The record-union., 1893-03-20
WATERS IN DRESS SUITS.
Costume Which Makes It Difficult to
Tell Guest From Servant.

Tell Guest From Servant.
Some of the young club fellows of
| Philadelphia who have been mistaken for
walters are agitating the subject of re-
quiring walters to discard dress coats.
The argument they use is that "a mere
menial should not assume the same dress
as gentleman" 1t is acknowledged by
the Times that putting waiter in dress
suit does make him rather toplotty and
so arrogant that he will attempt to snub
| anyone not i'll dress suit and refuse
| any tip less than quarter, but at the
| same time dress suits for walters at din
ners have the highest European sanction
and have become recognized as the proper
thing in this country. There are, OF
! course, grand houses abroad where the
| walters, like the footmen, are compelled
to wear livery, and this distiction has
been adopted i'll a few houses in Phila
| delphia and at some of the clubs, but at
| almost all evening parties the dress coat
has become such recognized accompani-
ment of the waiter, be he black or white,
that little short Of a social revolution will
| bring about any change.
\ certain young gentleman in Phila-
delphia not long ago upset all his possible
chances OF getting to the assembly by
| making an awkward mistake, and it must
be said he was very anxious to get there.
1t was at an evening party, and he had
just had a bite and deposited his plate and
was in the act of turning around when he
encountered a little man in an ill-fitting
suit and generally cringing air, who
was holding out partially filled plate, as
it afterward appeared, waiting TO have
some broiled oysters added. Supposing
that it was waiIer, the young man care
lessly remarked, No, thank you," but
had no sooner done so than he realized,
from the expression on the supposed
walters face, that he had made blunder,
and hnrri fed m hear irnnIru
! that he had addressed an assembly man
ager, one without whose sanction it is i'm
possible TO penetrate those sacred portals.
There is no doubt whatever that foreign
counts and men Of good birth and breed
ing have on more than one occasion been
employed as walters in Philadelphia
houses and even in Philadelphia hotels.
Generally these men are under a cloud
and in more than one instance have
either come to this country fresh from
prison walls or just escaped them through
some family influence on condition that
| they would leave the country. Anyone
with little tact and politeness and
knowledge of good breeding makes a
! good waiter, and they have gravitated
into that calling for the sake of getting a
| living and also with an idea of some pos-
sible romance or adventure.
1t happened on one occasion not so
| long ago that an Englishman of social
distinction was entertained at one of the
most fashionable clubs. The gentleman
who entertained him had asked that
they be served by particular waiter, an
Englishman, who was as nearly perfect
in the art as any one could be. What was
his surprise when the waiter entered
, with the soup TO see him upset it and
stand aghast, while the distinguished
visitor looked at him calmly but Curl
ously and nodded. Nothing was said
during the dinner, which did not go off
very we'll; but when it was over the
entertainer remarked to his guest: "You
have seen our waiter before?'' "Ah.
yes" was the reply, "he was my valet
for six years and robbed me of $500. but
l thought he was serving his sentence in
Australia