ARMY, NAVY, GIRLS BOOM SQUARE SALES

Unprecedented brisk summer trade is being enjoyed by proprietors of almost every business the Square. Given a shot in the arm by the ready coin of 4,000 Summer School students and hundreds of Army and Navy men, the merchants have lost all thought of the usual summer doldrums.

Restaurant owners are experiencing one of the biggest increases over last summer since many Army men have no dining halls and must eat out and since all the girls in the Yard, after the Union was closed to them, have had to seek their own meals in the Square.

Girls Skip Breakfast

When asked about the effect of the Summer School on business, the waitress of a chain cafeteria looked out into the room full of soldiers and sailors and said, "We ought to change our name to 'The Armed Forces Canteen.'

"What do they eat? Well, the men eat about everything they can get their hands on. And the girls, well, they stick to reducing stuff like salads, berries, fruit, tea, and some milk. We hardly ever see them at breakfast."

The turnover in liquor stores has held up to the regular winter levels and at times has been comparable to the rush sales during a good football weekend. Moreover, summer students have lost none of their taste for ice-cold beer. The cafes serving this beverage also report a considerable rise in women customers.

Even the five-and-ten has felt the summer's spending. No dust has had opportunity to settle on the stationery and school supplies counter, and there has also been a run on hardware and glass goods.

Selling all sorts of conventional summer needs from bathing suits to antiperspiration creams, drug stores are feeling a big part of the boom. The demand for women's cosmetics and notions is especially great. And at the soda fountains, if students keep drinking at their present rate, they will probably set an all-time record.