Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1892-02-20
som ETHING ABOUT TEA.
INTERESTING TO LOVERS OF THIS
FRAGRANT BEVERAGE.

Legend About u-At One Time All
Other Drinks Were at a Discount for
As.""Elns Thirst.
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
1000 B. c., at which time it was cult
waited and classified almost as completely
as to-day.
One ancient legend says that its virtues
were learned by accident by a Chinese
monarch, King Shen Kung, The Divins
Husbandman, who fiourished for CEN
turtles ago, and who, in boiling water
over fire made from the tea branches
on which the leaves still hung, allowed
some of the latter to fall into the pot.
During the reign of King Shen Nung
Shea (273S to 1896 B. g. he not only dis
covered the curative virtues of plants,
but also first fashioned timber into plows
and taught the people the art of hus-
bandry and instituted 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 a royal gift from the
Chinese monarchs and great merchants
to the potentates of the east. TO the
rajahs of Handy, the sultans of Ceylon,
the shoguns and daimios of Japan care
fully selected samples of the leaves
packed in precious boxes, were sent with
great regularity. Some must have been
presents worthy Of crown. One OF
them is thus recorded: at weighed 40
catties about so 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 sill
yer 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 porcelain jar, whose
lid was securely fastened and sealed, and
each jar was protected by box of cam
phor wood, trimmed with silver hinges
and ornaments.
In the list Of princes to whom these
presents were made are many whose
identity would be otherwise lost to his
y.
ious facts are thus obtained. Among
other facts it would seem that Corea, to-
day more dead than alive, was at ono
time a formidable power, military and
naval; that the Japanese at long inter
walls changed from peaceable neighbors
into marauders and freebooters worthy
of Sir Walter Raleigh, Frobsher and
,l-n. hot Mo-
and Tong Kwin, at various epochs were
strong, belligerent communities in the
far East; that Cambodia and Cochin
China were populous, rich and warllke
civilizations, where now the tiger prowls
and the serpent glides; that the Island
of Ceylon was the scene of brilliant anu
brave dynasties which followed one an
other like waves on the shores, and AZ
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 Zenghis
khanns
The presents of tea from the flowery
kingdom to kingly neighbors are humble
monuments to the grasp of dynasty and
empires Before the time of Confuclus
it had suppIanted every other fluid for
assuaging thirst. Its sanitary excellence
was appreciated by Shen Kung, ce!e-
brated scholar and philosopher, who said :
"Tea is better than wine, for it leadeth
not to intoxication neither does it cause
a man to do foolish things and repent
thereof in his sober moments. 1t is bet
ter than water. for it doth not carry dis
ease, neither doth it act as a poison as
doth water when the wells contain foul
or rotten matter.
That its use was universal is borne out
by one of the maxims of Confucius, the
wisest man of China, when he said: BE
good and courteous to all, even to the
stranger from other lands. If he say
unto thee that he thirsteth give unto him
cup of warm tea without money and
without price"
At the time of Buddha China was en-
joying a large foreign commerce in tea.
1t was carried by her junks to Japan,
Corea Tonquin, AMMAN, Cochin Burmah,
Siam, India, Ceylon, Persia, and Arabia.
According to one record it was sent to n
great fiat river country west of Arabia.
from which it was separated by a long
and very torrid sea, which must have
been Egypt. 1t was carried by caravans
to Manchuria, Mongolia, Kuldja, Tar
taly, Thibet, Persia, and northern India.
This commerce fourished during CEN
turtles, and eliminated in the dynasties
of Hung Tung and Tung Chi about 1900
AID.
From this time there was a slow but
steady decline to the reign of the present
sovereign, Kwang Hsu. In the past 90
years the decline has been something ter
rible, the trade to-day being scarcely one
quarter of what it was in 1870. The out
look is not promising to the tea planter
and patriot in any respect. In every dis
trict the industry is on the verge of bank
ruptcy The demand from abroad yearly
dminishes, the people themselves are
taking to other beverages, while the tax
alton necessary to government, which in
the former years of prosperity was mere
trifle, now threatens utter extinction of
The trade.-Philadelphia Times.