The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1914-05-05
BARMAIDS.
English Girls Who Work In Bars
Grow Old Soon.

London.-"Too old at 30" is the
unhappy lot of the British barmaid,
described in a report, by Mrs. Ber-
nard Drake, of an inquiry, made by
the women's Industrial council.
Barmaids are a British institution.
Very few men are found behind the
bars in the saloons throughout the
United Kingdom, except proprietors.
There are $4,000 barmaids in Eng
land, alone. Frequent cursades have
been started, with the purpose of
eliminating women and, particularly,
girls, from this vocation, but nothing
lasting has been accomplished. One
reason Is that the saloon is the work
ing mans club, and he prefers those
places where he car gossip with the
girls. On the whole, the influence
of barmaids is to raise the atmos-
phere of saloons, but the influence
of the saloons upon the women is
considered bad.
THE barmaid soon grows old, ="
says the report. Sometimes she is
old at rs; she is generally too old
at 80" Her chances of marriage are
small unless she marries the barman
or the manager, and almost the only
left to her is the streets.
The number of women on the Lon
don streets, who have once been bar
maids, is out of all proportion to the
total numbers in the trade.
Mrs. Drake writes alphabetically
Of the women behind the bars. She
says;
THE barmaid is cheaper than the
barman. She is more industrious,
more sober, more amenable to the
' wishes of her employer, less rebel
lious against the hard conditions of
public-house life.
There are women, women of fine
character, who earn, in the bar. a
decent and respectable living, and
are not unhappy. There is ever a
woman of robust health and tenn
permanent, who finds in the public
house a certain vocation. The bar
is, to other women, immediate ruin,
But all these are exceptions. The
barmaid, who is of the majority, al
though she loses nothing of self re-
spect, yet continues at her post only
in WEAKNESS and loathing, and with
a great fear in her heart of thai
which the future is to bring"
Wages, for barmaids, are no more
than domestic servants command in
the United States and the average
working day is Il hours. In houses,
patronized by working men, the av
erage pay is $3.50 to SO a week; in
hotels it may rise to $3.50, and for
a head barmaid, to $3.50, or ever
SIS. Board and lodging are always
4 49, H. -gala ~---..
ed to dress well.
The barmaid. according to Mrs.
Drake. belongs to the type of normal
and average working girl industri-
Gus, sober and honest, although she
is to be distinguished from her sis
tiers by a greater measure of the love
of youth for adventure. She seldom
adopts the career as the result of a
false step. The working man sell
dom loses his respect for the barmaid
as a woman worker; it is reserved
for the man about town to be without
all sense of honor or chivalry to
women. Young and pretty girls are
deliberately chosen for the westend
saloons, which are the resorts of dis
solute men and fallen women, be-
cause the inexperienced girls attract
the men. They are given no protec-
tion by their employers.
Two great evils of the present sa.
loon system are pointed out by the
report. One. is the long hours, af-
fecting the health of both men and
women and leading to excessive
drinking. The other is the exploit
tation of young girls, which is re,
sponsible for their degradation. One
reform, proposed. is that no girl un.
der the age of 81 shall be employed
after s O'Clock, except on the prem
Uses of her parent. and another, Is
that the bar shall be a more fiji
place for both men and m