Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-30
TIPS ON THE OCEAN.
How Rich Americans Make Voyages
Pleasant and Comfortable.
THE RECEIPTS OF THE STEWARDS.
If He Does it Right o Traveller Can Have
the Best There is for 81.
THE MOST LIBERAL OF SEA R0VERS

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.1
The dock from which an outgoing trans
atlantic steamer sails away is worthy OF
study as the hour nears for the vessels de-
parture. There is hurrying, and there Is
scurrying among the longshoremen who are
piling in the last portion of the ships load.
The Captain, upon the bridge of the steamer,
waiting for the last consignment of the
mails, stands ready to give the word that
will swing the great ship out into the
stream, and start her on her voyage over the
trackless waste of waters. There are hun
dreds of friends on the dock ready to wave
adieux to the other hundreds on board, and
as the steamer slowly backs away from her
anchorage and moves out into the blue
waters, the air is white with waving hand
kerchief and occasionally broken with sobs.
The voyage once begun, the experienced
sea traveller does not specially seek to make
friends with the Captain nor with his Off
GERS on the quarter deck. There is another,
and to the wise voyager more important
individual on the vessel than the COM
mander and his assistant. That man is the
chief steward.
He can do more to make the passengers
life on board pleasant and comfortable than
any other official of the ship. The safety of
the boat and passengers depends upon the
Captain, and his officers and men. The
comfort and enjoyment of the voyage largely
depend upon the chief steward. They are
almost exclusively men who have passed a
lifetime on the sea, and who are veterans in
the service of the company upon whose
ships they sail. Twenty years ago the
chief steward of vessel was a servant-to-
day he is the master of a score OF men who
do his bidding and share their profits with
him. There Is not chief steward on any
of the transatlantic vessels who does not
make more every year than the cashier of
any ordinary bank in this country, and be-
sides that has better living. for which he
pays nothing, and is certain of keeping his
place as long as he desires.
THEY RETIRE WEALTHY.
They save money, these stewards. Only
the other day one of them who had served
for II years on q Cunarder, retired volun-
tarily from his place, and had more than
enough money to purchase for himself an
annuity in British company which guar
anteed him an income of 50, 500 per annum
as long as he lived. Most of them on the
Liverpool and Glasgow liners are English
men. There are few Scotchmen among
them. and no natives of the Green Isle.
After they have saved money enough, and
they do that pretty quickly, they retire
from the sea and generally open saloon of
some kind in the neighborhood of the dock
in Liverpool or other large city on the
other side of the Atlantic, from which they
were accustomed to sail.
The highest wages paid any chief steward
running out of this port on any transatlantic
steamer is paid by the Cunard line on their
newest and fastest boats, and the amount is
only $50 per month. The general wages for
the place will not, however, average more
than from $40 to $50 per month on all lines.
"How then does chief steward make his
money!" was the question asked John
Rickaby at New York recently, who for
nearly 20 years has been recognized as one
of the ablest of the chief stewards in the
transatlantic service.
"Out of their tips, of course, was his an
swer. "and there's as much difference in
their tips as in their tipples," he added.
"Some people; Americans especially, throw
around their gold and silver regardless, but
then there is not as much made in tips gen.
orally as there was few years ago."
"Why is that?"
because more people travel and they
have got the thing down to system"
"What is the least one can spend in tips
and cross comfortably"
THE BEST FOR SEVEN DOLLARS.
''That depends If he is green and learn
ing the ropes. he'd better reckon on not less
than SIS. If he is an old traveller he can
have as good as there is, so far as cook and
stewards can manage it, for about 81 in tips.
A great many ocean travellers complain Bit
terly that they have to be bled as they are
by every steamship employe they come in
contact with. They say they pay for pass
age, food and service and then have to pay
it over again. Why do the companies allow
it?
eff you wan ito know the companies side
of it you'll have to ask them; is you want
my opinion, 1 can say that it is because the
owners of the lines would rather their pas
sengers should help pay the wages Of their
men than to pay full wages themselves"
"What is the smallest tip you ever re-
ceived?"
"a cabin passenger offered me twopence
A cents-and 1 told him to put 1t in the
poor box; that the company paid US for our
services. There is one other source of tips
I'd nearly forgotten. 1t is the class we call
'steerage bloods, fellows who wouldn't or
couldn't pay frst-class passage money and
book in the steerage. but who want first
class food. The chief cook has perhaps a
dozen assistant cooks and these 'bloods' be-
long to them. The assistants are allowed to
let the 'bloods' have the leavings from the
first cabin table, for which they are paid
tips, sometimes as much as $40 the trip"
"Does the chief steward come in for a
share in these payments?"
"Of course he does, and for big share
too. In fact he almost makes his own terms
with the cooks and walters, though O sensi-
BILE steward never overdoes this sort of busi-
ness with his subordinates, for he knows
that their wages are small and that they
must make something on the outside"
What pay do cooks and stewards re-
ceive7"
SALARY OF THE COOKS.
ga cook gets about s35 month, but it is
very small if he doesn't make $50 more. A
waiter averages $40 per month, and if he
knows his business he may make anywhere
from $40 to $40 in tips every trip. In old
times table walters used to make great
deal more than now, for then each one had
a table to himself, but now there is so much
competition between the big lines that there
are two men or more to a table What
chief stewards make over their own salary
depends on the season and the class of passen-
gers, and the success with which their SUBJ
ordinates have collected tips from the pas
sengers, for OF course the chief share must
never be forgotten, or the waiter who does
forget it will not be likely to sail with that
steward again"
"Who among your American passengers
have you found most liberal in the matter
of tips?''
"Well, las gener al thing, the people who
come from the big Eastern cities. The |
Western people-those from Chicago and |
Ga T
men from the Pacific coast are, next to the
New Yorkers and other Eastern people the |