The record-union., 1891-01-18

tiOi vi Mustt Stuil, III tEo SulSc VI "o-
men, with all of woman's wit, self-poise,
and winsomeness in physical graces,
could be so vast and anomalous class be
created? These and many similar specu-
lati0ns, along with ceaseless personal in
quiries, resulted in the following facts
and figures being scattered through my
notebook. / do not know whether these
averages on about 100 will hold true
with 100000. They at least serve as a
basis for reputable conjecture; and bring
the subject, in its entirety, home to all
who all give thought to sociological ques-
tions with unusual impressiveness.
Daughters of farmers. villagers, and of
various employees on estates of the Brit
ish nobility, 7G0; daughters of small
tradesmen, 2l4; publicans' daughters,
sisters and other female relatives, 1S7;
factory girls, 81; seamstresses and milli-
ners, S3; divorced wives, IL; school-mis-
tresses. Y; diapers, and other clerks, 80;
telegraph operators and postal employees,
g.; actresses, variety and otherwise, l3;
cashiers, 25; canyassers, IA; unsuccessful
singers and music-teachers, A; mission
''Salyationists," 81; photograph colorists
and artists generally, 10; .'literary'
persons-S of whom had written poems,
6; pamphlets, 4; ballads and book, 2, all of
which had been published" the balance
of whom might be classified as human
various"-39; while Is had been domes-
tics; is scullery maids. Z, governesses;
and 80 as nurSemaids, originally had the
molGing of the minds and morals of the
British youth.
: | took these figures to a very noted
English thinker, leader and writer, a
man whose name is q familiar one in ev-
cry newspaper and household through
out the English-speaking world. He
examined them carefully; seemed lost in
reflection for time; and gave his views
regarding the sociological study III rapid
ly propounded return questions, after
our true Yankee fashion.
You have great many women in
America at the present time known as
agitators' and re1ormers,' have you not?
And has not each one a mission or
scheme. or divine call, to gallop, plunge
and cayort about, shrieking out al man
ner of notes of warning regarding the en-
slavement of her sex?
And do not these females sound TIM
brelS, beat tom-tons, and override every
thing established, tender and sacred, in
an effort to attract attention TO them
selves, until the grand, true wives and
mothers of your country are whipped
into partial indorsement, the clergy bull
lied into silence aud your editors, through
a forgivable chivalry, influenced into
lending thema quasi support?
Well, sir. precisely the same female,
or rather unfenaIe qualities, which,
through these nental harridans, are ac-
conplishing the gradual unsexing of
American women and the rev0lutioniZ-
ing and destruction Of the American
home, are at the root OF our cursed bar
maid system. It IS simply different
form OF expression for the same original
evil-a female passion for some form of
notoricty. Your over-shrewd and under
principled American female who can
not indorse making, through the
pretense OF some heayen-indorsed mis-
sion, at once enters upon u career of
home-breaking. She poises and poses,
higgles and wriggles along q gamut OF
''isms' and lists from female suffrage
past Il score OF reforms to Christian Sci
ence, theosophy and spiritualism into the
c5pacious bosom of the Oycr-Soul itself,
meantime pausinG anywhere just so long
as she may continue disturbing ele-
ment; ever thrilled and ecstatic over any
form of notoriety conducting to what she
hysterically inlagines has become a
career Our barmaids are just that sort
OF male females; proud OF tap-room pub
licity; eager for trwdTy notoriety; con-
sumed with ambition for public career.
But we are the most fortunate nation.
With us, rigid and healthful social limit
ations force these characters into their
proper place at once. Your female birds
of prey detiie and iatten upon your ten
dereSt and most sacred social and do
nestle institutions. Ours inlpinge only
upon our lowest national weailnesses.''
Many viii consider this British COM
parison and estimate of our suffering sis
terhood as very severe one. Some will
be ungallant enough to regard It as an un-
Just classification of British barmaids
themselves. AS rule, / have found
them Woodworking women. Few ever
know holiday. They are on their feet
from twelve to sixteen hours per day.
Whatever their natural tendencies, they
are perforce honest. The British bar sys-
tenn is entirely different from ours, and
still retains much of the flavor of the old
custom OF the publican and his wife sit
ting in their own private room and serv-
ing customers with liquors through q lit
tie shelf-bottomed window; while the
publican. his wife, or some member OF
his family. is never absent from the ban
during business hours. This is much
protection to the personality Of the bar
maid. Though you may regard her as
lost to all moral sense and the significance
of words, through the endless repetition
of infamous language in her presence by
drunken brutes, brainless cads and clever
roues, in the main she remains measure
ably free from rough treatment The
modern British bar is practically a walled
extension of the ancient British bar-win-
dow. There is no access to it from the
public room. 1t is as high as your chin.
The barinaid herself, behind her silver
beer and ale pumps, stands two feet above
you, a charming study in black, white
and carnation "a black, perfect fitting
gown, a dainty white apron, the glory OF
the rose in, or on, her cheeks and lips.
But after day and evening of banter and
wiles, through which scores of pockets
have been emptied, brains beclouGed and
her master further enriched, the highest
and lowest are remorSeleSSly shut from
sight of her smiling face. 1t is a sad
wearied, tired face now. She is practi-
cally a prisoner there. She lives with the
publican's family. She goes to a room
not fit for a dogs keeping, snatches few
hours sleep, and is again at her post be-
hind the bar to cheer and wheedle the
trembling drunkards of the early morn
ing hours. Her meals are snatched be-
tween ferociouS rusheS of customers al
the bar. She must know everybody; be
cognizant of something about everything;
have soothing word for rum-bedeviled
tempers; placidly listen to discussions OF
herself like those upon an animal; accept
direct and infamous insult with invita-
ton in her eyes and honeyed words upon
her lips; sympathetically receive conf
dences of the most sacred or damnable
character; in brief, to the end Of her days,
remain a marble Venus for the worship
and slavery of Bacchus' crazed and mad
dened victims.
For all this she receives from five to
twenty shillings per week and ''keep''
Some masters provide gowns and aprons.
The inconceivable degradation OF her call
ing can only be limited at in the statement
of fact that there is but one place in Great
Britain-at the refreshment bars of lead
ing railway stations-where refusal to
serve one who insults her would not lead
to her immediate discharge without "a
character The lowest grade in her yo-
cation is among the sailors "Pubs," in
the slums of Marylebone, Liverpool and
East End London; the highest, in the gor-
geous London West End cafes. What