Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-08-17
DOES TEA DRINKING
MAKE ONE "CANNY?"
Many Superstitions Claimed to
Be Traceable to indulgence
in Popular Beverage.
TALkINGS or
While the "Art" Of Reading Fortunes
from Sediment Left in Cups Is of
Extremely Ancient
ORIGIN.
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 hat which concerns it's use for
divinatory purposes. Professors Of the
domestic black art, say the London
Globe, told and tell fortunes by the
grounds and stalks in the cup, as 9TH
ers do by the cards.
When Arthur Clennam in Little
Dorritt," on his return home went over
the old house he found that the CELL
ings, we are told, were so Enthusiastically
clouded by smoke and dust hat old
women might have told fortunes in
them better than in 'grouts of tea"
Grouts, by the way, is a 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 n attractive a form un-
der the editorial oversight OF John o.
London" says that when he was about
II 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 g and some IN
c~ouraging words from the great Sam
uel Johnson, and consequently began
to think, he says, that there was
something in q representation an
bounced to my dear mother by an old
star gazer or tea grouter that through
life l 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 eur upside down in the saucer anC
then, returning the cup, to draw init
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. Rossetti in "Dante at Verona
says:
Wherefore should we turn the grout
In a drained cup?
The grouts or stalks play another
part when they float on the surface OF
the tea. Everyone knows that a float.
ing stalk indicates the coming OF g
stranger; but perhaps everyone does
not know hat If o test the stall
with the teeth and find it soft, tht
coming stranger is a female; If hard
q male. Again, to continue the divina.
ton, you should put the stalk OH the
back OF the left hand, and strike il
three times with the back of the right
If the tea stalk fall off, the stranger
will not come after all; If it adheres
he Is bound to arrive. 1t is curious
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. IF 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 tea
again is another social danger signal
The people who quietly pour the tea
into the saucer and then drink there
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 h
low 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 Mr.. Fitz Edward Hall, so
h%onorably known for his pathological
work, said, writing in 1891, that he
remembered. as a boy In America, that
he was always expected, after drink
ing tea or coffee. IL he did not wish for
more, to put his spoon into the cup, n
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-
clination 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 N of his Cum
berland Ballads" describing a christen-
Ing. says:
Nay. dunnet turn tee-cup down.
No more, no more! I've drank two cups
That's nowt; what! I've ta'en four.
One or two less known fancies are
associated with tea drinking in various
parts of the country. In Durham. IL
you put milk in your tea before sugar,
you lose FOUR sweetheart. The late
'.Cuthbert Bede" has recorded that he
knew a woman in Rutland village who,
on returning from a visit, brought with
her a teapot, which she gave as a
present to a young woma friend. She
explained that she did so because no
one had good luck until she had made
tea out OF her " teapot" The good
woman said that this was an old say
ing, but II will probably be new to
many. Another Midland woman once
remarked hat Ii was bad luck for two
to pour out of a pot. Many n devious
are the ways OF good and bad luck,
and few there are who know them all
-or half of them.