5 18       Practical  Experience  with  Sunday  Closing.  {AN0Ve°mbe?i9o&?' 
better  health,  live  longer  and  be  better  citizens.  Nor  need  it 
specially  injure  a  druggist's  business  to  close  on  Sunday  even  if  his 
competitors  keep  open.  By  closing  he  and  his  clerks  secure  a 
needed  rest  and  can  do  better  work  the  rest  of  the  week.  By 
going  to  church  his  acquaintanceships  are  enlarged  and  forceful 
traits  of  character  are  formed  which  are  of  value  to  a  business 
man.  Real  emergency  cases  belong  to  the  doctor,  and  every  doctor 
should  be  prepared  to  treat  such  without  resorting  to  a  drug  store. 
The  druggist  who  stands  behind  his  counter  fifteen  hours  every  day 
in  the  year  is  either  a  slave  or  a  martyr,  but  his  sacrifice  is  not  to 
science  or  to  humanity,  but  is  laid  upon  the  altar  of  greed  and 
mammon  every  time. 
Joseph  A.  Conwell. 
Vmeland,  N.  J. 
The  subject  of  shorter  hours  is  one  which  I  have  been  interested 
in  for  some  time,  and  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  no  two  stores  can  be 
governed  by  the  same  rules.  I  endeavor  to  have  each  of  my  assist- 
ants in  the  store  about  1 1  y2  hours  each  day,  and  in  order  to  do 
this,  every  alternate  week  two  of  them  begin  work  at  7  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and  continue  until  9  o'clock  at  night ;  two  others 
begin  at  8  o'clock  and  are  on  duty  until  10  o'clock,  the  closing 
hour.  I  am  endeavoring  to  improve  this  by  allowing  the  men  who 
come  at  7  o'clock  quit  work  at  6.30  p.m.,  thus  giving  them  the  entire 
evening ;  and  to  have  the  other  two  come  on  at  8.30  a.m.  and  work 
until  10  o'clock. 
I  have  tried  the  experiment  of  closing  on  Sundays  between  the 
hours  of  1  and  5.30,  and  have  frequently  found  on  my  return  as  many 
as  five  or  six  prescriptions  which  had  been  left  for  compounding  and 
with  notes  attached,  urging  that  they  be  sent  at  once.  Inasmuch  as 
the  distance  they  were  to  be  sent  was  in  some  cases  considerable, 
such  an  arrangement  necessarily  entails  considerable  inconvenience. 
On  the  whole  I  am  an  advocate  of  shorter  hours  and  Sunday 
closing,  and  have  for  years  been  giving  the  matter  consideration. 
Theodore  Campbell. 
Overbrook,  Pa. 
