THE WHITE SLAVES BEHIND THE BAR.

White Ribbon, Volume 17, Issue 198, 18 December 1911, Page 11

THE WHITE SLAVES BEHIND THE BAR.

Some Experiences in a Dangerous Occupation. 11Y AX EX-BMUIAIH. According to the latest Government returns there are 27,000 barmaids in England and Wales. *>f this number only 11 HO are over 35 years. The popular age for a barmaid is 21 to 25 years, and the number of barmaids thus employed is 12,062. What becomes of a barmaid after she has reached the age limit of 35 years ? This question is propounded and answered in this article. —Ed.I Much against the wishes of my parents I became a barmaid. The only daughter of a successful tradesman, I had spent the greater part of my twenty years in idleness and comparative luxury. But I grew weary of doing nothing. For marriage I had little inclination, and even if my ambition was in that direction my matrimonial chances were remote, seeing there were live eligible girls to every single man in the town. WANTED, a Young Lady not over 25), for a First-class Bar. Must he tall, dark, and of good appearance. One who has not been out before aot objected to. Enclose photo. —Write, *\c.

To this advertisement I replied, and three days later I was requested to call and see the manager of a certain hotel in a Midland town. Tho salary to commence with, the letter stated, was 1 Is per week, with board. However, I was warned the hours would he long and the work exacting. THE LADYLIKE MANNER. My interview w ith the manager took place at H . I was questioned, among other things, as to whether I was tactful, resourceful, and uniformly good tempered.. Unhesitatingly I answered in the affirmative. At the close of a pleasant interview the manager, a gentlemanly looking fellow, paid me the compliment of telling me I was extremely bright, adding : “ You a ladylike manner which should please behind the bar." Two days later my anticipations were realised. I was selected for the post. I was to commence my career behind the bar in a week’s time. In the matter of hours I counted myself as one of the lucky ones. I started my duties at 10 a.m. ; was allowed three hours for meals and rest, and finished at midnight. I was permitted one free evening every week, with an off-Sunday c-nce a month.

IIEIIIND THE “ PUMPS.” Though 1 had a robust constitution I soon found that the prolonged standing behind the pumps told on my health. As time went on I became so weary at the close of the day that I threw myself, fully dressed, on the bed, which I shared w ith a companion. She was thirty years of age, and, realising that her career as a barmaid must soon close, she was looking out for a matrimonial partner. Hut, as she often observed, the men who make good husbands very seldom choose their wives from behind the bar. This was her tenth situation in as many years; and, as she confided in me : “ There’s precious little room for a woman in our business after she is thirty years of age, unless she is exceptionally good-looking. All other doors,” she sadly added, “are bolted and barred, except one —the door to the street # /” THE “ TYPE.”

It was my resolve at the outset, while being nice to everyone, to steer clear absolutely of anything verging on familiarity. I soon began to understand how a girl gets into a free-and-easy way of talking to young men who patronise hotels.

Morally, one of the barmaid’s greatest menaces ?s the gilded youth generally the son of a prosperous tradesman), who attempts by sartorial smartness and slangy speech, to make up for his mental deficiencies. This type of man is sinuous as a serpent, and his sting is quite as deadly to the purity of his victim. He makes a point of getting to know on what evening a barmaid is at liberty ; he is lavish with his gifts of chocolates and invitations to theatres. Against such pests my companion warned me; but outside the pages of a novel my know ledge of such men was nil until I became a barmaid. From this class of hotel habitue I had to put up with a good deal of talk which brought a blush to my cheeks. Rebuke on my part, I was warned by my companion, would have jeopardised my position. I was helpless. . My friend gave me the names of a dozen highly-profitable customers whom I must not offend at any price, even if the offence consisted in resenting an insult.

a scandalous incident. It was through the outrageous insolence of one of these men that I had to leave the hotel. I chanced to meet him soon after midnight in a corridor on the tirst floor. He was coming from a champagne banquet, and was on the way to the cloak-room when I met him. I was going to my bedroom after he close of a very busy day. There was no other person in the corridor at the time, and with an exclamation of ‘Hello, dear!” he put his arm around my waist and tried to kiss me. I managed to wriggle away, and was hurrying to my bedroom, hut the man overtook me, and forced me into an open unoccupied bedroom. The red-hot blood of indignation boiled over within me. and in a fierce struggle which followed I began to fear lest I should be overcome. Resorting to a weapon often effective in such circumstances, 1 screamed for help. Fortunately two gentlemen staying al the hotel answered my scream, and rushed to the darkened room.

My gallant rescuers mistook the man for a swell burglar, and gently escorted him. despite his protests, into the manager’s office. I went to my bedroom still trembling in terror. I learned in the morning that the manager was simply furious on entering the room and finding one of his best patrons detained as a burglar. I felt sorry for the two guests, but made a Hitter complaint to the manager about the incident. Hut I soon perceived 1 could not expect his moral support. On the advice

of my experienced friend I gave notice to leave the hotel. It was a case in which the hotel manager had to choose between his customer and his barmaid. The reply I got was to the point. The manager was not going to allow a “ squeamish" barmaid to drive a very desirable customer away. And so I left my first situation.

THE new SHOP. At a palatial establishment in a Northern town I continued my life behind the bar. The town, for the purpose of this article, I will refer to as Nordfort. The working period varied from eleven hours in the winter to thirteen hours in the summer. In the season especially the work was exceedingly difficult, and free Sundays in the summer were very rare. The barmaids were allowed two bottles of stout or beer, as preferred, each day. Now I detested the very smell of drink, and 1 sought permission to have the equivalent of the beer allowance in money. This was refused. To grant such a request, I was informed, would not be good business. I was either to take what was offered, or go without. In this particular instance barmaids were expected to accept “treat,” because it was “good for the till.” This places the girl, to use a familiar expression, between the devil and the deep I>l ue sea. If the effects of drink betray her in her conduct she soon receives marching orders. To get over the difficulty I often, in the presence of the manager, put the “treat" money into the till without taking the drink, unknown, of course, to the generous customer. In time I began to understand how many girls, of less will-power than myself, give way to drink, and are summarily dismissed.

THE TRAGEDY 01 “ TREATING.” I know many such who started by taking a quarter the quantity of “ allowance beer," not because they liked it, but, being dead tired with sheer hard work, they needed a stimulant. To them it became a necessity, and they increased the quantity until the two bottles failed to satisfy them. Dismissal, without character or a passport into another situation, followed. The tragedy of the victims commenced from that moment. These unfortunate white slaves behind the bar became engulfed in an infinitely worse kind of slave traffic ; they were drowned in the whirlpool of immorality.

A MOTOR TOUR. A wealthy visitor who put up at the hotel, aud who had more money than

morals or common sense, invited mu to accompany him on a week-end motoring tour. <>n the ground that it would he impossible to get away, even if I felt inclined to accept his kind invitation, I excused myself. This difficulty, he assured me, could soon he overcome, since he was a friend of the manager’s. Hut his motive was only too transparent, and I firmly declined the invitation. Some months later I made a discovery which at tirst was a great shock to me. The effect of it was my decision to leave the profession at the earliest opportunity. Everything pointed to the fact—l might he wrong—that with the passing of youth a barmaid’s professional career is doomed. Though she has devoted the best years of her life in the occupation, she is at the close incapable of, or ruined for, performing steady, routine work.

THE ALTERNATIVE. What must she do ? What money she has been able to save will not last long. The outlay on dress is always a necessarily big item in a barmaid's disbursement. Should she, after the excitement of hotel life, have an inclination to settle down to the monotonous life of a domestic, such an opening is walled by an inseparable mouutain of prejudice. There is scarcely any other department in life where she can legitimately and honestly earn a livelihood. There are few really decent men who ever think of marrying a barmaid, though there are hundreds who pass as such who are ready to ruin her, and cast her adrift. Very often the barmaid awakes to the horrors of the position too late. Starvation, or, as a grim alternative, the street, is the end in the majority of such cases. P.1.P.,” Everybody's Monthly.