Band,
And list'ning Graces, pleas'd Attendants, stand.

Thus our Tea-Conversation we employ,
Where with Delight, Instruction we enjoy;
Quaffing, without the waste of Time or Wealth,
The Sov'reign Drink of Pleasure and of Health.

_DR. JOHNSON'S AFFINITY_

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON drew his own portrait thus:

"A hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who for twenty years
diluted his meals with the infusion of this fascinating plant;
whose kettle had scarcely time to cool; who with tea amused the
evening, with tea solaced the midnight, and with tea welcomed
the morning."

_EARLIEST MENTION OF TEA_

According to a magazinist, the first mention of tea by an
Englishman is to be found in a letter from Mr. Wickham, an
agent of the East India Company, written from Japan, on the
27th of June, 1615, to Mr. Eaton, another officer of the
company, a resident of Macao, asking him to send "a pot of the
best chaw." In Mr. Eaton's accounts of expenditure occurs this
item:

"Three silver porringiys to drink chaw in."

_AUSTRALIAN TEA_

In the interior of Australia all the men drink tea. They drink it
all day long, and in quantities and at a strength that would seem
to be poisonous. On Sunday morning the tea-maker starts with a
clean pot and a clean record. The pot is hung over the fire with a
sufficiency of water in it for the day's brew, and when this has
boiled he pours into it enough of the fragrant herb to produce a
deep, coffee-colored liquid.

On Monday, without removing yesterday's tea-leaves, he repeats
the process; on Tuesday da capo and on Wednesday da capo, and
so on through the week. Toward the close of it the great
pot is filled with an acrid mash of tea-leaves, out of which
the liquor is squeezed by the pressure of a tin cup.

By this time the tea is of the color of rusty iron, incredibly bitter
and disagreeable to the uneducated palate. The native calls it
"real good old post and rails," the simile being obviously drawn
from a stiff and dangerous jump, and regards it as having been
brought to perfection.

_FIVE-O'CLOCK TEA_

There is a fallacy among certain tea-fanciers that the origin of
five-o'clock tea was due to hygienic demand. These students of
the stomach contend that as a tonic and gentle stimulant, when
not taken with meat, it is not to be equalled. With meat or any
bu