Iron County register., 1892-11-10
ETHICS OF TIPPING.
Progress of an Abuse That Is Gradually
Hardening Into q System.

Progress of an Abuse That Is Gradually
Hardening Into q System.
Tipping, which has hardened into
system in most of the Atlantic seaboard
cities, and perhaps in all large towns
OF this country, is born of the presence
in the United States of professional
foreign born walters The race of pro-
fessional walters in Europe is largely
native TO three or four small countries
bor'iering the great nations, and speak
ing several tongues Switzerland and
the dutchy of Luxembourg contribute
most to the corps of professional wait
ers. The men speak several tongues,
usually French and German, Dutch
or Italian, and sometimes all
four. A few add to the
language which they have learned
at home in childhood, a smattering
OF English, and thus equipped these
men go from one end of Europe to the
other
You fEd great numbers of them in
Paris, some in London, many in vi
emma, thousands in ST. Petersburg. and
few in all the cities big or little, fire.
quented by tourists. Some of them
turn translators and you may see their
signs all over Paris. They undertake
to translate almost anything from any
of half a dozen European languages
In this capacity they are wretchedly
paid, and only very proud man or a
very poor waiter would consent to
the latter's employment for that of a
translator.
Many of these polyglot walters have
come to the United States, and they
have brought with them their notion
as to their natural right to receive tips.
naturalized American, unschooled in
the ways of fashionable restaurants at
home and abroad, can not easily under
stand the attitude of the professional
waiter toward the tip. Upper and
tipped in Europe view the tip in diff
ferent fashion from that of the un-
Europeanized American.
Somebody has said that it is sal fe to
tip any Briton below the dignity of
bishop, but an American trav-
cling in England found that it
was well to draw the line as low
as 4 dean. MistalSing one of the latter
dignitar;es for something less than he
was the American fumbled for shilling
after having received some courtesies
at his hands, but paused when he saw
his guides face flush, and took the
hastily preferred advice to put his coin
in the poor box.
The colored waiter unspoiled by con-
tact with great cities or summer resorts
accepts a tip with gratitude that
makes the donor feel that it is more
blessed to give than to receive. The
European walters attitude toward the
tip is as much beyond that of the un-
spoiled colored man as the lowering
tenderness, the respectful yet sympa-
thetic and half familiar interest of the
latter toward the person he serves is
beyond the compass of the profess
sional European waiter. The one
receives a tip as his simple due
the other accepts it rs gracious act of
generosity.
The Partisan waiter especially re-
CARDS the tip as right. He not only
knows exactly what to expect, but he
does not hesitate to remind guest
who scants the fee that something is
vet due. The iron rule of Paris is one
sou to the franc, or five per cent. of khe
price charged for the meal. In some
fashiona BILE restaurants there is mini
mum OF one franc, but in ordinary res
taurants the waiter who serves two
franc dinner expects two sous and no
more. In some English inns the GUS
tom has gone beyond this; the guest
finds upon his bill a charge of five per
cent. for Service" and is still expected
to tip the waiter.
These details are slowly taking form
in Philadelphia. New York, Boston.
Chicago and a few other cities. Time
was when a malignant waiter went un-
feed. but now the fee has become SO
much hard and fast rule that any
neglect not serious enough to justify
an appeal to the head waiter is entire
ly overlooked. The minimum fee is
higher IN American cities than abroad,
perhaps in part because all labor is
better paid here than in Europe, and
again because the tipping system is
still something less than a matter of
course i;ere. and some persons omit
the fee. The hard and fast rule
of a percentage is gradually fixing
itself upon the restaurants of large
cities and ostentatiously large tips have
disappeared or are disappearing. 1t has
long been literally true that head wait
ers demand share in the tips of their
subordinates. and that all walters are
paid low wages at fashiona BILE restau-
rants because they are expected to live
on tips.
Woman walters find that they receive
comparatively few tips from men, just
as male walters dread the appearance
of an unescorted woman in a restau-
rant. Gallantry makes an American
hesitate to tip woman. as he
hesitates to yield his travelling bag
to be carried on the shoulders
of slender girl up the steep rocky
stairs of Capri. Some men who fire.
quent restaurants where the walters
are women have hit on the scheme of
tipping in lump at Christmas, and do
ing it very quietly.
One feature of the tipping custom has
thus far made small progress in the
United States-that of leaving a gra-
tuity under ones final plate after din
.ner at the house of a friend. A young
man at a reception in an interior city
confessed, hover, that in order to be
served by professional walters hired
for the occasion guests found it neces-
sary to ip.-Philadelphia Press.
HIS DUAL NATURE.