ers a fortune because there was nothing in it that one
might not find in some other oil or grease.

What then, I repeat, must the pharmacist do to succeed, personally and
professionally? I welcome this opportunity to tell you what I think. My
advice comes from the outside--often the most valuable source. I have so
little to do with pharmacy, either as a profession or as a business that I
stand far enough away to get a bird's-eye view. And if you think that any
advice, based on this view, is worthless, it will be a consolation to all
of us to realize that no force on earth can compel you to take it.

It is doubtless too late to lament or try to resist the course of business
that has gone far to turn the pharmacy into a department store. But let me
urge you not to let this tendency run wild. There are side-lines that
belong properly to pharmacy, such as all those pertaining to hygiene or
sanitation; to the toilet, to bodily refreshment. I do not see why one
should not expect to find at his pharmacist's, soap, or tooth-brushes, or
sponges. I do not see why the thirsty man should not go there for mineral
water as well as the dyspeptic for pills. But I fail to see the connection
between pharmacy and magazines, or stationery or candy. By selling these
the druggist puts himself at once into competition with the department
stores. There can be no doubt about who will win out in any such
competition as that. But I believe there is still a place in the community
for any special line of business if its proprietor sticks to his specialty
and makes himself a recognized expert in it. The department store spreads
itself too thin--there is no room for intensive development at any point
of its vast expanse. Its general success is due to this very fact. I am
not now speaking of the rural community where there is room only for one
general store selling everything that the community needs. But my
statement holds good for the city and the large town.

Let me illustrate by an instance in which we librarians are professionally
interested--the book store. Once every town had its book-store. Now they
are rare. We have few such stores even in a city of the size of St. Louis.
Every department store has its book-section. They are rarely satisfactory.
Everybody is lamenting the disappearance of the old book-store, with its
old scholarly proprietor who knew books and the book-market; who loved
books and the book-business. Quarts of ink have been was