The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-23
EVOLUTION OF THE SALOON.
Old Taverns and TaproOms Com
pared with the Modern Bar.

pared with the Modern Bar.
From the New York Evening Post.
The saloon of to-day is so essentially
a product of modern life that the men,
ory of men who have been in the bust
ness Of selling liquor at retail for TWEEN
ty-five or thirty years goes back over
the whole story of it's growth. The
change from the old-fashioned tavern,
with it's tap-room and parlor, to the
modern saloon, with it's bar and little
shut-off back room, is one not only of
form but of reputation and standing in
the community.
In the old tap-room there was always
large fire and a number of little ia
bles, while the bar at one side was gem
orally something like that in a bank,
and what was sold at it was drunk at
the tables or standing before the fire,
for there was not enough room for both
serving and drinking in front of the
bar itself. The tap-room was a kind
OF lounging room in town as we'll as in
the country, particularly for the poorer
customers; the better class were more
apt to stay in the front room where
their drinks were brought in to them.
Gradually the bar grew and the rest
of the tap-room shrank, while at the
hotels drew off the richer class of GUS
toners. AS the life of the town grew
more nervous and the sense of pres
sure and lack of leisure became more
pronounced the habit of ''perpendicu-
lar drinking" and of tossing off a
drink in front of the bar and then
hurrying out, put an end to the old
habit of Longing at table and taking
ones liquor slowly.
In these days the bar has become the
main and practically only feature of
the long narrow room of which most
saloons consist. The more respectable
saloon keepers regret this state of af-
fairs. OF late years a number of them
have put in little tables parallel to the
bar itself, and they encourage GUS
toners to sit down. This is not done
at all in imitation of the beer gardens,
which have grown up beside the sa-
loon and quite distinctive field, but
because the saloon keepers think, many
of them, that it gives a more respect
able tone to their establishments, and
they would rather have tables in front
in plain sight than shut off in a little
room. Modern saloons had some time
ago lost most of their old tap-room
character of social meeting places, and
had become essentially a place for
drinking; to this some of their pro-
prietors attribute the fact that il has
come to be considered by many people
a disgrace to go into a bar, whereas
in former times no such sentiment
existed. The honor in which taverns
were held in the early colonial times,
not as drinking places but as a place
of social reunion, where distances IN
the almanacs were frequently stated
from tavern to tavern, instead of from
town to town, is familiar to every
student of American history. Then, in
deed. the amount of liquor to be drunk
by one man at the inn was carefully
regulated.
The constitunial objection men have
to drinking on their feet has been the
cause, among others, of the growth of
beer gardens here, but these have not
essentially affected the character of
saloons. The bar with a passageway
in front of It, into which the saloon
has developed, is thoroughly Ameri-
can, and as much the result of our life
here as is the quick lunch counter,
which is it's counterpart. The revival
of some of the old sociable tap-room
features would unquestionably raise
the general tone of saloons, but many
people who are interested In the ques-
ton feel that q more effective Inn
movement would be made by the sub
stitution of something else for the sa-
loon. The cafe. as it exist in France.
particularly the sidewalk cafe, never
seems to have taken root in this coun-
try even in that season OF the year to
which II is tdapted.
A man prominent among the retail
liquor dealers of this city says that one
reason why many people go into sa-
looms, particularly on Sunday morn
ing. is because OF the lack OF public
toilet convenences. IL has been OBJ
served that nearly so per cent. Of those
who drop in at a saloon for this rea-
son stay to have a drink. II the city
Of New York were not worse provided
In this respect than any other city OF
one-auarter It's size IN the world
great many drinks would be lost to the
saloons.