The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-03-23
WOMEN AND THE DYI.D LAW.

q WOMEN AND III ~ - ! ND l1ANN'
The new features OF the Byrd IL
quor law need not cause concern.
Least of all need moralists be alarmed
by that section which relates to the
sale of intoxicants to women. The
clause contains no joker 1t is no
great victory for the temperance folks,
and no great triumph for the liquor
interests. 1t is merely an honest at
tempt to meet an evil in a sensible,
decent fashion and to control 1t. as
far as it can be controlled BY law.
The nature of the average Southern
man revolts at the idea of a woman
In a saloon. She has no business
there. She has no right there. She
cannot be true woman and be there.
Yet, as every man knows, under for
.mer laws, many bars were frequented
by women. Aside from those who
came cautiously to tho side-doors and
handed in their tin-pails or their
pitchers. women frequently came to
the bar and bought their8pint or their
quart of liquor. In many States, the
laws permit them to use the bars a s
men do--to carouse and to dance. to
make merry and to get drunk
This is not possible under the new
Byrd law, which is now in effect. No
woman can be employed in bar, and
no woman can purchase liquor at a
bar. She cannot come to the door
and have others get the liquor for her.
She cannot herself enter the bar and
make the purchase. The evil practice
Is broken up altogether, to the good of
society and to the salvation of many
women.
The law does not prohibit the sale
of liquor to women in hotel dining.
rooms, or in any other apartment. at
tached to a bar. other than in tho bar
itself. A woman. who has room IN
a hotel, or woman who lunches in
the dining-room of hotel, can be
served with liquor. This Is not all
that might be desired. 1t leaves a
loop-hole which may be used to foster
.,'private dining rooms" and French
restaurants but 1t is certainly a
great step forward.
We hope for better things in the
future, for the protection of those wo-
men who are not always able to pro-
.tect themselves. We should like to
see the law strict enough to forbid
the possibilities of intoxication among
women in restaurants or hotels. just
as we should like to see the day
when no man would be intoxicated.
But we must move slowly towards
that goal, making the best Of women
and women as they are.
vi
"yOIr BETv AND HIGH PRICES.
Everybody is blaming everything
and everybody else for high prices Of
late The consumer blames the great
greed of the producer; the producer
bames the great appetite of the con-
sumer. The independent blames the
trust, and the trust bames the peo-
pie. The wise ones blame the tariff,
and the makers Of the tariff blame
those who do not appreciate a good
thing when they see It. Almost every
thing we eat or do. or drink or say Is
blamed, directly or Indirectly, for high
prices.
Out in California they have found
to blame. That something
is the You Bet Mining District. You
Bet 1T seems, is a relic of the old
days OF the forty-nincrs 1t was q
great stake when the prairie schoon-
crs were Kissing the dust in Utah,
or crossing the mountains OF Colorado,
as they crept on to the lIlDorado OF
the Sunset country. People had al
most forgotten that You Bet ever pro
duced any may dirt" until some miner
went there few years ago, and sunk
u shaft. lie kept at 1t month In.
month out, until now he has decided
he has made enough andRis.. going TO
he announces that his work at You
Bet Melted him 100000. 81 ssil IL 81
This has given the high price harpi-
les their chance to scream. What ls
the use of working, they declare, and
what is tho use of toiling to make g
living, when the old earth produces
enough gold to make the money cheap
and tho provisions high, How Is the
poor man to mako living, whom gold
gold, gold is pouring In, not only from
the South African fields and from the
Klondyke region, but even fron,--old,
out Worn, and forgotten mines like
You Bet, Unless the stream Of gold
ceases, the wary are crying, prices
will be higher and still higher.
There is something OF poetry about
the You Bet diggings, but therc Is
still more Of truth. about the story
Gold after all Is only. a m easure 8oi
value, II the labor required to pro-
duce tho gold is lessened, |; and IL the
gold Is more abundant ida the measure V
must be changed. The price Of othe,
,tol. 10