For a description of the pharmacy and the business methods of the firm see the article on the opposite page.

"The Economical Pharmacy" of St. Louis, owned by the Judge & Dolph Drug Co.

On the opposite page will be found a representation of one of the leading pharmacies of the country -that of the Judge & Dolph Drug Co. of St. Louis. The amount of business done here has given the store a national reputation, while the decorations and appointments of the interior would be hard to find surpassed in any city.

CHAS. R. JUDGE,

President of the Judge & Dolph

Drug Co., of St. Louis.

A BIT OF HISTORY.

Before giving a description of the pharmacy, or indicating the nature of the business, however, it might not be amiss amiss to glance briefly at the rise and rapid growth of Messrs. Judge & Dolph. Beginning business in 1885, on the corner of Fourth and Market Streets, opposite the Court House, a run-down store soon became one of the best patronized in the city; and in 1890 the business. had so increased that the incorporation of the "Judge & Dolph Drug Co." was found to be a necessary and desirable step. Five years later, in '95, the company started a new store on the corner of Seventh and Locust Streets. Here they did a very large business for five years, meanwhile advertising extensively through the public press, and by means of bulletin boards and other methods. Finding

CLIFFORD M. DOLPH, Secretary of the Company.

it necessary to vacate this store in 1901, and securing temporary quarters for a time on the opposite side of Locust Street, the company at once began the erection of a modern six-story building. This was finished during the March of 1902; and the beautiful pharmacy fitted out on the first floor is the one shown on the opposite page.

THE PHARMACY DESCRIBED.

The illustration unfortunately does not do entire justice to the interior, and the reader will find it necessary to draw on his imagination in order to make more real the description which follows. The chief architectural feature of the store is the vaulted ceiling. Decorated arches divide this into fields, and each field terminates on either side in exquisitely designed lunettes. Altogether this ceiling is the most ornate piece of plaster and staff work to be seen in St. Louis, and is faultless in design. The effect is enhanced in the evening by

means of 300 electric bulbs, set in the arches and concealed

elsewhere among the decorated designs. Walking into the store in the evening, and glancing up at the ceiling, one is impressed with its chaste beauty.

The fixtures of the store are of curly birch. The show cases are handsome in design, and are lighted with electric bulbs concealed in the mold

ARTHUR J. DAVENPORT, Buyer and Manager.

ings. The soda fountain is a very elaborate and expensive affair, and is made to fit into a special extension of the ceiling in a manner which is not clearly indicated in the illustration. The effect is in reality such that the fountain becomes an integral part of the general architectural design of the room. Below the fountain, on the same side of the store, are the departments devoted to the sale of toilet goods, perfumery, and photographic materials.

THE SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS.

Turning now to the right side of the store, we see first a portion of a large wall-case containing sponges, chamois skins, soaps and the like-evidently a general display case. Immediately beyond is the cigar counter; further on is the cashier's desk; and then comes the portion of the store fitted up for the sale of pharmaceuticals and patent medicines. In the rear center of the room are cases devoted to the display of druggists' sundries. The prescription department occupies the rear end of the store, and utilizes the services of from five to six clerks. A mezzanine

floor is constructed in this part of the store, and is divided into two rooms; these are used for the sale of rubber goods, trusses, etc., one being for men, and the other for women. A number of additional women clerks are employed in the several departments of the store having to do with rubber goods, sick-room supplies, and perfumery.

THE OTHER FLOORS.

In addition to this salesroom, the Judge & Dolph Co. use the basement and two other floors of the building the third and fourth floors. In the large basement are the boilers for heating the building, the elevator machinery, the motors and machines for making soda water and ice cream, an immense refrigerator, and extensive shelving and work tables. Then too, such goods are stored here as certain pharmaceuticals, heavy chemicals, and mineral waters. The third floor is entirely devoted to the offices of the firm; and it may be incidentally stated that the office force is much larger than would be expected by virtue of the fact that the company does a large business in the manufacture and sale of several successful specialties.

On the fourth floor an excellent arrangement obtains in the receipt and disposition of stock. A stock keeper and an assistant are kept here to receive, check, and mark all goods coming into the house; and they are expected also to keep a record of the

large excess of stock which the firm carries. Such goods as patent medicines, perfumery and sundries are stored on this floor. It should be mentioned that the firm still conducts the original store on the corner of Fourth and Market Streets; and in connection with this a general laboratory is maintained.

MR. JUDGE GIVES THE RULES OF SUCCESS.

As might readily be surmised, the Judge & Dolph Drug Co. cater to the finest trade of the city, and their stock is selected accordingly. Mr. Davenport, the buyer and manager of the store, has been with the house for seven or eight years, and he is known to traveling salesmen as a genial gentleman no less than a shrewd purchasing agent. Asked recently why the firm had achieved such a remarkable success Mr. Judge, the President of the company, made the following statement:

"Our business has developed by virtue of the employment of ample capital, which in turn has been invested in carefully selected stock; the most rigid enforcement in enforcement in our prescription department of rules prohibiting substitution; the careful checking and examination of all prescriptions dispensed; the preference given to Parke, Davis & Co.'s pharmaceuticals; the establishment of as low prices as are consistent with quality and service; and the vigorous prosecution of extensive and judicious advertising."

The first three anecdotes in this month's camp-fire installment are contributed by M. A. Rex, of Paola, Kansas:

After subscribing two years to your esteemed publication, I must say that it is the most welcome of any of the five drug journals that I receive. Although rather young in the drug business, I desire to submit some personal experiences to the readers of "Around the Camp Fire."

HE STOLE THE MINERAL WATER! Before entering the drug business I was employed for about two years in the grocery room of one of our local department stores, and my first anecdote relates to that time. The proprietor, an estimable and intelligent business man, always drank mineral water in summer time in preference to the ice-cold.

hydrant water we kept in the store. We had an ice-box in the grocery room to keep butter and lard in during the hot weather, and every morning when the ice man came and renewed our supply we had to lay a quart bottle of mineral water on top to cool. Occasionally we took the bottle out and left it lying around, forgetting to replace it, but that nearly always caused a roar from the "boss."

The head-clerk was an excellent card printer and sign writer and painted a great many attractive cards for the store. One morning he had mixed some paint and left a quart bottle about half full of turpentine lying on a counter near the ice box. About 10 o'clock I began to get thirsty and wanted a drink, but customers were so numerous that I could not spare the time to go to the shoe room for water. Some one wanted a package of sapolio, and that

necessitated my passing the ice box. In passing I noticed the quart bottle of turpentine, and supposing the mineral drink had been left out of the ice box, I pulled out the cork, turned up the bottle, and took two large swallows of the proprietor's mineral water (?). Imagine the results!

After drinking about a pint of ice water to put out the fire within, I hustled to the corner drug store, related the circumstance, and asked what had best be done. The proprietor told me to eat a raw egg and everything would be all right, so I returned to the grocery and actually swallowed four raw eggs, one right after another. The next morning I fancied that my bladder and kidneys were all tied up in a knot. That was the last time I even sampled the "boss's" mineral water!

A CASE OF STRYCHNINE POISONING.

One autumn evening about a year after I had begun work in the drug store [continues Mr. Rex], our "store doctor" and the proprietor were talking together, when a white man entered leading a negro by the arm. The colored man was staggering somewhat and holding his hands over his stomach; his face was drawn, and he appeared to be suffering from colic. The white man asked the doctor to examine the negro, remarking that he was in considerable pain and wanted something done immediately. Doctor B. was an old Kentuckian, and thought more of a good "hoss" than any "nigger"

that ever breathed. He proceeded to ask what had been eaten and questioned the negro to find out what was the matter. He had eaten nothing, he said, that was likely to make him sick, but a white man from his neighborhood had taken him behind a livery barn and given him a drink of whiskey which tasted bitter and which he believed contained poison.

The doctor knew from previous experience that negroes are afraid of being poisoned, and he had treated many who imagined they were going to die immediately; so he leisurely told the "boss" to fix a dose of ginger and paregoric. The negro had been nervously lounging on a show case, and at this moment straightened up, reeled backwards, struck a show case on the opposite side of the room, and fell to the floor. "Doc" now saw that something was wrong. He called on the proprietor for some lukewarm water and asked me for some powdered ipecac. About two drachms of the powder was put into a tumbler and stirred with about a gill of water, and this the negro drank eagerly. The doctor told him to gag himself with his finger, but he could not do so on account of muscular spasms.

The case was now getting serious and we began making more of the mixture and increasing the ipecac, until we had administered four or five ounces and about a quart of water. We carried the negro into the back room, placed him in an easy chair, and continued trying to have him put his finger in his throat, but his jaws closed on his own fingers like

a cur snapping at an intruder. After another 10 or 15 minutes of anxious waiting, and with no signs of emesis apparent, the doctor went upstairs to his office and returned with a vial of a dark-green liquid of which he gave the patient two hypodermic injections. The liquid was a solution of apomorphine, and in about two minutes that negro threw up a gallon of ipecac, water, whisky, strychnine, supper, dinner, breakfast, and a few other things.

Next we gave him large doses of chloral and potassium bromide, and we were not a bit particular about the amount. After an hour he was taken to the doctor's office, where he remained till morning, and then was carried to the depot to get on a train for home.

That was the last seen of him. Neither the doctor or my "boss" received a penny of remuneration, but the negro did not profit by the experience, as he died the next summer of typhus. Although not wishing to see the doctor or druggist lose their just dues, I was glad the case happened, for it undoubtedly taught me what to do in the event of strychnine poisoning.

HIS FIRST POISON SALE.

After the necessary experience, and one winter of study and preparation [Mr. Rex continues], I went before the State board at Fort Scott, Kas., and was

gratified to pass the examination with a general average of 86.6 per cent. One evening a week or so after that, when the proprietor had gone home for the night and left me to close up, a boy friend of mine came in and asked for 10 cents worth of carbolic acid.

He was an old schoolmate and a boy I had known when both of us wore knee breeches. Although growing up in the same town, however, we had never been intimate owing to the fact that he usually preferred the company of bad boys. at school and associated with a sort of "Dirty Dozen" crowd of toughs around town. As he was living at home most of the time, I thought nothing strange of his purchase. Accordingly I filled and labeled an ounce vial, wrapped it up, produced the poison register, filled out the statement, and proudly signed my own name as dispenser, then turning the book to him for his signature. He read the entry carefully, wrote his name in the proper place, and asked why the record was made. After explaining the law and cautioning him about the use of the acid (he had said he wanted it to use as a sanative wash), I remarked that suicide by carbolic acid was quite prevalent. At that he laughed and said he wouldn't want to do anything like that with the stuff.

All that I have related happened on Friday even