Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-06
THE LAND OF BACKSHEESH.
Walters, Porters and Chefs Live High ut Hot
Springs, Though Their Wages Are Small
They Manage 1t by Extorting Tips
Rich Fools to Blame.


Springs, Though Their Wages Are Small
They Manage 1t by Extorting Tips
Rich Fools to Blame.
rFRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENCE
HOT SPRINGS. ARK, April 1.-The man who
waits-not the guest, but his alleged attendant
in the hotel dining room-is large figure at
the Springs. They tell me it is hard to get
trained walters here, though exactly why it
should be can't see. All the help in the hotels
are colored, of course, with some few excep-
tons, such as the chamberma1dS and bell
boys.
The walters in the three principal hotels
number not much less than 500 men, and they
have their hands full now for every table in
the immense dining rooms at the Park and
Eastman has its complement. Most of the
walters have about as much knowledge Of the
art of selving-for it almost approaches an art
to wait upon six or eight people at once and
minister to their several appetites SO that their
souls, as well as their stomachs. shall be salts
fied-as rooster has of railroading.
In one particular alone do the colored walters
here fully come up to the highest standard of
the cultured East-they can extort backs eesh
from the fIntiest old skin-dint who falls into
their hands. 1t is absolutely out of the
question to try to evade the payment
of the taxes which the walters levy.
The best plan is to get hold Of good waiter
and compound with him for weekly stipend.
1t is usually necessary to fee the head waiter
also, and it is even advisable to send douceur
to the carver in the kitchen if you have pref
erence for certain cuts or cooking of meat
Even the Rich Complain.
"This business of tipping everyone in the ho-
tel" said gentleman who has the Standard
Company behind him. 'is becoming a very seri-
GUS nuisance. Everybody expects tip-wait-
ers, porters. bell boys, chambermaids. cooks
and the whole establishment must be paid for
doing what you have already paid the pro-
prietor for having done. Even the hotel
clerks look for some valuable recognition, If
not in money, in cigars and drinks, and 1t would
not surprise me in the least if the proprietor
himself were to strike me for ""
Hot Springs is not unusually afflicted. found
the Tip" as much. or more, in vogue at the ho-
tells in st. Augustine, at Tampa and Galveston,
and, In fact, wherever we have been among the
Southern resorts this winter. But think the
disease is more acute than ever and the scale of
tips is constantly rising
Till very lately Americans could truly say
that nothing like the European system of tip
ping existed in this country. The boast can be
made no longer. Tips are extorted as freely
here, in the health or pleasure resorts especial
ly, as ever they were in London or Paris; and
what is lamentable. we get nothing like the
equivalent to the European service in return.
We pay the toll and get more kicks than
courtesy for il.
Golden GaIoots to Blame.
Some of the responsibility for the growth of
the Tipping" evil undoubtedly belongs to
wealthy fools who play such an important part
in the maintenance of the hotels everywhere.
These golden galoots don't care what they pay
for the smallest privileges and their largesses
demoralize the market and put the necessities
of service almost beyond the reach of those
whose means are more limited. One of these
made-of-money men pays his bath attendant IS
every time he bathes-that is daily.
The legitimate pay of bathman Is 81
ssd week. and a..I he .Ji.. is well we'll salts
know that Croesus gets no more attention in
the bathtub than your humble servant. who
perforce lavishes not penny when it can be
saved, and overheard the attendant telling
companion as he displayed the S5 bill that
CrGsus had more money than brains; so it Is
clear the reckless Upper wins neither extra
service, gratitude nor respect with his Doodle.
Excuses for Tips.
The small wages paid to hotel employees in
the great hotels on the seashore or at such
places as Hot Springs, which are open for
limited season, are some excuse for the game
of grab of which the guests are the victims.
Considering the immense incomes derived
from their property the hotel keepers ought to
pay their help better and protect their
customers. 1t is not likely that the hotel
keepers will do this. because here and there
somebody grumbles, and an organized protest
is as little likely to be heard from the travelling
public. So the walters will continue to draw
$40 month and their board from the hotel
keepers and as much more as they can from the
guests.
How much the latter sum usually is depends
great deal on the gall of the waiter, as we'll
as the condition of his prey. am told that the
colored walters here expect to make from SIS
TO S5O month In tips, and the head waiter at
nr Nf hnfn1 Aixyi6n rrrfth no. aI,4F
500 a month, and even more. A Minneapolis
man tells me that the head waiter in that city col
lects 500 month in fees from the guests of a
fashionable hotel and this sum be divides with
the chef, as seems to be the general custom.
By rough calculation, l find that about $l0. 900
a week during the best months of the season is
expended by visitors to Hot Springs in tips to
various attendants, who are nominally sup
posed to be paid by the proprietors of hotels,
bath houses, railroads and other institutions
or individuals. Men whose travels have been
wider than mine tell me that the same extor-
tiOn is practiced in summer in winter at
every place to where men go for pleasure or for
health, from Narragansett Pier to Galveston,
and from Fortress Monroe to Coronado Beach,
Is it sign of the times that citizens of this
great Republic should view with some con-
Germ? Wiser heads than mine think it Is.
One of the Fattened.
1t didn't astonish me bit to hear that good
many of the colored attendants in the baths or
dining rooms here contrive to live comfortably
all the year on what they earn during the sea-
son of four or, at the most, five months during
which time Hot Springs is really busy. A lady
tells me that her attendant, comely mulatto,
in the bath house surprised her by saying the
other day:
"We'se made up ouah minds to spen' der
summah dis yeah at Saratogah. Las yeah we'd
dun got nobody to take caah of der chiluns
but now nah mans sistah, she's a guinness g
come to stay heah, we'll leave der chlluns wiv
her and travel dis summah. Yuh see. nah hus-
bans sistah can play der pianah. an give der
chilluns French aud German lessons while we'se
away an 1 dom see no objecshunableEess in
dis heah plan."
The husband of the speaker and father of
"dese heah chilluns' is head waiter or some
thing of the sort in the cafe which is a side
show for the gambling saloon in the fashion
able Arkansaw Club, and have no doubt that
he makes more in a year than the average pro-
fessional man in Pittsburg; for gamblers are
liberal, and you can see before you
are here week that it is their liberality that
procures for them the very best of all that is
going in this singular place
HEPBURN JOHNS.
DEATHS OF A DAY