68 THE TROPICAL AGEICULTURIST, fJrLY 1, 1899. 
CEYLON TEA IN AMERICA. 
THE WORK OF PIONEERS. 
f Reminiscences hy an ex- Ceylon planter J M.M.) 
PliiU'.dfl|jliia, April 1899. 
I have taken a pioneer''^ interest in many things 
rlnrino- my life, but no interest has cost me so 
niucir as Ceylon tea, and yet I turn willi an 
apparently undying interest to Ceylon tea with 
every good wish" for its success— I may say— indi- 
uenous to the ' make up' of my being. My posi- 
tion is that of the bird that tiies with the wind 
(or, for a change, against it) free. I am not hnan- 
cially interested (in my work) and 1 am happy. 
I take a bird's eye view of the Tea I rade in the 
United States of America, and in iloing so, quietly 
consider Why's and Wherefore's, look at things, as 
I see them generally without bias. To take \ving 
to Ceylon (£ wish L could) I, in my dreams eiiect 
a mode of my own for quick transit. IIow much, 
do planters (so many of them my old friends, L see 
by the Directory) hear what resident planters 
have to say about America ? lloa- much from 
late" planters now residmt here m America 
as merchants ? How very little do they hear Iro.u 
the retailers of Ceylon tea wiio sell your tea to 
the American people ! I hope to do .sy/uc good in 
this respect. I am known today, in Philadelplua, 
the moment I introduce uiyselt— not only to 
tradesmen or tea men, but to Fhiladelphians 
generally as " tlie man who hung about l.itli 
Slarket and Arch Street in four dilfeient stores, 
for five years— shouting out (metapboricaUy 
writing) about Ceylon Tea to an unresponsive 
public ' Five out of si.K (to whom I may thus 
introduce myself) answer. "What? Were you 
under St. George's Hall " ? " Yes, in the dreariest 
depths of basement." I can always answer ! My 
signs were large, and demonstrative— being on 
a level with the ejes of the "passer by "-(please 
note " passer by") but they all seem to have 
passed by once at least-and remember my store. 
My "addest recollection in connection with this 
store is that of our dear old friend from Aberdeen 
—via 20 or 30 years in Ceylon, 
JAMIE GARIOCH. 
He wrote me from Canada when he was stranded 
and I was in no position at that time to aek 
him to join me ; but he turned up, and for about 
a year represented me in my store. Good, kind- 
Tiearted old soul, but dying on his feet. I 
suppose everyone who knew Ir.m, knows that he 
finally landed on his native heath, Aberdeen, and 
died at peace with the whole world among his 
friends. Little do tliose v lio have not cast their 
lot in a country like this realize what ic is to 
"get left" in iife, particularly m old age, after 
leaving Ceylon. Not until they have experienced 
such a position can they possibly imagine what 
lifeless and ambitionless existence means. 
Another good old Ceylon man was represented 
there, viz. : 
VERE MILLINGTON, 
a good, cheery, kind and true-hearted man iis 
ever lived I have always looked upon hiin as the 
actual impersonation of " Mark Tapley"- and if 
any livinf being enjoyed and could repeat Dickens 
_Vere Millington was the man. He served me 
in the midst, acd through the midst, of my 
troubles. I only learned to appreciate him alter 1 
thought he was torn bone from bone— de.ad and 
gone-annihilated by misfortune and mishaps. 
lJut after I had buried him, tlirough false in- 
formation from friends, he turned up serenely, not 
only able to walk, but through having to carry 
an overweight of avoirdupois actually (what 
shall I say ?) unable to walk, or nearly so. The 
laugh was there and the haiipy temperanieiit 
seemed to bear up all the weight he cuuld gather 
from the flesh and all the sorrows he could glean 
frfim the d — I. There is a man who did me 
personally great service, never j'et repaid, but 
was and is now more than appreciated. He was, 
in this country, a plux;ky fighter under the most 
trying circumstances, ke;>t his head level, " kept 
a stiff upper lip," met misfortune with a merry 
laugh, and when at last dropped some 20 feet on 
to an asphalt floor from wlieels revolving like 
lightning of heavy electric engines stripped of 
his clotiies, hiilf-a dozen bones broken and in a 
generally mangled condition, unconscious, he 
wanted to know where they were taking him to, 
and why they didn't get him his clothes ami let 
him go home to his wife as a decent although 
unfortunate man ! I cannot, of course, remember 
exactly what he did remark, but what he said 
was to this efi'ect ! I saw him and his good wile 
oa the last visit they made, and they were both 
looking greiit. I have lost their address in 
England, and can't write; but would be glad to 
know how. His property I heard (from himself) 
was doing him all that was necessary for a 
livelihood, and no one is happier to know it 
tlian the writer. 
As I write, I have received letters from three 
prominent firms in Philadelphia, representing tea 
(retail). Tliej^ speak for themselves. I expect 
oti'.ers as time goes on, and will gradually attord 
you matter from which you may eventually be 
able to arrive at a consensus of retailers' opinion, 
representing finally an undebatable philo-ophy 
regarding Cejlou Tea in America. 
CRYLON Ar;D INDIA VS. CBINA TEAR. 
iSlovember 9tli, 1893. — E liior, "Journal of Commerce 
and Commercial Bi-illetin," New York. — Dear sir, — I 
note with interest aletterupon "Chiuavs. Ceylon Teab" 
in your paper of even date. Only a very few years since 
I was a believer in the theory that Cejlon and A' sain 
teas were too strong, too rich in tanniu — •' too rich for 
our blood" — in fact in this dry electrical climate of 
ours, but I coiiid well understand the high favor which 
these teas met with in England because the wet damp 
climate with its raw benmnbing cold, in the winter 
months (that characterizes the major portion of the 
weather in E' gland, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) 
demands just such a nourishing, such a " grateful and 
comforting" drink as can alone be obtained from a 
cup of rich, full-bodied and fragrant Ceylon or Assam 
tea. 
In fact in my various visits to the mother country 
I was so captivated with their "two shilling " teas, 
for instance, that I would briug some home with rue 
for my own table, bat I fancied that they did not 
taste nearly so well here as they did in England, which 
was probably due to the Difference in climatic condi- 
tions ; but the taste for them grew upon me and 
I finally began to experiment with them in our 
. various blends which we sell so largely through- 
out the United States — at first gingerly and miu- 
cingly, — fearful of making mistakes, but as 
popular approval in the shape of increased sales and 
enthusiastic commendations followed upon each in- 
crease of the proportions in which we used them in 
the "blends" we have finally reached a point that 
we nevcir dreamed of, and that is to say that' very 
nearly half of the stocks of black teas which we now 
cany in our warehouses is of Ceylon or Assam growth. 
Nor can this be called a matter of partiality either, 
because we find that their nse now in our blends is 
imperative, we could not well discontinue them it we 
would.* 
* This is precisely the principle that I advocated 
12 or 1-3 years ago, and find endorsed by the retail 
tiadeof today— what follows is merely a repetition 
of my old arguments. — J.M.M, _ , 
