drip pot of 1806--Next two, Durant's inner-tube pot, 1827--Next

(fourth), Gandais' first practicable percolator, 1827--Right, Grandin &

Crepeaux' percolator, 1832]

In 1815, Archibald Kenrich was granted a patent in England on "mills for

grinding coffee."

The coffee biggin, said to have been invented by a Mr. Biggin, came into

common use in England for making coffee about 1817. It was usually an

earthenware pot. At first it had in the upper part a metal strainer like

the French drip pots. Suspended from the rim in later models there was a

flannel or muslin bag to hold the ground coffee, through which the

boiling water was poured, the bag serving as a filter. The idea was an

adaptation of the French fustian infusion bag of 1711, and of other

early French drip and filtration devices, and it attained great

popularity. Any coffee pot with such a bag fitted into its mouth came to

be spoken of as a coffee biggin. Later, there was evolved the metal pot

with a wire strainer substituted for the cloth bag. The coffee biggin

still retains its popularity in England.

[Illustration: EARLY FRENCH FILTRATION DEVICES

Left, Casseneuve's filter-paper machine, 1824--Center, Gaudet's

cloth-filter pot, 1820--Right, Raparlier's percolator]

While French inventors were busy with coffee makers, English and

American inventors were studying means to improve the roasting of the

beans. Peregrine Williamson, of Baltimore, was granted the first patent

in the United States for an improvement on a coffee roaster in 1820. In

1824, Richard Evans was granted a patent in England for a commercial

method of roasting coffee, comprising a cylindrical sheet-iron roaster

fitted with improved flanges for mixing; a hollow tube and trier for

sampling coffee while roasting; and a means for turning the roaster

completely over to empty it.

The next year, 1825, the first coffee-pot patent in the United States

was granted to Lewis Martelley of New York. It marked the first American

attempt to perfect an arrangement to condense the steam and the

essential oils and to return them to the infusion. In 1838, Antoni

Bencini, of Milton, N.C., was granted a similar patent in the United

States. Rowland, in 1844, and Waite and Sener, in their Old Dominion pot

of 1856, tried for the same result, namely, the condensation of the

steam in upper chambers.

[Illustration: EARLY AMERICAN COFFEE-MAKER PATENTS

Left, Waite & Sener's Old Dominion pot--Right, Bencini's steam

condenser]

The French meantime focused on coffee makers; and in 1827, Jacques

Augustin Gandais, a manufacturer of plated jewelry in Paris, produced a

really practicable pumping percolator. This machine had the ascending

steam tube on the exterior. The same year, 1827, Nicholas Felix Durant,

a manufacturer in Chalons-sur-Marne, was granted a French patent on a

percolator employing for the first time an inner tube for spraying the

boiling water over the ground coffee.

In 1828, Charles Parker, of Meriden, Conn., began work on the original

Parker coffee mill, which later was to bring him fame and fortune.

The next year, 1829, the first French patent on a coffee mill was issued

to Colaux & Cie. of Molsheim.

That same year, 1829, the Établissements Lauzaune, Paris, began to make

hand-turned iron-cylinder coffee-roasting machines.

In 1831, David Selden was granted a patent in England for a

coffee-grinding mill having cones of cast-iron.

The first Parker coffee-grinder patent for a household coffee and spice

mill was issued in the United States in 1832 to Edmund Parker and Herman

M. White of Meriden, Conn. The Charles Parker Company's business was

founded the same year. In 1832 and 1833, United States patents were

issued to Ammi Clark, of Berlin, Conn., also on improved coffee and

spice mills for home use.

Amos Ransom, Hartford, Conn., was granted a United States patent on a

coffee roaster in 1833.

The English began exporting coffee-roasting and coffee-grinding

machinery to the United States in 1833-34.

[Illustration: FRENCH COFFEE MAKERS, NINETEENTH CENTURY

1, 2--Improved French drip pots. 3--Persian design. 4--De Belloy pot.

5--Russian reversible pot. 6--New filter machine. 7--Glass filter pot.

8--Syphon machine. 9--Vienna Incomparable. 10--Double glass "balloon"

device]

[Illustration: FIRST ENGLISH COMMERCIAL COFFEE-ROASTER PATENT, 1824

Fig. 1--End elevation. Fig. 2--Front sectional view. Fig. 3--Front

elevation, showing how the roasting cylinder was turned completely over

to empty. Fig. 4--The examiner, or trier. Fig. 5--Tube (J) to be

inserted in H of Fig. 6 to prevent escape of aroma]

It was not until 1836 that the first French patent was issued on a

combined coffee-roaster-and-grinder to François Réné Lacoux of Paris.

The roaster was made of porcelain, because the inventor believed that

metal imparted a bad taste to the beans while roasting.

[Illustration: EARLY FRENCH COFFEE-ROASTING MACHINES

1--Delephine's coke machine. 2--Bernard's machine, 1841. 3--Circlet for

same. 4--Postulart's gas machine]

In 1839, James Vardy and Moritz Platow were granted an English patent on

a kind of urn percolator employing the vacuum process of coffee making,

the upper vessel being made of glass. The first French patent on a glass

coffee-making device, using the same principle, was granted to Madame

Vassieux, of Lyons, in 1842. These were the forerunners of the double

glass "balloons" for making coffee which later on, in the early part of

the twentieth century, attained much vogue in the United States. They

were very popular in Europe until the latter part of the nineteenth

century.

In 1839, John Rittenhouse, of Philadelphia, was granted a United States

patent on a cast-iron mill designed to handle the problem of nails and

stones in grinding coffee. His improvement was intended to prevent

injury to the grinding teeth by stopping the machine.

In 1840, Abel Stillman, Poland, N.Y., was granted a United States patent

on a family coffee roaster having a mica window to enable the operator

to observe the coffee while roasting. (See 10, page 630.)

In 1841, William Ward Andrews was granted an English patent on an

improved coffee pot employing a pump to force the boiling water upward

through the coffee, which was contained in a perforated cylinder screwed

to the bottom of the pot. This was Rabaut's idea of nineteen years

before. We find it again repeated in the United States in a machine

which appeared on the New York market in 1906.

[Illustration: BATTERY OF CARTER PULL-OUT MACHINES IN AN EARLY AMERICAN

PLANT]

In 1841, Claude Marie Victor Bernard, of Paris, was granted a French

patent on a coffee roaster, which was an improvement designed to bring

the roasting cylinder and the fire in closer contact. This was

accomplished, to quote the quaint language of the inventor, by applying

movable legs and "by superimposing a sheet iron circlet around the edge

of the furnace to get double the quantity of heat and it presents so

much advantage that it has seemed to me worthy of being patented." (See

4, page 627.)

But the French were only toying with the roaster, because roasting in

France was not yet a separate branch of business, as it had become in

England and the United States, where keen minds were already at work on

the purely commercial coffee-roasting machine. The application of

intensive thought in this direction was destined to bear fruit in

America in 1846, and in England in 1847.

French inventive genius continued to occupy itself with coffee making,

and in the invention of Edward Loysel de Santais, of Paris, in 1843,

produced the first of the ideas that were later incorporated in the

hydrostatic percolator for making "two thousand cups of coffee an

hour"[363] at the exposition of 1855, and that has since been improved

upon by the Italians in their rapid-filter machines. It should be noted

that Loysel's 2,000 cups were probably demi-tasses. The modern Italian

rapid-filter machine produces about 1,000 large coffee cups per hour.

James W. Carter, of Boston, was granted a United States patent in 1846

on his "pull-out" roaster; and this was the machine most generally

employed for trade roasting in America for the next twenty years. Carter

did not claim to have invented the combination of cylindrical roaster

and furnace; but he did claim priority for the combination, with the

furnace and roasting vessel, of the air space, or chamber, surrounding

it, "the same being for the purpose of preventing the too rapid escape

of heat from the furnace when the air chamber's induction and eduction

air openings or passages are closed."

The Carter "pull-out," was so called because the roasting cylinder of

sheet iron was pulled out from the furnace on a shaft supported by

standards, to be emptied or to be refilled from sliding doors in its

"sides." It was in use for many years in such old-time plants as that of

Dwinell-Wright Company, 25 Haverhill Street. Boston; by James H. Forbes

and William Schotten in St. Louis; and by D.Y. Harrison in Cincinnati.

The picture of a roasting room with Carter machines in operation,

reproduced here, recalled to George S. Wright, the present head of the

Dwinell-Wright Company's business, the scene as he saw it so many times

when, as a boy of ten or twelve, he occasionally spent a day in his

father's factory. "The only difference I notice," he wrote the author,

"is that, according to my recollection, there was no cooler box to

receive the roasted coffee, which was dumped on the floor where it was

spread out three or four inches deep with iron rakes and sprinkled with

a watering pot. The contact of water and hot coffee caused so much steam

that the roasting room was in a dense fog for several minutes after each

batch of coffee was drawn from the fire."

A.E. Forbes also thus recalled the Carter machine in his father's

factory in St. Louis in 1853, when he used to help after school; and

sometimes ran the roasters, after 1857:

It was barrel shaped, having a slide the full length of one side to

fill and empty. A heavy shaft ran through the centre, resting on

the wall of the furnace at the rear end and on an upright about

eight feet from the front wall. The fire was about sixteen to

eighteen inches below the cylinder and of soft coal. The cylinder

was not perforated, the theory being to keep the vapors from

escaping.[364] This of course was erroneous. The color of the smoke

bursting from the edge of the slide was our medium of telling when

the roasting process was nearing completion, and often the cylinder

was pulled out and opened for inspection several times before that

point was reached. When just right, the belt was shifted to a loose

pulley, stopping the cylinder, which, was pulled off the fire. A

handle was attached to the shaft, the slide drawn, and the coffee

was dumped into a wooden tray which had to be shoved under the

cylinder. The coffee was stirred around in the tray until cool

enough to sack.

The roaster man had to be a husky in those days to pick up a sack

of Rio weighing about one hundred, sixty to one hundred,

seventy-five pounds (not a hundred, thirty-two pounds, as now) and

to empty it in the cylinder. We had no overhead hoppers.

[Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH AND AMERICAN COFFEE ROASTERS

1, 2--English charcoal machines. 3, 5, 8--American coal-stove

roasters. 4--Remington's wheel-of-buckets (American) roaster, 1841.

6--Wood's roaster. 7--Hyde's stove roaster. 9--Reversible stove

roaster. 10--Abel Stillman's stove roaster]

Later we built in the rear and put in two cylinders of the Chris

Abele type, having stationary fronts and filling and emptying from

the front end. We still used soft coal, with the fire sixteen to

eighteen inches under the cylinder.

We had other machines made locally from the Carter pattern. The

idea of the tight cylinder was to keep out smoke, as well as to

keep in the aroma. I think we were the first to use perforations,

because I remember old Jabez Burns coming along after we put in one

of his machines and remarking on it.... We had a kind of mechanical

genius for engineer at that time (he also did the roasting) and he

conceived the idea that we ought to get rid of the moisture in the

roasting coffee because it would cook quicker. When the holes

clogged up, he put in loose pieces of wire bent at the ends which

shook as the cylinder revolved and kept the holes open. Another

thing, he put a hole in the cylinder head and a stopper with a

string on it so he could get out a few grains at a time to note the

progress of the roasting--but he judged mostly by the smoke.

The cooling box was as I have described it, but later we put in a

perforated false bottom which let out some chaff and small stones.

On our first watering, we pulled out the slide and dashed in a

bucket of water, then closed the slide and let it revolve outside

the furnace. This was hard on the cylinder, so later we used the

sprinkling can and put on water sparingly.

Once we had a party that wanted to put in a soapstone lined

roaster, and another near us named Salzgerber patented a

superheated-steam roaster which was shaped like our modern milk

bottle. This was covered with asbestos and worked on a central

bearing so it could be depressed for emptying and elevated for

filling. It did good work.

Mr. Forbes' recollections of the early days of roasting and selling

coffee at retail in St. Louis are so illuminating, and paint so

interesting a picture of the period that they are printed here to

illustrate the conditions that prevailed generally at the time when the

commercial roasting machine of the United States was being developed

into the modern type. He says further:

Selling roasted coffee was uphill work, as every one roasted coffee

in the kitchen oven. People were buying, say, at twenty cents. Our

asking twenty-five cents "roasted" called for a lot of explanation

about shrinkage, tight cylinders so the strength and flavor could

not get away, etc.; while, when they roasted a pound in the oven

the flavor scented the whole house, thus losing so much strength to

say nothing of the unevenness of their roasts--part raw, part

roasted, producing an unpleasant taste. An occasional burned roast

at home helped some. They tell of a man who, going out in the back

yard and kicking over a clod by accident, uncovered some burned

coffee. He called to his wife and wanted an explanation. She

acknowledged she had burnt it, and hid it so he would not scold. He

said, "We had better buy it roasted in the future and avoid such

accidents."

We roasted in the cellar. We had an elaborately polished Reed &

Mann engine in one window, two brass hoppered mills in the other,

and our boiler was under the sidewalk. We had a mahogany-top

counter, oil paintings on the wall, and bin fronts of Chinamen,

etc., done by the celebrated artist, Mat Hastings (now dead); so

you see we started right.

The fight we had to introduce roasted coffee was fierce. Our

argument was on the saving of fuel, labor, temper, scorched faces,

and anything we could think of. We talked only three coffees, Rio,

Java, and Mocha. When Santos began to come, it was hard to change

them over from the rank Rio flavor to the more mild Santos. The

latter they claimed did not have the rough taste. They missed it

and longed for the wild tang of the Rio.

We did not import, but bought in New Orleans and from several local

wholesale grocers. No one delivered. Shipments were f.o.b. St.

Louis. Draying and packages were extra. Coffee was not cleaned or

stoned, but was sold as it came from the sack. However, we did not

use any very low grades then. If any one complained of the stones

hurting their mills, we advised them to buy ground coffee, showing

how it kept better ground as it was packed tight, whereas the

roasted was looser and the air could get through it. It was fully a

year or more before we began to sell in quantities to make it

profitable. In roasting for others, we got a cent per pound; and

after awhile, that became so much a business it paid all our

expenses. We were the first to roast coffee by steam power west of

the Mississippi and east of the Rocky Mountains.

The tea department helped us to hold out until coffee got its hold

on the public; for in those days every one used tea and insisted on

having it good. Price was no object. How different now!

Five years later (1862) J. Nevison, an Englishman, drifted into

town and opened at 85 North Fourth Street. He got out a very

bombastic circular which caused us to put out the one I enclose

(illustration, page 436). Then came a party named Childs; and after

him, Hugh Menown, grand-uncle of the present Menown, of Menown &

Gregory; and Mat Hunt; all passed over to the Great Majority. After

the Civil War they multiplied pretty fast, coming and going until

now we have nineteen roasting establishments in the city.

The late Julius J. Schotten also wrote the author as follows concerning

the days of the Carter roaster and of the wholesale coffee-roasting

business founded by William Schotten in 1862:

In the early days, every wholesale grocer was selling coffee; the

wholesale grocer controlled ninety percent of the trade in the

country. It did not pay the coffee roaster to have men on the road

selling coffee in those days. Such being the case, seventy-five

percent of the roasting done by the coffee roasters was job

roasting, at one cent a pound.

In the beginning there were only two kinds of roasted coffee known

to the trade in this section of the country (St. Louis) and of

course one of these brands was "Rio"--the other; "Java". The former

was a genuine Rio, but the Java was mostly Jamaica coffee.

Roasted coffee then was packed (for city trade) in five and ten

pound packages, and this size package seemed to supply the wants of

the ordinary grocer for a week. Occasionally a twenty-five pound

package, and in a few instances as much as fifty pounds of one

grade was sold at a time.

The class of customers the coffee roasters sold in those days were

the smaller merchants; the larger stores, having their ideas as to

quality, bought their coffees green. As they had very little sale

for the roasted, they would send a half-sack, and sometimes a whole

sack to have it roasted. It took a number of years to induce the

larger grocers, and even the average grocers, to purchase their

coffee already roasted.

Coffees were roasted in the old style, "pull-out" roaster cylinder.

That is to say, it was necessary to stop the roaster and to pull

out the cylinder to sample the coffee in order to know when to take

the coffee off the fire. When the coffee was ready to take off, the

cylinder was pulled out its entire length. It was then turned over

and a slide nine inches wide, running the full length of the

cylinder, was opened and the contents were dumped in the cooling

box. When the coffee reached the cooling box, it took two men with

hoes or wooden shovels to stir and turn it until it was properly

cooled, there being no cooling arrangements then as we have

nowadays.

At that time there were no stoning or separating machines; and as a

bag of the ordinary green Jamaica coffee contained from three to

five pounds of stones and sticks, it was necessary to hand-pick the

coffee after it was roasted.

[Illustration: EARLY FOREIGN AND AMERICAN COFFEE-MAKING DEVICES

1--English adaptation of French boiler. 2--English coffee biggin.

3--Improved Rumford percolator. 4--Jones's exterior-tube percolator.

5--Parker's steam-fountain coffee maker. 6--Platow's filterer.

7--Brain's Vacuum, or pneumatic filter. 8--Beart's percolator.

9--American coffee biggin. 10--cloth-bag drip pot. 11--Vienna coffee

pot. 12--Le Brun's cafetière. 13--Reversible Potsdam cafetière. 14,

15--Gen. Hutchinson's percolator and urn. 16--Etruscan biggin]

After Carter, the next United States coffee-roaster patent was granted

to J.R. Remington, of Baltimore, on a roaster employing a wheel of

buckets to move the green coffee beans singly through a charcoal heated

trough. It never became a commercial success. (See 4, page 630.)

In 1847-48, William and Elizabeth Dakin were granted patents in England

on an apparatus for "cleaning and roasting coffee and for making

decoctions." The roaster specification covered a gold, silver, platinum,

or alloy-lined roasting cylinder and traversing carriage on an overhead

railway to move the roaster in and out of the roasting oven; and the

"decoction" specification covered an arrangement for twisting a

cloth-bag ground-coffee-container in a coffee biggin, or applied a screw

motion to a disk within a perforated cylinder containing the ground

coffee, so as to squeeze the liquid out of the grounds after infusion

had taken place.

The roaster has survived, but the coffee maker was not so fortunate. The

Dakin idea was that coffee was injuriously affected by coming in contact

with iron during the roasting process. The roasting cylinder was

enclosed in an oven instead of being directly exposed to the furnace

heat. The apparatus was provided also with a "taster," or sampler, the

first of its kind, to enable the operator to examine the roasting

berries without stopping the machine. As will be seen by referring to

the picture of the model shown, the apparatus was ingenious and not

without considerable merit. Dakin & Co. are still in existence in

London, operating a machine very like the original model.

In 1848, Thomas John Knowlys was granted a patent in England on a

perforated roasting cylinder coated with enamel.

It is to be noted in passing that this idea of handling the green bean

with extreme delicacy, evidently obtained from the French, was never

taken seriously in the United States, whose inventors chose to handle it

with rough courage.

[Illustration: THE DAKIN ROASTING MACHINE OF 1848]

The first English patent on a coffee grinder was granted to Luke

Herbert in 1848.

In 1849, Apoleoni Pierre Preterre, of Havre, was granted an English

patent on a coffee roaster mounted on a weighing apparatus to indicate

loss of weight in roasting and automatically stop the roasting process.

At the same time he secured an English patent on a vacuum percolator,

not unlike Durant's of 1827.

In 1849 also, Thomas R. Wood, of Cincinnati, was granted a United States

patent on a spherical coffee roaster for use on kitchen stoves. It

attained considerable popularity among housewives who preferred to do

their own roasting. (See 6, page 630.)

In 1852, Edward Gee secured a patent in England on a coffee roaster

fitted with inclined flanges for turning the beans while roasting.

C.W. Van Vliet, of Fishkill Landing, N.Y., was granted a United States

patent in 1855 on a household coffee mill employing upper breaking and

lower grinding cones. He assigned it to Charles Parker of Meriden, Conn.

In 1860-61 several United States patents were granted John and Edmund

Parker on coffee grinders for home use.

In 1862, E.J. Hyde, of Philadelphia, was granted a United States patent

on a combined coffee-roaster and stove fitted with a crane on which the

roasting cylinder was revolved and swung out horizontally for emptying

and refilling. This machine proved to be a commercial success. Benedickt

Fischer used one in his first roasting plant in New York. It is still

being manufactured by the Bramhall Deane Company of New York.

[Illustration: A GLOBULAR STOVE ROASTER OF 1860]

[Illustration: HYDE'S COMBINED ROASTER AND STOVE]

In 1864, Jabez Burns, of New York, was granted a United States patent on

the original Burns coffee roaster, the first machine which did not have

to be moved away from the fire for discharging the roasted coffee, and

one that marked a distinct advance in the manufacture of coffee-roasting

apparatus. It was a closed iron cylinder set in brickwork. (See

illustration, page 635.)

Jabez Burns had been a student of coffee roasting in New York for twenty

years before he produced the machine that was to revolutionize the

coffee business of the United States. He had brought with him from

England a knowledge of the trade in that country, where he first began

his business training by selling Java coffee at fourteen cents and

Sumatra at eleven cents to hotels, boarding-houses, and private

families.

Up to the time of the Civil War, the contrivances employed for roasting

coffee in every case necessitated the removal of the roasting

apparatus--whether pan, globe, or cylinder--from the fire. The process

of causing coffee to discharge from the end of the roasting cylinder at

the pleasure of the operator while the cylinder was still in motion was

new; and the double set of flanges to produce this effect, and at the

same time, during the process of roasting, to keep the coffee equally

distributed from end to end of the cylinder, was new. Some one suggested

this last improvement was simply an Archimedean screw placed in a

cylinder, but Mr. Burns replied: "It is a double screw, a thing never

suggested by the Archimedean screw. It is, in fact, a double right and

left augur, one within the other, firmly secured together and also to

the shell or cylinder, and when the cylinder revolves the desired

result is obtained--the idea being entirely original."

Mr. Burns had watched the development of the coffee business from the

time when the preparation of coffee was largely confined to the home,

where the approved roasting implements were hot stones, or tiles, iron

plates, skillets, and frying pans. Some of these were still in use

twenty years after he produced his first machine; and he often said that

coffee evenly roasted by such methods was just as good as if done by the

best mechanical device ever invented. He also said: "Coffee can be

roasted in very simple machinery. Some of the best we ever saw was done

in a corn popper. Patent portable roasters are almost as numerous as rat

traps or churns."

[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL BURNS ROASTER, 1864]

He early saw the practise of domestic roasting falling into disuse, as

it was becoming possible to supply the consumer with roasted coffee for

only a trifle more than in the green state, with all the labor and

annoyance of roasting done away with--a talking point that John Arbuckle

was quick to seize upon in his first Ariosa advertising.

In almost every town of any size there were concerns engaged in the

roasting business. Within a few years, Burns machines were placed in all

the principal roasting centers. Pupke & Reid in New York; Flint, Evans &

Co., and James H. Forbes in St. Louis; Arbuckles & Co., in Pittsburgh;

the Weikel & Smith Spice Co. in Philadelphia; Theodore F. Johnson & Co.,

in Newark; Evans & Walker in Detroit; W. & J.G. Flint in Milwaukee; and

Parker & Harrison in Cincinnati, were among his first customers.

It is said that in 1845 there were facilities in and around New York to

roast as much coffee as was then consumed in Great Britain. Steam power

was being extensively used, and the roasting was done here for a large

part of the country. The habit was to buy roasted coffee from the coffee

and spice mills by the bag or larger quantity for country consumption;

and the grocers and small tea stores, for local consumption, bought from

twenty-five pounds upward at a time. This method cheapened the roasting

of coffee to half a cent a pound; and then good profits could be made,

for everything was cheap in those days. Even at that, it would have been

impossible for each tea dealer to have roasted his own coffee for

several times the amount, so the practise was generally adhered to all

over the country.

Jabez Burns wrote in 1874:

It is preposterous to suppose that household roasting will be

continued long in any part of this country, if coffee properly

prepared can be had. This is demonstrated by the remarkable

advances made in Pittsburgh and other places, where only a few

years ago the sales were chiefly in green coffee. Now the amount

roasted in Pittsburgh alone by those who make a business of it,

exceeds the entire consumption of coffee of any kind in the United

States fifty years ago. It will never pay for small stores to roast

if the large manufactories will do the work well, and if they will

not, small dealers will add proper machinery, and will eventually

become strong competing dealers. By doing the work with proper care

they will not only secure a reputation with large sales for

themselves, but will command the roasting for other parties.

Until the Burns roaster appeared, coffee roasters were usually cylinders

that revolved upon an axis; the other devices that were tried were not

successful. Jabez Burns thus describes the first roaster he ever saw at

Hull, England:

It consisted of a furnace, open at the top, and a perforated

cylinder with a slide door. The axis, or shaft, of the cylinder had

bearings on a frame which passed outside the furnace, while the

cylinder went down into the fire pit, the top of which could be

covered over. In this position it could be turned by means of a

crank on the end of a shaft The only means of testing was by the

escape of the steam or aroma, whichever predominated, passing out

through the perforations at the top; but so expert was the operator

and so quick to detect the aroma, that he seldom had to return the

cylinder to the fire to produce a satisfactory roast. This man

roasted fifty pounds or less in a batch for a number of retail

stores.

Globes, consisting of two hemispheres, made of cast-iron and so

arranged that they opened to fill and discharge, but operated

substantially as above, only with the method of lowering into the

fire changed somewhat, I have seen in use in Scotland in 1840. They

were called French roasters.

In this country a few years ago the use of the long sheet-iron

cylinder was almost universal, varying only in the method of

placing the cylinder over the fire--some sideways on a track,

others endwise, sliding on a long shaft or by turning on a crane,

in either case causing considerable labor and loss of time, which

often resulted in the hands of the inexperienced in more or less

spoiling the batch of coffee.

From his expert knowledge of coffee and coffee-roasting problems, Jabez

Burns quickly rose to a commanding position in the industry. He was a

trade teacher and a trade builder. He had very definite ideas on

roasting. He said:

The object of roasting is not attained until all the moisture

(water of vegetation) is driven off. Roast properly--uniformly and

sufficiently--and you will get all the aroma there is in the bean.

Coffees of various kinds can not be roasted to a uniform color.

Some will be of a light shade when sufficiently roasted while

others will have to be roasted dark to develop the aroma.

Therefore, appearance alone is not a proper test. Aroma-saving

devices have had their day. Coffee is of no use unless the aroma is

fully developed, and the more it is developed by roasting the

better it is. What passes off in the roasting process can not be

saved and is so small that if all of it in the country could be

collected and freed of all foreign matter, it would not weigh an

ounce.

Roast coffee over a slow fire so that it will be an hour before it

has the color of roasted coffee, and, in contrast, produce in

another batch of like quantity the same color in thirty minutes,

and it will be found for all intended purposes, either to grind,

sell or drink, that the latter will be, beyond all comparison, the

best. Coffee should be roasted uniform and as quickly as possible,

only it must not be scorched or spotted, otherwise it will have a

bitter burned taste. If roasted properly it will very considerably

increase its bulk and will be plump, swelled out and crisp; easily

crushed in the hand or between the fingers.

In his _Spice Mill Companion_, published in 1879, Jabez Burns said

further in regard to roasting:

All coffees do not roast alike; some will be a bright light color

when done, and others will be dark before done. There are two

infallible rules, which if properly appreciated and tried will

prove to be practically useful. One is, when the aroma is

sufficiently developed to produce a sharp, cutting, but aromatic

sensation in the nose. Those who practice that way do not need to

see the roast. The other rule is that when a berry is broken it is

crisp and uniform in color inside and out. Those who are accustomed

to this method may be good coffee roasters, albeit they may not

have any nose at all. But we must state in this connection, that a

man who has no smell and is color blind is not a fit candidate for

the coffee roasting profession; and, moreover, we affirm that any

person who can not roast coffee, so far as judgment is concerned,

after a few trials, will never make a good operator.

[Illustration: BURNS GRANULATING MILL, 1872-74]

In 1867, Jabez Burns was granted a United States patent on an improved

coffee cooler, mixer, and grinding mill, or granulator. Another

granulator patent was issued to him in 1872. Mr. Burns had also given

the subject of cooling coffees considerable study, and his cooler was

the result. He argued that it was necessary to cool quickly. Before his

day, various methods had been employed, such as placing the coffee in

revolving drums covered with wire cloth. Sometimes a draft of cold air

was applied to the cooling drums, and the dirt and chaff blown through

the wire cloth. It was also customary in wholesale establishments to

blow cold air up through a perforated bottom, and this had been found

effective when properly applied. The Burns idea was to cool by means of

suction, causing a downward draft through the coffee and wire-cloth

bottomed box, which was found to be more uniform and efficient for

cooling purposes, as well as in controlling smoke, heat, and dust, which

by this means could be blown out of the roasting room by any convenient

outlet.

On the subject of grinding, likewise, Mr. Burns had reached some

definite conclusions. The French and English lap and wall mills, the

English steel mills, and the Swift mills were all used in the United

States. Troemner's, the Enterprise, and others--to be mentioned later in

chronological order--were extending their use in a retail way; but Jabez

Burns confined his attention to a practicable mill for wholesale

grinding establishments.

For manufacturing purposes, burstone mills were for many years

exclusively employed, especially one first known as the Prentiss & Page,

and later as the Page mill. There was a time when all the coffee

establishments in New York sent their coffee to Prentiss & Page to be

ground. Some of the places roasted by hand, others by horse power; and

if by steam, it was limited, and they did not have enough to spare for

grinding.

With the march of improvement, burstone mills went into the discard. The

difficulty lay in finding men experienced in stone dressing to run them;

and the demand grew for a better style of grinding than could be done in

a mill out of face and balance. This demand was met in an altogether

different style of machine, which for twenty-five years was well known

as the Barbor mill. It was for improvements on this mill that Jabez

Burns in 1867, 1872, and 1874 obtained his granulator patents.

The mill comprised cutters in the form of an iron roller running in near

contact with a concave, also of iron, and a revolving cylinder provided

with sieves, or screens, that received the ground material, rolled it

over the wire surface, sifting out the fine and discharging the coarse

automatically into the cutter, to be again manipulated until it was fine

enough to pass through the meshes of the screen.

Jabez Burns patented an improved form of his roaster in 1881, and a

sample-coffee roaster in 1883, before he died in 1888; and since that

time his sons, who continue the business, have perfected a number of

improvements and brought out new machines which will be referred to in

chronological order.

James H. Nason, of Franklin, Mass., was granted a United States patent

in 1865 on a percolator with fluid joints.

P.H. Vanderweyde, of Philadelphia, was granted United States patents in

1866 on a percolator and a continuous coffee-filtering machine.

Raparlier was granted a French patent on a pocket coffee-making device

in 1867. In later years, his invention became very popular among French

coffee drinkers. It was one of the early practicable forms of

double-glass-globe filtration devices.

E.B. Manning of Middletown, Conn., was granted his first patent on a tea

and coffee pot in 1868. Others followed in 1870 and 1876. In the latter

year, John Bowman brought out the valve-type percolator which

subsequently attained great favor in American households.

Thomas Smith & Son (Elkington & Company, Ltd., successors) began to

manufacture at Glasgow, Scotland, about 1870, the Napierian vacuum

coffee machine which had been invented in 1840--but never patented--by

Robert Napier of the celebrated firm of Clyde shipbuilders. This machine

makes coffee by distillation and filtration. It employs a metal globe,

and a brewer from which the coffee is syphoned over into the globe

through a tube, around the strainer-end of which, as it rests in the

coffee liquid in the brewer, there is tied a filter cloth. It is still

being manufactured by Elkington & Company.

[Illustration: NAPIER'S VACUUM MACHINE, 1840]

Thomas Page, a New York millwright, began the manufacture of a pull-out

coffee roaster similar to the old Carter machine, in 1868. Later, Chris

Abele, who was foreman in the Page shop, succeeded to the business; and

in 1882, he was granted a United States patent on an improvement on a

coffee roaster similar to the original Burns machine (the patent had

then expired) which he marketed under the name of Knickerbocker.

_German Coffee Machinery_

The Germans first began to show an active interest in coffee machinery

in 1860. In that year, Alexius Van Gulpen, of Emmerich, produced a

green-coffee grader; and later (1868), in partnership with J.H. Lensing

and Theodore von Gimborn, began the manufacture of coffee-roasting

machines. From this start there developed in Emmerich quite an industry

in coffee-machinery building. In 1870, Alexius Van Gulpen introduced to

the German trade a globular coffee roaster employing wood and coke as

fuel and having perforations and an exhauster. Van Gulpen and von

Gimborn are the two names most often met with in the development of

German coffee-roasting machinery.

The first recorded German patent on a coffee roaster was issued to G.

Tubermann's Son in 1877, for "a coffee burner with vertically adjusted

stirring works." German patents were issued in 1878 to R. Muhlberg, of

Taucha, for coffee roasters with movable partitions and "screw-shaped

declining walls." Six roaster patents were issued to other inventors in

1878-79.

Peter Pearson, of Manchester, took out a German patent on a

coffee-roasting apparatus in 1880. Fleury & Barker, of London, were

granted a coffee-roaster patent in Germany in 1881.

After 1870, Van Gulpen devoted himself to the cylinder type of roaster,

on which he obtained several patents. The partnership between Messrs.

Van Gulpen, Lensing and von Gimborn was dissolved in 1906. They were

succeeded by the Emmericher Maschinenfabrik und Eissengiesserei, and Van

Gulpen & Co. Van Gulpen died in 1920. Among his inventions were a

circular air fan to supply fresh air to the beans while roasting; a

fire-dampening device; roasting and cooling exhausters; and a

"withdrawable" mixer remaining inside the cylinder during the roasting

process, but designed to be withdrawn at the end, discharging the

contents with a jerk into a circular cooler. These improvements are

featured in Van Gulpen & Co.'s latest Meteor machine. They make also the

Typhoon and Comet machines, and a line of globular roasters.

A dozen coffee-roaster patents were issued in Germany in 1880-82. Among

them was one to the Emmerich Machine Factory and Iron Foundry, Van

Gulpen, Lensing & von Gimborn, Emmerich, in 1882.

[Illustration: GERMAN GAS AND COAL ROASTING MACHINES

Left, Perfekt gas roaster--Right, Probat coal roaster]

Numerous coffee-cooling, coffee-grinding, and coffee-making devices were

patented in Germany from 1877 to 1885; among them Newstadt's

coffee-extract machine in 1882, safety attachments, rapid filters,

Vienna coffee makers, etc. The first Vienna coffee maker seems to have

been patented in Germany in 1879.

The Emmerich Machine Factory and Iron Foundry acquired certain Danish

and Austrian coffee-roaster patents in 1881, and in 1892 it was granted

a German patent on a ball roaster. In the eighties this concern began

the manufacture of a closed ball, or globular, roaster with gas-heater

attachment. It acquired, in 1889, the rights for Germany to manufacture

gas roasters under the Dutch Henneman patents of 1888. In 1892, Theodore

von Gimborn was granted French and English patents on a coffee roaster

employing a naked gas flame in a rotary cylinder. In 1897, the

Emmericher concern was granted a German patent on an automatic circular

tipping cooler with power drive. Today, this factory features the Probat

and Perfekt roasters, but manufactures a general line of cylinder and

ball machines for coal, coke, and gas.

Among others engaged in the manufacture of coffee machines in Germany

are G. W. Barth, Ludwigsburg, and Ferd. Gothot, Mulheim on Rhur. The

latter manufactures a coke or gas heated quick-roaster known as the

Ideal-Rapid, and a smaller hand-power machine, of the same type, called

Favour.

[Illustration: OTHER GERMAN COFFEE ROASTERS

Left, globular machine--Right, Meteor quick-roasting outfit]

_American, French, and British Machines_

In 1869, Élie Moneuse and L. Duparquet, of New York, were granted three

United States patents on a coffee pot or urn made of sheet copper and

lined with pure sheet block tin. These patents were the foundation of

the successful coffee-urn business afterward built up under the name of

the Duparquet, Huot & Moneuse Co.

Thomas Smith & Son (Elkington & Co., Ltd., successors) began, in 1870,

the manufacture of the Napierian coffee-making machine at Glasgow,

Scotland. This was a device for making coffee by distillation, employing

a metal globe syphon and brewer with filter cloth. The principle was

subsequently used in the Napier-List steam coffee machine for ships and

institutions, patented in England in 1891.

John Gulick Baker, of Philadelphia, one of the founders of the

Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania, was granted a United

States patent in 1870, on a coffee grinder introduced to the trade as

the Enterprise Champion No. 1 store mill. Another Baker patent was

granted in 1873, and this became known as the Enterprise Champion Globe

No. 0. These mills were the pioneer machines for store use.

In 1870, Delphine, Sr., of Marourme, France, was granted a French patent

on a tubular coffee roaster which turned over a flame.

In the sixties and seventies, French inventors became quite active on

coffee-roaster improvements. Many patents were granted, and quite a few

were for practical small-capacity machines that have survived, and are

in use today in France and on the continent. Some supplied inspiration

for inventors in neighboring countries. Among the more notable names,

mention should be made of Martin, of St. Quentin, who produced a

sheet-iron cylinder roaster with "interior gatherer" in 1860; Marchand,

of Paris, "fan roaster with movable fire box," 1866 and 1869; Lauzaune,

Paris, "rocking system of roasting coffee in a round stove," 1873;

Ittel's glass sphere, Lyons, 1874; and Marchand and Hignette, Paris,

1877, a ball coffee roaster.

_Evolution of the Gas Roaster_

According to the patent records, Roure, of Marseilles, appears to have

produced the original gas coffee roaster in 1877. The evolution of the

gas roasting-machine was as follows:

In 1879, H. Faulder, of Stockport, England, obtained an English patent

on an external air-blast burner applied to a cylinder gas machine, which

is still being manufactured by the Grocers Engineering and Whitmee,

Ltd., of London. Fleury and Barker, of London, followed with another

English gas machine in 1880, the heat being supplied from gas jets over

the roasting cylinder. In 1881, Peter Pearson, of Manchester, produced a

gas roaster which consisted of a wire-gauze cylinder revolving under a

metal plate heated by gas.

[Illustration: ORIGINAL ENTERPRISE MILL]

Beeston Tupholme, of London, was granted an English patent in 1887, on a

direct-flame gas roaster which he assigned to Joseph Baker & Sons.

Karel F. Henneman, the Hague, Netherlands, took out his first patent on

the Henneman direct-flame gas roaster in Spain in 1888; and the

following year, he obtained patents in Belgium, France, and England. His

United States patents were granted in 1893-95.

Postulart secured a patent in France for a gas coffee roaster in 1888.

The Germans also began, in the eighties, to take the quick gas coffee

roaster seriously. In 1889, Carl Alexander Otto, of Dresden, secured a

German patent on a spiral tubular machine to roast coffee in three and a

half minutes. It was first manufactured and sold by Max Thurmer, of

Dresden, in 1891-93.

[Illustration: MAX THURMER'S QUICK GAS ROASTER]

[Illustration: LOADING COFFEE ON ZAMBOEKS AT HODEIDA

These boats then transfer their cargoes to steamships lying in the

roads]

[Illustration: PICTURESQUE CAMEL AND BULLOCK CARTS

Used for local coffee transport in Aden and Hodeida]

[Illustration: PRIMITIVE TRANSPORTATION METHODS IN ARABIA]

The subject of quick roasting has greatly agitated German and French

coffee men. Otto found that coffee roasted in small quantities (say

fifty grams) on a sample-roaster produced a finer flavor and aroma than

that roasted in the big machines. He set out to produce a machine that

would roast continuous small quantities in the shortest time. He built

the first commercial machine under his patent in 1893. It was shown at

the International Food Exhibition in Dresden in 1894. The latest type

manufactured by Max Thurmer, Dresden, in which firm Otto is a partner,

has a spiral five meters long and an hourly production of about 450

pounds. The Thurmer machine, as it is called, has been sold to the trade

since 1914.

Quick roasting is gone in for quite extensively in Germany, even in the

big trade-roasting plants, where machines to roast in ten to seventeen

minutes are common. Natural, slow cooling is most necessary with quick

roasting, according to Thurmer. On the other hand, A. Mottant, of Paris,

who also manufactures a line of quick gas-roasting machines, called

Magic, argues that quick cooling is essential after quick roasting.

Three of the Mottant machines are illustrated on pages 642 and 644.

Other quick-roasting machines of German make are the Combinator,

Tornado, and Rekord.

In a lecture before the Society of Medical Officers of Health, London,

October 24, 1912, William Lawton demonstrated to the satisfaction of his

audience that coffee could be roasted in 3 minutes, using a perforated

gas-roaster of his own invention.[365]

The first direct-flame gas coffee roaster in America was installed in

the plant of the Potter-Parlin Co., New York, by F.T. Holmes, in 1893.

This was Tupholme's machine, patented in England in 1887, and in the

United States in 1896-97. The Potter-Parlin Co. subsequently placed the

Tupholme machines throughout the United States on a daily rental basis,

limiting its leases to one firm in a city, having obtained the exclusive

American rights from the Waygood, Tupholme Co., now the Grocers

Engineering and Whitmee, Ltd.

[Illustration: AN ENGLISH GAS COFFEE-ROASTING PLANT

The machines are the Morewood (Improved Faulder) sliding-burner indirect

type]

Natural gas was first used in the United States as fuel for roasting

coffee in 1896, when it was introduced under coal roasting cylinders in

Pennsylvania and Indiana by improvised gas burners.

[Illustration: FRENCH GLOBULAR ROASTER]

Edwin Crawley and W.T. Johnston, Newport, Ky., assignors to the

Potter-Parlin Co., New York, were granted four United States patents on

gas coffee-roasting machines.

In 1897, a special gas burner, not to be confused with the direct-flame

machine, was first attached to a regular Burns roaster in the United

States, and was made the basis of application for a patent.

In 1897-99, David B. Fraser, of New York, began to market in the United

States a central-heated gas-fuel machine with an inner wire-cloth

cylinder to keep the coffee from dropping into the flame, developed

under United States patents granted to Carl H. Duehring, of Hoboken, in

1897, and to D.B. Fraser in 1899.

M.F. Hamsley, of Brooklyn, was granted a United States patent on an

improved direct-flame gas roaster in 1898.

Ellis M. Potter, New York, was granted in 1899, a United States patent

on an improved direct-flame gas roaster in which the flame was spread

over a large area to avoid scorching and to insure a more thorough and

uniform roast. In the Tupholme machine, the gas flame entered at one

end, and the smoke and flame went out through a stack on top. In the

Potter machine, the stack was put on the end opposite the gas intake,

with a fan to pull the flame all the way through.

The Burns direct-flame gas roaster, with patented swing-gate head for

feeding and discharging, was introduced to the trade in 1900. The Burns

gas sample-roaster followed.

In 1901, Joseph Lambert, of Marshall, Mich., introduced to the trade one

of the earliest indirect gas roasting machines.

In 1901, also, T.C. Morewood, of Brentford, England, was granted an

English patent on a gas roaster fitted with a sliding burner and a

removable sampling tube. This machine is now being made by the Grocers

Engineering and Whitmee, Ltd.

In the same year, 1901, F.T. Holmes, formerly with the Potter-Parlin

Co., joined the Huntley Manufacturing Co., Silver Creek, N.Y., which

then began to build the Monitor direct-flame gas coffee roaster. Mr.

Holmes still further improved the Tupholme idea by putting gas burners

in both ends of the roasting cylinder, with the pipes bent down so as to

cause the gas flame to go first to the bottom and then up to the stack

on top. This improvement was never patented.

[Illustration: SIROCCO MACHINE (FRENCH)]

The Henneman direct-flame gas roaster was introduced to the United

States trade in 1905, by C.A. Cross & Co., wholesale grocers, of

Fitchburg, Mass. It was marketed here seven years, but was never a

great success.

[Illustration: ENGLISH ROASTING AND GRINDING EQUIPMENT

Showing one 168-pound Simplex gas roaster, with a Rapid disk grinding

machine having a capacity of 300 to 400 pounds per hour]

In 1906, F.T. Holmes was granted a United States patent on a coffee

roaster which he assigned to the Huntley Manufacturing Co.

J.C. Prims, of Battle Creek, Mich., was granted a United States patent

in 1908, on a corrugated cylinder improvement for a gas and coal roaster

designed for retail stores. The A.J. Deer Co., Hornell, N.Y., acquired

this machine in 1909, and began to market it as the Royal coffee

roaster. An improvement patented in 1915 by J.C. Prims was assigned to

the A.J. Deer Co.

In 1915, and again in 1919, Jabez Burns & Sons, New York, patented their

Jubilee roaster, an inner-heated machine in which the gas is burned

inside a revolving cylinder in a combustion chamber protected from

direct coffee contact. The heat is deflected downward and then passes

upward through the coffee.

In 1919, William Fullard (_d._ 1921), of Philadelphia, was granted a

United States patent on a "heated fresh air system" roaster, in which

the fresh air is forced by an electric fan through a pipe to a set of

coils over gas, coal, or oil flame. At the top of the coils is a

manifold, the hot air being forced through small holes to circulate in

and around a regulation perforated roasting cylinder; the vapors and

spent air are then drawn into an overhead exhaust pipe that connects

with a pipe provided with a fresh-air intake, the idea being to return

them to the roasting cylinder after being mixed with fresh air and

heated in the coils as before. This patent has not been successfully

marketed at the time of writing. The purpose is to roast by heated air

not mixed with any furnace gases. Whether this can be done with

sufficient fuel economy, and whether coffee thus roasted would have any

greater value, are questions that are raised by the coffee experts.

_Coffee-Grinding and Coffee-Making Chronology_

To return to our coffee-grinding and coffee-making chronology, it is to

be noted that in 1875-76-78, Turner Strowbridge, of New Brighton, Pa.,

was granted three United States patents on a box coffee mill, first made

by Logan & Strowbridge, later the Logan & Strowbridge Iron Company, the

latter being succeeded by the Wrightsville Hardware Co. in 1906.

[Illustration: MAGIC GAS MACHINE (FRENCH)]

In 1878, a United States patent was issued to Rudolphus L. Webb,

assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain, Conn., on an improved

box coffee grinder for home use.

In 1878, and in 1880, United States patents were issued to John C. Dell

of Philadelphia on a store coffee mill.

In 1879, and in 1880, United States patents were issued to Orson W.

Stowe, of the Peck, Stowe & Wilcox Co., Southington, Conn., on a

household coffee mill.

In 1879, Charles Halstead, of New York, was granted the first United

States patent on a metal coffee pot having a china interior. It was an

infuser for home use.

In 1880, coffee pots, with tops having muslin bottoms for clarifying and

straining, were first made in the United States by the Duparquet, Huot &

Moneuse Co., of New York.

The name Hungerford first appears in the United States patent records in

1880-81, in connection with patents granted to G.W. and G.S. Hungerford

on machines for cleaning, scouring, and polishing coffee. In 1882, the

Hungerfords, father and son, brought out a roaster. This machine and the

one patented by Chris Abele, of New York, already referred to, were

constructions resulting from the expiration of the original Burns patent

of 1864. In 1881, Jabez Burns patented the improved Burns roaster,

comprising a turn-over front head serving for both feeding and

discharging. Additional United States coffee-roaster patents were issued

to G.W. Hungerford in 1887-89. In the latter year, David Fraser, who

came to the United States from Glasgow in 1886, established the

Hungerford Co., succeeding the business of the Hungerfords, and later

being granted certain United States patents, already mentioned. In 1910,

the Hungerford Co. business was discontinued in New York; and David B.

Fraser moved to Jersey City, where he continued to operate as the Fraser

Manufacturing Co. This business was discontinued in 1918.

Chris Abele was an active competitor of the Hungerfords and of the

Fraser Manufacturing Co.; and his Knickerbocker roaster was sold over a

wide territory. He died in 1910; and his son-in-law, Gottfried Bay,

succeeded to the business.

[Illustration: BURNS JUBILEE GAS MACHINE]

In 1881, the Morgan Brothers, Edgar H. and Charles, began the

manufacture of household coffee mills, the business being acquired in

1885 by the Arcade Manufacturing Co., of Freeport, Ill. The latter

concern brought out the first pound coffee mill in 1889. Its mills

became very popular in the United States. In 1900, Charles Morgan was

granted a United States patent on a glass-jar coffee mill, with

removable glass measuring cup.

[Illustration: DOUBLE AROMATIC GAS ROASTING OUTFIT (FRENCH)]

In 1881, Harvey Ricker, of Brooklyn, later of Minneapolis, introduced to

the trade in the United States a "minute coffee pot" and urn known as

the Boss, the name being subsequently changed to Minute. He improved and

patented the device in 1901 as the Half-Minute coffee pot. It is a

filtration device employing a cotton sack with a thickened bottom.

In 1882, Chris Abele, of New York, patented an improvement on the

old-style Burns roaster, with openings cut in the front plate. It was

known as the Knickerbocker. As already noted, the machine was a

competitor of the Hungerford machine patented the same year.

In 1882, a German patent was granted to Emil Newstadt, of Berlin, on one

of the earliest coffee-extract machines.

In 1883, Jabez Burns was granted a United States patent on his improved

sample-coffee roaster.

In 1884, the Star coffee pot, later known as the Marion Harland, was

introduced to the trade. It employed a wire-gauze drip device, called a

"filter," which was fitted to a metal pot. It was extensively advertised

and attained considerable popularity. The same year, Finley Acker, of

Philadelphia, brought out an improved coffee pot for family trade.

Later, he produced his Mo-Kof-Fee pot and an individual porcelain drip

pot for testing-table use.

In 1885, F.A. Cauchois, New York, brought out an improved

porcelain-lined urn.

In 1887-88, the Etruscan coffee pot was invented and put on the market

by the Etruscan Coffee Pot Co., of Philadelphia. It employed a muslin

cylinder with metal ends and a mechanism for combining "agitation,

distillation and infusion." It was not unlike the Dakin device of 1848,

previously mentioned.

In 1890, A. Mottant, Bar-le-Duc, France, began to manufacture a line of

coffee-roasting machinery which included vertical ball-and-cylinder

machines, using wood, coal, coke, or gas for fuel. His best known makes

are Magic and Sirocco (see page 642).

Before 1895, the commercial roaster was little used in France. Since

then, the industry has developed, but without displacing the smaller

roaster for family use. Ball roasters are popular with shop-keepers,

especially the variety manufactured by the Établissements Lauzaune at

Paris, and known as Aromatic, being equipped with electric motors. This

firm builds also a larger machine known as Moderne.

Other makes of roasters that have attained prominence in France are the

Lambert, equipped with a steam condenser; Van den Brouck's, having the

roasting cylinder lined with wire gauze; and Resson's machine for

wholesale plants.

The French led off with glass-cylinder roasters for home use in the

early seventies. They are still popular. One of the developments of the

last decade was known as the Bijou, and was operated by clock work. A

similar automatic machine, made of glass, was manufactured and sold in

New York in 1908 under the name of the Home roaster. As late as 1914, an

American inventor produced a home roaster for use in a stove hole. This

device had a stirrer in the cover to be rotated by hand. A similar

device was sold in 1917 under the name Savo. Home roasting, however, has

become a lost art in America.

[Illustration: LAMBERT'S VICTORY GAS MACHINE]

In 1897, Joseph Lambert, of Vermont, began the manufacture and sale in

Battle Creek, Mich., of the Lambert self-contained coffee roaster

without the brick setting then required for coffee-roasting machines. In

1900, he was joined by A.P. Grohens. In 1901, the Lambert Food and

Machinery Co. was organized. In 1904, the company was reorganized. Since

then, many improvements have been made under Mr. Grohens' direction. The

Lambert gas roaster, one of the first machines employing gas as fuel for

indirect roasting, dates back to 1901, as previously mentioned. The

Economic roaster is Mr. Grohens' latest development for coal or coke

fuel. It is a compact self-contained equipment operating in connection

with a new-type rotary cooler. He has also recently (1922) brought out a

gas-fired, electrically operated 600-pound Victory roaster and a

fifty-pound miniature coffee-roasting plant designed for retail stores.

In 1897, the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania was the first

regularly to employ electric motors for driving commercial coffee mills

by means of belt-and-pulley attachments.

In 1898, the Hobart Manufacturing Co., of Troy, Ohio, introduced to the

trade another early coffee grinder connected with an electric motor and

driven by belt-and-pulley attachment.

In 1900, the first gear-driven electric coffee grinder was put on the

market by the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania.

In 1902, the Coles Manufacturing Co., (Braun Co., successor) and Henry

Troemner, of Philadelphia, began the manufacture and sale of gear-driven

electric coffee grinders.

In 1905, the A.J. Deer Co., Buffalo, N.Y., (now at Hornell, N.Y.) began

to sell its Royal electric coffee mills direct to dealers on the

instalment plan, revolutionizing the former practise of selling coffee

mills through hardware jobbers.

In 1905, H.L. Johnston was granted a United States patent on a coffee

mill. He assigned the patent to the Hobart Manufacturing Co.

In 1900, Charles Lewis was granted a United States patent on an improved

reversible filtration coffee pot known as the Kin-Hee. This pot has

since been further improved, and the patent rights sold in several

foreign countries. It employs a filter cloth in place of the metal or

china strainer used in the French drip pot.

In 1901, Landers, Frary & Clark's improved Universal percolator was

patented in the United States. This pot has proved to be one of the most

popular percolators on the American market. This firm brought out the

Universal Cafenoira, a double glass filtration device, in 1916. It is

covered by design and structural patents issued in 1916 and 1917.

In 1900, the Burns swing-gate sample-roasting outfit was patented in the

United States.

In 1901, Robert Burns, of New York, was granted two United States

patents on a coffee roaster and cooler.

In 1901, Freidrich Kuchelmeister, Brux, Austria-Hungary, was granted a

United States patent on a coffee roaster having a double-walled drum,

the inner being of wire gauze, and the outer of solid iron, designed to

prevent scorching of the beans.

In 1902, W.M. Still & Sons, London, were granted an English patent on a

steam coffee-making machine employing twelve ounces of coffee to the

gallon.

In 1902, T.K. Baker, of Minneapolis, was granted two United States

patents on a cloth-filter coffee-making device.

In 1903, A.E. Bronson, Jr., assignor to the Bronson-Walton Company,

Cleveland, Ohio, was granted a United States patent on a coffee mill.

In 1903, John Arbuckle was granted a United States patent on a

coffee-roasting apparatus employing a fan to force the hot fire gases

into the roasting cylinder. From this was developed the Jumbo roaster,

now used in the Arbuckle plant, which roasts ten thousand pounds an

hour.

_Electric Coffee-Roasting_

In 1903, George C. Lester, of New York, was granted a United States

patent on an electric coffee roaster, that is, a machine to roast by

electric heat. There were two cylinders, the inner being of wire gauze,

and the outer of copper and asbestos. Between the two, four electric

heaters were placed.

There was demonstrated in Germany, in 1906, an electric coffee roaster

employing a number of resistance coils, consisting of strips of Krupp

metal two and one-half mm. thick, five mm. broad, and thirteen and

one-half mm. long, wound on porcelain tubes, which transmitted the heat

to the air within the roasting cylinder. Analysis showed that coffee

electrically roasted contained more substances soluble in water than

that roasted by coke, as well as considerably more material soluble in

ether. This machine was invented by Captain Carl Moegling about 1900.

[Illustration: ONE OF THE FIRST ELECTRIC COFFEE MILLS]

Another electric-fuel-machine patent was granted in the United States to

Robert H. Talbutt, of Baltimore, in 1911. This machine had the electric

heater in the center of the roasting cylinder. An electrically heated

machine called the Ben Franklin was demonstrated in New York in 1918.

In 1919, Everett T. Shortt, Dallas, Tex., was granted a United States

patent on an electrical roaster.

Up to the present writing, no great progress has been made in the United

States with the roasting of coffee by electric heat.

The Phoenix Electrical Heating Co. manufactured, and the Uno Company,

Ltd., of London, marketed an electrically heated roaster as far back as

1909. The machine was not altogether satisfactory, even to the makers;

and the Uno Company is now (1922) experimenting with a new type of

electric roaster which it expects will remedy the defects of the early

machine. The 1909 roaster was made of two concentric cylinders revolving

around a set of fixed heating elements, consisting of a series of

spiral wires held in position on fireproof clay insulators, these wires

being assembled, insulated, and brought out through the fixed center to

a terminal, or a set of terminals, at one end. In this way, no contact

brushes or rings were needed. The machine had a sampling device at one

end which threw out a few berries each time it was operated. It was not

possible to return these sample berries. Such an arrangement appeared

necessary, however, unless one was prepared to have the heating element

on the outside of the machine and to pick up the current by means of

rings or brushes. When the operator became accustomed to the coffee he

was roasting, this was not a matter of great moment, because in England,

at least, the average coffee roaster does not require a testing sample

until he is about ready to turn out and to cool the roast.

[Illustration: ENGLISH ELECTRIC-FUEL ROASTER]

The Uno machine had a capacity of seven pounds, and the time occupied in

roasting was from eight to ten minutes, depending on whether the roaster

had been freshly switched on or had been running for a few minutes. The

wattage was 5,520. The consumption per hundred-weight was under thirteen

units. The makers gave, as the most economical pressure on which to

work, 220 to 240 volts. The machine was operated for eighteen months in

the show window of a London retail grocer.

In 1921, a United States patent was granted to Mark T. Seymour, Stowe,

N.Y., on an electric coffee and peanut roaster, which has the heating

element embedded in a cement-lined cylinder that contains a roasting

cage.

In 1921, Fred J. Kuhlemeir and Ralph J. Quelle, of Burlington, Ia., were

granted a United States patent on a small household coffee roaster

electrically equipped, and roasting by electric heat.

_Other Machinery Patents_

In 1903, Luigi Giacomini, of Florence, Italy, was granted a United

States patent on a process for roasting coffee.

[Illustration: BEN FRANKLIN ELECTRIC COFFEE ROASTER]

In 1905, A.A. Warner, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain,

Conn., was granted two United States patents on a coffee mill.

In 1906, Ludwig Schmidt, assignor to the Essmueller Mill Furnishing

Co., St. Louis, was granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster.

This company and the Reuter-Jones Manufacturing Co., also of St. Louis,

were making machines similar to the original Burns model. The

Reuter-Jones Manufacturing Co., in 1910, brought out a self-contained

gas roaster called the St. Louis, Jr. In 1913, at a receiver's sale,

A.P. Grohens, of the Lambert Machine Co., acquired all the machinery and

patent rights of the Reuter-Jones Manufacturing Company.

In 1904, J.W. Chapman and G.W. Kooman, assignors to Manning, Bowman &

Co., Meriden, Conn., were granted a United States patent on a coffee or

tea pot. The same year, George E. Savage and G.W. Hope were granted two

United States patents on coffee or tea pots, also assigned to Manning,

Bowman & Co.

In 1904, Sigmund Sternau, J.P. Steppe, and L. Strassberger, assignors to

S. Sternau & Co., New York, were granted a United States patent on a

percolator. Six others were granted to Charles Nelson, and assigned to

S. Sternau & Co., in 1912 and 1913, for a percolator, the manufacture

and sale of which were discontinued in 1915.

In 1905, a celebrated case was decided in Kansas City involving

litigation between William E. Baker, of Baker & Co., Minneapolis, and

the F.A. Duncombe Manufacturing Co., of St. Joseph, Mo., over Mr.

Baker's patent rights in a machine to produce steel-cut coffee. The suit

was brought in 1903, and Mr. Baker contended that his patent gave him

the exclusive right to the "uniformity of granules by means of the

sharply dressed mechanism" and by the use of a fan for blowing away the

silver skins, produced by his machine; while the defendant said he

obtained the same result (steel-cut coffee) by grading the granules

through screens or sieves. The defense was that Mr. Baker's process was

not a discovery; because, grinding coffee was as old as the world's

knowledge, and winnowing the chaff was equally ancient. The lower court

dismissed the bill, because the "patents sued upon are devoid of

patentable invention"; and the United States Court of Appeals confirmed

the decision.

[Illustration: ENTERPRISE HAND STORE MILL]

In 1905, Frederick A. Cauchois, of New York, brought out his Private

Estate coffee maker, a clever combination of the French drip and filter

processes, employing a thin layer of Japanese paper as a filtering

agent. The same year, Finley Acker, of Philadelphia, was granted a

United States patent on a percolator employing two cylinders, perforated

on the sides, with a sheet of percolator paper placed between them to

act as a filtering medium.

In 1906, George Savage and J.W. Chapman, assignors to Manning, Bowman &

Co. of Meriden, Conn., were granted a United States patent on a coffee

percolator.

In 1906, Alonzo A. Warner, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New

Britain, Conn., was granted a United States patent on a coffee

percolator.

In 1906, H.D. Kelly, Kansas City, was granted a United States patent on

the Kellum Automatic coffee urn, employing a coffee extractor in which

ground coffee is continually agitated before percolation by a vacuum

process. Sixteen patents followed.

[Illustration: LATEST TYPES OF ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN STORE MILLS]

In 1907, Desiderio Pavoni, of Milan, Italy, was granted a patent in

Italy for an improvement on the Bezzara system for preparing and serving

coffee as a rapid infusion of a single cup, first introduced in

1903-1904. It is known as the Ideale urn, and makes 150 cups per hour.

Among other Italian rapid coffee-making machines which, with this one,

have attained considerable prominence in Europe and South America,

mention should be made of La Victoria Arduino made by Pier Teresio

Arduino, of Turin, Italy, introduced in 1909, that makes 1000 cups per

hour. It was patented in the United States in 1920. There are, also,

L'Italiana Sovereign Filter Machine (1440 cups per hour) made by Bossi,

Vernetti & Bartolini, Turin, (subsequently merged with La Victoria

Arduino-Societa Anonima); and José Baro's Express, Buenos Aires, making

600 cups an hour.

[Illustration: THE IDEALE MACHINE (CENTER) MAKES 150 CUPS OF COFFEE AN

HOUR. THE MACHINE AT THE LEFT MAKES 1,000 CUPS AN HOUR

A MACHINE OF THE TYPE OF THE ONE AT THE RIGHT WILL PRODUCE FROM 1,440 TO

1,800 CUPS OF COFFEE AN HOUR

TYPES OF ITALIAN RAPID COFFEE-MAKING MACHINES]

In 1908, A.E. White, Chicago, was granted a United States patent on a

coffee urn. He assigned it to the James Heekin Co., of Cincinnati.

In 1908, I.D. Richheimer, Chicago, introduced his Tricolator to the

trade and the consumer. This is an aluminum device to fit any coffee

pot, combining French drip and filtration ideas, with Japanese paper as

the filtration medium.

In 1908, an improved type of Burns roaster was patented in the United

States. The improvement consisted of an open perforated cylinder with

flexible back-head and balanced front bearing. The following year, the

Burns tilting sample-roaster for gas or electric heating units was

patented.

In 1909, Frederick A. Cauchois, of New York, was granted a United States

patent on a coffee urn fitted with a centrifugal pump for repouring.

In 1909, C.F. Blanke, of St. Louis, was granted two United States

patents on a china coffee pot with a cloth filter, the sides tightly,

and the bottom loosely, woven.

In 1911, Edward Aborn, of New York, was granted a United States patent

on his Make-Right coffee-filter device. This was later incorporated with

improvements in a Tru-Bru coffee pot, on which he was granted another

patent in 1920.

In 1912, John E. King, of Detroit, was granted a United States patent on

an improved coffee percolator for restaurants, employing a sheet of

filter paper on a ring in a metal basket; the ring to be removed once

the filter paper was in position on the perforated bottom plate of the

percolator basket.

In 1913, F.F. Wear, Los Angeles, perfected a coffee-making device in

which a metal perforated clamp was employed to apply a filter paper to

the under-side of an English earthenware adaptation of the French drip

pot.

In 1912, William Lawton demonstrated in London a gas coffee roaster of

his own invention, by means of which he roasted coffee "in suspension"

to a light brown color in three minutes.

[Illustration: SHOWING HOW THE ITALIAN RAPID COFFEE MACHINE WORKS

Left, putting coffee in the filter--Center, applying filter to

faucet--Right, turning on water and steam to make the drink]

Herbert L. Johnston, assignor to the Hobart Electric Manufacturing Co.,

Troy, Ohio, was granted a United States patent on a machine for refining

coffee in 1913.

In 1914, the Phylax coffee maker, embodying an improvement on the French

drip principle, was introduced to the trade. The process was

demonstrated by Benjamin H. Calkin, of Detroit, in 1921, as "an art of

brewing coffee."

[Illustration: LA VICTORIA ARDUINO MIGNONNE

An electric rapid coffee maker]

In 1914, Robert Burns, assignor to Jabez Burns & Sons, New York, was

granted a United States patent on a coffee-granulating mill.

In 1914-15, Herbert Galt, of Chicago, was granted three United States

patents on the Gait coffee pot, made of aluminum, and having two parts,

a removable cylinder employing the French drip principle, and the

containing pot.

In 1915, the Burns Jubilee (inner-heated) gas coffee roaster was

patented in the United States and put on the market.

In 1915, the National Coffee Roasters Association Home coffee mill,

employing an improved set screw operating on a cog-and ratchet

principle, was introduced to the trade.

In 1916, a United States patent was granted to I.D. Richheimer, Chicago,

for an infuser improvement on his Tricolator.

In 1916, Saul Blickman, assignor to S. Blickman, New York, was granted a

United States patent on an apparatus for making and dispensing coffee.

In 1916, Orville W. Chamberlain, New Orleans, was granted a United

States patent on an automatic drip coffee pot.

In 1916, Jules Le Page, Darlington, Ind., obtained two United States

patents on cutting rolls to cut--and not to grind or crush--corn, wheat,

or coffee. These were subsequently incorporated in the Ideal steel-cut

coffee mill and marketed to the trade by the B.F. Gump Co., Chicago.

In 1917, Richard A. Greene and William G. Burns, assignors to Jabez

Burns & Sons, New York, were granted patents in the United States on

the Burns flexible-arm cooler (for roasted batches) providing full

fan-suction to a cooler box at all points in its track travel.

In 1919, Joseph F. Smart, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New

Britain, Conn., was granted a United States patent on a percolator.

In 1919, Charles Morgan, assignor to the Arcade Manufacturing Co.,

Freeport, Ill., was granted a United States patent on an improved

grinding mill.

In 1919, Edward F. Schnuck, assignor to Jabez Burns & Sons, New York,

was granted a United States patent on an improvement for a gas coffee

roaster. In 1920, he was granted a United States patent on an improved

process of twice cutting coffee and removing the chaff after each

cutting.

In 1920, Natale de Mattei, of Turin, Italy, was granted a United States

patent on a rapid coffee-filtering machine.

In 1920, Frederick H. Muller, of Chicago, was granted a United States

patent on "an art of making coffee," and on an improved apparatus for

hotels and restaurants, which comprised a series of superposed metal

containers, or cartridges, of ground coffee placed in a perforated

bucket designed to rest in a coffee urn, the cartridges being lifted out

as the boiling water poured on them sinks with the drawing off of the

"decoction" at the faucet.

[Illustration: THE N.C.R.A. HOME COFFEE MILL]

[Illustration: THE MANTHEY-ZORN RAPID COFFEE INFUSER AND DISPENSER]

In 1920, Alfredo M. Salazar, of New York, was granted a United States

patent on a coffee urn in which the coffee is made at the time of

serving by using steam pressure to force the boiling water through

ground coffee held in a cloth sack attached to the faucet.

In 1920, William H. Bruning, Evansville, Ind., was granted a United

States patent on an improved French drip pot made of aluminum and

provided with a vacuum jacket in the dripper section, and a hot-water

jacket in the serving portion, to keep the beverage hot.

In 1921, the Manthey-Zorn Laboratories Co., of Cleveland, brought out a

rapid coffee-infuser and dispenser employing in the infuser a

centrifugal to make an extract in thirty-eight seconds, and designed to

deliver a gallon of concentrated liquid, or coffee base, every three

minutes. The dispenser automatically combines the coffee base with

boiling water in a differential faucet in the proportion desired,

usually one of base to four of water. The dispenser serves 600 cups per

hour. An additional faucet may be added which will double the capacity.

[Illustration: THE TRICOLETTE, A PAPER-FILTER DEVICE FOR A SINGLE CUP

Above; In position on cup--Below; opened, showing parts]

Among foreign coffee makers applying the French drip principle, the

Vienna coffee-making machine, known in the United States as the Bohemian

coffee pot, has met with much favor in this country. Elsewhere it is

known as the Carlsbad. It is made of china, and the European

manufacturer has a patent on the porcelain strainer, or grid, which is

provided with slits that are very fine on the inner side but that widen

on the outer side to permit careful straining and to facilitate

cleaning.

Some of the latest developments in coffee apparatus were shown at the

industrial exposition at the National Coffee Roasters Association, held

in New York, November 1-3, 1921. Among items of distinction not

heretofore included in this work, mention should be made of: an

American-French coffee biggin, being a French drip pot made of American

porcelain and fitted with a muslin strainer; a glass urn-liner, intended

to supplant the porcelain liner; and an electric repouring pump,

designed to be attached to any type of coffee urn.

Careful research of the records of the United States patent office

discloses that the number of patents relating to coffee apparatus and

coffee preparations, issued from 1789 to 1921, is as follows:

UNITED STATES COFFEE PATENTS

_Devices_ _Patents_

Coffee Mills 185

Coffee-roasting devices, and improvements thereon 312

Coffee-making devices 835

Coffee-cleaning, hulling, drying, polishing,

and plantation machinery in general 175

Miscellaneous patents (for coating, glazing, treated

coffees, substitutes, etc.) 300

________

Total 1,807

It must be borne in mind that there was a number of patents granted on

machines that were intended for, and used for, coffee, but that did not

mention coffee in the specifications. Many coffee driers were listed as

"grain driers," for instance. Also, many excellent devices have been

made that were never patented.

[Illustration]

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_

Coffee manners and customs have shown little change in the Orient in the

six hundred-odd years since the coffee drink was discovered by Sheik

Omar in Arabia. As a beverage for western peoples, however, and more

particularly in America, there have been many improvements in making and

serving it.

A brief survey of the coffee conventions and coffee service in the

principal countries where coffee has become a fixed item in the dietary

is presented here, with a view to show how different peoples have

adapted the universal drink to their national needs and preferences.

To proceed in alphabetical order, and beginning with Africa, coffee

drinking is indulged in largely in Abyssinia, Algeria, Egypt, Portuguese

East Africa, and the Union of South Africa.

_Coffee Manners and Customs in Africa_

In Abyssinia and Somaliland, among the native population, the most

primitive methods of coffee making still obtain. Here the wandering

Galla still mix their pulverized coffee beans with fats as a food

ration, and others of the native tribes favor the _kisher_, or beverage

made from the toasted coffee hulls. An hour's boiling produces a

straw-colored decoction, of a slightly sweetish taste. Where the Arabian

customs have taken root, the drink is prepared from the roasted beans

after the Arabian and Turkish method. The white inhabitants usually

prepare and serve the beverage as in the homeland; so that it is

possible to obtain it after the English, French, German, Greek, or

Italian styles. Adaptations of the French sidewalk café, and of the

Turkish coffee house, may be seen in the larger towns.

In the equatorial provinces of Egypt, and in Uganda, the natives eat the

raw berries; or first cook them in boiling water, dry them in the sun,

and then eat them. It is a custom to exchange coffee beans in friendly

greeting.

Individual earthen vessels for making coffee, painted red and yellow,

are made by some of the native tribes in Abyssinia, and usually

accompany disciples of Islam when they journey to Mecca, where the

vessels find a ready sale among the pilgrims, most of whom are

coffee-devotees.

Turkish and Arabian coffee customs prevail in Algeria and Egypt,

modified to some extent by European contact. The Moorish cafés of Cairo,

Tunis, and Algiers have furnished inspiration and copy for writers,

artists, and travelers for several centuries. They change little with

the years. The _mazagran_--sweetened cold coffee to which water or ice

has been added--originated in Algeria. It probably took its name from

the fortress of the same name reserved to France by the treaty of the

Tafna in 1837. It is said that the French colonial troops were first

served with a drink made from coffee syrup and cold water on marches

near Mazagran, formerly spelled Masagran. Upon their return to the

French capital, they introduced the idea, with the added fillip of

service in tall glasses, in their favorite cafés, where it became known

as _café mazagran_. Variants are coffee syrup with seltzer, and with

hot water. "This fashion of serving coffee in glasses", says Jardin,

"has no _raison d'être_, and nothing can justify abandoning the cup for

coffee."

[Illustration: MOORISH COFFEE HOUSE IN ALGIERS]

In the principal streets and public squares of any town in Algeria it is

a common sight to find a group of Arabs squatting about a portable

stove, and a table on which cups are in readiness to receive the boiling

coffee. The thirsty Arab approaches the dealer, and for a modest sum he

gets his drink and goes his way; unless he prefers to go inside the

café, where he may get several drinks and linger over them, sitting on a

mat with his legs crossed and smoking his _chibouque_. Indeed, this is a

typical scene throughout the Near East, where sheds or coffee

tents--sketches of the more pretentious coffee houses--coffee shops, and

itinerant coffee-venders are to be met at almost every turn.

In an unpublished work, Baron Antoine Rousseau and Th. Roland de Bussy

have the following description of a typical Moorish café at Algiers:

We entered without ceremony into a narrow deep cave, decorated with

the name of the café. On the right and on the left, along its

length, were two benches covered with mats; notched cups, tongs, a

box of brown sugar, all placed near a small stove, completed the

furniture of the place. In the evening, the dim light from a lamp

hanging from the ceiling shows the indistinct figures of a double

row of natives listening to the nasal cadences of a band who play a

pizzicato accompaniment on small three-stringed violins.

Here, as in Europe, the cafés are the providential rendezvous for

idlers and gossips, exchanges for real-estate brokers and players

at cards.

Europeans recently arrived frequent them particularly. Some go only

to satisfy their curiosity; others out of an inborn scorn for the

customs of civilization. They go to sleep as Frenchmen, they awake

Mohammedans! Their love for "Turkish art" only leads them to haunt

the native shops and to affect oriental poses.

If we quit for a moment the interior of the city to follow between

two hedgerows of mastics or aloes, one of those capricious paths

which lead one, now up to the summit of a hill, now to the depths

of some ravine, very soon the tones of a rustic flute, the

modulations of the _Djou-wak_, will betray some cool and peaceful

retreat, some rustic café, easily recognized by its facade, pierced

with large openings. To my eyes, nothing equals the charm of these

little buildings scattered here and there along the edges of a

stream, sheltered under the thick foliage, and constantly enlivened

by the coming and going of the husbandmen of the neighborhood.

Certain old Moors from the neighboring districts, fleeing the

noises of the city, are the faithful habitués of these agreeable

retreats. Here they instal themselves at dawn, and know how to

enjoy every moment of their day with tales of their travels and

youthful adventures, and many a legend for which their imagination

takes all the responsibility.

[Illustration: COFFEE HOUSE IN CAIRO]

[Illustration: HULLING COFFEE IN ADEN, ARABIA]

Gérôme's painting of the "Coffee House at Cairo," which hangs in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gives one a good idea of the

atmosphere of the Egyptian café. The preparation and service is modified

Turkish-Arabian. The coffee is ground to a powder, boiled in an _ibrik_

with the addition of sugar, and served frothing in small cups.

Story-tellers, singers, and dancers furnish amusement as of yore. The

Oriental customs have not changed much in this respect. Trolley cars,

victorias, and taxis may have replaced the donkeys in the new sections

of the larger Egyptian cities; but in old Alexandria and Cairo, the

approach to the native coffee house is as dirty and as odorous as ever.

Coffee is always served in all business transactions. Nowadays, the

Egyptian women chew gum and the men smoke cigarettes, French department

stores offer bargain sales, and the hotels advertise tea dances; but the

Egyptian coffee drink is still the tiny cup of coffee grounds and sugar

that it was three hundred years ago, when sugar was first used to

sweeten coffee in Cairo.

[Illustration: COFFEE SERVICE AT A BARBER SHOP IN CAIRO]

In Portuguese East Africa, the natives prepare and drink coffee after

the approved African native fashion, but the white population follows

European customs. In the Union of South Africa, Dutch and English

customs prevail in making and serving the beverage.

_Manners and Customs in Asia_

"Arabia the Happy" deserves to be called "the Blest", if only for its

gift of coffee to the world. Here it was that the virtues of the drink

were first made known; here the plant first received intensive

cultivation. After centuries of habitual use of the beverage, we find

the Arabs, now as then, one of the strongest and noblest races of the

world, mentally superior to most of them, generally healthy, and growing

old so gracefully that the faculties of the mind seldom give way sooner

than those of the body. They are an ever living earnest of the

healthfulness of coffee.

The Arabs are proverbially hospitable; and the symbol of their

hospitality for a thousand years has been the great drink of

democracy--coffee. Their very houses are built around the cup of human

brotherhood. William Wallace,[366] writing on Arabian philosophy,

manners, and customs, says:

The principal feature of an Arab house is the _kahwah_ or coffee

room. It is a large apartment spread with mats, and sometimes

furnished with carpets and a few cushions. At one end is a small

furnace or fireplace for preparing coffee. In this room the men

congregate; here guests are received, and even lodged; women rarely

enter it, except at times when strangers are unlikely to be

present. Some of these apartments are very spacious and supported

by pillars; one wall is usually built transversely to the compass

direction of the _Ka'ba_ (sacred shrine of Mecca). It serves to

facilitate the performance of prayer by those who may happen to be

in the _kahwah_ at the appointed times.

Several rounds of coffee, without milk or sugar, but sometimes flavored

with cardamom seeds, are served to the guest at first welcome; and

coffee may be had at all hours between meals, or whenever the occasion

demands it. Always the beans are freshly roasted, pounded, and boiled.

The Arabs average twenty-five to thirty cups (findjans) a day.

Everywhere in Arabia there are to be found cafés where the beverage may

be bought.

[Illustration: SHIPS OF THE DESERT LADEN WITH COFFEE, ARABIA]

Those of the lower classes are thronged throughout the day. In front,

there is generally a porch or bench where one may sit. The rooms,

benches, and little chairs lack the cleanliness and elegance of the

one-time luxurious "_caffinets_" of cities like Damascus and

Constantinople, but the drink is the same. There is not in all Yemen a

single market town or hamlet where one does not find upon some simple

hut the legend, "Shed for drinking coffee".

The Arab drinks water before taking coffee, but never after it. "Once in

Syria", says a traveler, "I was recognized as a foreigner because I

asked for water just after I had taken my coffee. 'If you belonged

here', said the waiter, 'you would not spoil the taste of coffee in your

mouth by washing it away with water.'"

It is an adventure to partake of coffee prepared in the open, at a

roadside inn, or khan, in Arabia by an _araba_, or diligence driver. He

takes from his saddle-bag the ever-present coffee kit, containing his

supply of green beans, of which he roasts just sufficient on a little

perforated iron plate over an open fire, deftly taking off the beans,

one at a time, as they turn the right color. Then he pounds them in a

mortar, boils his water in the long, straight-handled open boiler, or

_ibrik_ (a sort of brass mug or _jezveh_), tosses in the coffee powder,

moving the vessel back and forth from the fire as it boils up to the

rim; and, after repeating this maneuver three times, pours the contents

foaming merrily into the little egg-like serving cups.

_Cafée sultan_, or _kisher_, the original decoction, made from dried and

toasted coffee hulls, is still being drunk in parts of Arabia and

Turkey.

Coffee in Arabia is part of the ritual of business, as in other Oriental

countries. Shop-keepers serve it to the customer before the argument

starts. Recently, a New York barber got some valuable publicity because

he regaled his customers with tea and music. It was "old stuff". The

Arabian and Turkish barber shops have been serving coffee, tobacco, and

sweetmeats to their customers for centuries.

[Illustration: AN ARABIAN COFFEE HOUSE]

For a faithful description of the ancient coffee ceremony of the Arabs,

which, with slight modification, is still observed in Arabian homes, we

turn to Palgrave. First he describes the dwelling and then the ceremony:

The K'hawah was a large oblong hall, about twenty feet in

height, fifty in length, and sixteen, or thereabouts, in breadth;

the walls were coloured in a rudely decorative manner with brown

and white wash, and sunk here and there into small triangular

recesses, destined to the reception of books, though of these

Ghafil at least had no over-abundance, lamps, and other such like

objects. The roof of timber, and flat; the floor was strewed with

fine clean sand, and garnished all round alongside of the walls

with long strips of carpet, upon which cushions, covered with faded

silk, were disposed at suitable intervals. In poorer houses felt

rugs usually take the place of carpets.

In one corner, namely, that furthest removed from the door, stood a

small fireplace, or, to speak more exactly, furnace, formed of a

large square block of granite, or some other hard stone, about

twenty inches each way; this is hollowed inwardly into a deep

funnel, open above, and communicating below with a small horizontal

tube or pipe-hole, through which the air passes, bellows-driven, to

the lighted charcoal piled up on a grating about half-way inside

the cone. In this manner the fuel is soon brought to a white heat,

and the water in the coffee-pot placed upon the funnel's mouth is

readily brought to boil. The system of coffee furnaces is universal

in Djowf and Djebel Shomer, but in Nejed itself, and indeed in

whatever other yet more distant regions of Arabia I visited to the

south and east, the furnace is replaced by an open fireplace

hollowed in the ground floor, with a raised stone border, and

dog-irons for the fuel, and so forth, like what may be yet seen in

Spain. This diversity of arrangement, so far as Arabia is

concerned, is due to the greater abundance of firewood in the

south, whereby the inhabitants are enabled to light up on a larger

scale; whereas throughout the Djowf and Djebel Shomer wood is very

scarce, and the only fuel at hand is bad charcoal, often brought

from a considerable distance, and carefully husbanded.

[Illustration: BREWING THE GUEST'S COFFEE IN A MOHAMMEDAN HOME]

This corner of the K'hawah is also the place of distinction

whence honour and coffee radiate by progressive degrees round the

apartment, and hereabouts accordingly sits the master of the house

himself, or the guests whom he more especially delighteth to

honour.

On the broad edge of the furnace or fireplace, as the case may be,

stands an ostentatious range of copper coffee-pots, varying in size

and form. Here in the Djowf their make resembles that in vogue at

Damascus; but in Nejed and the eastern districts they are of a

different and much more ornamental fashioning, very tall and

slender, with several ornamental circles and mouldings in elegant

relief, besides boasting long beak-shaped spouts and high steeples

for covers. The number of these utensils is often extravagantly

great. I have seen a dozen at a time in a row by one fireside,

though coffee-making requires, in fact, only three at most. Here in

the Djowf five or six are considered to be the thing; for the south

this number must be doubled; all this to indicate the riches and

munificence of their owner, by implying the frequency of his guests

and the large amount of coffee that he is in consequence obliged to

have made for them.

Behind this stove sits, at least in wealthy houses, a black slave,

whose name is generally a diminutive in token of familiarity or

affection; in the present case it was Soweylim, the diminutive of

Salim. His occupation is to make and pour out the coffee; where

there is no slave in the family, the master of the premises

himself, or perhaps one of his sons, performs that hospitable duty;

rather a tedious one, as we shall soon see.

We enter. On passing the threshold it is proper to say,

"_Bismillah_, _i.e._, in the name of God;" not to do so would be

looked on as a bad augury alike for him who enters and for those

within. The visitor next advances in silence, till on coming about

half-way across the room, he gives to all present, but looking

specially at the master of the house, the customary

"_Es-salamu'aleykum_," or "Peace be with you," literally, "on you."

All this while every one else in the room has kept his place,

motionless, and without saying a word. But on receiving the salaam

of etiquette, the master of the house rises, and if a strict

Wahhabee, or at any rate desirous of seeming such, replies with

the full-length traditionary formula. "_W' 'aleykumu-s-salamu,

w'rahmat' Ullahi w'barakátuh_," which is, as every one knows, "And

with (or, on) you be peace, and the mercy of God, and his

blessings." But should he happen to be of anti-Wahhabee

tendencies the odds are that he will say "_Marhaba_," or "_Ahlan w'

sahlan_," _i.e._, "welcome" or "worthy, and pleasurable," or the

like; for of such phrases there is an infinite, but elegant