The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-08-17
DOES TEA DRINKING
MAKE ONE "CANNY?'
Many Superstitions Claimed to
Be TraceabIe to indulgence
in Popular Beverage.
TALklNGs OF
While the art" of Reading Fortunes
from Sediment Lett in Caps Is of
Extremely Ancient
ORIGIN.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
With regard to superstitions on
hected With the teapot. or rather the
teacup, the most widely spread, prob
ably, is that which concerns its use for
divinatory purposes. Professors OF the
domestic black art, says the London
Globe, old and tell fortunes by the
grounds and stalks in the cup, as 9th
ers do by the cardA
When Arthur Clennam in Little
Dorritt,' on his return home went over
the old house he found that the cell
ings, we are told, We're so Enthusiastically
clouded by smoke and dust that old
women might have told fortunes in
them better than in 'grouts of tea"
CIRCUITS, by the a is u word which is
not so often heard nowadays as of
yore. John Thomas Smith. the anti
quarry, in that Book for a Rainy Day"
which has recently been reissued in
so excellent and attractive a form un-
der the editorial oversight Of John o.
London says that when he was about
~ years old he received not only a tip
of half a guinea from Charles Townley.
the collector Of the famous marbles,
but a pat on the head and some en-
couraging words from the great Sam
uel johnson, n consequently began
to think. he says, that there was
something in a prognostication an
bounced to my dear mother by an old
star gazer or tea grouter that through
life 1 should be favored by persons OF
high rank"
Reading of Fortunes.
How fortunes are read from the Sed-
iment in the teacup the present writer
knoweth not. The process is to turn
the cup upside down in the saucer and
then. returning the cup to draw inti-
nations Of the future from observation
of the positions assumed by the grouts
An allusion to the performance may be
found in a somewhat unexpected quar-
ter. Rcssetti in Dante at Verona
says:
Wherefore should we turn the grout
In a drained cup?
The grouts or stalks play another
| part when they noat on the sNrface Oh
the tea. Everyone knows that a float
ing stalk indicates the coming of g
stranger; but perhaps everyone doe:
not know that if you test HI stall
with the teeth and find it soft, ths
coming strange is a female; if hard
q male. Again, to continue the divina.
ton. you should put the stalk on the
back of the left hand, and strike il
three times with the back of the right
II the tea stalk fall off, the strange,
will not come after all; if it adheres
= ID III L " Sli1lNC. IL 10 III loLs
that a form of this stranger supersti-
ton exists in Japan. The late Miss
Bird, in her "Unbeaten Tracks in ia.
pan" tells us that in the north. "f 8
stalk of tea falls into a teacup, and re-
mains upright for a second. a visitor
is expected from the direction in which
1t falls
The habit of "saucering" the teo
again is another social danger signal
The people who quietly pou the tea
.,4~ --l 49, -. l-,.A
from, although they set at naught the
customs of refined society, are yet ir
the straight line of descent from the
first tea drinkers, who used very shall
tow cups, and who always spoke Of a
dish of tea.
One Curious Custom.
A curious custom which used to be
very general. even in the most refined
circles, but which would now be looked
upon as quite vulgar, was the practice
of placing the spoon in the cup by
way Of intimation that no further sup
ply of the beverage was needed.
The late MI. Fitz Edward Hall, so
honorably known for his pathological
work, said, writing in 1891, that he
remembered. as a boy In America, that
ing tea or coffee. If he did not wish for
more, to put his spoon into the cup, and
he knew that IN at least some parts of
the United States the custom survived
until less than twenty years before the
late at which he was writing.
Among vulgar folk the same disin-
olfnation for more tea was shown by
the much more ,forcible method OF
turning the cup upside down in the
saucer. There could be no possibility
Of mistaking the significance of this
action. Anderson, in one of his Cum
Ing, says:
Nay. dunnet turn tee-cup down.