The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-08-02

English women of a certain class drank
at the public bars.
! 1t is not only women of the lower
classes, coster girls and factory work
ers and wives of laborers who drink
in public, but those who may be termed
entirely respectable women think 1t nc
shame to drink and gossip in the pub
lie house. In fact, the private bar has
come to be generally regarded as con-
venfent place in which cronies of the
( female sex may foregather to exchange
the local news and scandal, while al
the same time they may refresh them
selves with the beverage they prefer.
| It goes without saying that women
who drink must neglect their children
and home duties. Unlike the man,
who often has perforce TO keep sober
for fear of losing his work, the woman
is under no supervision.
She may neglect and starve her child
rem and in many instances. not be in
terfered with. The degeneration of the
British race, concerning which so much
is heard nowadays, is due to city life
and the vices which such life brings in
its train. and among these vices drink
ing among women is conspicuous.
For a long time little or no notice
was taken by the lay or the medical
press or by medical men of the increas~
ing habit of public drinking by British
women. Now and then an outspoken
nerson would declaim against the evil,
hut his voice was as one crying in the
wilderness 1t seemed as If people
were afraid and ashamed to lay bare
such a OF and the subject was ignored.
Latterly the question has become SO
serious that it has absolutely thrust
itself upon the attention of public and
scientific men. The latest phase of the
matter has been a series of articles by
O. r. Sims contributed to the London
Tribune.
The articles of Mr.. Sims We're writ
ten in popular style, somewhat sensa-
tionaI, maybe, but they achieved their
object. Widespread notice was arous-
ed. and the ultimate result was that
meeting was convened, at which were
nresent the chief members of the medi-
cal profession and men drawn from
nubIic life and the learned professions.
The point dealt with at this meet
ing and in the articles of Mr.. Sims
was that infantile mortality was inn
mensely increased by the custom
among the poorer classes of British
society of mothers taking infants in
arms, into public houses and actually
giving these little ones strong drink
AS Sir Lauder Brunton. one of the best
known London physicians, said at the
my experience as physician at St.
Hospital. reaching over
several hundred thousand cases, has
shown me that the ordinary rule which
obtains is: Mother, a bit and sup;
baby. a bit and sup, and generally the
sup consists of gin and water. IT
must be quite evident that this process
of slow poisoning destroys the child,
one would say body and mind We're
1t not that very often the body is de-
stroyed before the mind has time to
develop"
The meeting decided that steps
should be taken to introduce legisla-
ton to prevent children, and especial
ly infants in arms, from entering a
public house.
It is a satisfactory sign that public
opinion in England has so far been
aroused as to clamor for legal meth
DDS to put an end to children entering
public houses. Unfortunately the evil
will be only scotched, not killed. So
long as the custom continues to prevail |
Of women drinking in public houses. |
Just so long will the harmful effects of
the habit be exhibited in the rising |
generation.
A writer in the London Lancet of |
about a year ago put the situation in /
a nutshell when he said: s'The drunk
en- woman whose duties are supposed !
to be domestic is a particular curse to
the community. because she has not |
the check upon her that is applied in
the case of a man by the ordinary dis
eipline of labor, and because her chill
1ren suffer in an appalling way physi-
cally and morally"
The assertion may be made that
is common among a GER
tain part of the female population of
London and of other large British |
cities, and that this form of drinking
Is almost the greatest curse which ex-
SITS in Great Britain. Although the
theory is no longer held that the al
eoholic faint can be transmitted from
parents to children, yet it is known
hat the children of drunken parents
are invariably of a high strung. ner-
7ous, sneurotic disposition. predisposed
10 the use of alcohol and peculiarly
to it's injurious action.
The hopeful phase of the situation is
that the leaders of thought in all the
professions in England have become
alive to the menace involved in the
habits of some British women
and will use their best efforts to stop
the evil