The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-09-15
The Coffee Traffic.

The consumption of coffee in the
United States has reached the enormous
quantity of about 6,000,0 600 sacks an
nually. While England, France, Ger
many and the Latin Kingdoms that bor-
der the Mediterranean sea import thou
sands of tons of the precious bean, its
use is not as general among the peas
antry of Europe as among the laborlng
classes of our own republic. The Eng
lish and the Russian people consume
more tea than coffee, while this latter
fragrant herb is sold as medicine in the
drug shops of Spain and Italy and in
numerous Latin American republics.
In the South of Europe neither coffee
nor tea are in general use among the
poor, for the common table wines pro-
duced in this climate are much cheaper
than either tea or coffee, and are the
favorite, if not the only possible table
beverages the peasantry can obtain. In
Northern Europe, where the working
classes obtain but starvation wages /;
I along the coast of the Baltic sea, in Fin
land in the east, and Denmark, Sweden
and Norway in the west, wine, coffee
| and tea are beyond the reach of the toll
ing poor. These people have invented
| various table beverages, such as decoc-
| ions of birch bark, ales of various kinds,
/ ETC., but none of these liquors can com
pare with the tea and coffee drank by
their richer neighbors.
In our own favored Republic the tariff
of wages is much higher than in any
other part of the world, and our labor
ing classes daily see on their tables food
that but seldom visits the humble
| boards of their transatlantic cousins.
BY consequence the fragrant extract OF
the "Arabian berry" is seen on almost
every table throughout the wide area Of
the republic, and the American people
| have earned, and they deserve the repu-
tation Of a nation of coffee drinkers.
As coffee has become such necessity
| to us, and as our population is lncreas-
ing so rapidly that the statesmen OF
Europe have learned to speak of us as
the great transatlantic nation, the ques-
tion has more than once been asked,
from whence are we to draw our future
supplies of coffee.
The question is readily answered
The vast plains of Cordova, the semi
tropical jungles of San Louis Potosi an0
the sheltered valleys of Michoacan
Mexico, with the thriving plantations o
Guatamala, San Salvador, and Costt
Rica in Central America, and the i'm
! mense coffee districts of Brazil will plan
and harvest all this staple our people vii
need for centuries. As our demand in
lcreases their acreage of their precious
berry will also increase; nor need we
fear that the price will rise with the de
Emand, for our democratic brothers Q
EGuatamala, of Costa Rica, of Sad Sal
vador and of Mexico have, since they
threw off the shackles Of political des
potism, turned their attention to agricul
ture, while coffee is the principal stapl
they produce. 49,. -
i To such an extent has this coffe
problem assumed serious proportion
that one of our New Orleans firms ha
established branch house at Cordova
Mexico, together with several agencie
in the same planting region.
As the coffee regions are general
near the coast, the harvest will b
brought to the nearest seaport for ship
ment, and will thus ignore the railroad
destined soon to traverse the centre c
Mexico from the South to the North
This Mexican coffee, together with ths
produced in Central America, will gravi
| tate toward New Orleans as the gres
commercial distributing centre of th
| Southern half of our vast Republic
From this port the Valley of the Missii
sippi and the numerous Western popr
lation centres will receiver their suppl
of the fragrant berry, while New o.
leans is destined to become the gran
coffee mart Of the great republic. c.-Ne'
Orleans Democrat.