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By Wm. P. Byrne (As the cold weather approaches)

As the cold weather approaches we find ourselves face to face with the problem of "What shall we do with our soda fountain?" We do not write these lines to the large dealers in great cities, but to those whose trade is of moderate dimensions; the former class of dealers know only too well-and need no advice from us-the winter program already arranged for the soda fountain. In the sweltering days of summer or the cold and biting days of winter the pleasing "sizzle" of the released soda water or the curling vapors from the steaming urn, are ever present to the eye and ear, and at closing hour each night the "checks" representing the dimes and nickels are counted up in great stacks and the proprietor's face bears as expansive a smile with the thermometer ranging 20 degrees below zero as when it stands at 90 degrees above.

We repeat we do not write for these gentlemen but for the moderate dealer who, when fall approaches, contemplates the putting away of his soda fountain, something in the same spirit as he would discard his light summer clothing, only to be brought out and refurbished on the arrival of the first warm days of the following spring.

There are so many reasons why the soda fountain should be continued in operation during the whole twelve months of the year! And those reasons have been presented, and expanded and hammered on so persistently that all we may now say seems mere repetition, yet repetition oft prevails from the fact that it emphasizes a truth that otherwise would be lightly passed over and never receive that consideration which constant repetition first impresses on the mind and next compels.

During the summer the headquarters of the soda fountain has been a steady attraction to the young people of the neighborhood. What young gentlemen's best girl has not again and again sat at the table or the counter and partaken with delight of the "treat" which, dare she confess it, she had been secretly hoping for from the moment she had been asked to take the evening promenade? And how often the pleasant little confidences exchanged over the sociable soda glass has warmed the timid lover to the expression of his feelings? And the merry marriage bells have rung out another new and, let us hope, happy home has been founded.

But this is not the point we set out to make. The "moderate" drug store has been a "lively" center all summer long. Doors wide open, the interior a blaze of light, young people (and old) moving about the store, or in and out, chairs and tables occupied, sometimes the head of the family brings the good wife and children, and often before leaving the eye catches something in the showcase that is needed or is thought to be needed at home, and a half-dollar or a dollar purchase follows, and thus the soda trade reacts on the other branches of the business and the receipts multiply and the druggist will tell you smilingly, "Yes! trade is very good." But when the cold blasts warn us of approaching winter, how changed the scene! All the liveliness, the joy and the ever-changing throngs have vanished! The soda fountain is converted into a huge shelving for the display of goods, the marble top on which it rests is loaded down with bottles and packages and the top of the fountain is terraced with improvised shelving on which exhibits reach half way or more to the ceiling. The soda counter also is a medley of the various sundries pertaining to a drug store, and its trade has now fallen back into the old rut of the patent medicine, the Rochelle salts, the Seidlitz powder, and the occasional prescription. No happy youths and maidens enliven the scene or discuss the good things that attracted them during the warm summer days and evenings, but on the contrary it now reflects the shadow of gloom-as sad as a visit to a deserted home. And it might be so different! Would you have it so? Then, though you close your doors for the winter season, do not close your soda fountain. Away with the bottles, the boxes, the toilet and sundry articles that cumber the counter and the fountain. Install a hot soda apparatus, the handsomest you can buy and let the stools line up along the outside of the counter. The burnished silver of the fountain, the polished mirrors reflecting doubly the beauty of the surroundings, the vapor from the hot soda floating in lazy, disappearing mists on the atmosphere, the enticing hot chocolate or beef tea, or the dozen and one delightful and healthful preparations now to be found at the hot soda counter present a picture of content and cosy comfort to the shivering outside passer-by that is almost irresistible in its attractiveness. And because winter is here the young man has not forgotten his best girl, and she is still as dear to him as in the gone by summer season, and to the maid the hot chocolate is as sweet and the unspoken hope for its enjoyment suggests itself as promptly as in those other days when the mercury climbed far above the bulb of the thermometer.

That your soda fountain is closed down is a blunder because it is a loss. Some one of your larger competitors is operating his fountain all the year round. In his store the scene is enlivening, and to it those who in the summer patronized you now wend their way. 'Tis not alone the soda trade which is lost to you, but the various odds and ends that the customer does not realize he needs until his eye rests on them and purchases then and there, and still worse, the constant visits for hot or cold soda to the competitor's place of business, gradually weans from you the customers and you behold perhaps when too late to be remedied the suicidal course you have been pursuing.

Do not excuse the closing down of your soda fountain by saying you are not in a neighborhood to support it. It is comparatively inexpensive. Hot water, the syrups, a little whipped cream for a few of the syrups and a few delicate wafers. This is all, but they must be of the best and their preparation can be learned from the pages of this book.

The hot soda of today might be called a very light lunch (?) and this is a field that the druggist, and to a much greater extent the confectioner, have in recent years entered with marked success, so much so that the shoppers and after-theatre parties are as regular in their attendance on the hot soda fountain as they are in summer on the various cold beverages. The enterprising and up-to-date druggist, grasping the opportunity as it presented itself, has here filled a want that means wonders to the trade. He is adding to his ordinary clientele a class outside the mere lover of a delicious beverage; he is drawing to his store those who partake of a very light and dainty lunch, and the benefit to himself goes far beyond this, for those new patrons have eyes with which they see and in the display of the various goods some one thing or another attracts the customer, and thus sales are added to the day's business that without the inflow of people would never have been made.

The tendency of the present time is toward expansion. Then why wait until you are dragged an unwilling captive into the new order of things? It is the enterprising who are ever successful, and to those who enter the field first is offered the choicest fruits of the harvest. Do not hamper yourself with the effete notion that the druggist in following the lines above suggested is unprofessional, or that to dispense hot soda and wafers is infringing on your dignity. Your dignity will receive much more consideration from the world when backed by a large and prosperous business than if it have no better support than a hand to mouth though orthodox sustenance. When you decide finally to take up hot soda and to keep your fountain open for the winter, you must hold steadily in view a few essentials without which you might better remain in the old rut of conservatism until the young man with modern ideas shoulders you out of the rut and out of your business at the same time.

First, then, everything you use in the preparation of your beverages must be the best. Cleanliness, it must ever be remembered, is next to godliness, and the service-the cups, the saucers, the wafers and the paper napkinsdelicate, enticing, appetizing. Oh, there are places such that the mere sight of the little china cup, light as feather down, the chocolate topped with its billowy foam of whipped cream, and wafers you could blow from your hand, create in you an appetite, a desire unfelt until the appeal found your sense of appetite through the eye. And these stores are patronized all day and all evening, the surging crowds passing in and out until closing time ends the scene.

And this in a degree can be accomplished by the druggist on the side street, or in the country town and with very little trouble and very little cost. Make every accessory attractive. Let the hot soda apparatus be as handsome as your pocketbook can afford. It will return ten-fold. The public gauges the value of your goods by the value you place on them, and holds to that valuation until it discovers otherwise, so that the more handsome and costly the apparatus from which you draw your beverages and the more delicately beautiful the vessels in which you serve it, the higher the estimate of value your patrons will place on it; it behooves you, therefore, to live up to this high standard of excellence and the reward shall be gratifying and substantial.

Winter Fountains.

In other years the fall was considered the last of soda water and the fountains began to go out of business by the first of November. This winter and spring, however, the business will be in fully as flourishing a condition as it has been the past summer. Chilly weather has no power to freeze up the appetite of the soda water lover. Most of the soda water fountain owners have signified their intention of keeping the fountains open all winter. This was tried more extensively last year than former years and it was found to be so paying that the same method will be used this year. The time when people stopped consuming soda when cold weather came, has passed, it is now a business the year round.

If the average soda dispenser would stop and think that if he devoted half as much time to his soda fountain as he gave to the other departments of his store how great his returns would be. There is nothing in all his store that can be made to yield as much profit as his soda fountain and yet many neglect it in a way. When the cool weather comes he commences to tie it up for the winter instead of keeping it open and in operation. Hot drinks are popular everywhere and profitable to the dealer. These profits are yours for the grasping. If you are interested in increasing your business you can find no easier or quicker method than by serving hot beverages this winter. If you have never tried it, don't say, "It won't pay; Bill Jones tried to run a hot chocolate urn and failed." Probably Bill Jones never made any part of the business pay, so he is not a fair example. Try it for yourself. Hot soups and hot chocolate are favorites everywhere and the profit is excellent on these drinks.

Hot Drinks in Small Towns.

It is a mistaken idea that because you are located in a small town you cannot cause a demand for hot drinks. There is no department of your business as profitable during the cold winter months as hot drinks if handled along proper lines. These lines are easy. The only question is that of catering to your customers' tastes.

The apparatus in itself is very inexpensive and the supplies are within easy reach of every dealer. If he can be made to realize that it is a moneymaker he will not hesitate to try it. And when he does try it he is satisfied. There are two features to be continually borne in mind and upon which depends your success-quality and cleanliness. Base your work on these two requirements and your trade will be correspondingly good. Your urn must be bright and shining, your cups dainty and appetizing, and your service beyond reproach. All these are necessary to establish a good reputation, and when established you must live up to it. The making of a good cup of chocolate or beef tea is not a difficult matter, nor is it an easy one. Great care must be continually used in getting just exactly the proper amount of ingredients. It must not be too sweet if chocolate, but sweet enough. It must not be too strong or salty if beef tea, but seasoned just right.

There is chocolate that your customers will drink because they are cold and it is hot, and again, there is chocolate that people will walk out of their way for on a cold night. If you serve the first kind you can pay expenses, but if you serve the latter you can make a handsome profit in not only your soda department, but in your general trade. You will get as a result of your efforts a satisfactory interest on your investment.

Of course your common sense will tell you that you cannot serve lukewarm, thin beverages and expect to satisfy your patrons. You know they won't stand for it, so do not give them an opportunity of complaining, rather compel them to compliment you. And they will if they like your drinks.

There are hundreds of hot drinks beside hot chocolate, teas and broths, there are hot syrup drinks which are new, delicious and refreshing, some non-alcoholic beverages that set the blood a-tingle with warmth and cheer, they are pleasing and when you once get your customers interested you will find it easy sailing.

One druggist in an Iowa town of 1,200 writes us an interesting letter as follows: "I installed a neat and serviceable hot soda urn early last winter and in seven days I had fully made up the amount expended on the urn and supplies and am now drawing a handsome interest on my investment. The inhabitants of the town I am in number about 1,200, but it is the county seat and every Saturday the farmers and their families come in from the country. I never used tables for my soda fountain, never thought they were necessary until now. I found that I could not accommodate all my customers at the counter, so bought two tables and intend getting two more. My greatest demand is for hot chocolate with the ladies; among the farmers it is a luxury. The men seem to like the clam bouillon best. Nothing of this sort was ever served here before and we are 'it,' especially on Saturday. Hot soda is the proposition. If the other druggists need money to pay for bonnets for the babies, and coal, they had better get a hot soda apparatus. Christmas time is approaching and I am going to have the biggest sales I ever had."

Our friend has the right idea and his idea will mean money to him. He will draw a class of people in his store who probably would not go unless in need of medicine. Perhaps one will see a bottle of perfume, another a new inkstand, a book, writing paper, or any one of a thousand things a druggist carries besides his drug stock. He will get his customer to buy things at Christmas by putting them before him in a way that is sure to win. You can do the same.

In a confectionery store one always expects to find a hot soda apparatus, as well as a soda fountain. In small towns, where a confectionery store receives the support of the citizens, it stands to reason that the hot soda trade in winter would be equally as good as ice cream sodas in summer if you get the people into the habit of believing that they need refreshments quite as much in winter as in summer.

If you have skating in your town, which, of course, you have, advertise hot drinks for skating parties, get the young people to drop in after their out-door exercise for a hot beverage just as they did in summer for a soda. The business won't come to you unless you convince the public that you have just what they want. Don't think that because you live in a small town you cannot sell hot drinks, because you can.

Suppose two ladies step into your store, and you give them a hot chocolate; it is well made, they are cold and it just happened to be what they wanted. They tell Mrs. So-and-So at the missionary meeting that afternoon, or at the thimble party at Mrs. B's that they did not know that Sampson made such fine chocolate. Others try it and the result is, if your beverages are good, that you get a lot of free advertising. Suppose a man drops in; he has had a long drive in the country; give him a good strong beef tea, put a few crackers on a plate and the seasoning. Ask him how he likes it, strive to please him and you will satisfy him, he will tell others and he will come again. That is what you want, that is profitable business. There are so many bouillons, froths and soups that one could have a splendid assortment with a very small outlay. Chicken broth is a general favorite, while tomato bouillon is a close second among the men. Put window strips up so that the public will know that you are serving hot beverages. What could be more gratifying to your out-of-town customers, who have had a long, cold drive, than a steaming cup of delicious broth, bouillon or chocolate. Put yourself in their places and see how you would enjoy it. There is nothing like it. Think how much holiday advertising you can get when you put your novelties out on sale before Christmas. Have you thought of its advantages in this way? There is money in it and who among you does not need it?

Big or little, city or town, every druggist ought to carry hot soda. There's only one way to go at this question. If you take it up with a sad face, and the fixed idea that hot soda is going to be a failure, why, the chances are that hot soda is going to accommodate you and be a failure. The druggist who wants to make the most of his opportunites must saturate himself with the idea that it's up to him to make hot soda a success in his individual case, whether it takes one year, two years, or three years. This idea acquired, then go ahead.

One of the main reasons why you ought to carry hot soda is that it is a giant help toward keeping your soda department lively all the year 'round. You don't want your soda fountain throughout six months of the year to look like an excavated section of ancient Pompeii. You want it to be like the rest of your store-alive, busy, stirring, bringing in the sheaves. Another reason why you should carry hot soda is the fact that it pays a large percentage of profit. People can be educated to drink hot soda, and the best way to start their education is to have it. Climate counts for little. Hot soda sells better in Mobile, Ala., than in some of the lake cities. In many Southern cities, people begin drinking hot soda in August and September. This is peculiar, you say? Not at all. Don't people drink boiling hot coffee every day in the year? It's all a matter of habit. Make up a list of the hot flavors you propose to carry, and also lists of the cold soda flavors and mineral waters you intend to keep in stock all winter. Once the list is determined on, never permit the fountain to be without any of these flavors.

Use a tasty soda water menu on your counter, which will serve as a souvenir to the customer. Never issue any matter about hot soda without attaching a list of cold flavors that will always be on hand. It is well to remember that advertising not only brings in material profits, but that it marks you as a progressive man and raises you both in your neighbor's estimation and in your own. It gives you a wider scope in life. It gets you out of the rut.

Remember, that a piece of advertising matter may bring in results months after you have forgotten that you ever put it out. The man who advertises sends salesmen into the world who may bring in orders years after they have been dismissed from their originator's mind.

Hot Drinks Are Popular.

The soda fountain man is with us always now. Time was when he disappeared with the end of the heated season, but today his spotless white jacket is as conspicuous in the front of many a store as on the hottest day of August.

During the cold months the refrigerant drinks of summer are supplanted by hot lemonade, beef tea, chocolate, bouillon, malted milk and egg phosphate. Oyster cocktail is more popular in winter than in summer, although it is not served hot. It is a wonderful decoction, for which almost every fountain man has his own especial recipe.

From present indications the traffic in hot drinks will be larger this winter than ever before.

Boiled Eggs at the Soda Fountain.

Several large dispensers through the West have introduced the novelty of boiling eggs at the soda fountain, to order. They keep eggs, strictly fresh variety, and boil to order, on a gas stove or chafing dish at the soda fountain.

They are usually served in a little silver or china egg cup that just holds an egg, which is eaten from the shell.