44 COFFEE. 



trouble. It is never too mucli trouble to trim tbe sails or adjust 

 the ventilators, and it ought not to be too much trouble to make 

 coffee every fifteen minutes during the hours when coffee is served. 

 They understand this on French steamers, and there are fortunes 

 in store for the steamship company that has the enterprise to 

 combine English seamanship with a French cuisine. They have 

 introduced the French system into English hotels ; why should it 

 not be done upon English steamers ? 



In colonial times and in the early days of the Kepublic, New 

 York had its coffee-houses. The names of Burn's Coffee-house, 

 the Merchants' Coffee-house, and later the Tontine Coffee-house 

 are familiar to all who are acquainted with the history of the 

 City. They differed somewhat, however, from the European 

 cafes in being chiefly business or political headquarters. Yalen- 

 tine's Manual of the City of New York gives an interesting ac- 

 count of these coffee-houses, accompanied with illustrations, 

 showing them to have been quite stately affairs. Among other 

 interesting matter relating to these famous old resorts we find 

 newspaper advertisements of sales to take place there — among 

 others " a parcel of likely negroes to be sold at publick vendue, 

 to-morrow at ten o'clock, at the Merchants' Coffee-house." I must 

 add for the honor of our metropolis that this occurred in 1Y50. 

 The Merchants' Coffee-house stood on the southeast corner of 

 Wall and "Water streets. The " Tontine," on the northwest comer 

 of "Wall and "Water streets, succeeded to its popularity and fame ; 

 in 1795 it was in full operation. The Merchants' Exchange was 

 then located in the building, but subsequently moved further up 

 "Wall street. The name of " Tontine " is found as late as 1832, 

 and to tliis day the buildings on this site now occupied for com- 

 mercial purposes are known as the Tontine buildings. Browne's 

 Coffee-house, on Water street, between Pine and Wall, obtained 

 considerable notoriety, in 1832, as a favorite resort of those who 

 believed in pure coffee as an antidote to the cholera epidemic. 



The coffee-house,' however, no longer exists among us. Amer- 

 icans are the greatest coffee consumers in the world, but take the 

 beverage mostly at meals, either at home or at the restaurant. 

 There are, indeed, in New York, a number of coffee-rooms, or 

 cafes, as they sometimes call themselves, attached to some of the 



