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CHAPTER XV 



The Date Coffee Company — Discovery of the vakieof the date as an in- 

 fusion equal to the best coffee — Successful flotation — Establishment 

 of the patent — Manufacture of date coffee at Kurrachee in India — 

 The Imaum of Muscat — Rapid increase in the consumption — Hand- 

 some profits — The French patent and its sale — Flotation of German 

 company — Sudden collapse of the sale of the article through the 

 action of Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer — The Date 

 Coffee Company in the Law Courts — Final break-up of a company 

 whose 5/. shares had for some time been quoted at 37/. 



About twenty years ago I was asked by an old 

 friend of mine, Mr. John Tucker, a solicitor in 

 St. Swithin's Lane, to join the board of a company 

 for the manufacture of Date coffee. After having 

 had the matter explained, and on being introduced 

 to the discoverer and patentee of the process, a Mr. 

 Henley, an engineer, and long a resident in India, 

 who gave me a history of his discovery, I was 

 induced to take my twenty 5/. shares as a qualifi- 

 cation, and was duly elected a member of the 

 board. I cannot remember all the names, but Mr. 

 Henry Haymanwas the chairman, and Earl Paulett 

 was a director. I may say that the directors were 

 not to be paid by ordinary fees, but by a percentage 

 on the profits and success of the company. In 

 other words, after the shareholders had been paid 

 50 per cent, on their shares, they were to receive 



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