Bad Prospect For Tea Parties.
The higher prices of teas seem not to be the worst result, so far as tea drinkers are concerned, of the belligerent state of affairs existing between the most enlightened nations of the earth—England, France, and the United States—and the semi-civilized myriads of the celestial empire. The story comes and goes, too, that the celestials have commenced the practice of "doctoring" us out of harm's way by putting arsenic into the teas which are destined for our consummation. Whether this be so or not, we cannot say. But we cannot put our faith to the contrary in the humanity of the Chinese as some of our contemporaries profess to. If they have not the physical ability to defend themselves, we see no reason why they should not make up in strategy what they lack in armies and navies. However, as nearly all the tea has been poisoned from time immemorial, the difference if any, is merely one of degree. In London a Medical Board has more than once examined the teas in market, and found in every instance all the green teas drugged with Prussian blue or other coloring matter, while many specimens of black teas were more or less drugged or adulterated. There is but one remedy for the evil, and this is to let the evil thing alone. We can make better beverages of many herbs that grow in our gardens, and avoid all danger of being exterminated by this underhanded method of warfare.