The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1905-08-30
BILE 10 ne IS

BILE & d u II {. Bis
siEg WHO lMsiBED Il5E Stimuli AT
INC sREw 10 EXCESS
De Quincy EmDtled HIS CUPS From
. GsCIoeis a Neght TIL 4 In the
observation-disclosures q ShameIeps Tea
BIbber-yVhy Hayytllorne Quit.
me most hardened tea drinkeF may
admit that tea drinking can be and
often Is overione, and yet the best
known tea topers do not 0ppear TO have
suffered IN consequence Of their excess
i've indulgence in the cheering cup.
De Quincy was a notable tea topper.
In his picture Of a winter evening in
his cottage among the Cumberland
hills he mentions the tea equiDhge on
table beside the ire, and behind the
table fair ten maker, whose duty u
was to ELL an almost endless process
sion of cups De Quincy declares that
he drank ten from 8 o'clock ut night
to 4 in the morning. and claims tile In
fusion as 'the fayorite beverage of the
intellectual"
Another tea topper was HazIitt, the
essayist, who was not only very fond
of the beverage. but seems to have
drunk It of extraordinary strength.
we areltoM on excellent authority that
he used two ounces for his breakfast
and two for his tea, with cream, and
Tint for this tea-the finest SoOehong-
he paid at first II shiIlings and after
ward u shiIIings per pound. Perhaps
this extravaganza and excessive CON
sumption of tea may account for some
of the essayist's quHrrelsomeness.
Cowper, rs we all know, appreciated
to the fun the charm of the fragrant
leaf. but there Is hardly sufficient evi
dence to show that he was guilty OF
undue indulgence. The most famow
tea topper was of course DIR. Johnson
whose feats with the cup which Mrs
Thrale filed so asSIduously are too wei
known to need charging upon. I4i'
record appears to have been twenty
i've cups, which he drank at sitting
but in mitigation OF Judgment it shout
be remembered that in all probabili'
the cups were much smaller than III
teacups in use ut the present time
SttlI, johnson told Miss Reynolds
playful verse:
Thou canst not make the tea SO fast
ASH can guIp It down.
And he described himself as hard
ened and shameless tea drinker, who
has for many years diluted his meals
with only the infusion of this fascinat
ing plant; whose kettle has scarcely
time to cool; who with tea amuses The
evening, with tea solaces the midnight
and with tea welcomes the morning.
It is an amazing confession, but W.
are bound to remember that this In
tenperate tea bibber lived to the age
of seventy-fve.
Johnson's record was cqualed b!
Bishop Gilbert Burnet, the author o.
the we'll known History of My Owp
Times" who is reported to have dis
posed Of TWENTY-FIVE cups in a m0rn
ing Another man of letters of very
different type, Nathaniel Hawthorne
who might have equaled the doctor
curbed his tea drinking propensitie:
early. When he was very youne
man Hawthorne was in the habit OF
visiting at house where the hostess
made excellent tea, and one eventna
when the visitors cup was passed to
be refiIIed she said: Nov, Mr.. Haw
thorne, I am going to play Mrs. Thrale
to your johnson. know you are n
slave to my tea" The young man
made no reply, but he had no incIina-
ton to play the role assigned to him,
and for five years from that night
Hawthorne did not taste cup of tea
a protest which seems as excessive II
it's way as the inclination which his
hostess had attributed to him.
There have been other heroes OF the
teapot not a few. Hartley Coleridge
may fairly claim a place among the
tea topers. Some one is said to have
asked him once how many cups he
usually drank and to have received the
scornful reply: Cups! l don't count
by cups. 1 count by pots"' Then
there have been others whom 1t woulG
be hardly fair to rank as ten topers.
but who have shown marked devotion
to the teapot In regent days Mr.. Glad
stone and Dean Stanley would appear
in this class. but indeed any list OF
enthusiastic lovers in recent times of
what Waller called the "bcst of herbs
would be Of most inordinate length
London Globe.