Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1905-12-07
The Observer.

The Observer ventures to suggest
that when the Business Mems Club re-
opens its doors, it ought to make
change in its constitution, eliminating
its bar. This suggestion is made from
the standpoint of one who is convinced
that social drinking in all its forms
should be discouraged and curtailed as
much as possible. This view is not in
consistent with the views formerly ex-
pressed by the Observer on the subject
of the now defunct Subway Tavern.
That futile experiment did at least rep.
resent an honest desire on the part of
its sponsors to diminish the evils of
drunkenness. But does any such phil
anthropic intent lie behind the bar of
the Business Mems Club? The Club
has not been place of public enter
taiEment; its provisions were not made
to meet the demands of public patron
! age, but solely those of its own mem
bers and invited guests. Any moral
and philanthropic purpose for which
the Club may stand, must therefore
terminate upon its own membership.
1t may be that the bar was introduced
out of laudabe desire on the part of
a majority of its members to rescue
themselves from the temptations and
degradation which lurk within ordin-
ary saloons. But is itnot a reflection
upon the personnel cfthe Club toimply.
as this supposition does, that the bulk
of its membership is OF the class that
needs rescuing from public saloons
and bar-rooms?
We must therefore dismiss the hypo-
thesis of selfintended philanthropy,
and fail back upon the more obvious
and prosaic supposition that the bar ex-
lists solely for the plain and direct and
immediate quenching of imperious
thirst in the throats of a majority, or
at least of an insistent minority, of its
members. The point which the OBJ
server wishes to make is, that the Club
bar represents form of social drink.
ing, peculiarly gratuitous form, in
fact; and that it should therefore be
abolished. If it could be made to an
pear that the Club is an Institute t)r
the Prevention and Cure of Inebriety,
and that the bar is an indispensable
part of its therapeutical equipment;
there would be nothing to say except
to express sympathy for the Affections
of the patients, with the hope that the
chosen line of treatment might result
in the desired cure. But the Club has
not so advertised itself We must re.
gard its bar simply as a provision for
social drinking, and therefore to be
discontenanced.
1t is said that there is a rule of the
Club forbidding treating. This is SO
far good. But what is to hinder a
number of members from lining up at
the bar together and swallowing in Soc
ial simultaneity the drinks of which
each one pays for his own? OF course,
no member is under obligation to pat
ronize the bar. But the presence of
the bar must certainly prove source
of constant temptation to any young
man who is daily frequenter of the
Club. For one young man whom the
Club may save from grosser habits of
drunkenness, there are likely to be ten
to whom the Club provides the first
easy steps in the path of dissipation.
There are number of men of the
highest character and reputation who
belong to the Club. 1t is safe to as
sumo that the bar exists in answer to
no demand oftheirs. They may consent
to it, or even justify it, on the ground
that there is demand for it; but the de-
mand IS not their own. But why
should they wish to enter into intimate
social relations with those who insist
emily demand bar?
The time is certainly opportune for
agitating the question of having the
Club abandon it's bar. This is a mat
ter which concerns the community,
and not merely the Club ITSELF 1t has
been said that the Club cannot survive
without bar. If that be true, it is a
sad documentary on the morality and
social life of Emporium.
Chicken Supper.
, The ladies of West Creek will serve a
abiakau Snnnor ~ tho r,,;lon.o - q NJ