BANNINGTHE BARMAID.

NZ Truth, Issue 94, 6 April 1907, Page 5

BANNI NGTH E BARMAID.

AGITATION IN CHRISTCHURCH

A Violent and Hysterical Attack.

Hebe Condemned on the Grounds oi

Morality.

The fair ladies who uncork the bottle never seem to have thought of holding a Barmaid's Convention, a gathering which would most assuredly be highly interesting. All the old haybags m the community, who wear corkscrew curls, and follow the anti-corkscrew crowd, have for years heen making rude remarks at public meetings about barmaids— a class about which they are' absolutely ignorant. And the male person who salves his parched palate | with tea, or with the product of | the pump, has been howling m a ! equally loud tone of voice for the ; abolition of the girl behind the bar, on the grounds of morality, or immorality, or something. So much having been said, about these wellconducted dainty bits of skirt, all of which has been to their detriment, and nothing m their favor (how often do you hear a woman praise her better dressed or betterlooking sister ?), it is up* to the girl who manipulates the pump to get back at these 'bitter back-biters by holding a meeting; which would be open to the Press, for the purpose df saying things about 'the other Shes and the old women who are hy courtesy called, men. There 'are many things" done by these SEMI-CHURCHY WOMEN, ., and by women who are jealous of barmaids because their husbands, or sons drop m for a nip and a "chip," that they would blush to hear even hinted at. All these starchy precise female:; aren't as angelic .as they seem ; thty aren't animated blocks of ice, hut real live' flesh and blood ' why like their little bit of worldly fun on the sly fts well as anyone else— especially the more amorous of them. Yet .they descant loudly on the temptations that beset a barmaid, how she is apt- to yield to them, and all - the rest of it. But they do not give way to temptations any sooner than any other women— especially married women whose husbands think them incorruptible, because they are so ravingly .religious. Apropos, a story is going round Christohurch about a very pious woman, well marriod, > who set out to ■ convert a swell clerk who drinks a good deal, and isn't averse to loose company. He didn't mind feeing converted ; m fact he was so used to paying attentions to women that it was quite a new sensation for a woman to pay attentions. -to him. There was a • cen version all flight'; that clerk nov/ owns that woman, body and soul. She is his mistress absolutely.Her unsuspicious husband hasn't p;6t an inkling of matters yet, but whet-, he does' - — (However, the lady still CARRIES ON HER CHURCH WORK. ,• ■ This incident reminds the . writer, of the case of a Sunday School teachier ahd a Chinaman. She taught him religion for montl\s 'and:, months ; how- the became to, get enamoured of "the dirty yellow swine, or how he came to influence her to tread the path to hell- isn't known, but at any rate she became an opium fiend, and reached the lowest depths of degradation m no time. So much • for the goody-KOody women who take on more than they can chaw. The .barmaid can hold her own m the way of respectability with those who criticise her, and it ls time she took . to criticising her critics m a public manner of speaking, if only to cause a diversion, and make them feel particularly £iilly. The latest attack on bar feminity was made by A- J. Flesher, president of ' the Canterbury ' NoLicense Council, which has been pluming itself over nothing particular at Christchurch. He made a strong appeal for the abolition of the girls, but what harm they have ever done to Flesher isn't . clear. Flesher, who likes more than his pound of flesh when m<aking up his bill, is a Christchurch lawyer, who always seems undecided whether to let his beard grow long or get it trimmed. He is secretary of the Christchurch Law Society, , and doesn't for the work ; a most unique thing, m a lawyer. However, the gent one has discovered that incold Canada women aren^t allowod to let tjheiij tootsies get numb behind the bar.; they are prohibited altogether. Writer doesn't know whether this is true or not, and doesn't care, but because One country does a thing it doesn't follow that another should follow suit after breaklast next .moaning-. There should he a limit to idiocy. If Flesher and Co provided the numerous barmaids of Maoriland with better billet's there would be a rush foi. the spoil m two nods of a sparrow's , beak. But these temperance people area't built on that design. They talk for the sake of talking ; say things about pubs, and their conductors, and the girls who mix the poison, and yet when they travel they stay at the best pubs . they can find. Not that they shouldn't do so, but they love good living these precious jokers, and they'd like a good girl, too, but . Perhaps barmaids think that these self-ap-pointed critics of their morals aren't worth taking notice of, and perhaps they are right. But public meetings of the girls would add to the joys of life. •