THE HISTORY OF COFFEE. 29 



business and coffee-drinking in the reign of Queen Anne. 

 Another notable coffee-house was known as " Squire's," at 

 which the lawyers and politicians were accustomed to meet 

 in considerable numbers; and there, it will be remembered, 

 " Sir Hoger de Coverley " smoked a pipe over a dish of coffee 

 with the " Spectator." But we have been loitering, perhaps 

 too long, about the old London coffee-houses, and in tracing the 

 history of Cafes in Europe and the East ; still we cannot dismiss 

 the subject without referring to the history of coffee-houses in 

 our own country. 



The consumption of the berry is constantly and rapidly 

 increasing in the United States, the increased ratio being 

 greater than the most sanguine advocate of the beverage could 

 ever have predicted, and pure coffee must soon be so exten- 

 sively and universally used that all pertaining to its history 

 will be of interest to the world at large. 



In no place in the world, probably, are the influences and 

 healthful effects of pure coffee more happily displayed than in 

 what is known to every resident and visitor of the Crescent City 

 as the old French market of ISTew Orleans. Here, from the 

 " earliest time," have been coffee-venders conveniently distri- 

 buted throughout the great maze of stalls and marts, and from 

 the small hours in the morning until nearly noon the distribu- 

 ters of this most invigorating of beverages are busy as bees. 



Aside from their special occupation, these dealers in coffee 

 are a peculiar people. It seems to be an appropriate vocation 

 in this genial climate, which at once strikes the observant tra- 

 veller when he first sees a French or Spanish mulatto, with 

 her head curiously covered by a gayly striped bandanna, 

 serving hot coffee. Yet it is a fact that it is only people who 

 answer to this description who are the most thorough experts in 

 extracting the delicious taste from the berry, in keeping the 

 delightful aroma from passing away in the rising steam, in pro- 



