The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-16
SODA FOUNTAINS.
Have Changed Much
in the Last 25
Years.
EARLY FOUNTAIN A CURIOSITY.
Replaced BY Costly
and Beautiful
Structures.

More than a quarter of a century ago
the first soda water fountains began
to be familiar sights in small fruit
stores, and q little later in drug stores.
These primitive arrangements would
scarcely be recognized today. A sin
gle "goose-neck' spout rising from a
small marble slab or polished granite
base, constituted the fountain. Placed
in close proximity We're perhaps half
dozen long bottles containing the syr-
ups; strawberry, vanilla, lemon, some
times raspberry, pineapple and sassa-
fras, all painfully reminiscent of chemi-
Gals and totally innocent of anything
fruitlike.
And perhaps there would be one or
two children drinking the mixture,
chiefly because it was sweet, not be-
cause it was good, and on rare occa-
sions some mother might be seen shar-
ing a glass Of soda with her offspring.
But for a full-grown man to be caught
drinking anything so infantile as soda
water, it was the deepest of degrada-
ton.
1t would be interesting to follow the
evolution of the soda business from it's
first inception to the present time, but
history on that subject is very meagre,
and all that is known is the result of
the development from the original pro-
tozoa of ''sweetened wind" to the ev-
ery-day marble covered, decorated
fountain, with its numerous faucets
and wealth of pure fruit syrups. In
the early Gays of the business the
Soda had to be made by the pro-
prletor of the fountain, laborious pro-
cess and extremely dangerous, for the
holders had bad habit Of blowing up
without warning. Now the stuff is
bought in steel cylinders ready to be
attached to the fountain proper, and
the element of danger is almost entire
ly eliminated
In the beginning there were none of
the pleasant acid drinks to be had, that
are SO popular nowadays, and no hopes
for the man who had lunched not wise
ly but too we'll the night before He
was Obliged then to take what little
comfort was offered in cracked ice, and
perhaps little brandy. Now he goes
TO soda fountain and has a phosphate
or plain sodo and feels all right in
Jiffy. But 1t has been in the line of
fancy drinks that the soda business
mas made the most rapid strides
Crushed fruit, ice cream, strange and
wonderful mixtures, go to make the bill
of fare for a well regulated soda foun-
tain.
But there is an attraction about Wor-
cester soda fountains which comes not
LIeIely from the QflnKS they supply.
Have you never watched the people
lined up at the long marble counter in
some popular drug store and noted the
forms of humanity represented? Even
ing is the best time for this. There are
some regular habitues of the soda foun-
tain who may be seen at any time of
the day, but these are not interesting.
1t is the passing custom which is worth
studying.
worcester has many pretty girls, as
everyone knows. Girls worth going a
long way TO see, and they are the peo-
pie who patronize soda fountains. They
have been shopping say, and are tired
and thirsty. If they have any money
they go after soda water. 1t isn't ne
cessary to have any money to go shop
ping. They will line up in some drug
store and order strawberry cream
sodas or an orangeade with two straws
and sit down to drink, talking over ev-
erything and everybody. One of the
druggists in town had all the stools re-
moved from the front of the s2da coun-
ter to prevent these tea parties, as he
calls them
But the fun comes when the girls try
to pay for the sodas.
Let me pay" says Qne, I've got the
change all ready" and she feels for her
pocketbook all the time
No, let me pay" says another, 81
invited you" And she, too hunts
fruitlessly for the pocketbook
The rest make same remark in other
words and finally one Of them gets her
money out reluctantly and pays, with
all the rest of the crowd protesting.
On warm evenings all classes Of So
ciey are represented. The American
AIRY and 'Arriet make the soda
fountain their trysting place
and the hurried business man drops in
for nerve bracer before going home
or to reception. Young men and
old men, too, who once would have
gone to a saloon for cool high beer,
now find the beverages furnished at the
soda counter to be more refreshing and
much more lasting in effect than any
thing which may be served over the
bar of a saloon
One of the pleasant sights sometimes
witnessed is to see two little tots of
the street scarcely high enough to look
over the top of the counter, and with
but a single nickel between them, come
into the drug store and timidly ask for
glass of strawberry soda and then
drink it between them.
A druggist in Worcester told of a
funny thing which happened not long
ago. A disreputable specimen of the
genus tramp same into his place and
asked for an orange phosphate with
TWO straws. 1t seemed to hiss as it
passed down his throat When he had
No. followed the first rapidly,
The druggist began to get suspicious
and asked for the money.
I'm goin' to give We a run for it.''
said the bum" and he darted out of
the store.
The druggist could not move for a
second, and then he laughed.
He got the best of me. I'm easy"
he said.
The soda fountain has proved great
advocate of temperance. Men find that
the acid drinks are much more cooling
In reality than beer or even a mint
julep, which may cool at first, but af-
forwards make one hotter than before.
Soda water is becoming a necessity
to happiness in Worcester with the
crusade against Sunday selling, soda
fountains are considered ito be in the
same category with restaurants, while
cigars and tobacco are tabooed artl-
cles.
So the soda water business has grown,
getting stronger as each year goes by,
Until now town without at least one
soda fountain is put into the same
class as the town without a post Of
flee.
JEWELLERS SIGNS.