The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-02-12
Coffee and It's History,


even among the people to whom it became
the elixir of life. is ITS mention by Scheha-
beddin Bey an Arabian writer of the NJ
teenth century who says the then Mutt
of Alden learned its use when visiting the
court OF Persia II was AT first drunk
only by the deTvishes TO stimulate them
in the ceremonial antics OF their religious
services. But the people found out It's
virtue and it was soon carried from Alden
TO Cairo. TO Damascus. and 10 Aieppo.
In 1854 coffee-houses were established in
Constantinople. The mosques were de-
serted for them, and the priests soon de-
nounced coffee on the plea that it was in
toxicating and thus forbidden by the Ko-
ran, and also that the roasted berry was
a form Of charcoal and hence not allowed
as food. Laws prohibited its use, but it
was still drunk in secret. and finally
Mufti who had perhaps himself yielded
TO its charm, gave a new and evaSive In
depreciation Of the law; its sale by license
was authorized, and coffee-houses became
the source of large revenues The pulp
of the berry. which viii not bear trans
pcrtation, furnished a beverage Of rare
aroma called the Suitan's coffee"
The first European known 10 have men
toned coffee was Rauwoif. German
physician. who became familiar with II
in Constantinople. and whose book OF
travels was published in 1913. George
Sandys. he who in Virginia, by his trans
Iation OF Ovid, first on American soil rem
dered tribute 10 the classics. In 16lo-15
wrote in his 'Travailes a description OF
the Turkish empire. wherein he said Of
the Turks: They sip of a drink called
coffa. in little china dishes, as hot as they
can suffer IL" II was asserted by those
who introduced coffee into England that
even at boiling heat it will not burn the
mouth. Burton wrote Of II. while still a,
foreign drug" THE Turks have a
drink called coffa, so named OF a berry
as black as SCOT and as bitter Qike the
black drink among the LacedemoniaRs,
and perhaps the same), which they sup
as warm as they can suffer. and which
helpeth digestion and procureth alacrity.'
There is nothing to substantiate this sug-
gestion that coffee was known to the
Greeks, although one writer supposes IL
10 have been the nepenthe of Homer.
Coffee was not known in France before
1910, when il sold for about twenty-eight
dollars the pound. 1t is said that the first
cup of coffee made in Paris was for the
Dauphin, later Louis XIV, 1t was earlier
used in England. Under date of May 10.
1881, John Evelyn wrote in his diary: ''In
my time there came to Balol College one
Nathaniel Conopios, out of Greece, from
Cyril the Patriarch of Constantinople,
who was the first L ever saw drink coffee.
which custom came not into England for
thirty years after"
But seven years before this visit of Con-
opios. one Daniel Edwards, Turkey mer
chant, had returned TO London from a life
spent in the East His friends were so
pleased with the strange beverage offered
them that his servant, whom he had
brought from Smyrna, was allowed, in
1852, to set up coffee-house, and there
was coffee made and sold on st. Mich
aeTs Alley, Cornhill, by Pasque Rosie, at
the sign of his own head" A Turks or
''Sarcarens" turbanned head became a
popular sign for coffee-houses. This first
venture was speedily followed by the Sui
tan Marat and the Sultan Solyman. In
Pasqua's handful, setting forth "the YER
tues of the Coffee drink" he promises the
cure of nearly all known maladies, and
AYERS, sit is a simple, innocent thing
which doth much quicken the spirits and
make the heart lightsome."
Pasqua's shop was the first of the cof-
fee-houses which became so famous in
the literary and political history of Lon
don. They were at once a club and a
daily-hourly newspaper There public
opinion was found and disseminated. The
ate name given them. Their convenience
was infinitely set forth by an Italian Wis
iting London in 1863, who says: ''They
have divers rooms or meeting places of
newsmongers, where one hears all that is,
or is thought to be news, true or false,
as may be. In winter, TO sit around a
large fire and smoke for two hours, costs
but two soldi. If you drink, you pay for
all that you consume"
The Rainbow, said to have been the sec
ond coffee-house opened in London was
in Fleet street, near the Inner Temple
Gate. Child's coffee-house in St. Paurs
churchyard was the resort of the clergy.
of the physicians, and Of the learned men
coming TO the early lodging of the Royal
Society in Gresham College hard by
About the Inns of Court were the Grecian,
Squire's, Searle's, and others, frequented
at an early hour by law students. some
of whom are readie dressed for Westmin-
ster at Eight in the Morning, with Faces
as busie as if they were retained in every
Cause there" Steele. in a charming vein
of philosophic raillery, classifies and an
alyzes their successive sets Of visitors.
The coffee houses were not approved by /
government. They were called "semina- /
ries of sedition" and 1t was said, not with
out truth, that they were used to nour- /
ish rebellion, 10 spread lies, and to scan |
daliZe great men" The Kings order in 4
1870, for their suppression no doubt Gre !
ated prejudice against the domestic use 4
of coffee. 1t advanced in favor but slow /
". 1t was denounced as the strip OF /
SCOT, the essence of old shoes" and /
though no royal pen wrote cOunterblast. !
il was preached against with as much /
zeal as had been used against tobacco. !
One preacher said Of those who used Il:
They cannot wait until the smoke Of the
Internal regions surrounds them, but en-
compass themselves with swoke Of their
own accord, and drink a poison which
God made black that il might bear the
DEVILS own color
We think better Of coffee nowadays. and
cannot condemn its use unless IN the
quantity by which Hartley Coleridge
measured his tea-"Cups? / do not count
1y cups! / count by pots" The Abys
,inians in every physical stress depend
upon "coffee-balls." They roast ana pull
yerize the berry, mix the powder with
1utter. and make IL into balls. an linen
n diameter. one OF which, on a days
ravel sustains them better than bread or
neat The same principle IS potent ss
m intellectual stimulus. Sir James Mack
ntosh used TO say, The difference be
ween men IS the difference in the amount
Il coffee which they drink 20 which as
iertlon may be added the injunction OF
sidney Smith: II you want 70 improve
-our understanding, drink coffee" Better
authority Is the expert testimony OF our
,wn Dr.. Draper, VINO declares coffee 10
%. mot merely a fashionable potatiOn.
,ut one Of the great civil.zng agents. In
.ressing the power ard the influence Of
nan
None OF His Affairs.
fFrorn the washington STAR