The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-02-27
Tn: New York
BY PAIL HARRISON

birthday bG 1f waa just washinsion's washinsson $ birthday down at the old Quackin- bush Pharmacy on Greenwich street this year"
 For more than a century the day was the occasion for a quiet celebration of the founding, in 1877, of the oldest drug store in Greenwich Village; and oysters were served, buffet fashion, to clerks and all the customers of the neighborhood.
 But the tradition died with Benjamin Quackinbush, grandson of the founder. And the present owner, a son-in-law whose inter ests are in Wall Street, doesn't get around very often to the little shop which now is huddled be- tween big, modern warehouses and buffeted by the vibration of the elevated trains. James Todd, the prescription clerk, has been there 50 years.
 It is one of the few real pharma- cies left in Manhattan. No soda fountain, no candy, no books or alarm clocks. The same sign, re- painted about 20 times, swings over the door. There is round- bellied coal stove at the rear, and cotton-headed Negro named Wit liam Smith, who has been porter there since 1894. The shelves are lined with blass- -stoppered bottles with Latin inscriptions, and an- cient zinc bins labeled "catnip," "Boneset", Rotten Stone" and the like. You can buy slippery elm and lungwort and tansy. No liquor ;the Quackinbushes always have been prohibitionists. Time was, though, when gum opium was sold right over the counter for $4.50 the pound.
 Mir Todd recalls that little Jimmy Walker used to stop in now and then for sticks of licOricc, and was something of neighbOrhOOd pest. The Tunncys were good custOm-
 CTS, and Gene used to bring slips of paper with names of medicines written on them.
 Pharmaceutical Landmark Bigelow's drug store. over on Sixth Avenue in the Village,
 
 l But it is much lievlier-has a soda | fountain and sells all sorts of gad- gets at its notion counters. It was founded in 1888 and passed into the hands of c. o. Bigelow in 1880. He is 84 now, but still spry and chipper. He used to be pres ident of the school of pharmacy at Columbia University, and now is president of a bank. But he gets | the most fun out of working in the old store, which he does every day. He also likes to recall things about some of his famous custom CTS. Mark Twain" he'll say, never acted like a humorist when he came in here. Didn't open his gills except to tell what he wanted | to buy" Maude Adams always was cheery, and General Mcclellan very stiff and courteous. General Daniel E. Sickles, veteran of Get | tysburg, bought lot of liniment there. And Commodore Wander | bilt-'I can see him to-day, tall and crabby- looking, with his white whiskers." F. Marion Crawford remained Bigelow customer even after, he went to Italy to live.
 He'd send back his prescriptions and the store would fill them and
 mail back the medicines.
 Ye Old Prescriptions
 Quite the oldest drug store in New York, though, is Olliffe's, at No Bowery. It was satrted
 there in 1S05 by an Englishman. 6 Doctor Walters, and for a long time was the apohtecary shop
 where the finest ladies and gentle
 men came. Sometimes the gay
 blades had teaches applied, and the store still has a sign claiming fo Tit the sole right to distribute
 Beoker's Balsam for Blackened
 Eyes. Also for Barrett's St Vitus
 Dance Remedy.
 1 The shop is owned by Mrs | Francis Campbell, of White Plains,
 but is run by a couple of elderly clerks. Here it was, incidentally, that Joseph M. Schenck, the movie magnate, worked 27 years ago.
 He made friends with fellow named Irving Berlin, who was
 singing in Nigger Mikes saloon
 just around the corner. Berlin talked Schenck into investing m
 a show, which made money and
 lured him Into the theater bus | mess.