The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1873-02-22

ed volume-"Cotfee: It's His
tory, Cultivation and Uses"
is on our table; from the pub
fishing house of d. Appleton
& Co., New York. The author
is Robert Hewitt, Jr., a gentle
man long connected and well
acquainted with the coffee
trade. He has endeavored to
make the work concise, yet
comprehensive, and in doing
so has drawn largely on the
writings of others. In fact, it
is as a judicious compiler that |
Mr.. Hewitt asked to be judged. |
AS there are SO many coffee
drinkers in the world, the
theme is Of general interest.
The discovery of coffee, accord
ing to Mr.. Hewitt, dates back
| some six centuries. The plant
or tree is indigenous to South
ern Abyssinia, but it derived
its name from Hafa, in East
ern Africa, where it grows wild.
"There is an Eastern legend
: which ascribes the discovery of
, the berry to a dervish named
Hadji Omer, who, in the year
1885, being driven out Of Mocha,
was induced, in the extremity
of hunger, to roast the berries
u. which grew near his hiding
place. He ate them as the
only means of sustaining life,
t and stepping the roasted ber-
Y ries in water to quench his
thirst, he thus discovered their
, agreeable qualities, and also
" that the infusion was nearly
equal to the solid food. His
prosecutors, who had intended
that he should die of starvation,
e regarded his preservation as a
l. miracle. He was accordingly
- transmitted into a saint forth
y with" Authentic records state
u that GENIAL Eddin, Mohame-
II dan high priest, of Alden, a
n town of Arabia Felix, first in
, troduced to his countrymen the
custom of cofee-drinking. He
i had been to Persia, where be
d saw the beverage used as q
re medicine. He tried it, and
~ found it SO curative and eXhil-
arating, that on returning to
It his country he set the example
De Of taking it as regular drink
le Coffee at once came into gen
a eral use, chiefly as a sleep-dis-
. pelling power. But not until
Il the seventeenth century was il
ID regularly introduced into Eng,
n land. Coffee was not used al
n Rome until long after it had
. been known by Italian travel,
IT. ers at Constantinople. Wher
7n first drank as a beverage il
So London, the aromatic grains
in sold at twenty-five dollars {
pound. Gradually coffee-drink
ho ing became q custom in all civ
iliZed parts of the globe. Blu
to in the United States the custom
re is most general. We are tOll
b. that we are by tar the larges
n0 coffee consumers in the world
al, "siX-foid more than some of tn
rs States of Europe" German,
a and France rank next. 1t i
computed that a thousand mil
lion pounds of the bean ar
now annually consumed. Thu
les we see that coffee has becom
ch an important item Of commerce
, a Its cultivation is widely diffus
les ed over the tropics. 1t
grown in the West India is
lands, in the provinces of Cen
lg- trail America, Cayenne, Peru
De Bolivia and Brazil, which is tn
,rk greatest market of all. It
likewise spread over Arabia
lis. the Western coast of Africa
IN Ceylon, Sumatra, Bourbon
lie Mauritius, Java, and some c
es: the Pacific islands. The COTE
81 plant bears the extremes {
DIV climate well. It grows on th
BID level of the sea, and is cultivf
va ted 5000 feet above the sc:
or Mr.. Lascelles contends that
On is questionable if the COTE
old raised at a high elevation is of
finer quality than that GROWN !