SAYINGS, WISE AND OTHERWISE AUTHOR OF SPARROWGRASS PAPERS, ETC., BIUEF AUTOBIOGRAPHIC SKETCH, try y another. That is all, sir. The shrub is raised from seeds like hazel nuts, planted in nurseries ; it is set out when about a foot high ; lives for fifteen or twenty years, grows sometimes as tall as General Scott and A. TALK ABOUT TEA. 5 sometimes as small as Bill Seward. It is picked four times a year. The first picking is the best, when the leaves are covered with a whitish down. This is in April, the next is in May, the next in July, the last in August. One Chinaman can pick about thirteen pounds of leaves per day, for which he will receive sixty cask, or six cents. The green leaves are spread out on bamboo frames to dry a little, the yellow and old defective leaves are picked out, then they take up a handful of the leaves, cast them into a heated pan, get them warmed up, and squeeze out the superfluous juice ; this juice contains an acrid oil, so acrid as to irritate the hands of the workman. Good God ' think of that, sir, what stuff for the stomach. Then they dry them slightly in the sun, then every separate leaf is rolled up into a little ball like a shot, then they throw these green tea shot into a pan slightly heated, stirring them up so as to warm every part alike ; then they cool the tea, and the shot are picked out one by one, the best for the first or finest chop. Every little ball picked over by hand. Then it is packed, sir. The young leaves make the ' Young Hyson, ' the older and stronger leaves the , ' Hyson,' the refuse goes by the name of ' Hyson Skin,' the 'Gunpowder' and 'Imperial' are teas rolled more care fully in rounder balls than the others. Most of these teas are colored for our market colored, sir, with a mixture of Prussian blue and gypsum ; no wonder John China man calls us outside barbarians, when, he knows we drink half a ponnd of gypsum and Prussian blue with every 6 A TALK ABOUT TEA. hundred pounds of green tea, and this tea is made to order ! Does honest John ever drink such tea ? No, sir, he knows better than that if he does wear a tail." "And black tea, you say, is from the same plant, Doctor ?" "Yes, sir, Mr. Robert Fortune brought specimens of the T/iea nigra from the Bohea mountains and compared them with the Thea viridis, and the plants were identical. The black tea, sir, is prepared in a different manner from the other. The leaves are allowed to lie spread out on the bamboo trays for a considerable time ; then they are thrown up into the air by the workman, tossed about, beat, patted, until they become soft or flaccid, then tossed in heaps, allowed to lie until they begin to change color, then they are tossed in a tea-pan, roasted over a hotter fire, rolled, shaken out, exposed to the air again, turned over, partially dried, put in the pan a second time for five minutes or so, then rolled, tossed over, and tumbled again, then put into a sieve, put over the fire again, rolled about, put over again, three or four times, then placed in a basket, thickly packed together ; the Chinaman makes a hole through the mass of leaves with his hand to give vent to the smoke and steam ; then over the fire they go, and remain there until they are perfectly dry in fact, sir, until the fire dies out. Then picked, packed, and as sorted for the market. Now, sir, here is the difference between black tea and green tea, the latter retains all its acrid properties, it produces nervous irritability, sleep- A TALK ABOUT TEA. 7 lessness, sir ; why, if you take a pinch of green tea and chew it, sir, you can sit and listen to Dr. 's sermon and keep wide awake sir a thing impossible to do undei any other circumstances. But black tea has much of thi? oil dried out of it, and therefore it is less injurious than the other ; less injurious, I say, not harmless by any means. Do you ever travel in the country 1 Well, sir, there you will see the ravages of green tea, Prussian blue, and gypsum among the fairest portion of creation women ! There, sir, you will see pinched-up, penurious, prying faces faces made up of a complication of fine lines, as if all human sympathies had got into a tangle ; necks all wrinkles ; fingers, a beautiful exhibition of bones, ligaments, and tendons ; eyes, sharp, restless, in quisitive ; shoulders, drooping ; bust, nowhere ; viscera, collapsed, and the muscular system, or the form divine generally, in a state of dubiety ; yes, sir, and all this comes from the constant use of * T hea viridisj sir, green tea, sir. Our forefathers, sir, threw the tea overboard in Boston harbor ; if people knew what we of the faculty know, sir, they would do the same thing now, sir, with every chop that comes from the celestial empire " II. Jourueg arountr a Eapioca R. BUSHWHACKER folded his napkin, drew it through the silver ring, laid it on the table, folded his arms, leaned back in his chair, by which we knew there was something at work in his knowledge-box. "My dear Madam," said he, with a Metamora shake ol the head, ' ' there are a great many things to be said about that pudding." Now, such a remark at a season of the year when eggs are five for a shilling, and not always fresh at that, is enough to discomfort any body. The Doctor perceived it at once, and instantly added, " In a geographical point of view, there are many things to be said about that pudding. M^ J vir madam," he continued, "take tapi oca itself; what ^. it, and where does it come from ?" Our eldest boy, just emerging from chickenhood, an swered, "85 Chambers street, two doors below the Irv ing House." " True, my dear young friend," responded the Doctor, with a friendly pat on the head ; " true, but that is not what I mean. Where," he repeated, with a questioning look through Ids spectacles, and a Bushwhackian nod, " does tapioca come from ?" 8 JO DUNE Y AROUND A TAPIOCA PUDDING. 9 "Rio de Janeiro and Para 1" " Yes, sir ; from Eio de Janeiro in the southern, and Para in the northern part of the Brazils, do we get our tapioca ; from the roots of a plant called the Mandioca, botanically, the JatropJia manihot, or, as they say, tli Cassava. The roots are long and round, like a sweet potato ; generally a foot or more in length. Every joint of the plant will produce its roots like the cuttings of a grape-vine. The tubers are dug up from the ground, peeled, scraped, or grated, then put in long sacks of flex ible rattan ; sacks, six feet long or more, and at the bot tom of the sack they suspend a large stone, by which the flexible sides are contracted, and then out pours the cas sava-juice into a pan placed below to receive it. This juice is poisonous, sir, highly poisonous, and very volatile. Then, my dear madam, it is macerated in water, and the residuum, after the volatile part, the poison, is evaporated, is the innocuous farina, which looks like small crumbs of bread, and which we call tapioca. The best kind of tap ioca comes from Rio, which is, I believe, about five thou sand five hundred miles from New York ; so we must put down that as a little more than one fifth -of our voyage around the pudding." This made our eldest open his eyes. ''Eggs and milk," continued Dr. Bushwhacker, "are home productions; but sugar, refined sugar, is made partly of the moist and sweet yellow sugar of Louisiana, partly of the hard and dry sugar of the West Indies. I 10 JOURNEY AROUND A TAPIOCA PUDDING. will not go into the process of refining sugar now, but I may observe here, that the sugar we get from Louisiana, if refined and made into a loa would be quite soft, with large loose crystals, while the Havana sugar, subjected to the same treatment, would make a white cone almost as compact and hard as granite. But we have made a trip io the Antilles for our sugar, and so you may add fifteen hundred miles more for the saccharine." "That is equal to nearly one-third of the circumfer ence of the pudding we live upon, Doctor." "Vanilla," continued the Doctor, "with which this pudding is so delightfully flavored, is the bean of a vine that grows wild in the multitudinous forests of Venezuela, New Granada, Guiana, and, in fact, throughout South America. The long pod, which looks like the scabbard of a sword, suggested the name to the Spaniards ; vagna, meaning scabbard, from which comes the diminutive, vanilla, or little scabbard appropriate enough, as every one will allow. These beans, which are worth here from six to twenty dollars a pound, could be as easily cultivat ed as hops in that climate ; but the indolence of the peo ple is so great, that not one Venezuelian has been found with sufficient enterprise to set out one acre of vanilla, which would yield him a small fortune every year. JS"o, sir. The poor peons, or peasants, raise their garabanzas for daily use, but beyond that they never look. They plant their crops in the footsteps of their ancestors, and, if it had not been for their ancestors, they would proba- JOURNEY ABOUND A TAPIOCA PUDDING. 11 bly have browsed on the wild grass of the llanos or plains. Ah ' there are a great many such bobs hanging at the tail of some ancestral kite, even in this great city, my dear, learned friend." " True, Doctor, you are right there." " Well, sir, the vanilla is gathered from the wild vines in the woods. Oft* goes the hidalgo, proud of his noble ancestry, and toils home under a back-load of the refuse beans from the trees, after the red monkey has had his pick of the best. A few reals pay him for the day's work, and then, hey for the cock-pit! There, Signor Olibgie meets the Marquis de Shinplaster, or the Padre Corcorochi, and of course gets whistled out of his earn ings with the first click of the gaffs. Then back he goes to his miserable hammock, and so ends his year's labor. That, sir, is the history of the flavoring, and you will have to allow a stretch across the Caribbean, say twenty- five hundred miles, for the vanilla." "We are getting pretty well around, Doctor." "Then we have sauce, here, wine-sauce; Tenerifle, I should say, by the flavor. ' from beneath the cliff Of sunny-sided Teneriffe, And ripened in the blink Of India's sun.' We must take four thousand miles at least for the wine, my learned friend, and say nothing of the rest of the eaucc." 12 JOURNEY AROUND A TAPIOCA PUDDING. "Except the nutmeg, Doctor." "Thank you, my dear young friend, thank you. The nutmeg ! To the Spice Islands, in the Indian Ocean we are indebted for our nutmegs. Our old original Knicker bockers, the web-footed Dutchmen, have the monopoly of this trade. Every nutmeg has paid toll at the Hague before it yields its aroma to our graters. The Spice Islands ! The almost fabulous Moluccas, where neither corn nor rice will grow ; where the only quadrupeds they have are the odorous goats that breathe the fragrant air, and the musky crocodiles that bathe in the high-seasoned waters. The Moluccas, ' the isles Of Ternate and Ticlore, whence merchants bring Their spicy drugs.' There, sir 1 Milton, sir. From Ternate and Tidore, and the rest of that marvelous cluster of islands, we get our nutmegs, our mace, and our cloves. Add twelve thou sand miles at least to the circumference of the pudding for the nutmeg." ' ' This is getting to be a pretty large pudding, Doctor." "Yes, sir. We have traveled already twenty-five .housand five hundred miles around it, and now let us re-circumnavigate and come back by the way of Mexico, so that we can get a silver spoon, and penetrate into the interior." m. i&atiiant Burner (ftastor. "begin to think there is wisdom in Dr. Bush whacker. "There are other things to study geography from, besides maps and globes," is one of his favorite maxims. We begin to believe it. u Observe, my learned friend, "said he, "how the reflected sunshine from those cut bottles in the castor-stand, throws long plumes of light in every direction across the white dam ask." We leaned forward, and saw the phenomenon pointed out by the index-finger of the Doctor, and as -we knew something was coming from his pericranics, kept silent of course. "Well," said he, inflating his lips until his face looked like that of a cast-iron caryatid, "well, my dear friend, every pencil of light there is a point of the compass, and the contents of that castor come from places as various as those diverging rays indicate. The mustard is from England, the vinegar from France, China fur nishes the soy, Italy the oil, we have to ask the West Indies to contribute the red pepper, and the East Indies to supply the black pepper." We ventured to remark that those facts we were not ignorant of, by any means. " True, my dear learned friend," said the Doctor, with a Bort of snort ; "but God bless me! if one-half of the 13 14 THE KADI ANT DINNER CASTOE. people in this city know it." "Mustard," continued Doctor Bushwhacker, not at all discomfited, "comes from Durham, in the north of England that is, the best quality. The other productions of this county do not amount to much, nor is it celebrated for any thing, except that here the Queen Philippa, wife of King Edward the Third, captured David Bruce, King of Scots, for which reason no Scotchman can eat Durham mustard except with tears in his eyes. We get our grindstones from this English county, my learned friend ; and when you sharpen your knife or your appetite hereafter, it will remind you of Durham. That long pencil of light from the next bottle points to France, where they make the best wine-vinegar we get. Just observe the difference between that sturdy, pot-bellied mustard-bottle, which represents John Bull, and this slender, sharp, vinegar- cruet, which represents Johnny Crapeau; there is a national distinction, sir, in cruets as well as men. The quantity of vinegar made in France is very great. The best comes from Bordeaux ; sometimes it is so strong that the Frenchmen call it ' vinaigre des trois dents,' or vin egar with three teeth ; but the finest flavored vinegar I ever met with came from Portugal, and for a salad, noth ing could equal its delicate aroma. Well, sir, then there is the red-pepper, the Cayenne ; that I presume is from J amaiea ?" We assented. " The best and strongest kind is made partly of the bird pepper, and partly of the long-pod pepper of the West THE EADIAKT DINNER CASTOR. 15 Indies. This is a very healthy condiment, sir; in the tropics it is indispensable. There is a maxim there, sir, that people who eat Cayenne pepper will live for ever. Like variety, it is the spice of life, sir, at the equator. Our own gardens, sir, furnish capsicum, and in fact it grows in all parts of the world ; but that from the West Indies is esteemed to be the best, and I think with jus tice. Now, sir, the next pencil of light ig reflected from the Yellow Sea!" "The soy, Doctor?" " The soy, my learned friend; the best fish-sauce on the face of the globe. The soy, sir, or 'soya,' as the Japanese call it, is a species of bean, which would grow in this country as well as any other Chinese plant. Few Chinamen eat anything without a mixture of this bean- jelly in some shape or other. They scald and peel the beans, then add an equal quantity of wheat or barley, then the mess is allowed to ferment, then they add a little salt, sometimes tumeric for color, water is added also, in the proportion of three to one of the mass, and after a few months' repose the soy is pressed, strained, and ready for market. That, sir, is the history of that cruet, and now we will pass on to the black pepper." "A glass of wine first, Doctor, if you please." ' ' Thank you, my dear friend ; bless me, how dry I am." "Black pepper, Piper nigrum, is the berry of a vine that grows in Sumatra and Ceylon, but our principal 16 THE RADIANT DINNER CASTOR. supply of this commonest of condiments comes from the Island of Java ; and we have to pay our web-footed Knickerbockers, across the water, a little toll upon that, as we do upon many other things of daily consumption. The pepper-vine is a very beautiful plant, with large, Jval, polished leaves and showy white flowers, that would look beautiful if wound around the head of a bride." "No doubt, Doctor, but I think the less pepper about a bride the better." "Good, my learned friend; you are right; if I were to get married again, sir," continued the Doctor in a very hearty manner, ' ' I should be a little afraid of the contact of piper nigrwn" "What is white pepper, Doctor?" "White pepper is the same, sir, as black pepper, only it is decorticated, that is, the black husk has been rubbed off. Now, sir, there is not much else interesting about pepper, except that the best probably comes from the kingdom of Bantam ; and the quantity, formerly export ed from the seaport of that name in the Island of Java, amounted, sir, to ten thousand tons annually; a good Reasonable supply of seasoning for the world, sir. Well, sir, we are also indebted to Bantam for a very small breed of fowls, the peculiar use of which no philosopher has as yet been able to determine. Now, sir, we have finished the castor, I think ?" "There is one point of light, Doctor, that indicates Italy; what of the oil?" THE RADIANT DINNER CASTOR. 17 "All! Lucca and Parma I Indeed, sir, I may say, France, Spain, and Italy ! " ' Three kingdoms claim its birth ; Both hemispheres proclaim its worth.' The olive, sir. I remember something from my school boy days about that. It is from Pliny's History of Na ture, sir. (Liber XV.) The olive in the western world was the companion, sir, as well as the symbol of peace. Two centuries after the foundation of Rome, both Italy and Africa were strangers to this useful plant. It was naturalized in those countries, sir, and at length carried into the heart of Spain and Gaul. The timid errors of the ancients, that it required a certain degree of heat* and could not flourish in the neighborhood of the sea* were insensibly exploded by industry and experience. There, sir ! But the timid errors of the ancients are not more surprising than the timid errors of the moderns. The olive tree should be as common here as it is in the old world, especially as it is the emblem of peace. My old friend, Dominick Lynch, sir, the wine-merchant, the only great wine-merchant we ever had, sir, imported the finest oil, sir, from Lucca, known even to this day as ' Lynch's Oil.' He it was who made Chateau Margaux and the Italian opera, popular, sir, in this great metrop olis. Poor Dom! Well, sir, I suppose you know all about the olive tree ?" " On the contrary, very little." 2 18 THE RADIANT DINNER CASTOR. " Well, the olive is as easily propagated as the willow. You must go boldly to work, however, and cut off' a limb of the tree, as big as my arm, and plant that. No twig, sir. In three years it will bear ; in five years it will have a full crop ; in ten years it will be in perfection. If you plant a slip, it will take twenty years or more to mature. Its mode of bearing is biennial, and you can prime it every other year, and plant the cuttings. Longworth ought to take up the oh' ve, sir ; and he might have a wreath to put around his head, as he deserves. Well, my learned friend, when the olive is ripe the fruit I mean it is of a deep violet color. Those we get in bot tles are plucked while they are green. The plums are put between two circular mill-stones the upper one con vex, the lower one concave; the fruit is thus crushed, and afterward put into a press, and the oil is extracted by means of a powerful lever. That is all, sir ; an oil-press is not a very handsome article to look at; but in the South, I think it would be serviceable at least; but ter there is not always of the best quality in summer ; and olive oil would be a delightful substitute." " What of French and Spanish oil, Doctor?" " Spanish oil is very good, sir. So is French ; we get little of the Italian oil now. The oil of Aix, near Mar seilles, is of superior quality ; but that does not come to our market. Lately I have used the oil of Bordeaux in place of the Italian ; it is very fine. But speaking of olivo oil, let me tell you an anecdote of iny friend G odey, THE RADIANT DINNER CASTOR. 19 of Philadelphia, of the Ladied Book^ sir, the best heart ed man of that name in the world. Well, sir, Godey had a new servant-girl ; I never knew any body that didn't have a new servant-girl I Well, sir, Godey had a dinner party in early spring, when lettuce is a rarity, and of course he had lettuce. He is a capital hand at a salad, and so he dressed it. The guests ate it ; and sir well, sir, I must hasten to the end of the story. Said Godey to the new girl next morning: 'What has become of that bottle of castor-oil I gave you to put away yesterday morning ?' ' Sure,' said she, ' you said it was castor-oil, and I put it in the castor? 'Well,' said Godey, '] thought BO.' " IV. ant " sa id. we over our matutinal, but unusual cup of chocolate, " how is it that drinking chocolate produces a headache with many per sons who can eat chocolate bon-bons by the quantity with impunity ! " " My learned friend, " said Dr. Bushwhacker, rousing up and shaking his mane, "I will lell you all about it. Chocolate, or as the great Linnaeus used to call it, 'Theo drama 1 food for the gods is a most peculiar preparation. It is made of the berries of the cacao, sir, a small tree indigenous to South America. We misname the berries cocoa, because the jicaras, or native cups in which the cocoa was drunk by the Mexicans, were made of the small end of the cocoa-nut. The tree, sir, bears a beautiful rose-colored blossom, and that produces a long pod, resembling our cucumber ; in that pod we find the cacao imbedded a multitude of oval pits, about the size of shelled almonds, and surrounded with a white acid pulp. Now, sir, this pulp produces a very refreshing drink in the tropics, called vino cacao, or cacao-wine, which is more esteemed there than the beverage we make from the berries." "Bui), Doctor, how about the headache?" 20 CHOCOLATE AND COCOA, 21 * Sir," said the Doctor, "I am getting to that. If you take a pair of compasses, and put the right leg in the middle of the Madeira River, one of the tributaries of the majestic Amazon, and extend the other to Caracas, then sweep it round in a circle, you will embrace within that the native land of the cacao. It grows, sir, from Vene zuela to the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, an extent of coun try more beautiful, vaster, and of less importance than any other territory on the habitable globe. Well, sir, this plant, which, from its oleaginous properties, seems suitable to supply the want of animal food, is expressly adapted for that country. ' He who has drank one cup,' says Fernando Cortez, ' can travel a whole day without any other food.' Now, sir, we must not believe this al together ; but the value of this liquid nutriment for those who have to cross the Llanos of the north, or the Pam pas of the south, is not to be lightly estimated." "But the headache, Doctor?" "Chocolate," continued Dr. Bushwhacker, "is made of the cacao berries, slightly roasted and triturated in water ; a certain degree of heat is necessary in its prepa ration. The best we have comes from Caracas ; it is of a light brown color, and quite expensive, sometimes two or three dollars a pound. The ordinary chocolate we import from France, Spain, Germany, and the West Indies, is a mixture of cacao with sago, rice, sugar, and other arti- . cles, flavored with cinnamon or vanilla, the latter being deleterious on account of its effects upon the nervous sys- 22 CHOCOLATE AXD COCOA. tern. How much Caracas cacao is used here I do not know, but I presume Para furnishes our manufacturers with their principal supplies. The quantity of cacao that comes here in its native state is very great, compared with the manufactured article, the chocolate ; we import one hundred and seventy thousand dollars' worth of the one, against a little over two thousand dollars' worth of the other." 4 ' But the headache, Doctor ? What is the reason that liquid choco " " Sir," replied Dr. Bushwhacker, drawing himself up with cast-iron dignity, " if I interrupted you as often as you interrupt me, that question would be answered some time after the allies take Sebastopol. Chocolate was introduced into Spain by Fernando Cortez ; to this day it is in Spain what coffee is to France, or tea to England, the pet beverage of all classes of people who can afford it. It was introduced into England simultaneously with coffee, just before the restoration of King Charles the Second. Then it was prepared for the table by merely mixing it with hot water, no milk, sir. Pope alludes to it in the Rape of the Lock. ' Whatever spirit, careless of his charge, his post neglects,' " ' In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow, And tremble at the sea that froths below.' The Spaniards, sir, do not use milk in preparing it, nor. do the South Americans. By the way, thirty years ago, CHOCOLATE AND COCOA. 23 my friend, Col. Duane, of Philadelphia, published a book on Colombia, which is highly interesting ; so, too, you will find Zea's Colombia of the same period ; Pazo's Letters to Henry Clay, written in 1819 ; Depon's Voyages in the early part of this century ; and the still more interesting voyages of Don George Juan, and Don Antonio de Ulloa, in 1735. Then there is Hippisly's Narrative, Brown's Itinerary, and many other books, my learned friend, that will tell you about the cacao. In that country, where meat is not abundant, a eup of chocolate supplies the necessary nutriment, and a breakfast of cacao and fruit, sir, is satisfying and delicious. Arbuthnot says it is rich, alimentary, and anodyne." "But the headache, Doctor ?" " In Spain," continued the Doctor, it is served up in beautiful cups of fillagree work, made in the shape of tulips or lilies, with leaves that fold over the top by touching a spring. These leaves are to protect it from the flies. The ladies are so fond of it that they have it sent after them to church ; this the bishops -interdicted for a while, but that only made it more desirable." " But what are its peculiar properties, Doctor ?" " Tea, my learned friend," reph'ed the Doctor, curtly, " inspires scandal and sentiment ; coffee excites the im agination ; but chocolate, sir, is aphrodisiac 1" V. antr dear learned friend," said Dr. Bush whacker, putting down his half-empty goblet of claret, " that is the .finest wine I ever tasted. A man, sir, should go down on his knees when he drinks such wine ; it inspires me, sir, with humility and devo tion. Six months' retirement and study, with a liberal allowance of claret like that, would induce an epic poem, sir!" " Retirement and study would do much, Doctor ; but as for the claret I have my doubts. France, with all her clarets, has no great poet." ' Sir," replied Doctor Bushwhacker, " France has Coi * neille, Racine, Moliere !" " True." " La Fontaine. Voltaire, and Boileau." " True." " Jongleurs, Troubadours, Trouveres, without number, sir!" "I know it." " Beranger, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, and what is tho name of that barber-poet ? ah ! Jasmin." 24 NOTABLES AND POTABLES. 25 * Yes, Jasmin." " And," continued the Doctor, " there was Du Bartas, sir, who wrote the 'Divine Week' and the 'Battle of Ivry,' sir!" " Yes, sir." " Claret," said Dr. Bushwhacker significantly. " Great thing for wit, Doctor !" " My dear learned friend, it is," replied the Doctor, emptying his goblet, and giving a triumphant snort, "and for poetry, too." " How is it, then, that with all her great poets, France has not produced a great poem ?" " Sir," asked Dr. Bushwhacker, " did you ever read the GEdipe of Corneille ?" " No, sir." " Then I would advise you to read it, sir." "My learned friend," continued Dr. Bushwhacker, after an impressive pause, " I have a theory that certain wines produce certain effects upon the mind. I believe, sir, that if I were to come in upon a dinner-party about the time when conversation had become luminous and choral, I could easily tell whether Claret, Champagne, Sherry, Madeira, Burgundy, Port, or Punch, had been the prevailing potable. Yes, sir, and no doubt a skillful critic could determine, after a careful analysis of the sub ject, upon what drink, sir, a poem was written. Yes, sir, or tell a claret couplet from a sherry couplet, sir, or dis- 26 NOTABLES AND POTABLES. tinguish the flavor of Port in one stanza, and Madeira in another, from internal evidence, sir." " Suppose, Doctor, the poet were a water-drinker f " "My dear learned friend," replied the Doctor vehe mently, "if you can find in the whole range of literature and I will go farther than that if you can find in the whole range of intelligence, either poet, statesman, orator, artist, hero, or divine, who was a water-drinker, and worth one (excuse me) curse ! then, sir, I will renounce the practice of my profession, and occupy my time in a water- cure establishment. On the contrary, look at the illus trious writers of all ages and nations, sir; look at Homer. There is no end to the juncketings in the Iliad, sir ; and the Greek heaven, sir, is pretty well supplied with every thing else but water, I believe. -' This did to laughter cheer White-wristed Juno, who now took a cup of him, and smiled, The sweet peace-making draught went round, and lame Ephaistus Nectar to all the other gods. A laughter never left, [filled Shook all the blessed deities, to see the lame so deft At the cup service. All that day, even till the sun went down, They banqueted ; and had such cheer as did their wishes crown.' " " "What was Homer's peculiar tipple, Doctor ?" " The wine of Chios, sir, undoubtedly. In this island, it is said, the first wines were made by (Enopion, son of Bacchus ; and here, too, it is said Homer was born. I believe both, sir. From the island of Chios came the NOTABLES AND POTABLES. 27 first wine and the first epic, sir ; hand in hand they came into the world, and hand in hand they will go out of it, sir!" " The Eomans, Doctor, were great wine-drinkers." " Yes, my learned friend. Falernian and Massic, sir, inspired Virgil and Horace, and the poets have made the wines immortal. Martial praises his native wine of Tarragonia, sir ; lie was an old sherry drinker. And had the Italian vine, sir, perished with the Eoman Empire, I have my doubts whether Dante, Pulci, Tasso, Petrarch, Boiardo, and Ariosto would have been what they now are in the eyes of an admiring posterity. Yes, sir, and there is Redi, too ! Why, the whole of Italy is in his l JSacco in Toscana.'' " " What wine do you suppose Shakspeare preferred, Doctor ?" " Sack ! my learned friend dry Sherry or Canary, sir. All the poets of the Elizabethan age, sir, were sack-drink ers Ben Johnson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Marlowe, Ra leigh, Chapman, Spencer, Sydney so, too, was Herrick, as he says : ' Thy lies shall lack Grapes, before Herrick leave Canarie Sack.' and the other writers of his time, sir Carew, Wither, Cowley, Waller, Crashaw, Broome ' All worldly care is Madness ; But Sack and good Cheat Will, in spite of our fear, Inspire our Souls with Gladness.' 28 NOTABLES AtfD POTABLES. That was the burthen of a song in the time of the Rump, sir! It was a 'Rump and dozen' in those days, my learned friend." " One writer of that period was an exception, Doctor." " What writer, sir ?" "Milton." " Died of the gout, sir died of the gout, sir. Milton, my dear friend, died of the gout." " Cervantes was a Sherry-drinker, Doctor ?" "Of course, my learned friend. And, no doubt, the ' Val do Penas' of La Mancha was a favorite beverage with him. But, sir," continued Dr. Bushwhacker sud denly, sitting upright and holding his head like a poised avalanche, ' ' by speaking of Cervantes, sir, you have put a keystone into the arch of my theory, sir. The Eliza bethan era should be called the age of Sack, sir. Look at those two great writers, Shakspeare and Cervantes, each a transcendant genius, sir ; both living at the same time, sir ; both dying on the same day sir on the 23d of April, 1616." "Well, Doctor?" "And both drinking Sack, sir, or Sherry, constantly. ' If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them should be, to forswear thin potations, and to addict themselves to Sack.' Shakspeare, sir ! King Henry Fourth, part second, act fourth, scene third, sir!" "How long did this golden age of Sack continue, Doctor ?" NOTABLES AND POTABLES. 29 " Until Charles the Second returned from France, and brought Claret into fashion. You can see the light, deli cate, fanciful potable, sir, in the literature of this period as plain as sunlight. Next came the age of Port, sir, in Queen Anne's reign." " Ah ! I remember, the Methuen treaty." "Yes, sir, the treaty of 1703. Port was encouraged by low duties, and lighter and better wines of other coun tries interdicted by enormous imposts, and in consequence we have a new school of literature, sir. The imaginative, the nervous, the pathetic, the humorous, and the sublime departed with the age of Sack ; the gay, the witty, the amorous, and the fanciful, with the age of Claret ; and the artificial, the critical, the satirical, and the common place arose, sir, with the age of Port ! But bless my heart," said Doctor Bushwhacker, rising and looking at his watch, "I must look after my patients. The next time we meet we will have a talk over modern wines and authors, and that will be more interesting, I dare say." 'Notaries anlr " The last discourse we had, my learned friend," said Dr. Bushwhacker, " was about wine and wisdom. What shall be the next ?" "Pardon me, Doctor, we are not yet through with 30 NOTABLES AND POTABLES. that. We reached Port and Queen Anne ; what followed after the age of Pope and Addison ?" "The prohibition of wine, sir," replied the Doctor, solemnly, "led to the substitution of spirits. You see how Hogarth, in his immortal pictures, shows its pro gress in Gin Lane. Well, sir, if you wish to see how intimate are the relations between drinking and thinking, mark the host of clever literary vagabonds of this period. Genius in rags, sir ; genius with immortal thoughts in hie brain and no crown to his hat ; Pegasus, with everything but his wings, in the pawnbroker's shop. The long ex hausting toil of literary occupation, which needs a natu ral stimulant, such as wine, (for men of sedentary habits must have it, sir,) was relieved by stronger stimulants, because they were cheaper. And now, sir, mark the two great geniuses of the middle of the last century, Fielding and Smollett ; see the wonderful power of those writers, and observe the characteristic coarseness of their works, and what else is there to say ' to point a moral,' farther, than that Smollett, with a shattered constitution, went to Leghorn, to die there; and Fielding, with a shattered constitution, went to Lisbon, to die there. Fielding, at the age of 47, and Smollett at the age of 50, sir." " What would you infer from that, Doctor ?" " Sir," replied the Doctor, " I leave you to draw the inference. Now, sir, we come to another epoch. A period, sir, of great mental brilliancy, and I wish you to observe that fine wine drinking had again become fash- NOTABLES AND POTABLES. 31 ionable. Claret was monstrously expensive, but claret was the mode. Now, sir, we have Fox, and Pitt, and Sheri dan, and Burke, and Chesterfield, and Garrick, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Goldsmith. And among this bril liant cluster there stands out conspicuous a remarkable figure. Not that he was greater than these, not that hia genius was superior, nor his wisdom more profound, yet still the most conspicuous figure in the group was " "Dr. Samuel' Johnson." " Dr. Jamuel Johnson," echoed Dr. Bushwhacker. " Did you ever know, sir, leaving out a few of our prom inent hydrophobists, a man so eminent for invective, asperity, bitterness, insolence, dogmatic assumption, and gluttony, as the Ursa Major of English literature ? And, sir, he was a total abstinent. To use his own words : ' J now no more think of drinking wine than a horse does. The wine upon the table is no more for me than for the dog who is under the table.' But he could drink, sir, twenty-three cups of tea at poor Mrs. Thrale's table at a sitting, until four o'clock in the morning, sir, which may be set down as a fair sample of teetotal debauchery, my learned friend." " Dr. Johnson was a very good hearted man, I believe." "A good man, sir, a good man, sir. His charity, hia candor, his tenderness, his attachment to his friends, hia love of the poor, his rigid honesty, his piety, and his filial affection, were wonderful, sir, We all love this Samuel 32 NOTABLES AND POTABLES. Johnson. But, sir, there was also another character ; an irritable, uncouth, imperious, ill-tempered, gluttonous, rude, prejudiced, intolerant, violent, unsparing old cynic ; and this Samuel Johnson we do not love. Sir, human nature has scarcely formed a character so disproportion ate. He was a great man, sir, and a great bear, sir." * ' I thought you said no water drinker ever was a great man, Doctor?" "My learned friend," replied the Doctor, growing slightly purple, "Dr. Samuel Johnson was a tea drinker, and used to be a wine drinker! But hand me the Madeira, if you please, and a handful of filberts. At the next dinner we will talk of the writers of this century. What is this wine ?" " Virginia Reserve, Doctor." " Then we will drink it, sir ; Virginia is a noble State, and it is full of noble men " " And women, Doctor." " God bless you, my dear friend and women 1" NotaWes atrtr "What do you think of whiskey-punch, Doctor, as a potable ?" "Bless my heart 1" said the Doctor, shaking his bushy mane, "by all means ; I never refuse it." (Enter a tray, two lemons, hot wa(er } a silver sugar bowl, and the Islay.} NOTABLES AND POTABLES. 33 "Punch," said Doctor Bushwhacker, "was the chief inspirer of the hearty, homely, natural, vigorous writers of this century. You see how the great Sir Walter used it, sir ; there is a touch of * mountain dew' in his tenderest productions, sir; the Heart of Mid- Lothian could never have been written by a cold-water drinker no, sir ; nor was it. I may even go a little farther back, to a more unfortunate child of genius Burns, sir ! Robert of Ayrshire loved the barley broo * not wisely, but too well ' for himself ; he was improvident ; but then he made posterity rich. (A little more of the Islay ; thank you.") "Byron, Doctor?" " Drank gin ; that we know pretty well, I believe, my learned friend. There is a touch of juniper in all Byron a mixture of the bitter and the aromatic." "And Coleridge?" "Coleridge," said the Doctor, gravely, with a sort of emphatic spill of the hot fluid, "illustrates my theory in a remarkable manner, sir Coleridge and De Quincey, both. What idea do you have of the Vision of Kubla Khan, and the Suspiria de Profundis, taken together? My learned friend, he begins to dream who is absorbed^ in the pages of either : the world, yea, the great globe itself, becomes intangible ; he is floating away, on a sea . of ether, in space more illimitable than human thought could scan before ; his vision is dilated, yet undefined ; the procession of time sweeps on, measured by centuries ; 34 NOTABLES AND POTABLE^. events accumulate with supernatural aggregation ; the scenery by which he is surrounded has surpassed sublimi ty itself, and he listens to the river that runs ' -through caverns, measureless to man. Down to a SUNLESS sea.' "Well, Doctor?" "OriUM, sir!" replied the Doctor, with awful solem nity. "What of Charles Lamb, Doctor?" ."Lamb ? Dear Charles, has certainly lisped of hot gin and water in his inimitable letters," replied the Doctor, ' ' or, as he would say, ' hot water, with a s-s-s-entiment of gin.'" "That sounds Lambish, Doctor." "My learned friend," replied Dr. Bushwhacker, "I know it ; I have got Charles Lamb by heart, sir. By the way, a new anecdote of Elia : he had a friend one night at No. 4 Inner Temple Lane ; negus was the potable of the evening, from tenderness to Mary's feelings, who sometimes shook her sisterly head at the 's-s-s-entiment.' 'It seems a poor cur dog had attracted the attention of the gentle-hearted Charles that day, and he had invited him in, fed him, and tied him up slightly in the little yard back of the house. Charles was talking in hie phospho rescent way over the negus, when Mary interrupted him: * Charles, that dog yelps so.' Elia flashed on. 'Charles, that dog' 'What i-i-is it, Mary? Oh! the dog? NOTABLES AND POTABLES. 35 He-lie-he-he's enjoying him-s-s-self.' l Enjoying himself, Charles ?' ' Ye-ye-yes as well as he can with * whine and water.' " 4 'Capital story, Doctor. What of the Laureate?" "In reading Southey," replied Doctor Bushwhacker, ' ' you feel the want of the rare old vinous smack pecu liar to the writings of authors of eminence, sir. I may say the same, too, of Wordsworth. Both were tolerably abstinent ; but Southey had his wine-cellar at Greta Hall, and Wordsworth, in celebrating his first visit to the rooms once occupied by Milton at Christ College, was a little overcome, sir, by a '-his visit, sir. Southey, in his personal character, manners, and habits, must have re sembled oui % dear Henry Inman, sir." "AndHazlitt?" "Misanthropic, cynical, Hazlitt, sir, used to drink black tea, sir, of the intensest strength. He is another illustration of my theory, sir." " And Keats ?" " Read Keats over, my learned friend ; and if you can unlatch the tendrils of the vine from any of his super- exquisite poems, great or small, then sir, I will bury my >ancet. What a delicate taste for wine he must have had !" "And Shelley, Doctor ?" " My dear friend," said the Doctor, rising, and upset ting his tumbler, " Shelley never understood the human aspect of existence. I fear me he was not a wine-drinker, Suppose we say, or admit he was a solitary exception ? n fiotatles antr "Do you know," said Dr. Bushwhacker, as he stretch- ed out his full glass to be touched, "how this custom originated ? this ringing of wine-bells or kissing of beakers, sir?" We replied in the negative. "Then, sir, I will tell you," replied the Doctor. " It was the invention of a learned French philosopher, to il lustrate the five senses. The beautiful color of wine delights the eye seeing; the delicate bouquet gratifies the nose smelling ; the cool glass suggests a pleasure to the fingers -feeling ; and, sir, by drinking it we gratify exquisitely the taste. Now, sir, touch glasses for the finest chime in the world, that rings out good fellowship, sir, and we have the fifth sense hearing." " Quite a little poera, Doctor, in five lines." "Put it in verse, sir, put it inverse I give you the idea." " Apropos, Doctor, I have a German song here, trans lated by a iriend: Let me read it to you. (JZditor reads.) "'LOVE, SONG, AND WINE. '"DEAE FUEDERICUS: A. Walther writ this in "quaint old sounding German." It is done into English by your friend, HUGH PYNNSAUEET. NOTABLES AND POTABLES. 37 " ' Through the gloom of this sad life of ours, Three glorious planets still shine, Serene from the azure of heaven, And men call them Love, Song, and Wine, " ' In the dear voice of love all the passion Of a trusting and earnest heart lies ; j. And pleasure by love grows immortal, While sorrow faints, withers, and dies. " ' Then wine gives a courage to passion, Inspires the melodious art, And reddens the gold of the sunlight That streams o'er the May of the heart, " ' But song is most noble of all these ; To mortals it adds the divine ; It thrills through our hearts like a passion, And glows through our senses like wine. " ' Then quench all the rest of the planets, Bid the golden-rayed stars cease to shine ; We'll not miss them so long as God leaves us Those heart-stars of Love, Song, and Wine."' 4 Excellent I ' f said the Doctor, shaking his bushy head. * ' By the way, what grand old songs those Rhine songs are ! And the vineyards of the Rhine are reflected in the songs as they are in the river. * O ! the pride of the ' German heart is this noble River ! and right it is ; for of the rivers of this beautiful earth, there is none so beauti ful as this. There is hardly a league of its whole course, from its cradle in the snowy Alps to its grave in the sands of Holland, which boasts not its peculiar charms. By 38 NOTABLES AND POTABLES. heavens ! if I were a German, I would be proud of it, too ; and of the clustering grapes that hang about its temples, as it reels onwards through vineyards in a tri umphal march, like Bacchus, crowned and drunken.' There, sir, what do you think of that ?" ' ' Grand, Doctor, like the triumphant chanting of an organ. Who wrote it ?" ' ' Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, sir ! Hyperion, sir ! Read it over, and get it by heart." " The German writers all use the wines of Fatherland, Doctor." ' ' Nearly all, from Martin Luther down. I say nearly all Goethe was an exception. The courtly Goethe used to drink the fine Burgundies and Bordeaux of France. But Schiller, sir, was a Rhine-wine drinker. In fact his writing-table was always supplied with the golden pota ble of the Rhine. Now, sir, we see between these two men of eminent genius, two separate and distinguishing characteristics. Goethe was different from all other German poets but Schiller was above all other German poets, including Goethe himsel" VI. into a dear, learned friend," said the Doctor " a Bowl of Lettuce is the Venus of the dinner table ! It rises upon the sight cool, moist, and beauti ful, like that very imprudent lady coming out of the sea, sir I And to complete the image, sir, neither should be dressed too much 1" When Dr. Bushwhacker had issued this observation, he drew himself up in a very portly manner, as if he felt called upon to defend himself as well as his image. Then, after a short pause, he broke silence. " Lactuca, or lettuce, is one of the most common vege tables in the world ; it has been known, sir, from time immemorial ; it was as common, sir, on the tables of the ancients as it is now, and was eaten in the same way, sir, dressed with oil and vinegar. We get, sir, from Athenaeus some idea of the condiments used : not all of these contributed to make a salad, but it shows they had the materials : " ' Dried grapes, and salt, and eke new wine Newly boiled down, and asatoetida, (pah !) And cheese, and thyme, and sesame, (open sesame,) And nitre too, and cummin-seed, And sumach, honey, and majorum, 40 A PEEP INTO A SALAD BOWL. And herbs, and vinegar, and oil, And sauce of onions, mustard, and capers mixed, And parsley, capers too, and eggs, And lime, and cardimums, and th' acid juice Which comes from the green fig-tree ; besides lard, And eggs and honey, and flour wrapped in fig-leaves, And all compounded in one savory force-meat.' They had pepper too. Ophelian says : " ' Pepper from Libya take, and frankincense.' So, sir, if you had dined with Alcibiades, no doubt he would have dressed a salad for you with Samian oil, and Sphettian vinegar, sir, pepper from Libya, and salt from ah hm " " Attica, doctor." " Attica, my learned friend ; thank you. Now, sir, there was one thing the ancients did with lettuce which we do not do. They boiled it, sir, and served it up like asparagus ; so, too, did they Avith cucumbers a couple of indigestible dishes they were, no doubt. Lettuce, my dear friend, should have a quick growth, in the first place, to be good ; it should have a rich mould, sir, that it may spring up quickly, so as to be tender and crisp. Then, sir, it should be new-plucked, carried from the garden a few minutes before it is placed upon the table. I would suggest a parasol, sir, to keep the leaves cool until it reaches the shadow of within-doors. Then, sir, it must be washed mind you ice-water I Then place it upon the table what Corinthian ornament more perfect and symmetrical. Now, sir, comes the important part, the DKESSING. 'To dress a salad,' says the learned Petriia A PEEP INTO A SALAD BOWL. 41 Petronius, ' you must have a prodigal to furnish the oil, a counselor to dispense the salt, a miser to dole out the vinegar, and a madman to stir it.' Commit that to memory, my learned friend." "It is down, Doctor." (Tablets.} "Let me show you," continued Dr. Bushwhacker, " how to dress a salad. Take a small spoonful of salt, thus: twice the quantity of mustard 'Durham' thus: incorporate : pour a slender stream of oil from the cruet, so : gently mix and increase the action by degrees," (head of hair in commotion, and face briUiant in color ;) " dear me ! it is very warm now, sir, oil in abundance, so ; a dash of vinegar, very light, like the last touches of the artist ; and, sir, we have the dressing. Now, take up the lettuce by the stalk ! Break ofi' the leaves leaf by leaf shake off the water, replace it in the salad-bowl, pepper it slightly, pour on the dressing, and there you* have it, sir." " Doctor, is that orthodox ?" ' " Sir," replied Dr. Bushwhacker, holding the boxwood spoon in one hand and the box-wood fork in the other ; ' ' the eyes of thirty centuries are looking down upon me. I know that Frenchmen will sprinkle the lettuce with oil until it is thoroughly saturated ; then, sir, a little pepper ; then, sir, salt or not, as it happens ; then, sir, vinaigre by the drop all very well. Our people, sir, in the State of New Jersey, will dress it with salt, vinegar, and pep per perfectly barbarous, my learned friend ; then comes 42 A PEEP INTO A SALAD BOWL. the elaborate Englishman ; and our Pennsylvania friend, the Rev. Sidney Smith, sir, gives us a recipe in verse, that shows how they do it there, and at the same time, exhibits the deplorable ignorance of that very peculiar people. I quote from memory, sir : " ' Two large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve Smoothness and softness to the salad give ; Of mordant mustard add a single spoon. Distrust the condiment that bites too soon, But deem it not, Lady of herbs, a fault To add a double quantity of salt. Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown, And twice with vinegar procured from town ; True flavor needs it, and your poet begs The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs. Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl, And, scarce suspected, animate the whole. Then lastly in the flavored compound toss One magic spoonful of anchovy sauce. O great and glorious ! O herbaceous treat ! 'T would tempt the dying anchorite to eat ; Back to the world he'd turn his weary soul, And plunge his fingers in the Salad Bowl !' Now, sir, I have tried that, and a compound more execra ble is not to be thought of. No, sir ! Take some of my salad, and see if you do not dream afterwards of the Greek mythology." vn jfollet. >Y dear friend," said the Doctor, holding his cup in the left hand thumb and forefinger, with the other three fingers stretched out over the rest of the table, "I never inhale the fragrance of coffee without thinking, of the old fashioned coffee pot, or 'Madame Follet,' as dear Miss Bremer used to call it. Do you know, sir and I suppose you know every thing do you know, sir, there are a great many old fashioned people in the world ?" We replied, the fact was not to be disputed. " Old fashioned people, sir ; old fashioned in dress, in speech, in politeness, in ideas, in every thing. And, sir, not long since, I had occasion to visit two old ladies, sir ; I went down stairs to the basement dining room, sir, without ceremony, sir, and there I found the antiquated virgins over their coffee, sir ; and in the middle of the table there was the old fashioned tin coffee pot, sir, scoured as bright as sand could make it, with a great big superannuated spout, and a great broad backed handle, sir, and a great big, broad bottom, sir, as broad, sir, as 44 MADAM FOLLETT. the top of the great bell crowned hat I used to wear when I went to visit them as a spruce young buck, in the year eighteen hundred and twenty, sir." Here the Doc tor's spectacles fairly glistened again. ' 'Well, Doctor?" " Sir," replied Dr. Bushwhacker, "there was plenty of silver in the cupboard, plenty ; great pots, and coffee urns of solid metal, sir, with massive handles to match ; but they were so old fashioned as to prefer the old, scoured, broad bottomed tin pot, sir, and with reason, too, sir." " Give us the reason, thereof, Doctor, if you please." "Well, sir, one of the sisters apologized for the coffee pot in a still, small sort of a voice, a little cracked and chipped by constant use, and said, the reason why they drank their coffee out of that pot was because it never seemed to taste so well out of anything- else." "Why not, Doctor?" "Why not? Easily enough explained, sir; we never make coffee in a silver urn, and when we pour it from the vessel in which it is made into another, we lose half the aroma, sir. Coffee is of most delicate and choice flavor, sir ; very few know how to make it or to use it. The proper way to make good coffee, sir, is to roast it care fully in a cylinder over a charcoal fire, until it is of a light brown color ; then the cylinder should be taken off the fire and turned gently until the berries are thoroughly cooled. The best part of the aroma is dissipated, sir, by MADAM FOLLETT. 45 the abominable practice of turning out the coffee in an open dish so soon as it is roasted. Why, sir, any body can see that the finest part of it escapes ; you can smell it, sir, in every crack and corner of the house. When cooled, it should be put intd a mortar and beat to powder. A cof fee mill only cracks the grains, but a mortar pounds out the essential oil. Then, sir, put it into an old fashioned tin coffee pot, pour on the hot water, stand it over a fire, not too hot ; let it simmer gently. If your fire is too hot, it will burn the coffee and spoil it. Then, sir, take Madam Follett fresh from the fire, stand Jier on the table, and if you want an appreciative friend, send for me ! " "What kind of coffee is the best, Doctor ?" "Mocha, sir, from Arabia Felix. The first Mocha coffee that ever reached the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave direct, sir, came in a ship belonging to Captain Derby, of Salem, in the year 1801." * ' When was coffee first used in Europe, Doctor ?" " That, my learned friend, is one of * the two or three things to suggest conversation at the tea table,' as our friend Willis has it, It is a matter of dispute, my learn ed friend, and it will probably be settled after the com mentators have agreed upon the proper way of spelling the name of Shakspeare, Shaksper, Shagsper, or what ever you call him." "How early was coffee in use in the world?" " Slier baddin, an Arab author, asserts that the first man who drank coffee was a certain Mufti, 'of Aden, who 46 MADAM FOLLETT. lived in the ninth century of the Hegira, about the year 1500, my learned friend. So says Dr. Doran. The pop ular tradition is, that the superior of a Dervish commu nity, observing the effects of coffee berries, when eaten by some goats, rendering them more lively and skittish than before, prescribed it for the brotherhood, in order to cure them of drowsiness and indolence. Dickens, in Household Words, gives a capital account of the old cof fee houses of London. By the way, there is an account, also, in Table Traits. Here is the book. " ' Lend me thine ears.' Shagsper. " * The coffee houses of England take precedence of those of France, though the latter have more enduringly flourished. In 1652, a Greek, in the service of an Eng lish Turkey merchant, opened a house in London. ' 1 have discovered his hand-bill,' says Mr. Disraeli, ' in which he sets forth the virtue of the coffee drink, first publiquely made and sold in England, by Pasqua Rosee, of St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill, at the sign of his own head.' Mr. Peter Cunningham cites a MIS. of Oldys' in his possession, in which some fuller details of much in terest are given. Oldys says : ' The first use of coffee in England was known in 1657, when Mr. Daniel Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought from Smyrna to London one Pasqua tlosee, a Ragusan youth, who prepared this drink for him every morning. But the novelty thereof drawing too much company to him, he allowed his said servant, with another of his son-in-law's, to sell it publicly ; and they set up the first coffee house in London, in St. Mi* chad's Alley, Cornhill. But they separating, Pasqua kept in the house ; and he who had been his partner ob tained leave to p'tch a tent, and sell the liquor, in St. MADAM FOLLETT. 47 Michael's church yard.' Aubrey, in his Anecdotes, states that the first vender of coffee in London was one Bow man, coachman to a Turkey merchant, named Hodges, who was the father-in-law of Edwards, and the partner of Pasqua, who got into difficulties, partly by his not be ing a freeman, and who left the country. Bowman was not only patronized, but a magnificent contribution of one thousand sixpences was presented to him, where with he made great improvements in his coffee house. Bowman took an apprentice, (Paynter,) who soon learnt the mystery, and in four years set up for himself. The coffee houses soon became numerous ; the principal were Farres', the Rainbow, at the Inner Temple Gate, and John's, in Fuller's Rents,' " There, sir ; and now, my learned friend, I must pay a visit to that charming lady, Mrs. Potiphar, who is suf fering severely with a neuralgia." vm. OR my part," said the Doctor, "I do not see liow we could get along without them. The old phrases, the idioms, the apothegms of a people are the gold and silver coins of their language, bearing a pro portionate value, as many hundred times, to the common stock of words, as these do to the copper currency. Sir, if you will get the 'Lessons on Proverbs,' by Richard Chevenix Trench, you will find you have a sub-treasury of wisdom, my learned friend." "Do you not think, Doctor, there is a coarseness in familiar proverbs that diminishes their value in polite society ?" " No, sir, I do not think so," replied the Doctor vehe mently. " To be sure, there may be, here and there one in which an allusion might offend a sensitive mind ; but, generally speaking, they are rather robust, instead of coarse, strong without being indelicate. Cervantes felic itously calls them 'Sentencias brevas sacadas de la luenga y discreta eocperiencia? short sentences drawn from long and wise experience. Common enough are they among OLD PHRASES. 49 uneducated people, but not the less valuable for that rea son, sir ; proverbs may be called the literature of the illiterate another mouthful of the Mumm, sir thank you." " How do you like that wine, Doctor?" "Grand, sir; glorious, sir; 'Mumm's the word,' sir. If Shakspeare were living, sir, he would forswear sack, and say ' Jfumm? * a jewel of a wine, sir Jewel Mumm." " The phrase you have just used, Doctor, is a common one." " 'Mumm's the word ?' True, my learned friend. Dr. Johnson, that stupendous lexicographer, remarks of the word mumm, it may be observed that when it is pro nounced it leaves the lips closed, thus," (lips in sculptured silence.) "How did the phrase originate, Doctor?" " That, sir, is a question I cannot answer. There are phrases, sir, beyond the scope of records, written or printed, so old, sir, that, to use the words of our friend Blackstone, ' the memory of man runneth not to the con- i trary' they were always in use. Others we can trace at once to their originals ; such as, 'How we apples swim,* to a fable in -