Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-03

the city, or to cape at buildings, is set
down by the inhabitants of the neighbor-
hood as a man with an unquenched thirst
or spy for the police. In either case, he
Is likely to have a lively reception, its ex-
act nature depending In some degree on the
character Of the neighborhood. So also the
man with the bottle of mineral water who
Is making his way home from the drug
store Sunday morning is set down as the
bearer Of bottled ruin, and the populace Is
on a broad grin as he passes.
Contraband Drug stores.
A singular effect Of the Sunday agitation
is the fact that 1t has reached the contra
band drug stores. In fact, the agitation
of the excise question has caused more
than one Of these stores to stop the sale Of
liquor except to regular customers. The
evil is one which should have been correct
ed long ago. but I suspect that the fact
that three of these drugstore saloons are
located in the vicinity of Newspaper Row
has had much to do with the fact that this
violation Of the law has been tolerated.
Some years ago fabulous sum was paid
for the gooo- will of a downtown drug
store. and it was said that the fame of the
soda" sold at it's fountain constituted the
chief consideration. The fact was that the
enormous trade Of this store In alcoholic
drinks made it valuable
One or two expert mixers of fancy
drinks were constantly behind the soda
counter, and you could get almost anything
eggnog and so on.
The example of this store was followed
by others, both uptown and downtown, and
now bottles plainly labeled milk Punch"
ETC., stand in glass cases in the soda foun-
tains of these stores, and the list of these
fancy drinks is hung at the side Of the
fountain. If 1 wished to be sensational
would say that I had seen women order
ing these tfpples at the fountains. The
fact is that 1 have not. But there is no
reason why any woman should not order
her drink here, for the chief customers of
these fountains are women. The authori-
ties of Washington and other cities which
have made crusades against alcoholic
drinks at soda fountains-light wine sirups
and other comparatively harmless flavor
1ngs-should study the bar rooms which
masquerade as drug stores In New York.
Hill and Politics.
The democratic party Is chuckling over
the work of Reformer Roosevelt. and Sem
ator Hill told me in conversation a few
days ago that there was lively competition
in the party for places on the ticket to be
named this fall At the last state election
it was almost impossible to get men to
accept nominations, and this was the only
reason Mr.. Hill took the nomination for
governor. and lay down in the road for the
Juggernaut Of reform" to roll over him.
When he accepted the action of the con-
vent1on 1t was with the firm purpose of
withdrawing from the ticket and putting
IN some otner man. But the other man
could not be found, and it would have been
1atal to the democratic. organization to
have gone into the campaign without
standard bearer. So Mr. Hill accepted and
ne directed his entire attention, not to the
governorship but to the defeat of the con-
stitutional amendments
He wanted to beat the reapportionment and
the smallness of the majority cast for it
demonstrated that if little more enthu-
siasm had been shown by the democrats
throughout the state the reapportionment
might have been beaten. Mr. Hill Is at
Normandie-by-the-Se this week. but ne is
spending most of his summer in Albany
directing the campaign. He cannot get
away from politics altogether, even in the
dull season. But this Is not sucn a dull
season in politics. Campaigns are won and
lost in the summer months. AMI all of the
an active interest in the development Of
chances
Death of AmuSements.
AS to the New York public, it has to turn
to the Roosevelt police board for amuse-
ment. because there Is 10 other entertain
ment. Most Of the theatrical business of
tine city is being done at the roof gardens
and the amusement provided at these
places is Of the coarsest, crudest kind. The
Sums of the variety profession" have
been dragged for material TO provide an
entertainment calculated to drive the au-
dience to drink-fo- the sale Of beer is the
chief source OF revenue Of the proprietors
of these places.
OF course If the summer public in New
York wants this sort Of thing the
ayers are not to be blamed wholly for pro-
viding it. But let no stranger to New
York be deceived into going to roof
form of the entertainment of the cheap
variety Style, b