234 COFFEE 



immigration. To-day, one finds coffee-houses flourishing in the 

 Greek settlements of our metropolitan centers and in some of our 

 smaller manufacturing cities. The main street of the Greek Quarter 

 of Nashua, New Hampshire, has seven coffee-houses of the true type. 

 Here, Greeks and a sprinkling of Americans spend the evenings 

 sipping the black Turkish coffee, eating bits of pastry, and smoking 

 the large and ornate water-pipes or Solines {uoKvves) . During the 

 summer of 1922, I visited numerous coffee-houses in Manchester 

 and Nashua, New Hampshire ; and in Haverhill, Cambridge, and 

 Boston, Massachusetts. Those in Nashua seem to be of the best type. 

 I found them to be very informal places where men of all classes sit 

 about — usually with their hats on — to drink coffee, to smoke, to play 

 cards, and to discuss the present-day topics of the world. 



It is of considerable interest to one who is foreign to the environ- 

 ment of a coffee-house, to see men industriously drawing (inhaling) 

 on their water-pipes without producing the slightest smoke. One 

 soon discovers that the color of the smoke is removed during its 

 passage through the water, owing to the precipitation of the dispersed 

 phase by water, so that only a delightfully cool and colorless gas 

 reaches the mouth. After the water becomes saturated with smoke, 

 as it does in the course of tw^o to three hours, some normal smoke is 

 emitted. 



Although non-alcoholic beverages are purchasable, they are rarely 

 served. I found the pastry menu of the coffee-houses to consist 

 mainly of "Vpiyovov, which is a preparation of honey and almonds; 

 Xoupa^tTTtes, which tastes like a very dry cooky covered with powdered 

 sugar; Aou/cou/z, which is Turkish paste, usually red, covered with 

 powdered sugar, in size a one-inch cube, and in taste and appearance 

 similar to a bit of compressed jelly; and M7ra/<Xa|8a, which is a very 

 palatable although excessively sweet concoction of layer pastry and 

 almonds. The entire preparation is thoroughly permeated with 

 honey by a process of soaking in honey when made. One inserts a 

 fork (oyster-fork type) in the center of this lozenge-shaped pastry, 

 which is about one-half inch on each side; and, holding it in this 

 manner, one bites off portions at intervals during the conversation. 



The Greek coffee-houses are as distinctly Royal or Republican in 

 regard to the modern Greek government as the early American 



