223 COFFEE. 



have been brougM into existence to manufacture the machinery 

 required in the cultivation and preparation of this staple ; great 

 mills work throughout the whole year on the bagging required for 

 the packages ; warehouses worth millions have been provided for 

 its storage ; mighty fleets of vessels are created and maintained 

 for its carriage on the sea, and railroads for its transportation on 

 land. Governments find it a chief source of customs revenue. In 

 the eleven years, 1861 to 1872, the import duty on coffee yielded 

 nearly one hundred millions of dollars to the United States Gov- 

 ernment. In England, France, Germany, and other countries, it 

 contributes largely to the national treasuries, while in Brazil the 

 export duty on coffee is the chief source of revenue. All this 

 from a little berry which hardly more than two centuries since 

 was scarcely known in commerce, and whose chief development 

 has been within the last century. Surely, it must have some 

 precious properties to thus command the homage of the civilized 

 world ! 



It has been said of wine that 



" It warms the heart and stirs the blood 

 Till it leaps in the veius like a bounding flood." 



It has also been said that " wine is a turncoat : first a friend, 

 and then an enemy." But coffee is an ever-faithful, steadfast 

 friend, and whether in torrid, or temperate, or frigid climes, 

 everywhere throughout the civilized world, in the king's palace or 

 the laborer's hut, it is eagerly prized, for it cheers and comforts, 

 brightens and blesses, as doth no other substance under the sun. 



Brillat Savarin said, " A last course at dinner wanting cheese 

 is like a pretty woman with only one eye ; " and if this be true of 

 cheese, is it not doubly so of coffee, and without coffee and cheese 

 would not a dinner be like a beautiful woman with both " win- 

 dows of the soul " lacking ? Certain it is that since Savarin's 

 time all gourmets have concurred in adding coffee as the ap- 

 propriate and crowning luxury of a perfect dinner ; when coffee 

 is served, then " the feast of reason and flow of soul " begins, and 

 without the fragrant cup dulness prevails. 



It is a striking fact that coffee is pre-eminently a promoter of 

 the social element ; from its earliest use this has been a notable 



