Evening star., 1924-09-10
THIS AND THAT
BY C. e. TRACEwELL.

many women VIII declare Tor the
department store as the most inter-
esting of shops, while dogs and cats,
nc doubt, would come out for butcher
shops, if these animals could grasp
the question.
To me it seems that the three most
interesting are book stores, drug
stores and radio shops. The first is
almost as old as mankind, the sec
ond is of ancient lineage, too, while
the third is the latest child of COM
merce.
Probably the drug store comes as
near being the common meeting
ground as any one kind OF mart, for
here may be found A strange. COM
pleX and most interesting assortment
Of goods to appeal to all tastes
men, women, children.
Everything from a pocket comb to
coffee percolator can be purchased
in modern drug store. with the
result that visiting such a place be-
comes pleasant sort of adventure.
x x x x
Adventuring among the shops to-
day is about as much of a thrill as
many persons get out of life.
Here is a theme for some great
ed lives are led by so many that life
offers no adventure to them beyond
trip downtown. the high spot OF
an otherwise placid existence
Lest some think this statement
overdrawn, let me call attention,
often overlooked, to the increased
peril of going on the streets. Auto
mobile traffic has made going down
town a real difficulty for thousands
of women and children.
No longer is Washington the quiet,
villagelike city of Is years ago.
This cannot be pointed out too many
times. Where once only a horse
drawn wagon might be seen on the
whole stretch of Pennsylvania ave-
nue. from the Treasury to the White
House, today literally hundreds of
automobiles whirl along both ways.
Even agile men are forced to stand
minutes sometimes waiting for the
flow Of traffic to let up just a brief
second SO that they may dart across
from curb to curb. This condition
holds particularly true around y
o'clock in the morning, about ] in
the afternoon and from 4:3U to 8
o'clock in the evening.
Traffic police, according TO the no.
ton of many pedestrians. do not de-
vote enough attention to the welfare
of the walkers. This writer has
seen, at the difficult bend at Pennsyi-
vania avenue and Fifteenth street,
the south end of the Treasury, line
of cars stopped, pedestrians motioned
forward and then. before even the
quickest could make the curb. the
line of automobiles authorized to
move forward again.
Such conditions as these, with the
great increase in population of the
National Capital. have made it a
really dangerous proceeding for
many to go down town shopping.
The spice of pleasant danger. there
fore, has been added to shopping
Women usually at home find going
down town" real adventure.
A modern drug store meets the con-
ditions outlined for interesting ad-
venture about as well as any shop, at
the same time it supplies needs near
to the bosoms and hearts of men.
Necessities used in securing and
maintaining cleanliness and health
are to be found in such places.
Men, as well as women, are tremen-
dously' interested in health and it's
concommitant, cleanliness. Only in
the hinterlands does the idea still pre-
vail that to clean is to be feminine.
In this good work the drug store has
played its part.
Probably athletics has done more
than any one thing in American life
to make for cleanliness. A good
'wofkout" on the track induces per-
spiration, and perspiration calls for
a shower. When an athletic youngster
gets into a family he starts every
one bathing. 1t is Infectious.
Today the drug store supplies most
of us with most Of our soaps, tooth
ma
this line. What blends of Orient with
Occident may be discovered by the
imaginative in a drug store! The
drugs of the old store are still there,
together with many innovations, the
whole making a conglomerate assort-
ment full of perpetual interest.
Drug stores in Washington today
are Of two sorts-the small, individual
shop, the "naborhood" store. as the
enterprising lad" writer calls it, and
the store that belongs to chain.
x x \.
Once Washington had nothing but
the small corner drug stores. run by
druggists in whose family the busi-
ness had been for years. Some of
these drug stores remain.
This is the sort of corner drug
store" that was the informal club
house and general meeting place for
the boys and young men of the neigh
borhood. Purchase of an ice cream
soda now and then made one char
ter member. When the proprietor had
a son he was training up for the busi-
ness the clubhouse was in its glory.
There every evening the boys con-
gregated, dropping in ostentatiously
to look for magazine, and never
buying any. The magazines were
displayed on a rack at the rear of the
store, where one could look at all the
pictures and end up by deciding that
none was just exactly what the MOOD
of the moment called for.
One of the great treats for a mem
Der of this impromptu club was to be
allowed behind the screen, in that
mysterious compartment where the
pharmacist retired to compound his
prescriptions. Like getting through
the stage door of theater, admit
tance behind the drug store screen
was an honor. Sometimes one was
allowed to make simple mixtures, TOO.
1t was a great life.
Those old drug stores were just
the sort where things happened as in
the following story: The druggist
was a great chess fiend. One day,
while playing with crony in the
''holy Of holies," he heard a custom
er enter "out front"
Somebody wants you out there"
said the other player.
"Shh!" whispered the pharmacist
"Keep still-he will go away after
while"
X X
No drug store in the old days was
complete without the great jars filled
with colored liquid, the sign and sig
nature of the druggist. Why they
were there, or what the colored liquid
was, very few ever knew, probably
not even the druggist. 1t was the
custom, Just as it was for the cigar
store to have a wooden Indian.
The great chain drug stores came