Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-29
VIEWS Or 4 "BARKEEp"

"Before many years, IN my opinion
theren be regular soda water foun.
tains In the big saloons" said the pro,
| pristor Of wel1-known Washington cafe
| ITS q thing that has got to come.
lot Of us have had IL in mind for a lons
| time, but saloon keepers-a pretty con.
| servative crowd. considering the nature
OF their business-balk at innovations
| II somebody doesn't mako the opening
break pretty soon I'll be tempted to DC
| 1t myse1f--install q farst-rate soda foun-
tain right in here, with expert soft-stufi
mixers to run It, and md out how the
thing works.
really believe that 1t would be q
hit from the jump of. There are several
| reasons why. One Of them is that more
men are falling for the soda fountain
stun all the time. especially during the
warm months. Take a look at the line
up in front OF any Of the big soda foun-
tatns on hot day and you'll be able to
PICK rnit.s out plenty Of felloys who have
soda fountains are doing a larger busi-
ness every year, and the summer soda
business Is really the backbone of a
whole lot of the, drug shops. I'm not
saying, that the soda business belongs
OF right to the saloons, but we're en-
titled to make try for that business
and get 1t If we can.
The water-wagon habit is growing.
A certain proportion of a saloons Gus
toners In these days is on and off the
water wagon all the time The fellows
who cut out the hard stuff for a time
like to drop into regular saloon and
meet up with their friends but the aver
age saloon doesn't carry much OF line
of soft stuff-a mineral water or two.
list.
The man on the water vehicle gets
sick of this stuff, but If he knew that
his saloon had soda fountain where he
could take his pick of big list ms Gus
tom would surely be kept till he dropped
his whip from the water cart and felt
impelled to climb down and pick 1t up.
Cynical view2 Oh. not meant that way
You've noticed that most Of them do fall
from the water cart in the course Of
time, haven't you?
"A couple Of fellows meet up on the
street and the have one suggestion is
made. One of the men wants a drink Of
something thath make the circulation
cirk, while the other one. off his feed or
on the cart or .just not in the mood for
strong waters, feels like chocolate Ice
cream soda or some such item. It's
roundabout and impracticable for the
man who wants the soft thing to drop
In at soda fountain place and get It
while his friend leans on one leg and
then on the other. and then accompany
insert long. jolly one into his system
II the saloon had a soda fountain they
could both glide in there and get what
they wanted and make rings on the ia
bic and enjoy themselves together over
their respective drinks.
some of the saloon men here with
whom I've talked this thing over seemed
to be afraid that the soda fountain in
the place would hurt their regular hard
stuff business by making men switch
from the hard to the soft stun when
they saw the fountain working. 1 cant
see it that way. The man Of today knows
get before he sets his foot past the door
of saloon.
Anyhow. don't let anybody tell you
that men are drinking as much as they
much: In all of the leading drinkeries
OF Washington 1t Is being noticed. for
instance, how an increasing proportion
Of the ,er, customers n are slowing down all
that health is about the best thing in
life, and they're learning how TO take
care Of their health.
Changes in drinking fashions take
example that the call for Scotch whisky,
either to be taken neat or to be made
into highballs. is growing smaller all the
time. and l hear the same report from
be accounted for partly because Of the
report Of DR.. Wiley to the effect that
hardly any of the Scotch whisky sold in
the United States is on the level, and
medicine-like sort of stun is just meet
ing with natural death. The Scotch
whisky thing in this country. in my
opinion. was never much more than fad.
AS l say, the styles in hard drinks
change. The gin rickey. for another ex-
ample, Is rapidly coming to be a dead one
as a hot-weather thirst-quencher. Five
years ago 1t seemed as If all hands were
fairly mad over the gin rickey. On hot
day every other man who lined I'D wanted
a rickey of some kind, either kin or whisky
But that fancy didn't last very long. The
drinkers of rickeys soon began to find out
for themselves that the lines didn't agree
with their inner paraphernaiia. especially
when they made rickeys their regular and
exclusive tipple.
when the golden fizz first came out
whole slews and slathers Of fellows became
so hopelessly mashed on 1t that they drank
n 1he p o 9a gornf m n They Psa
when they became SO bilious that they could
hardly see to put on their hats, they moped
around for a while, wondering what made
them bilious. until they suddenly recollect-
ed that there's an egg in every golden fig,
and just you try taking about forty raw
eggs or 80 day into your system and see
THE highball made with carbonic water
used to be the entire Camembert. Now
the bulk Of highball drinkers are having
them made with plain water. They got next
to the fact that the carbonated waters
were highly injurious in their effect upon
the screened economy of human beings. A
man with any considerable assortment of
carbonic water bilging around in his mid
riff feels like half-infated airship, and
when the past performance sheets Informed
the dr1nker Of carbonic highballs that It
was the carbonic water that made him feel
this way he cut it out for himself and
spread the tidings Of his discovery-which
was known many years ago to the medical
his friends. That's why my
orders for carbonated waters are about
half what they were even two or three
years ago.
"Shandygaff is at length coming in as a
summer drink commonly asked for, al
though there has, of course, been sporadic
call for 1t for a number of years. It's Eng
lish, but it's one of the real good things
that has come out of England. It's an
equal mixture Of ale or beer. or even por-
ter. and imported ginger ale. and it's
mighty soothing and modifying liquid for
men who are not deliberately bent upon get
ting an alcoholic effect for their money.
You can't drink enough shandygaf to get
you more than the merest little bit WOODY
and It's q wholesome arrangement all
round.
There's a noticeable tendency on the
part Of men who visit saloons in hot weather
to Just quench their thirst with
out paving the way for that mean, gummy.
stuffy feeling when the alcoholic effect dies
out The Rhine wine and settler boys are
gaining In numbers all the time. They