The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-03-11
The "Tip" System in England.

A London correspondent of the Chi
cago Tribune writes as follows: To
tip" or not to tip" that is the ques-
ton. 1t may seem very unimportant
question to one who has never expert
enced the Inconvenience and ANNOYANCE
of the custom in full swing as it exists
in England, but let me warn my fellow
countrymen that if they ever allow this
habit of tipping to wind its thin ten
tacles about their social and business
life, as it has done here, they will find
it as dreadful a creature as Victor
Hugo's octopus. 1t is a creature of
very insidious growth. 1t begins by
voluntary gifts of small sums to porters,
servants, errand boys, etc., either as
bribes for exceptional good service to
the detriment of Others who do not
Tip" or as ostentatious and vulgar
gratuities to raise the giver in the eyes
of the recipients. 1t is only a step from
trifles of this sort to larger gifts to OBJ"
tain business favors and wider notoriety
for wealth and (spurious) liberality,
until the whole business community is
weighted with an incubus as deadly and
as persistent as Sinbad's "Old Man of
the Sea-
The practice of Tipping" extends to
quarters where one would least expect
to find it. In the largest as in the
smallest line of business the habit is
universal. The house of w. II. Smith
d Son has monopoly of the news
agency business of Great Britain; the
head of the firm is \ IN ember of parlia-
ment and first lord of the admiralty.
Yet this firm will require its regular
"tip with as much vigor as the small
est. The publisher of London weekly
Just struggling into paying position
toll me that he was obliged to give
5000 copies gratis each week to w. II.
Smith & Son to induce them to circu-
late his paper. Then there is the in
Vulnerable army of officials who not
to be able to live. The tradesman
"tips your butler and your cook; the
corn chandler tips" your coachman and
your groom; the out-coor teacher
tips your indoor governess; and the
doctor is not above tipping" your
footman. Every guest in your house
pays his footing in the servants hall at
rate which often makes him speculate
whether the underlings in English
country houses do not eventually be-
come bloated capitalists.
Tue nominal cost of railway travel
ing and hotel living is far below the
actual figures, owing to the unceasing
calls for tips" Alta railway station
porter takes your baggage from the cab,
sixpence; another takes it to be weighed
and labeled, another sixpence; a third
puts it into the luggage-van, sixpence
again; while the guard of the train ex-
poets sixpence ut least for showing
you to compartment and arranging
your parcels. The same performance
over again occurs at every change of
cars and at your destination. At the
hotels, the porter, the hambermaid,
the page. the room-waitcrs and the
dining-room walters all expect liberal
tips" although you are charged eigh-
teen pence per day for service" And
50 the system goes through every kind
ofbusiness. There is widespread be-
lief in the United States that wages in
England are very low. Nominally so,
thej are, but the practice of tipping"
makes up for low wages in many cases.
Of course it is irregular in its working
and demoralizing in its effects; but the
point where it is most feltis in the in
creased cost of doing business above the
amount calculated. While many work
men and employees derive little or no
benefit from tips others get large
amounts, so that the average cost of
doing business is much greater than it
would be, estimating salaries ut the
low nominal rates.