THE ALUMNI JOURNAL, 



45 



when the glorious summer approaches 

 quite another picture is presented, and a 

 very different side of the national char- 

 acter displayed. The people then are not 

 deliberately preparing for hard times and 

 helping to manufacture them by their 

 preparations. The dust is with us and 

 sore eyes; the drains and fevers ; the 

 heat and liver and stomach complaints.* 

 the thirst and chills, etc. Every one is 

 liable to be sick, no one can afford to be 

 sick in "the busy season," and every one 

 has money, more or less. The chemist, 

 as a natural consequence, is kept busy 

 earlv and late, and is able to bear all at- 

 tendant discomforts with the utmost 

 cheerfulness. And how does the appren- 

 tice behave in these days ? 



THE APPRENTICE IN FLY TIME. 



Let us look in at Mr. Blank's shop in a 

 country town between lo and ii a. m. 

 on a January day when the thermometer 

 is at 95 degrees in the shade already and 

 rising rapidly. There are several people 

 in the shop who are anxious to get home 

 before it gets too hot. The apprentice is 

 cleanini?- mirrors with the rapidity which 

 is requisite when the water dries on the 

 glass almost as soon as applied. A cus- 

 tomer remarks that the flies gave him a 

 lot of work. "Yes," he assents without 

 pausing, "they do. They cause blight, 

 poison wounds, spread disease germs, 

 sell fly papers and insect powders; don't 

 know what we should do without them." 

 It was not exactly what the customer 

 meant, but he has no time to explain 

 before the duster is laid aside and the 

 youth sets to work on a batch of pills. 

 "Will these do; Mr. Blank ? " he says in 

 a few minutes (he never says * 'sir," by 

 the way, except to his inferiors). The 

 pills are "passed," and he lends a hand 

 at the counter, serves three or four cus- 

 tomers, gets off "our own" on them with 

 the skill and assurance of a veteran, and 

 then is asked for ' 'some violent powder 



for baby what's shaved under the arms:" 

 He is young enough to laugh at this, and 

 Mr. B tells him sternly to finish off some 

 powders, while he inquires what quality 

 of violent powders she wants, with a 

 diplomatic emphasize on the N which not 

 only puts an end to the "lady's" resent- 

 ment, but seals her as his customer for 

 life. 



MAKING SUPPOSITORIES IN HOT WEATHER 



The mail comes in and Mr. B learn, 

 that a drug he had ordered is out of stocks 

 The apprentice sugge.sts that he should 

 run down to "the opposition" for some 

 before they know about the scarcity. He 

 does so, gets half of what they have, and ^ 

 returns perspiring and chuckling, to find 

 a new difficulty arisen. There is no ice 

 to be got in town," says Mr. B, "and 

 how on earth does that idot expect we 

 are going to make up these suppositories 

 with the thermometer about 150 degrees 

 in the shade?" (We mentioned that 

 it was rising.) Some shavings of theo- 

 broma on the scales melting gradually, 

 give point to the query. "I can do them 

 outside," the apprentice says, and think- 

 ing he means the cellar, Mr. B weighs 

 up the ingredients, hands them over to 

 his aide, and attends to other work. In 

 a little while our friend turns up smiling 

 with six perfect cones and — wet hair. 

 "Great Galen !" exclaims the master, 

 "did you make them under the shower?" 

 "I did," replies the ingenious one, "and 

 I don't think its a bad idea, you see you 

 cool yourself and the stuff at the same 

 time." There is no gainsaving this, and 

 as the hour is about up we will leave the 

 subject, cheerfully looking forward to ten 

 hours more of work, which could not be 

 properly accomplished if the energy and 

 resource both of himself and his master 

 were not practically inexhaustible. 



It is no exaggeration to say of the class 

 of natives of which Mr. B and his ap- 

 prentice are the type, that there are few 



