The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-08-20
AIDS TO TEMPERANCE.
Albright Soda Fountains Have n
Large and Growing Trade.

Hartford Couranr.
The soda fountain is almost as productive
Of temperance I'm the community at large as
is the canteen in the army. You don't
think so much about ii if you only see the
day customers; "A large proportion of them
are women and children, though the num-
Der of men who are forming the habit of
dropping in for a glass of innocuous bev-
erage instead of for beer or cocktails is in
creasing. Perhaps this is because there is
a greater variety and better quality of
drinks at the fountain than there used to
be, while the clerks are more adept at
mixing. Why, you remember when milk
shakes first came in they used TO have a
machine to do the shaking; that must nave
been because shaking by hand was too
suggestive of the bar. But to-day the
white-coated professional behind the coun-
ter puts in the milk with syrup, breaks in
the egg, claps on the big tin cup, shakes
a moment and pOurs you out a concoction,
drawing the stream up higher and higher,
In a way that would make the bartender
enVious. And he gets all the better wages
for it.
Late in the evening is when the tenn
perance virtue of the modern soda foun-
tain is best demonstrated. Stand there at
the hour when ten ptation to go TO saloons
is supposed TO be the greatest-after the
evenings work or entertainment is over
and there is a craving for a might cap
with a boon companion or two-and see
these men come in who otherwise would
seek the saloon. There is no longer the
scorn for girls drinks" because there's
a good deal else besides girls drinks
there are drinks fully as delectable as can
be had at the Tar. And when YOU come
right down to il, say what YOU like about
mans fondness for the alcoholic stimulant,
it's the delectableness in a drink that gets
a hold on him. 1t is the delectableneSs of
the drink, together with the effectiveness
Of the fountain and the surroundings.
They may talk about the brilliancy Of
the saloon and call il the poor mans club
there isn't a saloon so fresh, so invigorating
in its atmosphere and so cheerful in the
evening at least, as the soda fountain place.
OF course there are not the chair and
the tables and the newspapers and such
things to make one tarry; the man who will
sit down and drink half a dozen beers Of
an evening would never think of drinking
more than one glass (of equal SiZe) of the
soda fountain beverage, which, by rconven-
~tlOnallty, he has TO take standing. But the
chairs and the tables, the exclusive soda
fountain places, will come in due time.
Night after night l have seen men who
worked in saloons or cafes, or next door TO
them, where they could have had their beer
for the asking, drop in at some favorite
soda-water stand on their way home at
midnight to get their hot chocolate. with
whipped cream, or their ice cream soda or
egg bOuche, or anything else from the long
list offered. AS the warm weather con-
tinues TO debilitate, many of those whom
we have seen I'm the lunchrooms stop i'm
here to substitute a malt extract or an
egg-and-milk combination for their old
time solid meals. Or they come in and
drink first and then go for their meals.
Day people may drink their soda with a
Sulp and rush out and on till they come to
the next fountain. and so keep il I'D all
day. but the night man fingers long over
his glass, and if there is anybody to talk
with will hang around, chairs or no chairs.
one reason is that ii is the hour when one
likes TO look back reiectively over the day.
When you and your wife get home from
the theater or the dance don't YOU like to
IL 49, 1890 1nfa 4 d A~I ~
the affair? Doesn't the young couple. who
are not married yet, like TO iinger at the
safe or the door after they have been out
together? That popularity in human ma
ture has been made the subject of many a
poor joke, but isn't the explanation of il TO
be found in the disposition of each one of
us-gossip, purely gossip. when all the DAYS
duties and pleasures are over?
Then don't blame the young couDle.
Don't blame the husband for taking this
extra half hour down town TO chat with
friends. He has heard something or has
read something, his opinions on which he
has had 10 keep TO himself through rho
he has got TO compare those opinions with
someone else's. And nowhere can he do so
more harmlessly than at the midnight
lunch or before the soda fountain. under
the cooling electric fan.
A group of these men were just lighting
their cigars 10 start for home as I entered
the drug store last night. One of thena
had told a story that pleased the Others,
and | heard as l entered:
Harry, II you can tell stories like that.
you ought 10 write them out and get them
published. You'd make more money than
YOU do ringing up fares"
"Oh. yes" laughed the stOrv-teller
That makes me think of when was a
boy. always wanting TO swim across a axe
near our house. / could swim the first few
strokes all right. but then / found I wasn't
up 10 IL. Try hard as | would. Td have 10
see the big feiiers pass me. Now I'm Older
and stronger. but don't suppose I could
swim as far as | could then. So IL isn't I'm
the strength and will altogether: it's in the
k~now-hoW."
Probably publishers wish there were
midnight soda water fountain.
Aba>hed.