The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1905-09-14
NOTABLE TEA TOPERs
MEN WHO IMsisEo THE sTiMuLAI-
ING BREW TO EXCESS.

tfNS BREW ~ ESNSESSs
ne 4uineey EmDtied HIS Cups Eroa
8 O'Clock at Night TIN In the
8Iornins-Johnson y Shameless Tea
BibBer-Why HnwthOrne Quit.
The most hardened tea drinker may
admit that tea drinking can be and
often Is oyerdone, and yet the best
known tea topers do not Nppear to have
suffered IN consequence of their excess
i've Indulgence IN the cheering cup.
Dc Quincy was a notable tea TOPPER.
In his picture OF winter evening In
his cottage among the Cumberland
hills he mentions the tea equipage on a
iaDIc beside the ERE, and behind the
table a fair tea maker, whose duty IL
was to III an almost endless process
sion OF cups De Quincy declares that
he drank ten from 8 O'Clock ut night
TO in the morning, and claims the In
fusion as the favorite beverage of the
intellectual"
Another tea topper was HRzlitt, the
essayist, who was not only very FOND
of the beverage, but seems to have
drunk 1t of extraordinary strength.
we. are toll 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 il shfllingS and after
ward 10 shiIIinGs per pound. Perhaps
this extravagunc and excessive con-
sumption of tea may account for some
Of the essayist's quarrelsomcnc5s-
Cowper, as we all know, appreciated
to the full the charm of the fragrant
leaf, but there is hardly sufficient evil
dcuce to show that he was guilty OF
undue Indulgence. The most famous
+ea toper was of course DIR. johnson.
whose feGts with the cup which Mrs.
rhrale filed so assiduously are too well
,nown to need charging upon. HIS
record appears to have been twenty
i've CUPS, which he DRINK at sitting
but In mitigation of judgment 1t should
be remembered that In all probabilit-
the cups were much smaller than thS
teacups in use at the present time
StiIl. johnson told Miss Reynolds
playful verse:
Thou canst not make the tea 50 fast
AS can gulp It down
And he described himself as 'hnrd-
ened and shameless tea drinker, who
has for many years diluted his meals
with only the infusion of this fascinat-
Iug 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 Rurnet, the author of
the well BROWN History Of My Own
Times" WHO is reported to have dis
posed OF twenty-five cups I'm morn
ing. Another man OF letters of very
different type, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
who might have equnled the doctor,
curbed his tea drinking propensities
carly When he was very young
man Hawthorne was In the habit OF
visiting at u house where the hostess
made excellent tea. ami one evening
when tie visitors cup was passed to
he rc.ilIcd she said: Vow, AIR. 1av:-
thorne, am going to play Mrs. Thrale
to your johnson. know you are
slave to ny tea The young man
made no rc,s'y. but he had no inclina-
ton to play the role assigned to him,
and for frc years from TINT night
Hawthorne did not taste cup of tea
1 protest which seems as excessive If
its 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 rcI,'y: cups! / don't count
by cups. 1 count by potsT' Then
there have been others whom 1t would
bc hardly fair to rank as tea topers,
but who hive 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
lovers in recent times of
what Waller called the chest OF herbs"
would be Of most inordinate length
London Globe.