The Hawaiian gazette., 1901-09-17
A pop BEER GARDEN.

""orle cn"erad in practical temper
ance work should not overlook the fact
that a large proportion of the men who
go to saloons visit them not so much
for drinking alcohol as for social amuse
ment. 1t Is the social aspect of the
saloon which attracts and those who
make the greatest success Of the retail
liquor trade are the ones who provide
the best facilities for social chat and
recreation. 1t is on this account that
a group of modern men savers propose
TO reform the domestic system of the
saloon by removing all chairs and
tables newspaper files. card rooms,
etc, and leave the saloon with merely
n bar where men may go, as horses to
a watering trough. to get their drinks
and leave. They argue that saloon 50
carried on will cease to attract the very
large class to whom the glass of
whisky or the schooner of beer is not
the end sought but the means to the
end.
In the local Murphy Hall We have
an attempt to provide social pleasure
: for men who otherwise might seek II in
saloons. What need OF success the
for those who would try for the same
object in a more rational way. The
value in this work of an upstairs han
with presidents and private secretaries
and great deal OF talk is visibly lin
tied. We have, in late issue, quoted
high authority for the view that a cor
ner saloon, with all the decent appur
tenances of the ordinary rum shop and
90 fa,~a
serve the purpose of the practical re
formers better than an upstairs demi-
literary and musical club could pos
sibly do. 1t is not our purpose to go
over the ground again, but to address
ourselves to another phase of this in
teresting subject.
We remember reading an account OF
the way Il plan for getting the foot
loose and unattached man, eager for
the gregarious life and of no social con-
,nections locally into temperance at
mosphere, was successfully carried out.
The town had a university and several
hundred young men spent their even
/ irgs acquiring the beer and cigarette
habit. They were not so very partial to
beer, for healthy young Americans OF
| New England parentagc rarely are;
nor did tobacco fill their souls with joy
half as often as 1t did their stomachs
with nausea. But the beer and the
cigarettes, the hot lunch, the lights and
the warmth, the singing and the new
acquaintanceships combined TO give
them the taste of free and easy good
fellowship they longed for. Had there
been sweet cider and ice cold ginger ale
instead Of the amber fluid. they would
have got along just about as We'll. At
least so a philanthropist thought and
he put his ideas into practical effect
He might have endowed a chair in tine
| University or built a new dormitory OF
founded an asylum or paid for SAM
torium but he figured that he could do
more good with what ne called pop
beer garden. This man had been abroad
and he had seen how vast Il part lager
beer gardens played in the social life
OF Germany. He had seen whole fami-
lies go there and he had noticed two
livingstone that the people paid less at
tention to their beer than thay did to
the music and the chit-chat. The spirit
of the place was in no sense bacchana-
lian II was pre-emnently and. delight
fully social, Nobody went home drunk;
everybody went in u spirit of"rational
good-felowship, Still beer Mas beer.
Il cant conscientiously offer these
college boys beer" the man said when
he returned home; besides, Beer with
them would be an acquired taste. But
they will drink pop beer, cider and
lemonade If | can get them started"
SO he built a big pavilion which could
be opened for GOODNESS in summer and
closed for warmth in winter and fitted
lii in the most attractive way. At one
end he had dais where an orchestra
was to sit; on one side he had an
elaborate bar; further down was sheer
white disc where he thought he would
throw stereopticOn pictures: across the
way was a lunch counter with kitchen
behind 1t. There We're electric lights
all over the ceiling and the floor fyas
of little checked irregular allies; the
woodwork was polished and inlaid with
mirrors; at the comfortable chairs by
the round polished, wooden tables, four
hundred people could be seated. There
We're some rather striking pictures on
the walls and some fine house palms
We're scattered about, In the center or
the room was bronze fountain trick
ling water into basin filled with fish.
on the opening night the place was
crowded and the white-aproned walters
we're as busy as bees serving cold
drinks and hot or cold lunches-pint
! glasses of ginger ale just out of cold
storage: plates of frankfurters and
sauerkraut. picked fish. pretzels
sweitzerkase and mustard. ham sand
wiches and cold boiled tongue-cheap
for cash. BY order of the management
the orchestra was not permitted to play
classical music; 1t played all the COL
t lege and popular airs and sometimes
the chorus which the students raised
( drowned out the string musicians. Not
| speech was made and there were no
e hired performers; there was rollick-
2 ing good time which didn't hurt any
=, one. Nothing ever before had struck
a the rum shops and the lager beer
IL