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THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [May  1896. 
comfortably  in  rooms  on  luth  St.  IVest  of  Broadway, 
and  in  course  of  time  became  acquainted  with 
the  district.  I called  for  Ceylon  tea  at  three  grocers’ 
before  I found  it,  and  when  I did  so,  I got  a pack- 
age— familiar — so  familiar  to  me  in  appearance.  I 
crossed  over  to  a drug  store  for  some  medicine  and 
wliat  shotrld  stare  me  in  the  face,  but  the  same 
package.  Within  two  weeks  I found  two  ottier  drug 
stores  exhibiting  the  same,  and  I thought  to  myself 
“ there  is  life  in  the  old  dog  yet.”  I had  ot  course  heard 
of  ihe  wind  up  of  the  Ceylon  Planters’  Tea  Com- 
pany, and  could  scarcely  understand  where  the  life 
emanated  from.  I called  upon  Mr.  William  Groves, 
whose  office  1 had  occupied  for  many  months  in  Phila- 
delphia. I knew  he  had  put  ^10,000  hard  cash  in 
the  enterprise,  and  thought  he  would  probably  know 
something  about  it.  He  seemed  resigned,  w'onder- 
fully  so,  and  while  I was  sorry  for  him,  I admired 
his  pluck.  He  told  me  Mr.  May  was  carrying  on 
the  old  brands  on  his  own  account,  and  spoke  highly 
of  him,  suggested  I should  look  him  up,  &c.  That 
the  Company  failed  to  find  the  enterprize  prc>fitable 
was  no  surprise  to  me,  but  to  find  Mr.  May  sur- 
rounded by  walls  of  oriental  drapery  all  alone,  with 
some  10,000  lb.  of  tea  in  stock,  and  all  the  packing 
paraphernalia  of  the  business  in  the  immediate 
vicinity,  was  like  a dream  of  by -gone  days. 
This,  then,  was  the  “ old  dog  ” who  was  slow  to 
die.  “ Yes— I have  the  tea  in  110  drug  stores  in 
New  York  and  Brooklyn.  ‘Here  are  today’s  orders, 
this  for  1‘20  lb.,  another  for  25  lb.  and  so  on.  My 
year  commenced  in.  May,  and  I will  have  sold  about 
25,000  lb.  by  August  but  next  year,  I hope  to  reach 
50,000.” 
That  sounded  well  for  Ceylon  tea,  but  as  it  goes 
direct  to  consumers,  thought  I,  suppose  Mr.  May 
had  not  persevered,  and  thrown  over  the  whole  thing 
as  a thankless  and  unprofitable  interest,  who 
would  serve  me  with  the  tea  I wanted  ? How  comes 
it  that  American  capitalists  who  cannot  sleep  at  night 
in  their  anxiety  for  opportunity  to  invest  money 
to  advantage,  are  leaving  Ceylon  tea  unrecognized  ? 
“How  about  it,  Mr.  May?” 
“ I have  made  it  my  interest  for  life  ” — was  bis 
answer  to  my  question  to  this  effect  “I  am  not 
losing  by  it,  on  the  contrary  making  it  profitable; 
but  as  I am  independent  of  revenue  from  this  source, 
1 put  all  profit  back  into  the  business,  that  is,  ad- 
vertizing.” 
“Do  you  recol’ect,”  ‘I  asked  “of  my  discouraging 
the  attempt  to  cover  all  the  United  States  as  a field 
for  introducing  the  tea,  and  arguing  for  concentra- 
tion of  attention  to  New  York  city  alone  as  the  centre 
of  all  channels  into  the  country?” 
“Yes  and  that  was  my  idea  also,  but  most  of  the 
money  was  gone  before  I held  the  reins.” 
“ How  about  the  blends  ? Did  I not  argue  with  the 
planters  from  the  first,  the  necessity  of  presenting 
the  tea  in  this  form,  as  well  as  pure  ?” 
“ Yes,  and  here  they  are.” 
Oh  how  hard  it  is  to  convince  the  English,  Scotch 
Or  Irish  of  triith  when  it  does  not  stand  out  as  the 
Interpreter  of  personal  opinion.  Eor  the  Britisher  to 
allowi  that  “nationality”  embraces  varietij  of  tvays, 
means  and  manners,  as  “country”  does  climate  and 
pletbintr  is  an  effort  if  not  a condescension. 
I forgot  who  Mr.  May  mentioned  (but  I think  it 
was  Mr  Mackenzie)  as  having  remarked  after  his 
experiences  at  Chicago,  when  he  met  him  at  Broad- 
wav'  “ Ceylon  tea  isn’t  wanted  in  this  country.” 
Nor  is  it  Ceylon  tea  is  not  the  tea  to  “ treat  ” the 
American  to,  at  present.  I don’t  care  how  carefully 
it  is  made,  or  how  good  the  quality,  19  out  of  20 
don't  like  it,  and  the  other  one  is  not  Amemau.  JI  c, 
of  course  tell  them  they  don’t  “know,”  and  they  are 
Generally  courteous  enough  to  admit  it,  but  at  the 
sLie  time  honest  enough  to  say  they  can  live  with- 
out the  knowledge  and  still  Imppy.  Jhat  wont 
do.  We  force  it  on  them  until  they  find  us  tiresome 
“'*^y/'^^hey^*^  usc  it  for  a time,  they  of  course  acquire 
the  taste,  but  what  a business  to  engage  in  for  life 
with  only  one  life  to  live!  . 
Now,  yve  Biitish  claim  that  if  we  are  blunt  wc  arc 
boucst  audafi.etft  long  tiikuco  during  watch 
I have  yvatched  the  crusade,  I want  to  step  into  the 
ring  once  more. 
During  the  season  of  the  exposition,  and  previous 
to  that,  Ceylon  te.i  was,  as  a figure  of  speech  in 
everybody's  mouth,  and  I really  thought  it  would  soon 
find  a home  in  their  stomachs.  It  was  “getting 
there,”  and  grocers  had  to  have  it  ; there  was  “ so 
much  talk  about  it  you  know.” 
All  of  a sudden,  something  happened.  A general 
feeling  of  jutife  had  seemed  to  characterize  the  re- 
mark “ Oh,  yes,  I've  tasted  it,  fine  tea  and  more  to 
it  than  China  tea”  Ac.  but  somethiwj  hapipeiied, 
and  I don't  hear  anything  or  see  anything 
about  it  any  more — except  through  Elwood  May’s 
channels. 
As  I was  returning  on  the  elevated  railway  after 
leaving  Mr.  May’s  office,  I thought  of  the  Ceylon  tea 
enterprize  in  the  light  of  an  English  Company  who 
built  such  a track  at  great  expense,  ran  a few  deco- 
rated and  illuminated  trains  up  and  down  at  odd 
intervals,  composed  of  cars  to  which  the  people  were 
not  accustomed,  and  then  left  them  standing  for  the 
American  people  to  laugh  at  wliile  they  allowed 
other  companies  to  run  their  old  cars  on  tneir  semi- 
abandoned  plant. 
I really  feel  sorry  for  Ceylon,  and  I am  honest  in 
expressing  my  sympathy  with  Mr.  May  in  his  deter- 
mination to  keep  at  least  one  of  the  new  cars  running. 
If  it  is  suggestive  of  the  failure  of  the  entire  train 
which  was  lately  seen  and  the  trumpet  calls  which 
proceeded  from  it,  it  is  not  Mr.  May’s  fault?  It  was 
a British  train,  and  the  bulk  of  the  capital  that 
built  the  plant  was  conjured  out  of  the  pockets  of 
Americans  by  Mr.  May  ? This  is  true — and  Ceylon 
planters  must,  in  common  justice,  acknowledge  that 
through  Mr.  May  they  got  30  times  more  advertising 
for  their  tea  than  was  ever  paid  for  out  of  their 
pockets,  and  while  he  saved  his  money,  I have  yet 
to  understand  how  he  made  any.  One  thing  is  cer- 
tain. He  gave  his  time,  and  so  many  years  of  his 
life  to  an  undivided  interest  in  the  introduction  of  the 
most  unpopular  article  that  was  ever  put  on  the  mar- 
ket. So  did  I,  and  my  money  too — but  I was  in- 
terested as  one  of  the  pioneer  planters  and  “ in- 
ebriated by  the  exuberance  of  my  own  verbosity  ” as 
such.  I had  a real  tea  estate  of  my  own  planting, 
and  I am  glad  to  hear  that  somebody  is  getting  out 
the  rupees  that  I put  into  it.  5Vhat  amazes  me  is 
that  the  planting  community  have  to  all  appearance, 
retreated  fi'om  the  bombardment  of  America  on  the 
failure  of  the  attack  of  a small  force  (assisted  by 
American  interest)  to  subjugate  the  whole  country, 
leaving  an  American  to  slioet  away  at  his  own  peo- 
ple with  their  abandoned  guns. 
M'hy  don’t  you  ask  this  gentleman  to  come  out  to 
Ceylon?  1 have’nt  asked  him  if  he  would  go  at 
your  invitation,  but  did  advise  him  to  take  the  trip. 
He  said  as  much  as  that  it  was  not  on  account  of 
lack  of  interest  that  he  didn't,  as  he  felt  that  he 
could  meet  the  planters  face  to  face  and  command 
their  confidence  in  himself  and  in  his  line  of  tactics, 
vhile  dealing  in  his  own  country  with  American 
people.  “But”  he  said,  “I  have  been  subjected  to 
a great  deal  of  unjust  criticism,  and  if  I am  told  to 
mind  my  own  business  after  what  1 have  done, 
the  time  may  come,  and  will  come,  when  the  aspect 
of  our  position  generally  will  be  clianged.  You  may 
bo  surprised  if  1 tell  you  that  the  gentleman  who 
had  just  gone  out  as  you  came  in,  and  he  is  in  a 
position  to  know,  told  me  that  I sell  more  tea  in 
packet  than  any  other  ‘ packet  ’ firm  in  the  country 
— including  Tetley  and  Lipton,  and  1 take  pride  in 
keeping  up  the  standard  which  is  more  than  can  be 
said  ot  all  ‘ packet  ’ dealers.” 
Now,  however,  comes  an  argument  which  will  give 
everybody,  so  disposed,  a chance  to  open  fire  on 
Mr.  May,  and  yet,  let  me  say  hold!  He  says  “Why 
will  they  deny  me  any  personal  benefit,  if,  by  sug- 
gesting a means  whereby  they  are  themselves  bene- 
filted,  1 came  in  tor  mii  share?  If  tlicy  will  back 
me  up,  1 will  guarantee  benefit  to  them.  Eor  in- 
stance suppose  tliey  sent  mo  jfStX)  every  month 
tor  five  years,  and  had  a bond  fiom  iho  American 
yiirety  Co.  indemnifying  them  for  every  dollar  that 
was  not  expended  in  aueordancu  with  such  agree- 
