A Tea-Drunkard

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 16, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 16.

A TEA-DRUNKARD.—The term "tea-drunkard" is known throughout Russia, and implies, not the abuse of robur or any spirit distilled from the herb, but that the cup which cheers intoxicates also, if zealously adhered to. Strong tea is well-known to be a powerful though fleeting excitant of the nervous system; and if the reader likes to make the experiment, let him drink a dozen or fifteen cups of tea in the Russian style—that is, without cream or sugar, but flavored with a drop of lemon juice—in the space of a couple of hours, and he may arrive at the conclusion that there is something rational about such an epithet as tea-drunkard after all.—Christian at Work.