No. 37, Wall-ſtreet, nearly oppoſite the Tontine Coffee-houſe
December 9, 2016 9:37 AM   Subscribe

 
The coffeehouse was a tontine? I had no idea coffee was such serious business back in the day.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:59 AM on December 9, 2016


The coffeehouse was a tontine? I had no idea coffee was such serious business back in the day.

Indeed!
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:00 AM on December 9, 2016 [3 favorites]


It's kind of sad that, back then, most of the readership probably knew who Minerva was. Today, you'd be lucky if most of the board-of-directors understood the reference.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:38 AM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


Alas, I think its current location is now opposite the building of a certain president-elect.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:26 AM on December 9, 2016


ſuper poſt! Hiſtory is ſo intereſting.
posted by leotrotsky at 11:38 AM on December 9, 2016 [2 favorites]


It's kind of sad that, back then, most of the readership probably knew who Minerva was. Today, you'd be lucky if most of the board-of-directors understood the reference.

(a) Mercury is the god most associated with commerce, not Minerva.

(b) I don't have literacy figures for this period at my fingertips but you can be pretty sure that most of the readership only knew who Minerva was if the readership was quite small. Your street urchin wouldn't. Though there were some charity schools, in 1793, the free schools that grew into the NYPS hadn't even been started yet.
posted by praemunire at 12:38 PM on December 9, 2016


Handwritten note at the bottom appears to read: [cross or x used as asterisk linking to paragraph above in the text] Events have very much weakened my hopes. 1837. NW.

There’s also a handwritten “NW” at end of the essay that i assume was added at the same time. So, Noah Webster essentially autographed this forty-three or forty-four years after it was published.
posted by D.C. at 12:52 PM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


MetaFilter: Events have very much weakened my hopes.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:56 PM on December 9, 2016 [7 favorites]


the one with the owl
posted by thelonius at 1:17 PM on December 9, 2016


Talk about launching a broadside.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:21 PM on December 9, 2016


The coffeehouse was a tontine? I had no idea coffee was such serious business back in the day.

Ha. There were lots of British coaching inns dating from that period called "the Tontine" because that was the mechanism used to raise funds for their construction. A few are still in business as hotels and restaurants, though most didn't survive the rise of the railways.
posted by holgate at 6:19 PM on December 9, 2016


The Editor's Address to the Public:
It is the singular felicity of the Americans, and a circumstance that distinguishes this Country from all others, that the means of information are accessible to all descriptions of people. Most of the Citizens of America are not only acquainted with letters and able to read their native language; but they have a strong inclination to acquire, and property to purchase, the means of knowledge.
I know little of US history, so by citizen I am assuming he means propertied bourgeoisie? Or would the aforementioned 'street urchin' be included in that?
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 7:46 PM on December 9, 2016


I think it's a broader claim: that as a nation settled and brought into existence by choice (since 'Citizens' doesn't include slaves or Native Americans) the population was collectively more literate and educated than either old Europe or the assorted entities of the Americas. That's probably true, and certainly would feel true if you were in New York, Boston or Philadelphia. Why? At its foundation, because of Protestantism and the importance of being able to read the Bible by yourself, but also because of the master-apprentice system, and because of a local culture built upon pamphlets and newspapers.

(The non-slave population of the United States in 1794 was about 3.3 million.)
posted by holgate at 8:03 PM on December 9, 2016


« Older Kind of like putting a humidifier and a...   |   You can’t count votes that never got a chance to... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments