e rolled out, and much to his delight, on the sleeping
cat, which leaped out of the pan and scampered up the street and
into a hole under an old building.

I afterward learned that this old fellow made a business of going
about the town gathering up coffee from the houses along the way
and roasting it at a few sous per kilo, much the same fashion as a
scissors grinder plies his trade in an American town.

[Illustration: CAFE DE LA PAIX, WHERE PARIS DRINKS ITS COFFEE OUTDOORS]

Quite a few grocers roast their own coffee in crude devices much like
those described above; but the large coffee roasters are gradually
eliminating this sort of procedure. There are at Havre several roasters,
but only two of importance; one does a business of about two hundred and
fifty bags a day, and the next largest has a capacity of about one
hundred and sixty bags a day. In Paris, there are many coffee roasters,
some quite large, comparatively speaking, one having a capacity of about
seven hundred and fifty bags a day. Shop-keepers in Paris and other
large cities roast their coffee fresh daily. The machines used are of
the ball or cylinder type, employing gas fuel and turned by electric
power. Invariably they stand where they may be seen from the street.

Sample-roasters, or testing tables, in France are conspicuous by their
absence. Inquiry regarding this subject discloses that coffee is sold on
description; and when the French trader is asked, "How do you know your
delivery is up to description so far as cup quality is concerned?" he
answers that this is arrived at from the general appearance and the
smell of the coffee in the green. Perhaps one reason for the laxity in
buying cup quality may be explained by the fact that coffee is roasted
very high, in fact it is burned almost to a charred state; and unless
the coffee is unusually bad in character, the burned taste eliminates
any foreign flavor it may have.

[Illustration: SIDEWALK ANNEX, CAFE DE LA PAIX, PARIS, WITH OPERA HOUSE
IN BACKGROUND--SUMMER OF 1918]

The fact that coffee was, and still is, quite generally sold to the
consumer green, accounts for Central American coffees taking first
place. Style takes preference over everything else when it comes to
selling to a Frenchman.

To the American coffee merchant it seems that the French are carrying
their artistic tastes to an unreasonable extreme when they apply them to
coffee; for coffee is grown