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The book has since passed through many editions, and for its useful formulas and because of the practical information contained in its pages, is most highly appreciated by the soda water dispensers of America. Most of the formulas in this book have been thoroughly tested by practical use, and their merits proven beyond doubt; and the formulas for the new drinks, here published for the first time, have been secured from the most successful soda water dispensers in America. Each formula has been carefully revised and brought down-to-date in every particular. In addition to this, new and useful information has been added to the book, making it the most complete book of its kind ever published.

In addition to being a complete handbook for the experienced soda water dispenser, this book also contains all the information needed by the new man in the business. The article "The Selection of a Soda Fountain" will be found to be especially valuable to the novice, while Mr. James W. Tufts' article, "Suggestions for Users of Small Apparatus," and the article of Mr. D. Wallace Rintels, "How to Make a Soda Fountain Pay," are full of pertinent suggestions, and may be read with profit by the largest dispensers as well as those of more modest ideas.

I The Selection of a Soda Fountain.

T seems simple, but it is not always an easy task to do right. This task is made difficult, when you try to get what you ought to have, by many false prophets who point out the wrong roads for selfish aims. There are many conditions affecting the consideration of any particular style of fountain which must have your attention before you can intelligently decide upon the wise purchase of a reliable apparatus. Merchants having had previous experience with fountains and their installation, are, as a rule, buyers of larger and more expensive fountains than the beginner, who is inclined to be timid, not having had the pleasant previous experience of seeing the nickels and dimes come over the counter in liberal paying amounts. Soda water in every part of the country is being consumed in constantly increasing qualities. Therefore, a well arranged and thoroughly constructed soda fountain, where a high quality of syrups, fruits, ice cream and carbonated waters are dispensed, is sure of a success, which in business always means reputation and profit. The size of your fountain outfit will naturally vary and depends upon your location, and in a measure on the population of your city and its suburbs. It is our experience as manufacturers of soda water apparatus that a merchant making his first purchase of a fountain buys much too small an outfit. He looks only at the price, and $500 or $1,000 seems a large sum to invest in a proposition where the returns are in five and ten-cent pieces, and from that standpoint his purchase is almost invariably of too small capacity. Whether you buy for cash or on our easy payment plan, your fountain must be considered as an investment and the price of it is not the most important consideration, as you receive full value for your money invested. It is really remarkable on what easy terms we sell fountains. The small monthly payments are easily made out of the profits, and thousands of merchants everywhere have successfully established themselves in profitable business with but small capital. Having a thriving city of 5,000 inhabitants it would seem quite safe to purchase a fountain outfit from $1,000 to $1,500. Many cities, especially in the South, of 5,000 inhabitants, boast of five fountains, and they are successful, too. A merchant near Lake Michigan, where the season is short, has a $6,500 outfit and says it was the best investment he ever made and his city's population is barely 12,000. Conservative advice suggests that you don't plunge, but don't be too timid. Small villages support two and three fountains costing from $300 to $800 each. Large cities support hundreds and thousands of fountains, and always the more fountains the more soda water consumption. Competition is the life of trade. Another important consideration for the buyer is the fact that your fountain will be in your store many years, generally from IO seven to ten years. You must have a fountain that will wear well and look well and work well after long service. Also this is a long period and your population may double or treble and you must provide more for the future than the present. Concerning the apparatus itself each purchaser has his individual ideas and notions about its beauty and convenience. We can, therefore, only suggest for your consideration the following: The better the construction, the better the fountain. The more thoroughly the work is planned and carried out, the better the results. A fountain is only as good as its weakest part. Don't forget it must be practical and substantial. The fountain that gives you the best display and contains the best materials will save you the most money. No business can attain its full measure of success without advertising. Make your fountain your advertiser. A handsome fountain, complete, correctly installed and well run will make fifty men where it will break one. Buy a fountain only from thoroughly old and reliable manufacturers with a well earned reputation, and through salesmen who know their business from A to Z, and you won't go wrong. Your good business judgment must indicate your preference in size and style.

Fountains Relative to Population.

In outlining the following fountain estimates with reference to proper sizes and approximate prices of fountains as proportioned to population, it should be understood that they apply in a general way only. Below are some safe estimates for soda fountains and equipments for villages of 500 inhabitants up to cities of 10,000 population under ordinary conditions. Three Estimates for Soda Water Outfits for Towns of 500 Population and Upwards.

Estimate No. 1.-One eight to ten-syrup marble apparatus set on a plain or refrigerator base, four-foot sink, one steel tank, one charging outfit, one dozen holders, one dozen ice cream spoons, three dozen soda glasses, one shaker, one strainer, two fruit bowls, one phosphate dasher, one straw jar, one spoon jar, one lemon squeezer. This complete outfit can be purchased, complete and first class, on easy terms for, approximately, $300 to $500. Estimate No. 2.-One ten to twelve-syrup marble or onyx fountain and top, one eight-foot counter and slab, one four-foot workboard, two steel tanks, one charging outfit, three dozen soda glasses, one dozen holders, one dozen ice cream spoons, one shaker, one strainer, three fruit bowls, two phosphate dashers, one straw jar, one spoon jar, one lemon squeezer. This complete outfit ready to run can be purchased on easy terms for, approximately, $600 to $800.

Estimate No. 3.-One twelve to fourteen-syrup marble or onyx fountain and top, one eight-foot counter and slab, one six-foot workboard, two steel tanks, one charging outfit, three dozen soda glasses, one dozen holders, one dozen ice cream spoons, two phosphate dashers, one straw jar, one spoon jar, one lemon squeezer, one lemon knife, one cork puller, four fruit bowls. This complete outfit, first class and ready to run, can be purchased on easy terms for, approximately, $880 to $1,300.

Three Conservative and Safe Purchases of Fountains for Cities Having Population of 500 to 2,500 under Ordinary Conditions. Estimate No. 4. - One ten to twelve-syrup marble or onyx fountain and top, one six to eight-foot counter and slab, one five to seven-foot workboard and ice cream cabinet, two or three steel tanks, one charging outfit, one and one-half dozen holders, four dozen glasses, four fruit bowls, one shaker, one strainer, two phosphate dashers, one sugar jar, one straw jar, one spoon holder, two dozen ice cream spoons, one lemon squeezer, one cork puller, one lemon knife. Stylish, handsome fountains, in modern designs, ready to run, including all the items enumerated, can be purchased on easy terms for from $800 to $1,200.

Estimate No. 5.-One twelve to fourteen-syrup fountain and top, refrig erator base; one eight to ten-foot counter and slab, one seven to nine-foot workboard, with ice cream cabinet, one carbonator, sundries as per No 4 Approximate price, complete and ready to run, from $1,000 to $1,400. Estimate No. 6. -One sixteen-syrup double apparatus with refrigerator base, one eight-foot and return to wall counter and slab, one carbonator, one workboard with ice cream cabinets. Complete, with all necessary sundries, from $1,700 to $2,000.

Three Conservative Estimates for Safe Purchases of Fountains for Cities Having a Population of 2,500 to 10,000.

Estimate No. 7.-One twelve to fourteen-syrup fountain and top, four feet to six feet long, and one refrigerator base, one eight to ten-foot counter and slab, one seven-foot workboard and ice cream cabinet, three steel tanks, one I2 charging outfit, sundries as in preceding estimate. Modern designs and complete, the price will run from $1,200 to $1,600.

Estimate No. 8. -One double fountain and top and refrigerator base, sixteen to twenty syrups, and two sodas and four draft arms; one eight to sixteen-foot counter and slab, one eight-foot workboard, three steel tanks, one charging outfit or one carbonator, complete line of necessary sundries. Price, in handsomest designs, range from $1,600 to $2,000. Estimate No. 9. -One ten to fifteen-foot fountain and top and refrigerator base, one ten to twenty-foot counter and slab, one nine to twelve-foot workboard with two ice cream cabinets, one automatic continuous carbonator, complete line of sundries. Can be obtained in most modern designs, for $2,500 to $3,500.

How to Make a Soda Fountain Pay.

BY MR. D. WALLACE RINTELS, OF THE WALKER-RINTELS DRUG CO., BOSTON. Prize article contributed to James W. Tufts' Contest. Nearly all the literature contributed to that most important end in a druggist's work, the profits to accrue from the soda fountain, has dealt in generalities as glittering as the fountain should be; and I do not think it will be amiss to bring the subject to a more specific basis, and tell how a soda fountain has been made to pay.

To make a résumé of the more important papers contributed to this subject will not be amiss; for the facts stated therein are absolutely essential to the proper success of our undertaking, and the subject matter cannot be too often repeated.

Cleanliness is the foundation stone. The routine work necessary to cleanliness, however, is the kind of detail that from the nature of man becomes monotonous. It cannot be entrusted to any one person, for the desire to shirk work and gloss over neglect will soon crop out in any workman no matter how industrious he may be. Have an "eagle eye," therefore. Never pass the fountain without noting at a glance whether the glasses are clean, the fountain and slab immaculate, the holders properly polished, the lemons fresh, the eggs fresh, clean, large and brown-in fact, that everything is in the shape to tempt a thirsty mortal or to make a mortal thirsty. Do not allow soiled glasses to remain in the holders until you are ready to wash them. Remove them at once, and, if necessary, wash them at your leisure; but under no condition allow a used glass to remain in the holders. A most excellent adjunct to the washing of glasses is a dish of bicarbonate soda, which should be used freely to remove all traces of grease, formed when cream is added to acid syrups. Ice cream spoons should always be washed with bicarbonate soda.

There must be a prodigal use of ice whenever there is an opportunity. Serve it in lemonades. Use it in making egg and milk drinks, but do not serve it with them. A drink to be palatable must be cold, and a supply of shaved ice should always be at hand. Further along I will explain a simple means of having ice always handy, and I should advise all who wish to make a success of soda water to either supply themselves with this apparatus or have a bowl of cracked ice always at hand.

In regard to service. Should your business permit, - and I will try to show how it can be made to do so, no matter how small it is now, - have an experienced dispenser. A high salaried man is not necessary. If you will engage a bright lad and teach him, not leave him to find out, at your expense, how to do his work by the sacrifice of your trade and disgust of your customers, it will repay you many times over for the trouble involved. Ask him to make you a claret lemonade, an egg phosphate, any of the more common drinks: and, if he draws it properly, drink it with relish. If you do not know the art yourself, spend a few dimes in patronizing the more prominent fountains where experts are employed; watch them and learn from them. Take the lesson to heart, and teach it to your clerks. Thin glasses, neatness, attendants, courteousness, highly charged soda, are among the generalities which must be adhered to and looked after.

Now to our specific subject. "Costly thy apparel as thy purse can buy can be well applied to the garb which covers and preserves that delicious beverage which has caused the American people to nearly forego the ale of England, the beer of Germany, the wine of France, and of which Samuel Johnson would have surely said, had he lived in our time, "The cup that cheers, but not inebriates."

Have a fountain attractive enough to arrest the eye. Have you an old one, and complain that there is no soda business? Try a new one, and put forward an effort towards making it pay for itself. If properly run, it will do so the first season. Do not hesitate to advertise. I had 10,000 stickers- 250 each of 40 different readings - printed on heavy white paper, pasted them on the windows, changing them every morning. They cost $15, and paid for themselves in a few days.

And a word about the octopus that is fastening itself on the soda fountain trade. I refer to the "patent" drinks. Some we are obliged to keep because they are advertised, like other patent nostrums. Do not display them more than is necessary. There is no more reason for paying a high price for the number of sherbets, punches, nectars, and what-nots that appear every day, and displaying them on your counter for the manufacturers, than there is to display somebody's sarsaparilla or nerve compound or other patent medicine, and thus give them free advertising. It does not require any great expenditure of gray matter to concoct these drinks. Rum, port wine, prune juice, raspberry, syrup, orange syrup, in varying proportions, are generally their basis; and it is easier and much more profitable to concoct your own specialty than to push somebody's else.

As to syrups, make them as good as they can be made. Unless you do a large business, it is cheaper to buy raspberry, strawberry, orange, and pineapple concentrated syrups and crushed fruits, than it is to make them. The large manufacturers buy the fruit when the market is glutted, and can work it up much more economically than you can; but take pains to see that you buy the best. It will cost a bit more, but success lies in the increased volume of business; and economies in this line are not conducive to a big business. Their formulas will say that the juices or concentrated syrups will bear a certain dilution. Do not dilute to the limit. Make your syrups as good as you can, not as cheap. Simple syrup is better when made cold than hot. Loaf sugar costs a little more than granulated, but makes better syrup, as granulated sugar contains ultramarine, which generates hydrogen sulphide on standing.

Be lavish with your cream. It makes the soda water rich, and will bring you customers. Next to a light cream, a compound of good milk and unsweetened condensed milk makes a rich glass of soda. While on the subject of cream, a word can be said of ice cream. Good ice cream can be bought at $1.00 a gallon, but the writer has been unable to find a satisfactory article at less than this price. To buy ice cream at this price is nearly prohibitive if you wish to be liberal with it.. If you can bring your business up to using two gallons of ice cream a day, it will pay you to make it, using the formula subjoined: -