230 COFFEE 



smoke a pipe at Child's. ... I appear on Sunday nights at St. 

 James's Coffee-House. . . . My face is likewise very well known 

 at the Grecian [and] the Cocoa-Tree." 



The welcome accorded, however, to coffee and to coffee-houses had 

 not been universal. Cromwell had attempted to check the coffee- 

 trade; but his attempt had resulted only in wide-spread smuggling. 

 In 1675, Charles II temporarily suppressed three thousand coffee- 

 houses by a royal proclamation against them as "Seminaries of Sedi- 

 tion." It was true that unrest and even treason were nurtured there 

 by politicians who wished to overthrow the government. The procla- 

 mation resulted in such turmoil that annulment of the edict was 

 necessary within a few days. 



Gradually, however, the English coffee-houses changed in character. 

 The Cheshire Cheese, one of the most famous English coffee-houses, 

 emerged from a coffee-house of the true type to the inn-form of a 

 public gathering place. The custom of serving drinks other than 

 coffee, in these coffee-house-inn establishments, resulted in their loss 

 of favor among temperate people. This was the course of evolu- 

 tion of the great majority of the early English coffee-houses. To-day, 

 one finds but few typical coffee-houses in England. 



United States: 



Pre-revolutionary days saw the advent of coffee-houses in the 

 United States. In New Orleans, the custom of coffee-houses was 

 learned from Paris. New Orleans was the only American city 

 where the true type of coffee-house existed. The coffee-houses of 

 Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, and other sections of the 

 original thirteen colonies, were naturally fashioned after the English 

 prototype; and, as in England, these half-coffee-house half-tavern 

 establishments were closely associated with the history of the period. 

 The first coffee-house in New York was Burn's, which w^as north- 

 west of Bowling Green. The place was a favorite haunt for the 

 enemies of the oppression practised by the government of George 

 the Third. 



During the winter of 1 923-1 924, I visited a large number of 

 coffee-houses in New York City. The so-called 'Coffee-houses' about 

 Times Square are semi-lunch rooms. The Greenwich Village dis- 

 trict, however, can boast of numerous coffee-houses of the pure type, 



