The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-10
700 MILES OF DRINKERIES.
The Liquor Shops of Merry England,
and How They Are Classified.
The Country Tavern and the Gin Palace of
the City-PeOple Who PatrOnze Bars,
and the Liquors They Drink.
Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal.

Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal.
LONDON, March 27.-If the public drinking
places of England were placed side by side IN
straight line they would extend a distance of
seven hundred miles In describing these places,
we must first classify them. Some are licensed
to sell all kinds of intoxicating beverages; some
to sell beer and wine; some to sell only beer.
They differ, also, in point of responsibility. The
character of these places is determined largely
by the class of people who patronize them Some
are as low as perdition itself; others so excep-
tionally well conducted that, as matters go here,
no need be ashamed to visit them. There
are places in every town where the soberest man
could not get more than one glass of liquor be-
fore dinner, nor more than two at any time. At
many others-most Others may say-the only
limit is the applicants ability to pay for what he
demands, or to stand up and drink it. On the
whole, however the publicans keep the law.
The hours of closing are rigidly observed every
where, and there is no doubt that if Parliament
concludes to shut them up altogether on the
Sabbath day, shut up they will be-back, front
and all around-without single exception in
the whole land.
The country tavern is rated as very respect
able. Often the keeper of it is church warden.
In the taproom honest Hodge regales himself
| from foaming tankard, looking, with his long
| pipe and rudy countenance, the very picture of
health and contentment. Usually there are sew
eral other drinking of a better class.
In these the squire sits down to chat with his
tenants, and the traveller to refresh himself for
his further journey. Occasionally too, the
country parson drops in. These country inns
fha will hafO H. aIo4io
are plain enough, but very clean, very COM
Portable and very cheap Bed and breakfast
will seldom cost more than fifty cents, and the
landlord and his wife will make you feel so
much at home that you will be sorry when the
time comes to leave You get at these places
the maximum of real refreshment at the
minimum of cost, with no degrading associ-
atons, and without being compelled to patronize
the bar
The taverns in town and city are conducted
differently. You must drink there and pay well
for it. But the traveller can avoid these if he
likes for in every place of any size lodgings
can be procured at private houses, while in the
| largest centers you will find hotels very similar
to those in our own country The ordinary city
tavern clearly indicates on the outside what is
carried on within. There is no attempt at CON
ceal1nent On the contrary, windows and doors
are covered with advertisements of the different
drinks, and by study of the exterior you can
find out the different compartments into which
the place is divided. On one door, the most
conspicuous, you will read the announcement
public bar" This will lead you into the part
where the common herd go, and where the
lowest prices prevail. Another door will admit
10 H.
served only by the glass, and the charges are a
| little higher. Still another door will lead
| you to what is called the luncheon bar"
where you can get a snack of
sausage, or bread and cheese as
an accompaniment to your drink, and where, as
you stand eating and imbibing, your features
| will be hidden from customers in other parts OF
the place. and even from those waiting upon
you, by screen of ground glass, placed at a
proper height above the counter for that express
| purpose. All these compartments will be in one
room, divided from each other by wooden parti-
tons which extend from the front of the counter
to the outer wall Behind the bar there is no
| division. This part is usually arranged with
great taste, the glasses bottles and other orna-
ments, standing against mirror which usually
stretches the full length of the place, present
| ing, after gaslight, really brilliant appear
ance. Such is an ordinary English drinking
saloon, the kind finds scattered all over
London within a few hundred steps of each
other There are other kinds, of course-some
large and magnificent, combining, with the reg
ular bar, cafe buffet, dining ROOM etc. The
Criterion is one Of these Another just finished,
is the Holborn restaurant This building is
nearly all of pure marble, furnished in regal
style-really the most swell" place in London.
Its construction and fittings cost $500, 900, and
there are others in the metropolis not much be-
hind this in either costliness or sumptuousness.
PATRONS OF ALL GRADES
As to the patrons of the public house, they are
of all grades, but fortunately, owing to the
growth of temperance sentiments, are not so
numerous as they used to be. The lower classes
throng them. Here is the real cause Of the
squalid poverty that prevails among these peo-
pie. Short work and poor pay have something
to do with it, but the public house much
more. The women of this class drink
nearly as much as the men, and frequently both
unite to train their offspring in the same
wretched habit / could take YOUR readers to
| night to a thousand places where peep into the
public bar would reveal dirty, half clothed mass
of men, women and children, and where thew
would see father, mother and little ones in arms
with perhaps canine member of the family
all guzzling in turn out of the same vessel and
all getting muddled together. But respectable
and Weilto-do women are patrons of the public
house, as well as the poor and degraded. The
man OF business, returning at night from the
theater, or from visit to a friend would think
no more OF taking his wife or daughter into
such place than the same kind of a man
would of stopping in our country at an ice
cream saloon; and if aforesaid mother and
daughter We're out shopping, away from home
during the day, and were seized with thirst, as
English women frequently are, they would,
without the least conjunction, enter such
place alone, and drink their wine, or whisky or
beer, as the case might be, with no more sense
of shame than an American lady would have in
patronizing a soda fountain. This is not true
of all English women, especially since the blue
ribbon wave swept over the country but it is of
many--of the majority, fear belonging to the
lower and lower middle classes. Among the
men the patronage of drinking places is very
general There are many exceptions, of course
Temperance reformers claim 100000 total alb
stainers for the whole kingdom. But these are
not much noticed when mingled among