The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-12-10
KEEP ON DRINKING
Winter No Time for Topeka
Fountains to Close.
Summer Fiends Still Cling to
Their Drug Store Visits.
WOMEN have HABIT BADLY
They Spend More Time and
Money Than Sterner Sex.
COkes and Matted Milks Cold
Weather FavOrites Here.

A tall g'ass with a little ice and
some amber fluid inside, q gentle
Precipitation on the outside, and two
straws stuck therein, seem natura4ly
to accord with a hot day A dish or
ice cream. frozen Righteousness Win
crushed fruits heaped about it and a
beaker Of ice water on the side us
place on the calendar is in the July or
August section
You think so. do you2 You're
wrong. The bowling. icy breeze, the
drifting snow have no effect on the ap-
petite OF the consistent fountain nend-
1t is true that soda fountain business
falls off during the winter but there
are not lacking the hounds VINO drape
their anatOmies against the marble
bar with regularity, regardless of the
season crunch the ice in their drinks
the while they huddle close to
radiator and survey the raging biz
zard without the drug store window
Cold weather doesn't mean that the
soda fountain closes down. The white
clad Hebe who rusEes the GROWERS Of
mild innocuous fIuid-the cup which
chills but does not inebriaue, holds her
Job in the winter as in summer.
Food and Stimulant.
Admittedly it is not so strenuous
II is automatic that in summer peO-
pie drink to be cooled off. whereas in
winter they drink for one Of two rea-
sons-the desire to be stimulated or
the desire for food For both food
and stimulation are TO be found in the
wares OF the soda fountain
There is far less ice cream. in the
various guises and DISCUSSES IN which
It is presented during the summer, sold
IN winter. The weird cOncoctiOns with
f-ossy names and fierce prices at
tached. disappear with the robins. The
superheated. double-compound imagi-
nation of the soda squirt who draws
the ground plans for the fancy dishes,
takes a rest in the winter But there
is not wanting a substitute to help fiji
the Golfer and keep up the merry
chime Of the soda fountain cash reg
lister.
Hot drinks. chilli and the like come
i'm and fill their places very accept
ably. Business Is just about as good
in the winter as in the summer, with
The difference that it is traffic in a
different commodity.
Cokes and Matted Milk.
But there are two drinks which
hold their sway thruout the year, with
slight diminution in the winter time.
T, ey are "cokes'' and matted milks
From the first the consumer gets
stimulation. or thinks he gets it,
which amounts TO the same thing.
The second undeniably has a food
value.
The honest-to- gawsh, bowed in the
glass coke-hOuud recks not of wealth
er. He demands his daily or semi
daily shohnthearm without regard TO
the thermometer. The year around
he sides up to the counter and
drinks. He drinks a bit differently in
In winter time. He more frequently
asks for his drink without ice. He
fingers longer over it. but he demands
it just the same. The coke habit. once
esta bI.shed. has no reference to the
weather. OF course. more people go
into a drug store in the summer to get
something cool TO drink with the
result that they order Cokes. But to
the man who goes into a drug store
knowing he wants a coke-to him a
coke is a coke and a desideratum, in
fair weather or foul
Breakfast of Matted Milk
And a matted milk, containing
mayhap an egg, perchance some
chOcolaC- syrup. is d very present help
in time OF trouble to the tired bust
ness man or the rlapper on a morning
after. 1T would surprise YOU a vet
eran fountain man declares. what a
lot OF people make their breakfast on
matted milk when they are late get
ting down to the office in the morn
ing, and the inner woman viii not be
stayed otherwise TIL lunch time"
These. L erefOre, are the winter
dominating. weather-resisting wares
ot the soda fountain during the cold
seasO They are flanked by a menu
of sandwiches, salads and hot drinks, /
-Fhich exc out the receipts.
The patron tarries longer in the
winter time, dalying with his drink /
than i'm the summer time They 20
into the drug store to keen warm 1
while they wait for a friend. or to
pass few idle moments, and they
neave anchor alongside the bar and
drink j talk and drink and talk.
L have clients says the same vet
eran. who spend hours in this store
every day-meet their friends, make
their dates, and put across business
deals here AS soon as the golf sea
son opens. I see no more of them
Iney go elsewhere to linger. or
course their place is taken by the
people who rush in in the summer for (
cold drink, and rush right out
again"
Women In Majority.
Women make up a larger percent /
age OF the fountain trade in the winter +
than they Go in the summer time
The reason is not easy to discover /
Perhaps because the consumption or /
soda-fountain fodder is habit, and /
women are creatures of habit
Whatever be the explanation more /
women drink a the soda fountains the !
year round than do men, And the
women have taken the coke habit up I
enthusiastically. As many women or
der cokes nowadays as do men. Thew /
larry a little longer over their drinks /
always. than do the men. and espec- 1
tally is this true in the winter time.
Women, of course. always have
more things to discuss "fn their cups /
than the men, and to them the con- /
sumption of a coke or a phosphate re- /
quires more time
But a few years ago it was the
custom TO smear the big mirror behind /
the fountain with Bon Amt dfscon-
meet the pipes, fire the presiding gen
JUS, and close the business. with the I
approach Of winter II was fnconceiv-
able that the public would demand ice 1
cream and iced drinks in zero weather. 4
But the public, irrational as al /
ways declined to be educated along
this line. The public demands its /
shot in the arm and its LIQUID break /
fast whether it be winter or summer.
and Of course The public gets i