THE BARMAID QUESTION.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 236, 21 March 1885, Page 12

THE BARMAID QUESTION.

~o Tins vexed question (why it should bo a "vexed" question we don't know, as we never feel vexed when the pretty dears are applying our lotion) has assumed a new phase. On Wednesday we were enjoying our otitim cum diquitute, and a square dinner, when a knock came to the front entrance of our palace, and on the drawbridge being lowered a damsel of uncertain age was discovered, with a strip of paper in her hands (well, to be strictly truthful, part of it only was in her hands, a part was out on the street, and round the corner across the moat). Seeing that that the document was not a writ for debt, or a warrant for our arrest for high treason or libel, our j anitor opened the massive oak gates, and admitted the young (?) person, who came up smiling, and dragging this slip of paper behind her. When we had been called from our dining hall to the principal saloon, whither the janissaries had led the damsel, and when we had, with assistance, got at one end of the paper, we found it to be a — what do you think now ? Why, a petition to Parliament praying for the abolition of barmaids. Gods ! what innocence on the part of the ' petitioners, who, by the way, seemed to be all women. They don't know Parliament worth a cent. Why, some of the j oiliest coons in New Zealand, jolly dogs who ca.i appreciate a pretty barmaid, are in Parliament ; and in office at that. We asked the damsel what were her views on the subsequent employment of the poor girls when they had cruelly deprived them of their means of livelihood. She professed to have some vague idea of getting them employment as servants, etc., "through the various benevolent societies !" " Then," said we, "you would of course give one of these girls a billet as ' general ' or nursemaid, if she came to you and said, ' I have been a barmaid, but the law having forbidden me to earn a decent, honest living in that profession, 1 wish to get employment as a domestic servant.' " The damsel replied with some asperitj, "Indeed, no, I would not." " Ah!" said we, "then like a true Ker-is-tian you would hound these poor girls from a calling where they can (if they choose) -be as respectable as any women in other positions, and you would, by barring their only respectable fall-back, drive them to the only other alternative open to them — prostitution. We also asked the lady who does us the honour to be our wife the same question, with the same result. Then our indignation arose, and we left the house for fear we might say something we would be sorry for, and be subsequently glad of it. These, then, are our reformers — these unthinking women, many of whom have never seen a barmaid — who would legislate Avithout thought of the awful consequences. It is just like giving a child a charge of dynamite to play with, is putting any power, even to petition, in the hands of a parcel of unthinking women, proverbially cruel to their own sisterhood.

Catarkh of the Bladder. — Stinging irritation, inflammation, all Kidney and similar Coin plaints Gured by " Bucliu-paiba." The 2T.Z. Drug Co., Genelai Agents. Flies akd Bugs, Beebles, insects, roaches fleas, bedbug's, rats, mice, gophers, jack-rabbits, cleared out by " Rough on Hats." TheN.Z. Drug Co., General agents. - " Well, my friend, you seen to be enjoying you breakfast." " Yes ; I always do. Masefield's potted mullet, qualified with a shilling bottle of Hill's Colonial Sauce, is most appetising, and far surpasses Oregon Salmon ; besides, they are both, loc productions, and so keep the money in our country.