The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-16
IA FRIEND TO KIDS
Topeka Grocer Makes 1t Handy
for Children.
Display of Candy Is Made
Attractive.
HE HAS 4 TENDER HEART
More Babies Than Limousines
in His Neighhorhood.
Store Close to Business Section
of Topeka.

Around a little rather dingy corner
grocery, not forty blocks from the CEN
ter of Tppeka's business district, the
grass that supposedly one time deco
rated the parking, has all been worn
away. Scattered where 1t once grew
there are scraps and bits of rubbish
rubbish to the grown-up passerby, but
precious toys to their owners, who
leave them there on their conceded
playground. without fear, and return
to find them again.
More Babies Than IimOusines.
For the little grocery stands in q
neighborhood where there are more
ba bies than limousines, and where the
harder it is to get the money to rear
family. the bigger that family seems
to be.
The kids are great friends with the
small mart of household necessities.
1t typifies to them the source of their
homeiy fare.
run to the corner grocery and get
| tt" seems to them to cover the
entire field of production, transporta-
ton and distribution Of foodstuffs,
ridiculously complicated to the student
of economics. II you want anything
the grocery is where 1t is, OF course.
| It's social centers, playground and
many other things, all in one.
A Big CaTH1y Case.
And in it is the very sanetum sane-
forum of Childhood glass-covered
ease filled with candy. To the more
| fastidious adult, the candy counter
holds small appeal. The glass Is not
| French beveied. And there Is no pat
emit dewdad of an ice box connected
| with it to keep expensive chocolates
fresh. Candy is candy, to kids, HFerci-
fully.
The glass is a little bit dusty around
the corners of the show case. and on
| top it shows the marks Of tiny. point
| ing fingers that have singled out "a
penny's worth of that there kind, m
some of them pink ones, m oh, gee!
one Of them goody white enes.'
Do They Taste Candy.
One sometimes wonders whether
| kids taste candy at all, or whether II
is not solely thru the sense Of sight
that it appeals to them--eise why the
| gaudy colors?
And before the candy case is some
thing which shows up the proprietor al
a man who has a heart. The candy
| case is old fashioned, little bit high
up in the air for the stature OF this
average customer who comes to make
his or her selections there.
So in front of the case the store
keeper has fastened to the floor tive
small boxes, and across them has laid
aIstrong plank, 50 that six-years-and-a,
half, mounting the plank, has spread
at a convenient height all the saeha-
rine delights Of the confectionery in
side.
Has the little. thoughtful impulss
which prompted the store man to put
the boxes and the plank there and fis
them solidiy to the floor SO that theirs
VIII be no accidents, paid?
| Much Wenr an Rlanka
II the wear which the plank has
undergone from the hundreds of little
feet which have stood on It, sometimes
on >tiptoe. sometimes kicking i'm
| patiently against the counter because
the candy man was SO slow in wrap
ping up the purchase, is any sign, the
idea has paid dividends such as the
devices of the efficiency engineer pay
And who is going to say how much
it has paid in other and less tangible
Enthusiastically, trust and the
pure delight of seeing child happy?