The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-01-17
ale 9ntelLiaenter.
VAKRMAN'S TRAVELS.
Copyright, 1911

LONDON, ENGLAND, Jan. a. Nor
than nine-tenthg OF all the tremendou
quantity Of ale, beer, wine and liquO
annually consumed by the men, wome
and children of Great Britain, is serve
by women.
There are nearly 100000 women thu
engaged every day in the year. Thes
are, as class, the prettiest and tides
women in the three kingdoms. What
ever their relations TO society ct large
they have characters good or bad, man
ners and morals, interesting or other
wise, and souls saved or unsaved
though the clergy, church societies ant
missionaries neyersee to have troubled
themselves about the latter.
During the frat half Of the past ter
years had opportunity for frequent
study OF these British barmAids. Durint
the last Eve years, l have been able Il
closely observe them nearly every dag
and evening Of my life. At first thought
many may regard them as hardly merit,
ing serious consideration. It seems tc
me they are really worth talking about
English literature Is full Of the bar
maid. Prose and poetry are redolent Of
her. Those rare old fellows who lived,
or rather slept, "in chambers" and dined
and wined in public houses while max
ing most Of the books which last, all
along down through the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, and even as
near to us as the first third Of the pres,
ent century, seem to have drawn their
inspiration largely from the bar-room
iount, Indeed, II we will be wholly
honest about it, English literature, the
sweetest and grandest on earth, and the
Rpigot have ever known close fellow.
ship. And even little stress should be
laid upon the matter, We owe to the
very presence OF the baYmaids OF those
days preservation OF the sweetest tauctes,
the most sparkling humor, the most
charming situations, and no mean
number of ths most chaste and pathetic
incidents known to ballad poetry and
fiction. This Is not defensive Of the
OGrmatd. 1t is merely historic OF her
eject on and presence in literature. And
I have often thought because 1t was 30 T;
because the public house OF old and the
barmaid Of old became British institu-
lions, unconsciously though universally
grounded in the human heart, they
have survived civilization and decay.
On this line, there are two things
about the BEitish people which We in
America utterly fail to comprehend.
One il the Briton's passionate loyalty to
anything sanctioned by prestige and
sanctitled eprecedent into the status
Of On institution-a British Institution
In general, all the more honor to him
for that; for in s.esdfastness and loyalty
10 nations own, are preserved all good
! ihirgs, II q few bad ones happen to re.
main. Another is, the average Briton,
high or low, is a being who will retain
and sustain all rights, good or bad,
which literature, society, precedent ana
government have marked out for him,
with pertinacity and bravery which
puts to beggarly shame the indifference
Of most American people to all manner
Of governmental, monopolistiC and other
encroschment.
This may seem going long way for
trivial sequence. But it ia incidentally
tEud buub DGCduh6 VIC uhl Ludlu Who lOAS
ago elevated into British Institution
through English literature; because the
older eny sentiment or thing, barring the
barmaid herself, is in Britain the mort
endearingly it is priced; and because
your British noblemen or workmen will
have his wine or "bitter" from the hand
Of o tap.room divinity, whether all the
world like it or not, the prototype OF the
American bartender" is here unknown,
and 10000 women serve 20, 10000 Brit
lsh people with their brews and spirits
to-day. There are other effects, such as
the rapid national increase in the con-
sumption of liquors, the increasing
power in politics and legislation Of the
liquor interests; and, worse than oil, the
startling increase OF iiquos-drinking by
all classes Of British women; upon each
Of which vast and sad volumes might be
written. But the great host of British
barmaids ia what the British people
like and will have; and, being accounted
for, It only remains to speak OF this par
IiCular class as it individually and col
leCtively exists.
Rural England Is thing Of the past;
and there never was a rural Scotland or
rural Ireland where the sweet old inn
and the sweet yonpg barmaid were
Ravens and and objects Of material and
ethical delight. With the end OF the
coaching days was an end OF the inns,
and with them, long after the old Lon.
don type had gone, faded away the
cherry.cbpeked Hebe OF the rural hos
telry. To be sure, il you are genuine
tramp, who will seek odd hooks Of
provincial England and Scotland for
very love Of adventure, you will now
and then still find gentle being in cap
and apron, whose very presence behind
the cupboatd.like bar fills your mind
with all manner of chivalrous fsncies,
until the whole locality takes on mag.
ical seeming 40 Of sunshine and fowers
But If you remain long enough, you find
that even this rural rarity is already
tainted by modern unreet, A farmers
daughter, the child OF some castle game
keeper, OF widow lodge.Eeeper or Of
some underling OF the manor demesne,
abs has already her ambition tiexd on
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool or Lon
don, or even the bright, busy railway
refreshment rooms; and year there.
alter, you will find her, sauCy and pert,
straight and lofty, sage and calm, one Of
the great army Of public house barmaids,
at fourteen bob a week and found"
Probably one.hGlf Of the whole are re-.
Crnited from this source. The other
half arc from the eternal overplus Of
city. born girls, who, without positive
immoral tendencies, have overborne re.
straint, and with much vigor, without
sex in sentiment and that eaRing con.
sciousness spripgine from thetrue virtue
OF the glory OF her sex, have forced theil
way into this manner OF lie and employ
Some curious facts have developed or
certain interesting lines IN my Eve years
study OF these people in England, Ire
land and Scotland. As rule, in my
wanderiHgs, have sought the hnmblel
class OF inns for housingI not only from
motives Of comfort, but as best furnish
ing various and yagariops forms fol
character study; inns on par, az nearly
as eau be compared, with our American
hotels OF the second class" Cominr
again and again TO many OF these, ! have