The record-union., 1891-01-18
Study of the Barmaid System in
Great Britain.
IT'S RELATION TO BRITISH PUBLIC
HOUSE" DRINKING.
Interesting Incidents and Illustrations
Of Character in Barmaids and Gus
toners Gathered From Behind Bars
In England and Scotland.
Irregular Correspondence of the SUNDAY
UNION. Copyright, 1891.

liquor aIfuadlly cOilSuiilcu ny INC 1icl,
women and children Of Great Britain, is
served by women.
There are nearly 100000 women thus
engaged every day in the year. These
are, as q class, the prettiest and tidiest
women in the three Kingdoms. What
ever their relations to society at large,
they have characters good or bad, man
ners and morals, interesting or otherwise,
and souls saved or unsaved, though the
clergy, church societies and missionaries
never seem to have troubled themselves
much about the latter.
During the first half of the past ten
years 1 had opportunity for frequent
study of these British barmaids. During
the last five years I have been able to
closely observe them nearly every day
and evening of my life. At first thought,
many may regard them as hardly merit
lng serious consideration. 1t seems to
nne they are really worth talking about.
English literature is full OF the barmaid.
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 making
most of the books which last all along
down through the seventeenth and eigh-
teentl centuries, and even US near to us
as the first third of the present century,
seem to have drawn their inspiration
largely from the tap-room fount Indeed,
if we viii be wholly honest aboutit Eng
lish literature, the sweetest and grandest
on earth, and the spigot have ever known
close fellowship. And even iflittle stress
should be laid upon the matter, we owe
TO the very presence OF the barinaids Of
those days preservation Of the sweetest
fancies, the most sparkling humor, the
most charming situations, and no mean
number of the most chaSte and pathetic
incidents known 20 ballad, poetry and
fiction. This is not defensive of the bar
maid. IL is merely historic of her effect
on and presence in literature. And I
have often thought because it was SO, be-
cause the puclic house OF Old and the bar
maid of old became British iHstitG-
tons unconsciously, though universally
grounded in the human heart, they have
survived civilization and decay.
On this line, there are two things about
the British people which we in America
utterly fail to comprehend. One is the
Briton's passionate loyalty TO anything
sanctioned by prestige and sanctificd by
precedent into the status of an institution
"a British institution. In general, 81
the more honor 20 him for that; for in
steadtastneSs and loyalty TO nation
own are preserved all good things, if a
few bad ones happen to remain. Another
is, the average Briton, high or low, is a
being who VIII retain and sustain all
''rights," good or bad, which literature,
society, prestige and government have
marked out for him, with a pertinacity
and bravery which puts to beggarly
shame the Indifference OF most American
people to all manner of governmental,
monopolistic and other encroachment.
This may seem going u long way for
trivial sequence. But it is undeniably
true that because the barniaid was long
all tod inf P,-Iti ieh r=1f- -nT,
through English literature; because the
older any sentiment or thing, barring the
barmaid herself, is in Britain, the more
endearingly ii is priced; and because your
British noblenan or workman Will have
his wine or ''bitters' from the hand of a
tap-room divinity whether all the world
like it or not, the prototype of the Amer
lean bartender" is here unknown, and
200,0 GOO women serve 20,000,090 British
people with their brews and spirits to-
day. There are other effects, such as the
rapid national increase in the consump-
ton of liquors; the increasing power in
politics and legislation of the liquor in
terests; and, worse than al, the startling
increase of liquor 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 is
what the British people like and will
have, and, being accounted for, 1t only
remains to speak OF this particular class
as it individually and collectively exists.
Rural England is thing of the past;
and there never was rural Scotland or a
rural, Ireland where the sweet old inn and
the sweet young barmaid were havens
and objects of material and ethical de-
light. With the end of the coaching days
was an end of the inns, and with them,
long after the old London type had gone,
faded away the cherry-cheeked Hebe oi
the rural hostelry. To be sure, if you are
a genuine tramp who viii seek odd hooks
ofprovincial England and Scotland for the
very love of adventure, you will now and
then still find gentle being in cap and
apron, whose very presence behind the
cupboard-like bar fills your mind with all
manner of chivalrous fancies, until the
whole locality takes on a magical seeming
as OF sunshine and flowers. But if you
remain long enough, you will find that
even this rural rarity is already tainted
by modern unrest. a farmers daughter
the child of some castle game>eeper, of q
widow lodge keeper or of some underling
OF the manor demeSne, she has already
her ambition fixed on Edinburgh, Glas-
gov, Liverpool or London, or even the
bright, busy railway refreshment rooms;
and a year thereafter, you viii 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-half of the
Nnoit are lIDiu ILLS source.
other half are 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 saving conscious
ness springing from the true virtue of the
glory of sex, have forced their way into
this manner OF life and employment.
Some curious facts have developed on
certain interesting lines, in my five years
study OF these people in England, ireland
and Scotland. As rule, in my wander
ings, have sought the humber class OF
inns for housing; not only from motives
OF comfort, but as best furnishing vari-
Gus and yagarous forms OF character
study; inns on par, rs nearly as can be
compared, with our American hotels OF
the second class" Coming again and
again to many Of these, have secured
such friendships and condolences rs
gained for me, in many instances, the
agreeable position of zone of the famiIv''
with the inns host or hostess. Not being
fitted by inclination or habit for honors
in front of these bars, which l have al
ways found gains respect from even
shose who exist by them, I reached many
snug corner within them. There. in
the landlords or landladys chair of
honor and state, while apparently read
ing my mail, or scanning the papers, /
have been favored at all hours of the day
or night with pictures OF life in British
Pups''-as the bar-fooms attached to
inns or restaurants are here uniyersally
called; and, during their moments of rest
between customers demands, l have re-
ceived from British barmaids themselves
innumerable kindly, honest, and alto
gether womanly, revelations as to their
previous condition, with the mode and
motive Of their lives
One of the first series Of careful in
quiries was made in reference ts the
sources Of supply Of females for this vo-
" M fhns1a lA1.icrl,t ], -,.l