1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

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opponents declared it to be like wine, of an inebriating nature — indeed, a sort of wine itself; and went so far, in the heat of argument, as to say that all who drank it would appear at the general resurrection with faces blacker than the bottoms of their coffee-pots. An insult of this sort was surely sufficient to justify a prompt adoption of the severest rejoinder by the other side, and, in replying, they became poetic. Said one : — '* It is a dear object of desire to the collector of knowledge ; It is the drink of the people of God, and in it is health. It's odour is Musk, it's colour Ink : The wise man and the good will sip it pure as milk in its innocence. And differing from it but in blackness." And another sang " Courtesy is the coat of the customers in a Coffee-house. The Coffee-house itself is as Paradise in its carpets, its com- pany and its tender delights. When the waiter comes with the Coffee in its cup of porce- lain, sorrow disappears, and all anguish sinks under its dominion. In its water we wash away our impurities, and burn out our solicitudes in its fire. The man who has looked only on its chafing dish will say, * Fie upon the Wine and the Wine Vats.* Coffee won the day. There is, however, another story of its introduction — how in the far-off past a poor dervish, who lived in the deserts of Arabia, noticed that his goats came home every evening in a state of hilarity. Unable to account for this, he watched them, and found them u