The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-04
A SODA COUNTER coURTsHIP.
One Young Man Who Won a Wife
While Booming a Drug Store.

(New York SUM-
How did 1 win my wife?" said
young man who had been asked if he
would mind telling what had prospered
him most in his suit for the life part
ner with whom he is now blessed.
We'll, l won her in the queerest way
in the world, and at a time when l
was about the poorest had ever been
in my life, and when also I was out
of work
There was a nice young fellow in
our town. clerk in a drug store, who
an exceptionally elaborate and excel
lent soda fountain: he knew the profits
of the soda water business and ne set
out to get his share Of that.
But it didn't come in Day after
day the grand new soda fountain stood
there lonesome as could be with no
body in front of it, the white-jacketed
clerk standing back of it with his arms
folded.
You know how it is about these
things. 1t gets to be the fashion to
go to one place, and it's hard to get
that trade. But there was my friend
with the best outfit in the bunch and
as good goods as anybody. doing
nothing; ice cream melting every day,
and renewed every day. but nobody
coming to buy And one day my friend
says to me:
Dave. why don't you come in?'
L had mighty little money TO spend.
but you see. what little / did have I
had been blowing in thoughtlessly at
the other fountain. where the crowd
went, quite forgetting my friend But
| that little remark of his set us both
a-thinking, and the upshot was that
he asked me to come in often and
order what I wanted without cost. to
: L..
doing something. to give 'em an air of
business; the emptiness was getting
mOnOtOnous.
"WeH, I wasn't the foolishest looking
man in town at that time. nor did 1
wear the worst clothes, though just at
| that time, as / before minated. l had
very little in my pockets; but I sup
pose my friend might have found a
worse looking man to come in and
stand up in front of the counter and
order soda and then dawdle over it in
pleased sippings. And one day I took
there for an ice cream soda the young
, lady who is now my wife.
she was very fond of ice cream
soda. Court was being paid to her a
that time by young, solid young
man he was, too, worth more of a long
shot than l was, and I must say that
/ thought then with better prospects,
anu ilr NelS q pretty SAIOlfk SullOl. But
he was little stingy, or a s you might
say. close about his money; he never
wasted any.
Nov here was a young lady very
| fond of ice cream soda and with a
sutton well able to buy it for her. but
who didn't and then here just at the
moment 1 come along, presentable
I enough to her in my personal appear
ance, and with a whole soda fountain
at my back.
Imagine the result. I took her into
my friends beautiful new drug store
often. and it would have been hard to
set ~ in front of d more attractive
/ figure You've seen her. and you know
I how she looks now; she was, if pos
sible, more attractive then.
People used to look at her from the
street and admire her: and there we
used to sit and eat and drink. which.
ever it is. or both, ice cream soda,
taking plenty Of time over it, and
not neglecting the chance may say
that most of my counting I did sit
ting in front of the soda fountain.
Meanwhile I was not idle in other
ways. No doubt. as d matter of cold
truth, she and I helped to draw DeO-
] pie in; just the sight of anybody there
would do for that, but 1 brought in
my men friends. and pretty soon she
1 y
friends, and then things began to look
up decidedly
These new people, in turn. brought
in their friends and so on. you know.
sort of an endless chain business.
And my friend the druggist put up
the proper goods and the trick was
DONE
AT the end of a year she and 7,
thai is to say, the young lady now my
wife and I. who twelve months before
had had the whole counter to our
selves, were compelled often to wait to
get a chance TO stand at it. But be-
4 fore that happy time-fOr the druggist
III had wooed and won her, and some
/ time before that / had found lucrative
employment and could afford to marry;
so now we were married. with my
/ friend the druggist for best man. he
more pleased than he could put in
words for what 1 had done for the
/ fountain, and more pleased than L
could possibly tell over what the foun-
/ tain had done for me-