hat "a
correspondence is settled in London and Bristol to remit by every
opportunity all the public prints and pamphlets as soon as published;
and there will be a weekly supply of New York, Boston and other American
newspapers." This enterprise had a short life.

The early records of the city infrequently mention the Burns coffee
house, sometimes calling it a tavern. It is likely that the place was
more an inn than a coffee house. It was kept for a number of years by
George Burns, near the Battery, and was located in the historic old De
Lancey house, which afterward became the City hotel.

Burns remained the proprietor until 1762, when it was taken over by a
Mrs. Steele, who gave it the name of the King's Arms. Edward Barden
became the landlord in 1768. In later years it became known as the
Atlantic Garden house. Traitor Benedict Arnold is said to have lodged in
the old tavern after deserting to the enemy.

The Bank coffee house belonged to a later generation, and had few of the
characteristics of the earlier coffee houses. It was opened in 1814 by
William Niblo, of Niblo's Garden fame, and stood at the corner of
William and Pine Streets, at the rear of the Bank of New York. The
coffee house endured for probably ten years, and became the gathering
place of a coterie of prominent merchants, who formed a sort of club.
The Bank coffee house became celebrated for its dinners and dinner
parties.

Fraunces' tavern, best known as the place where Washington bade farewell
to his army officers, was, as its name states, a tavern, and can not be
properly classed as a coffee house. While coffee was served, and there
was a long room for gatherings, little, if any, business was done there
by merchants. It was largely a meeting place for citizens bent on a
"good time."

Then there was the New England and Quebec coffee house, which was also a
tavern.

[Illustration: THE TONTINE BUILDING OF 1850

Northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets; an omnibus of the
Broadway-Wall-Street Ferry line is passing]

_The Tontine Coffee House_

The last of the celebrated coffee houses of New York bore the name,
Tontine coffee house. For several years after the burning of the
Merchants coffee house, in 1804, it was the only one of note in the
city.

Feeling that they should have a more commodious coffee house for
carrying on their various business enterprises, some 150 merchants
organized, in 1791, the Tontine coffee house. This enterpris