The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-08
HOW THE SALOON DEVELOPED
Men Formerly Sat at Tables to
Drink Instead of Standing in
Front of the Bar As at Present

The saloon of today is so essentially
b. product of modern life that the mem
DRY of men who have been in the bust
ness of selling liquor at retail for %
or 80 years goes back over the whole
story of its growth. The change from
the old-fashioned tavern, with its tap
room and parlOr, to the modern room,
is one not only of form but of repu-
fation and standing in the community.
Ia the old tap-roOm there were al
ways a large fire and number of lit
tie tables, while the bar at one side
was generally fenced in by a kind of
wooden railing. something like that in
a bank, and what was sold across 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 well as in the country, par
ticularly for the poorer customers; the
better class were more apt to stop in
the front room, where their drinks
were brought in to them. Gradually
the bar grew. and the rest of the tap
room shTank, while the hotels drew off
the richer class of customers. As the
life of the town grew more nervous
and the sense Of pressure and lack of
leisure became more pronounced the
habit of perpendicular drinking and
bar, and then hurrying out, put an end
to the old habit of lounging at a table
and taking ones liquor slowly.
In these days the bar has pScOme the
main and practically only feature of
the long narrow room of which most
saloons consist. The more respectable
saloonkeepers 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-
looms and quite distinctive field, but
because the salOOn-keepers think, many
of them, that it gives more respec-
table 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 the old tap-room char
acter of social meeting-places, and had
become essentially a place for drink
ing; to this some Of their proprietors
attribute the fact that it has come tc
be considered by many people a dis
grace to go into a bar. whereas in for
mer times no such sentiment existed
The honor in which taverns were held
In the early colonial times, not as
drinking places but as place Of So
cial reunion, where distances in the al
manacS were frequently stated from
tavern TO tavern. instead Of from towr
10 town, is familiar to every student OF
American history. Then, indeed, the
amount of liquor to be drunk by one
man at the inn was carefully regulat-
ed, ana the tavern itself, as a club, q
hotel. and even on occasions a meet
lng-house, was under the close super
Vision of the authorities.
The constitutional objection Of Ger
mans to drinking on their feet has beer
one cause, among others, Of the growth
Of beer-gardens here, but these have
not essentially affected the character
II saloons. The bar with passageway
In front Of IT, into which the saloon
has developed, is thoroughly American
and as much the result of our life here
rs is the quick-lunch counter. which is
Its counterpart. The revival of some
Of the old sociable tap-room features
would unquestiOnably raise the general
tone Of saloons, but many people who
IRE interested in the question feel that
more effective Improvement would be