Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-24
WHO DISCOVERED TEA9 A Beverage Whose History Extends Back Two Thousand Years B. c.

From the Philadelphia Tfmes.1
 By whom and when the use of tea for drinking purposes was discovered is lost in antiquity. The famous herb is spoken of in the Chinese annals as far back as 2000 B. O., at which time it was cultivated and classified almost as completely ss to- day.
 One ancient legend says that its virtues were learned by accident by a Chinese monarch, King Shen Nung, ''the Divine Husbandmsn," who fiourished forty cen turies ago, and who, in boiling water over a fire made from the tea branches on which the leaves still hung, allowed some of the leaves to fall into the pot. During the reign of King Shen Nung She (273S to 2696 B. O. he not only discovered the cu- rative virtues of plants, but also first fashioned timher into blows and taught the people the art of husbandry and insti- tuted the practice of holding markets for the exchange of commodities.
 Tea was highly esteemed in nearly every ancient Asiatic city near the sea, and WAS used as e royal gift from the Chinese mon- archs and great merchants to the poten- tates of the east. To the rsiahs of Randy, the sultans of Ceylon, the shoguns and daimios of Japan carefully selected sam ples of the leaves, packed in precious box es, were sent with great regularity. Some must have been presents worthy of a crown. One of them is thus recorded: ''It weighed forty cstties (sbout fifty pounds) and each leaf was perfect in color, size and age. The leaves were divided into parcels of five maces each Ia little over half an ounce), and each parcel was wrapped in pure silver foil. This was wrapped in turn in thin, white paper and put into little bag of bright-colored silk. A hundred bags were placed into a porce- lain jar, whose lid was securely fastened and sealed, and each jar was protected by a box of campher wood, trimmed with sil- yer hinges and ornaments"
 In the list of princes to whom these presents were made are many whose iden- tity would be otherwise lost to history. From the old writings many curious fscts are thus obtained. Among other things it would seem that Corea, to-day more dead than alive, was at one time 8 formidable power, military and naval; that the Jspa- nese at long intervals change from pescea- ble neighbors into marsuders and free booters worthy of Sir Walter Raleigh, Fro bisher and Drake; that Manipur, Assam, Burmah and Tong Kwin at various epochs were strong belligerent communities in the
 
 were populous, rich and warlike civiliza- tions, where now the tiger prowls and the serpent glides; that the island of Ceylon was the scene of brilliant and brave dy- nasties, which followed one another like the waves on the shore, and at times the Tartar nomads who live to the north, northeast and west of Asia were gathered into great armies and nations by unknown Tamerlanes and Zenchis khans. The presents of tea from the Flowery King dom to kingly neightors are humble mon uments to the crash of dynasties and em- pires. Before the time of Confucius it had supplanted every other fluid for assus- ging thirst.
 In reading between the lines of the tea trade the most striking fact is the pro found change wrought in Chinese life by the influence of Europe, and especially the European steamer in the present century It is a peacesble revolution. In the early part of the sos the great cities were in the interior of China and only few commu- mites on the seaboard, and these of no po- litical importance. To-day everything is just the opposite. Canton, Kowloon, Hong Kong, Suaton, Annoy, Takou, Shang hai and the Yantze river cities are drawing to themselves the trade and wealth of the empire, and the old inland cities are visi ply falling into ruin.
 Peking, the present, and Ranking, the ancient capital. are scarcely half as large | as they were hundred years ago. They display all the symptoms of decay and death. In the seapoTts the population is composed chiefly of Young China, ener- getic, enterprising and commercial, and offers a marked contrast to the conserra- tive and literary communities of the ints- rior. From the former will come the rulers and policies of the next century. Already its power is so great as to be a stumbling block to the mGndarins and a menace to the irnDerial government