The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-04-20
TEA.
Gossip About the Cup that Cheers nut
Don't Inebr1ate.
Philadelphia Times.1

nbvscian to George the Third, who, when
bis natients asked him what they should eat,
| answered briefly: Anything but the poker
| and tongs." Nowadays our family DOCTORS,
with equal brevity, say tea and toast, ana
tea and toast it Is, nolens Uotens, whether our
case calls for 1t or not. However, obedience
| to our medical autocrats is really not ser1-
| ous tax on amiabiity or digestion, Tor, when
| nroperly made, nothing tickles the palates OF
| the .most nasty particular" OF men, OF
women either, more gratefully than cup oil
good China tea It seems impossible to rear
ize to-day. when importers deliver 1t at ones
very door. and moderate rates bring its ira
GRANGE within the reach Of all sorts OF noses,
that it was once plant too rare and costly
.for human natures daily food" for we find
in a quaint shop-bill of 1861 that Its extreme
dearaess and scarceness kept 1t exclusively
for reealia in high treatments and presents to
grandees. Even as late as 1864 the great
East India Company could only secure Two
pounds two ounces as gift to a prince. at
fifty shilings the pound, and only imported
In 1869 one canister Of 1881 pounds to supply
Fppland's demands for twelve months.
The first appearance of tea In English life f
was in Elzabeths reign, and the unpalatable
character assigned it, "essence OF old shoes
and hooks Of news. doubtless explains why
no record can be found of her drinking it.
Her little failings have become such matters
| n tradition that 1T Is scarcely necessary for
me to mention that. as round oath and
vigorous palm too frequently emphasized her
objections, none who valued the safety OF their
ears dared risk setting this unsavory mixture
before this royal gourmand, who never ne
elected to test table dish or to shorten an
nnwary offender of his head. Furthermore,
II we lend willing ear to historys unvar-
nished tale, we hear that her partlal1ty 1or
.'cups of stout old October" was as pronounc..
ed as her aversion to water (siae hardly ever.
omitted to take daily mine bath, and that
its effect on her unruly member. was as indis-.
Greet as libations OF tea on the tongues OF
other a1Itiuuated maids, who then, as now,
Matched scandals and lived but TO
Convey libel in frown.
And wink reputation down."
Waller, the poet earnestly insists that
4 Charles the Seconds Spanish wife first intro
duced tea drinking In court circles, put with l,l
this disputed question we need not NEEDLE,
though must call attention to the avidity
with which women in that reign accepted the
"yertue of the tee drnke," and their anlmosi-
ty to the Turkish coffee drink, complaining
that it caused so much lettering at Pasqua
Rosee's coffee-room, Eat the sign Of his own
head on the part Of husbands sent on do
nestle messages, and that use OF 1t would
reduce the offspring OF mighty ancestors to
pigmies and apes.
lea drinking reached the foggy atmosphere
of "London Towne'' in 1861, and Mr.. Pepys,
that clever gossip, who contriyed with pro-
fessional acumen to scent and herald all nov
elites, from the birth Of drink to the set of a
petticoat, adds his voice to the general
chorus, and uses it on a Potticary's prescrip-
tim as cure for all disorders" Naturally,
this increased popularity did not escape Par
iament's ears, which, upon the principle that
mo pent. up cuticle' contracts the powers Of
legislative bodies Immediately levied a tax
of eighteen pence on each gallon made Tor
sale.
TEA SHOPS OF ANNE's TIME.
But to return. AS the years advanced the
demand for tea became SO urgent that the
India shops, where ladies purchased any
thing from pug dogs to heather idols, set up
a miniature kettle in a small back room. In
these sacred haunts, where the foot of man
never trod, the soul and tongue Of woman ex-
banded, and so did the souls and tongues of
''her sisters, her cousins and her aunts," and
the words of Horace, who evidently knew the
sex well, will best describe the scene that fol-
lowed:
con eagles wing immortal scandals fly.
While virtuous actions are born bit to die"
Even theatres, in speculative humor, added
tea-rooms to the list OF amusements, and the
modest sum of two shillings admitted one to
the cafe as well as the drama Here, while
waiting the rise OF the curtain on the woes of
robust Jutiets 10y the way female characters
were then nearly all personated by men) elab-
orately constructed beaux danced attendance
on equally complex bellies, whose only care
was for their 'tailles of tawney taffeta, fifteen
yards long, and tales of scandal not an inch
days sadly needed meddling,' and from the
industry with which the same trade is piled
| they must be as much in need of it now.
Why, tpplers of an innocent beverage, should
tea and scandal BE- inseparably connected in
the. annals ofsall ages? Is it an objectionable
offense for me to suggest that in your fair
hands lies the power to alter this, and to pour
, into these 'cnps of fragrance" the rare cream
: OF charity and the sweetness OF liberation for
your Deighbor? This annexation of cafes to
theatres was an excellent idea, and might be
conducive to plethoric pocketbooks at this
Time Masculine limbs have sway of stray
ing somewhere for something nowadays,
and these pedestrian exercises might result
less disastrousY if cup of hot tea stood
fairly at ones elbow. AT all events managers
| might try this harmless catering to the lazy
instinct which led the man in Molieres
comedy to prefer a convenient vice to a
fatiguing virtue, as it Is well-establshed
| truth that the moral mechanism of the best
OF men moves more easily when oiled With
convenience
Queer stories are told of the advent of tea
IN the fashionable market. The ignorance OF
its preparation was illimitable and fine
ladies' determined to tread closely on the
hees OF fashion, We're compelled to take les
sons in the art of brewing it. One lady, be-
fore consenting to become candidate for Gu
j, llnary honors, boiled several pounds and
served it as a vegetable. Another, equally
stupid, set forth her table with 1t as dried
fruit and naturally failed to relish it. At the
tea parties in the seventeenth century the
leaves from which the tea had been drawn
We're handed around to be eaten as a great
delicacy, with bread and butter. To refuse
was to affront the giver of the odd enter
talnment and to stamp yourselfan .outer bar
barian" in the realms Of gentlity. Not SO
very long ago it was the general custom to
carry to New England tea parties ones cup
or tea dish. The latter curious vessel, by the
way (frOm eight to ten inches SQUARE and an