Arizona republican., 1893-02-16
THE ETHICS OF TIPPING.
procress Of an Abuse That IL Hard
ening Into a System.
t,, Practice Introduced Into This Coun-
,,y By Foreign.Born Waiters-In Paris
the Amount Expected Is Five Per
Cent of the Price Of the Meal.

Tinping, whlch mas narueneu INTO q
stem in most of the Atlantic sea-
t,ard cities and perhaps in all large
.owns of this country, is born of the
~,osence in the United States of profes-
iF;onal foregn-born walters, says the
pbiladelphia Press. The race of pro-
i,,sional walters in Europe is largely
tive to three or four small countries
h,rlering the great nations and speak.
,nc several tongues. Switzerland and
,be duchy of Luxembourg contribute
most TO the corps of professional walters.
,rbe men speak several tongues, usual
,r French and German, Dutch or Ital-
an and sometimes all four. A few add
,otbe language which they have learned
=, home in childhood a smattering of
English, and thus equipped these men
"a from one end of Europe to the other.
you find great numbers of them in
Paris, some in London, many in Vienna,
,bousands in st. Petersburg, and few
IN all the cities, big or little, frequented
~ tourists. Some of them turn trans
lators and you may see their signs all
over Paris. They undertake to trans
late almost anything from any of half a
dozen European languages. In this
..nacitv they are wretchedly paid, and
oolv very proud man or a very poor
alter would consent to change the
,,tter's employment for that Of trans
lator
Many of these polyglot walters have
come 10 the United States, and they have
bronpht with them their notion as to
their natural right to receive tips. A
na,urahzed American, unschooled in
the WAYS of fashionable restaurants at
home and abroad, cannot easily under
stand the attitude of the professional
waiter toward the tip. Upper and
tipped in Europe view the tip in a diff
terent fashion from that Of the un-Eu-
ropeanized American.
somebody has said that it is safe to
lin any Briton below the dignity OF
bishop. but an American travelling in
England found that it was well to draw
the line as low as dean. MISLEADING
one of the latter digni.aries for some
thing less than he was the American
iumblcd for a shilling after having re-
ceiyed some courtesics at his hands,
but paused when he saw his guides
face flush and took the hastily-prof-
iered advice 10 put his coin in the poor
box,
The colored waiter unspoiled by con-
tact with great cities or summer resorts
accept, tip with a gratitude that
makes the donor feel that it is more
blessed to give than to receive. The
European walters attitude toward the
lin i, as much beyond that of the I'M
spoiled colored man as the lowering
tenderness, the respectful yet sym
pathetic and half-familiar interest of
the latter toward the person he serves
is beyond the compass of the profession
al European waiter. The one receives
tip as his simple due, the other ac-
cepts it as gracious act OF generosity.
The Partisan waiter especially re-
CARDS the tips as a right. He not only
knows exactly what to expect but he
does not hesitate to remind Il guest who
scants the fee that something is yet due.
The iron rule of Paris is one sou to the
franc, or five per cent. of the price
charged for the meal. In some fashion
able restaurants there is minimum OF
one franc, but in ordinary restaurants
the waiter who serves two-franc din
ner expects two sous and no more
In some English inns the custom has
gone beyond this. the guest finds upon
his bill 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 few other cities. Time
was when a malignant waiter went I'M
feed, but now the fee has become so
much hard and fast rule that any neg
lect not serious enough to justify an APP
peal to the head waiter is entirely
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 matter of course here, and
some persons omit the fee. The hard
and fast rule of percentage is gradually
fixing itself upon the restaurants of
large cities and ostentatiously large tips
have disappeared or are disappearing.
II has long been literally true that head
walters demand share in the tips of
their subordinates and that all walters
are paid low wages at fashionable res
taurants because they are expected to
live on tips.
Women walters find that they re-
celve comparatively few tips from men,
Just as male walters dread the appear
ance of an unescorted woman in a res
,aurant Gallantry makes an American
hesitate to tip woman, as he hesitates
loyield his travelling bag to be carried on
me shoulders Of a slender girl up the
sleep, rocky stairs of Capri. Some
men who visit restaurants where the
waters are women have hit on the
scheme of tipping in lump at Christ
mas and doing it very quietly.
One feature of the tipping custom has
mus far made small progress in the
United States-that of leaving a gratui-
y under ones final plate after dinner
at the house of n friend. A Young man