BARMAIDS.

Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 10, 11 July 1885, Page 2

BARMAIDS.

Mary Melrose", in " Our Boya," says that Bhe doeß not know ntiioh about kissing, but is willing to be taught an awful lot. We cannot help thinking that a considerable number of members of the House are in a similar position with regard to barmaids. At least a great many of .them, inoluding the Premier, evidently know very little of the Bubjoot, and Borne, if not all, aw, wo believe, quite willing to be taught an awfuj lot. Those members who, like Mr. Pyke, Mr. Bevan, and Mr. Hatch, had the oourage to admit that they did know something, were laughed at, bat there was an evident spice oi envious admiration in most of the og,ohinnation. We advise the Premier, Mr. Hobba, and the other amiable and virtnoaa gentlemen who with no doubt the best inteotjpns in the world tried their utmost tost nignfc fcoiufliot a oruel wrong on a large olass of defenceless girls, to devote the reoesß to a special study of fcarmaids. Mr. Stout has already been called to oj&e Bar, but before he is qualified toguide legislation on such a subject as barmaids he requires to graduate before another bar. The apparent hypocrisy of the exouse put forward that the proposed restriction was in the interests of the girls themselves, is not worth considering. The gins tay k o not asked for it, and no one could possibly doufo.fc that suoh a limitation wonld aa effectually lead 'to , tho services of barmaids being altogether dißpenjwd with as any direot provision to that effeot. Jut would have been more honest and straightforward to have raised the diroot question. We 4s> not propose to review the arguments for and against the propriety of employing females in the pnblio dispensing of liquors. Until a complete evolution takes place in pnblio opinion regarding the drink traffic in its entirety, we think tha weight of argument is immensely in favour of barmaids as fgainst barmen ; but what we desire now to poiat out is that no change in the direction Mr. Stout and his friends profess to desire could )»a effeotnal which did not entirely prohibitfemfiea from being engaired or acting in any capacity ie # lioensed house. To talk about abolishing $c evita said to be attendant on barmaids,' wluie »licensee's wife or daughter is permitted to I enact the part, is simply absurd, aid if girls were tuned cut of bars at six o'clock, it would be difficult to prevent them being employed as waitresses to carry liquor from the bar to customers in private rooms, or to prevent them beeominu lodgers, and, for a consideration, remaining in the vicinity, but outside of the bar, to converse with customers, and share in their refreshments. We need scarcely say that either ohange would, in the interests of morality, be far worse than the present system. Girls who now preserve their self-respect, and behave in a respectable manner in a bar, would shrink from the necessary demoralisation of such a state of thinga as wonld result from the changes we have indicated. A lower class of women wonld be found to take their place, and in every respect the alteration would be for the worse. We do not think it is fair, just, or manly of members to try and affix

a stigma to an occupation whioh !b pursued by a considerable number of virtuous and well conducted young women, who, from various causes, would find it difficult to obtain other suitable employment. To legislate specially against them, to prohibit their employment, and to declare it one whioh no good and virtuous woman could follow, to denounce their existence as inimical to pnblic morality, and to hound them out of the bars in the way proposed, would be to affix suoh a Btigma, and to do a cruel and a cowardly action. If those gentlemen who air their eloquence and display their virtue in running down barmaids would but enquire a little they would probably be able to discover that in the best social oiroles with whioh they have any acquaintance there are many estimable wives and mothers who have been barmaids in their time. We have even known members of our most virtuous House of Representatives who have sought and found wives in that despised occupation. On the whole, the result of the vote last night was decidedly satisfactory, and if the minority will properly übo their opportunities and acquire information on the subjeot during the recess they will probably come to rejoioe that they were not Buocesaf ul in what they attempted last night to do. As for the petitions against barmaids they are not worth consideration. Petitions rarely are. Most people will sign a petition about anything. One singular feature of last night's discussion was the faot that Mr. Booth s standard-bearer failed to raise the flag aa a rallying point for the anti-barmaid brigade.