FEMALE BARTENDERS IN LONDON.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1519, 12 February 1886, Page 3

FEMALE BARTENDERS IN LONDON.

Among the " institutions" of England, which always shocks American visitors of anything like moral tone, is the barmaid. There is no occupation more calculated to degrade a young girl in her own estimation than that of bartending. There are thousands of men who waste their lives in lounglDg about whisky bars. They indulge in conversation which is often unlit for the ears of men, much less of women, and the more they drink the more attention they expect from the lady of the bar. Lady Brabazon, Miss Gough and several other ladies of position have recently formed a society in the interest of London barmaids. The chief complaint of the girls themselves is in respect of their hours of labour. Many of them are employed from 9 in the morning to 12 at midnight, with not more than an hour and a half for meals and rest. Mies Gough is directing her efforts to place the work and the hours of labour on a practical footing and to make arrangements for social, moral and religious help. She has upon her books the names of 500 young women, and she has thirty-six ladies in association with her, who write letters to the barmaids and visit them. On Sunday afternoons meetings are held for such m are able to attend. Lady Barbazon

has a Sunday afternoon Bible class in her drawing-room, where she regularly receives at tea fifty or sixty visitors from the various London bars. The other evening Lord and Lady Brabazon gave a concert at their beautiful residence at Lancaster Gate to the members of tlie restaurant branch of the barmaid business. Girls engaged at restaurants and caf6s have much lighter hours than those who are occupied at drinking bars and railway depots, and they are enabled to indulge in some kind of recreation at night. Should the suffrage ever be obtained by women, an effort will be made to regulate this branch of female employment by Act of Parliament; but the greatest blessing that could be conferred upon the sex would be to exclude it from the demoralizing occupation of bartending.— London Gorr, St. Louis Republican