Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-22
DRINKERS OF TEA
DE QUINCY AND HAZLITT THE
MOST FAMOUS EXAMPLES
Men Who Take tho Fragrant and
Stimulating Brew to Excess
Consequences Of the Habit.
From the London Globe.


| From the London Globe.
The correspondence which has been go
| Ing on In q morning newspaper. under the
rather absurd title of Tea Drunkenness"
| sounds like an echo Of the Nominations
| against tea which were so numerous in the
early days of its use in this country. When
we find doctor today referring to tea as
a drug. speaking OF Its power over the
| nervous system. denouncIng the tea habit
and making references to irritability and
low spirits and digestive disorder. with the
alarming term ''neurasthenia" thrown In to
clinch the argument. 1t Is difficult not to be-
| lIeve that we are reading quotation from
certain writer's Of long ago who were not
sparing In their denunciations of the new
drink
In 1895 a Dutchman published a quarto-
no less-at The Hague on the Great Abuse
Of Tea and Coffee" German neighbor
described dealers in tea as immoral men,
bers of society lying in wait for mems
purses and lives. In the next century Jonas
Hanway. the first man to walk the streets
OF London with unfurled umbrella. at
tackled tea drinking in a most thorough
going fashion.
The habit. according to Jonas. was perni
ciouS to health. obstructive to industry and
impoverishing tC the nation. The chief re-
suit of Hanway's attack was to produce
vigorous defenses of tea from two distin-
guished men OF letters Johnson turned
his heavy artillery on the enemy Of tea.
while Goldsmith made fun Of him In a
lighter vein of raillery. There were many
other denouncers Of the beverage. including
John Wesley, who said that 1t was waste
fully expensive. that 1t impaired digestion.
unstrung the nerves and had. in his own
case and In others. induced symptoms OF
paralysis Southey tells us that the great
grandmother OF WordswOrth's wife was one
fn< xarft~ ,ID 49, raf .prA
of tea that ever came into Penrith 1t was
sent as a present and without directions
how to use 1t. The good folk boiled the
whole at once In a kettle and sat down to
eat the leaves with butter and salt. They
naturally wondered how any person could
like such stuff but. fortunately they did
not realize that they we're in danger OF in
ducing delirium tremens.
The Tea Topper.
1t Is rather absurd. nowadays al least. to
found an attack on tea in any way upon
the alteration of single individual, who.
with diseased appetite. eats tea-leaves In
preference to drinking the infusion. The
most hardened tea drinker. however. may
admit that tea drinking can be. and often
Is, ove-1one. and yet the best known tea
topers do not appear to have suffered in
consequence Of their excessive indulgence
| in the cheering cup. De Quincy was a
/ nOtaDi0 Tea topper LII MS plCtuo VI d VIII
| ter evening in his cottage among the Cum
| berland hills he mentions the tea equipage
| on a table beside the fire. and behind the
| table fair tea maker. whose duty IT was
| to fill an almost endless procession of cups.
De Quincy declares that he drank tea
| from 8 o'clock at night to in the morn
| ing. and claims the infusion as ''the IA
vorite beverage of the Intellectual" An
other tea topper was Hazlitt. the essayist.
| who was not only very fond Of the bever-
age, but seems to have drunk 1t of extra
| ordinary strength. We are told on excellent
authority that he used two ounces for his
| breakfast and two for his tea, with cream;
and that for this tea-the finest Souchong-
| he paid at first fourteen shillings. and after
ward twelve shillings per pound. Perhaps
| this extravaganza and excessive consump
| ton OF tea may account for some of the
essayists quarrelsomeness. 49,.
| COwper. as We all know. appreciated to
the full the charm Of the fragrant leaf: but
| there Is hardly sufficient evidence to show
| that he was guilty Of undue indulgence
| The most famous tea topper was. OF course.
DR.. Johnson. whose feats with the cup
which Mrs. Thrale filled so assIduously are
| too well known to need enlarging upon. His
record appears to have been twenty-five
| cups. which he drank at a sitting; but in
mitigation of judgment 1t should be re-
| membered that in all probability the cups
were much smaller than the teacups in use
| at the present time. Still. Johnson told
| Miss Reynolds in playful verse:
Thou eanst not make the tea % fast
AS can gup IL down.
And he described himself as a hardened
| and shameless tea drinker. who has for
many years diluted his meals with only the
| Infusion of this fascinating 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" 1t is an amazing confession, but
We are bound to remember that this intem-
| perate tea bibber lived to the age Of seven
| ty-five
Johuson's Thirst.
Johnsons record" was equaled by Bishop
| Gilbert Burnett. the author of the we'll
known History Of My Own Times" who
| Is reported to have disposed OF twenty-five
cups in a morning. Another man Of let
ters of a very different type. Nathaniel
Hawthorne. who might have equaled the
| doctor. curbed his tea-drinking propensities
early. When he was a very young man
Hawthorne was in the habit Of visiting at
house where the hostess made excellent
tea; and one evening when the visitors
| Now. Mr.. Hawthorne, am going to play
Mrs. Thrale to your Johnson. I know you
are slave to my tea" The young man
made no reply. but he had no inclination to
play the role assigned to him. and for five
years from that night Hawthorne did not
taste a cup of tea--a protest which seems
| as excessive in Its way as the inclination
which his hostess had attributed to him.
There have been other heroes of the tea
pot not few. Hartley Coleridge may fair
ly claim 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! 1
don't count by cups. I count by pots!'
Then there have been others whom 1t would
be hardly fair to rank as tea topers but
who have shown marked devotion to tine
teapot. In recent days Mr.. Gladstone and
Dean Stanley would appear in this class;
but, indeed. any list of enthusiastic lovers
In recent times Of what Waller called the
best Of herbs" would be of most inor-
dinate length.