Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1905-09-07
NOTABLE TEA TOPERS
MEN WHO IM5lBED THE sTlMuLAT-
ING BREW TO EXCESS.
De Quincy Emptied His Cups From
O'Clock mt Night TIL 4 In the
Morning--Johnson Shameless Tea
Bibber-Why Hawthorne Quit.

O'Clock mt Night TIL In the
MorninR-Johnson sham eIess Tea
Bibber-Why Hawthorne Quit.
The most hardened tea drinker may
admit that tea drinking can be and
often is overdone and yet the best
known tea topers do not appear to have
suffered in consequence of their excess
i've indulgence In the cheering cup.
De Quincy was notable tea topper.
In his picture Of winter evening In
his cottage among the Cumberland
hills he mentions the tea equipage on a
table beside the fire, and behind the
table a fair tea maker whose euty it
was to fill an almost endless process
sion of cups De Quincy declares that
he drank tea from 8 o'clock at night
to In the morning, and claims the In
fusion as 'tke favorite beverage of the
intellectual"
Another tea topper was HaZlitt, the
essayist, who was not only very fond
of the beverage, but seems to have
drunk 1t of extraordinary 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 Soochong-
he paid at first IA shillings and after
ward IL shillings per pound. Perhaps
this extravaganza and excessive con-
sumption of tea may account for some
Of the essayist's quarrelsomeness.
Cowper. as we all know. appreciated
to the full the charm OF the fragrant
leaf, but there is hardly sufficient evi-
dence to show that he was guilty OF
undue indulgence. The most famous
tea topper was OF course DIR. Johnson,
whose feats with the cup which Mrs.
Thrale filled SO assiduously are too well
known to need charging upon. His
record appears to have been twenty
Ave cups, which he drank at a sitting.
but in mitigation of Judgment 1t should
be remembered 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 canst not make the tea so fast
AS can gulp II 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"
1t is an amazing confession, but we
are bound to remember that this In
temperate tea bibber lived to the age
of seventy.five.
Johnson's record was cqualed by
Bishop Gilbert Burnett, the author of
the we'll known History Of My Own
Times" who is reported to have dis
posed Of twenty-five cups In morn
Ing. Another man of letters of very
different type, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
who might have equaled the doctor.
curbed his tea drinking propensities
early. When he was very young
man Hawthorne was In the habit Of
visiting at house where the hostess
made excellent tea, and one evening
when the visitors cup was passed to
be refilled she said: Nov, Mr.. Haw-
tborne, am going to play Mrs. Thrale
to your Johnson. / know you are
slave to my tea" The young man
made no reply. but he had no inclina-
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 in
Its way as the inclination which his
hostess had attributed to him.
There have been other heroes of the
teapot not few Hartley Coleridge
may fairly 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: "Cupsl don't count
by cups. / count by p0tsl'' Then
there have been others whom 1t would
be hardly fair to rank as tea topers.
but who have shown marked devotion
to the teapot. In recent 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 "best Of herbs
would be of most inordinate length