The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-05-27
Screens In Bar Rooms.

paSSeu al acI 10 prOulull tne erection Ol
screens in bar rooms. Hence 'orth the
drinking men of Massachusetts, must
face the sun and the stonier glare Of
their passing fellow citizens, or they
must not drink at all. What effect this
action will have upon the statistics OF
crime and of internal revenue may not
yet be seen. But it 10 plain thatfnone
but the men who have the courage of
their abandoned appetites will presume
to absorb their liquid poison in that
fierce light which is to beat upon the
bar. The mere abolition of screens,
however, will scarcely have the full eff
feet which is expected for it until it is
supplemented By appropriate legislation.
The question what constitutes screen
must be judicially decided. Drinking
behind hosshead can scarcely be a
technical violation Of the law. To
cover up the absorption of alcoholic
fluid by pretended absorption in news
paper interposed between the drinker
and an outraged public is an evasion as
easily to commit as it is difficult to deal
with. In fact any screen which the
drinker carries about him and pitches
for himself in o der to imbibe unob-
served refreshments in it's shade, would
defy the constabulary of the State and
the scandal mongers OF the town. The
depraved Massachusetts parent will re-
venge himself upon the sex the subtle
"a - ,~l,,h -
in the statute by confscating his daugh-
ters Japanese umbrella and revealing be-
hind them. In fact an ingenious and
depraved population will invent expedi-
tents for undetected drinking much
faster than any deliberative body can
annul them, and the statute against
screens, until system of legislation is
devised to supplement it mus remain as
the bull Of an austere and abstinent pope
against thirsty comet.
Instead of dallying with the trivialitv
of screens, why does not the legislature
boldly attack the evil of back doors
Through the back door of bar room
an inter minable caravan of deacons
has wendell its way to Medford rum and
to ruin since the dawn of history in
Massachusetts. Through the back door,
if there be truth in the pages of Mr..
Arthur, youths have been beguiled into
the gilded den to which the back door
gives unnoticed access, never perma-
neNtly to leave it but for the gutter and
the grave. While the back door still
stands open, of what avail can it be to
prohibit scenes before the BARI In
fact, what is needed is legal provision
that the Enclosure of bar room shall
consist exclusively of front door and
windows, and that the visitors of bar
rooms shall leave their hats and news
papers outside. This would secure some
degree of publicity to vice, and statute
which made it felony for the bar-keeper
to sell drink without publishing the
name and address OF the person to whom
he sold 1t in the local newspaper of
largest circulation, would increase the
social advantages of every village in the
State Of MASSACHUSETTS. The Asmodeus,
or the. Asmodea, of Massachusetts, will
never be filled with really satisfactory
of discouraging vice until
the law provides that every bar room
shall he detached conservatory, and
that every man who takes drink in
one shall imbibe it from the summit of
revolving pedestal
1t may be objected to all these devices
that the custom of drinking behind toe
door is the corner stone of Massachu
sets civilization, and that the whole
proud fabric will totter to its fall when
this ancient homage Of the vice Of Mas
sachusetts TO it's virtue is withdrawn. 1t
may also be urged, and apparently with
reason, that a statute which attempts to
put the private habits Of every man, in
his downsittings on his uprisings, his
eating or his drinking, under the sur.
veillance Of AL. his townsmen, is a
breach Of public decencY which would
not be attempted in any civilized region
OF the world outside of New England
and that a community Of common drunk
ards would be infinitely more respecta-
BE than community OF spies and
sneaks such as this statute tends 20 en-
courage New York World
Ii ------- ------ % ....
81 die content" said the fly in the
bakers dough-" somebody will take mo
for q currant."