Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1889-01-25
THE WHITE APPROVED.
A CHAT WITH A REsTAuRATEuR ON
THE SUBJECT OF WATERS.

I difference Between America Huu Gu-
rope-Tipping Is Good Thing.
'Waiting is much harder work than most.
! people think it isl said a popular restaura-
| tour to a News reporter. "Some men never
become proficient in it; they never can; and
hence the market is never overcrowded with
good walters. Barring the summer hotel
season, walters of a certain stamp are always
to be had, but this supply is never such as to
prevent an able man from getting a place
1t seems easy, l suppose, to the public for a
man to take an order and bring in the Wet
aals, but there are many difficulties and re-
quirements incident to waiting that are COM
monty overlooked. There are few places In
| which more crochets and foibles are exhibited
than in an eating room, and a waiter has to
learn much of human nature and school HIM
self accordingly to give satisfaction.
1.-THE patron of restaurant is the Great
Am. He is the one to please, and if he kicks
against anybody, save the cook, it is the
! waiter A pleasant address, good memory,
promptness and dizziness, therefore, are prime
requisites for the waiter. Nobody wants an
i'll natured waiter, yet large ratio of the
guests are more or less inconsiderate in their
demands. In case of dispute or dissatisfaction
; we always have to side with the guest, though
we may know that the waiter was in no wise
to blame.
I ''On complaint Of patrons of my establish
ment have actually had at times to change
walters to other parts of the room, and even
| lay them off for few days-waiters, too,
whom l knew to be among the best in my
employ. A little clumsiness, forgetfulness
| or confusion in distributing the food to the
guests often bring slightly deserved rebukes,
| and woe betide the waiter who incurs the ILL
will of the employees behind the screen, for
| the promptness of his service is sadly im-
| paired and mischief is sure to follow. In a
certain sense the walters are the butts of an
establishment. Many of the proprietors'
faults are saddled on their shoulders, and
! many malediction is hurled at the cooks
| over their heads"
| GLOW do the merits Of white and colored
walters compareg
| II do not think that colored walters equal
white walters though this may be a mere
fancy of mine. One thing is certain-colored
walters are the more easily managed. They
are satisfied with less, and will stand more
| As rule, good white waiter can command,
say, SO week more than a colored man of
| the same ability and experience. Seven dol
| lars or IS week and board will satisfy col
ored waiter better than SO will a white
| man, and the colored man will ask fewer
privileges. Negroes are less ambitious than
white men, more subservient, and hence
more easily imposed upon. They are satisfied
with poorer fare, and will grumble less at
long hours and extra duty. That, think,
and not the fact that they have any special
qualifications for the work, is the reason why
SO many colored walters are employed"
| A WAITER WORTH $4,000.
"Do walters usually stay in the businessan
.la "
rarely find waiter more than 40 years Of
| age At about that age they drift into other
lines of occupation. Many become barten-
ders, others porters Or janitors, and the like.
| have been surprised at the number of col
| ored walters who find their way to the va
! riety stage. You know they are hail fell
/ low well met class and full of fun. Few of
| them save anything; they rather are given
| to improvidence. STILL I have known walters
| to work themselves up till they have become
hotel or restaurant proprietors | know one
| man, John Bremen, who served me as waiter
| for years. and who is today worth $4,000.
But, as q rule, the waiter who lays by enough
| for a full dress waiting suit is doing well
1.-THE coveted place most walters aspire to
| is a situation in club house. There the av-
erage pay is about $40 month The dress
| suits are either furnished free or paid for by
monthly pay. The people the waiter serves
are not miscellaneous public, but a select
company, each member of which he soon
knows personally; and when individual pecu-
| iarities, likes and dislikes, are known, he
| runs less risk Of giving offense or dissatisfac-
ton. He is sure, further, of good fare and
good usage The club house is the walters
goal"
American walters have to content with
certain difficulties that European walters
know nothing about" said another well
known hotel proprietor. Europeans are diff
ferent from Americans. They have become
leisurely in habit. They have further learned
an art comparatively rare in America-the
| art Of eating. They are more given to wine
| and liquor drinking at meals than we. Hence,
as one might naturally expect the stamp OF
! the people has been impressed upon the waits.
ing required. In the Old World one of ourE
counter restaurants, with its toe treading
and elbow jostling, would be a curiosity,
visited once as a freak, but stunned after
ward. A European waiter, accustomed to
easy going habits, would lose his head and
fall where one OF our walters would be per-
fectly calm and self possessed.
mo class of people is more pushed in its
work than American walters. I'll warrant
that fully so per cent. of all the people who
come into my establishment give special in
junction to the walters to hurry; and vet
with all the rush they expect the highest de-
gree not only Of skill but of courtesy on the
part of those who serve them. Few Ameri-
, cans visit Europe without complaining of the
execrably slow service. The fact is they
carry over their American habits and expect
of European walters what they are won't to
exact from walters at home. Hence they are
disappointed and disguised.
clipping has been condemned, but, I think
altogether too harshly. 1t is universal Gus
tom that has come to stay. not only counte-
nance it, but favor it. 1 think that about
| 10 per cent Of the value of check is the
right thing to give the waiter and if it be
! given it will insure service that no ruling of
! the proprietor can effect. Chicago News
Music in Everything.
1t is very amusing to go into the shops in
Geneva, Switzerland, where music boxes are
sold. You are shown into room and invited
to take chair; the chair plays pretty tune
as you take your seat. You hang up your
| hat Or umbrella upon rack, and the rack
murmTs few strains of music. A decanter
upon the table pouls out a glass of water to %
! stately march, and all the innocent looking
furniture of the room could, do not doubt,
| discourse excellent melodies. II you desire
moro elaborate art the large box contains q
whole orchestra; and even the little boxes on
the table can play many exquisite things No
| need of buying opera tickets any longer; you
carry home in your trunk harmony enough
| for q lifetime.
| The manufacture of iewelry and the cut
| ting of precious stones is one Of the Oldest
| arts in Geneva. 1t is known to have been
practiced as early as the Fifth century and
in the Thirteenth the Genevan jewelers. were
| widely renowned but the art of watchmala
, ing, in which this city now leads the world,
is much more recent. The first watches and
, clocks were made here in 1900; at the present
day Geneva manufactures annually 10000
watches alone As an American am bound
to rank the Waltham watches more highly,
but the art seems to have been carried here
very nearly to the point of perfection; and in