Evening star., 1898-06-04
FEES ON OCEAN STEAMSHIPS.
Life Made Miserable for the Passenger
Who Evades Them.


From the New York II, me Journal
The fee system is more rigidly enforced
on big passenger steamship than any
where else. 1t is one of the places where
servants demand their fees, and tell Won
the amount that they think you ought to
give them. While the walters at restau-
rants and hotels expect fees for their ser
wees and will hint and may perhaps make
it embarrassing for you if they are not
PAID, they have not gone SO far as to tell
ycu that they want a fee and prescribe
the amount Even porters do not do thar
ihey come around, brush your coat and
nat ana run the whisk over your trousers.
but 1t is seldom that they ask you for any
money, let alone a specified amount.
Oh the passenger steamers the stewards
regard their fees as a matter of right as
incch as the steamship company regards
your passage money. 1t is possible to avoid
paying the fees, as they are not collect a BILE
by law, but the passenger who does not paw
them wiz nave trouble in getting his lug
gage on the steamer, and it would be well
Ter MIN to keep Off steamers afterward
where any of the servants of that boat are
employed The stewards sem to have some
sort OF fee guide-book or blacklist of ma
seLgers VINO do not give fees, so that they
can make them suffer on future trims Ger
tam ices are regularly fixed ana exDected
irrespective of the cost of the state room or
the style In which man travels while GER
tam otner lees depend on the style For
an ordinary passenger, there are fees To he
given to the state room steward the saloon
steward. the deck steward the smoking
room steward and the barber and ba,h
man. The fee to the steward who looks
after your state room Is ahout fen sbiII
inSs. The steward who waits ON Won a >
the table should receive the same fee The
oeck steward, for bringing you an Occa-
s.onal drink and looking after your steamer
Chalr and rugs, expects five shiIlings hut
room steward expects five shilInps and
IL you are in the smoking room a great ma RI
or the trip, he feels that he is entitled tn
as inuch as the state room steward or your
waiter. A bath every day on the passag
can be had for a fve-shlling fee.
Ihese rates are fixed by long custom
lhe stewards can tell whether or not a
man understands the rates, and if he will
pay at the end of the trip. If they do not
tfink that he will, they give him hints
from time to time. until they get some as
scrance on his part that he recognizes the
obhsation of the fee system. If they think
ne VIII not pay, he will have hard time
of it. He will find that his state room ia
hot well made up, that he does not get
care when he Is seasick, that he is served
iast at the table and does not get the
tnings that he ordered, that the wrong
driEks and cigars come to him in the
smoking rOom and that his steamer chair
Is constantly lost. The servants are as ef-
fective as seasickness in making a mans
These fees are not to be paid until the
last DAY of the trip. The servants very
speedily hnd out at which place a passenger
Is to get of. If making his first trip. they
are pretty sure to know it. 1t is adyisa BILE
Tor hlm IN that case to tell his state room
steward and his waiter that he will, give
them the regular fee at the end of the trim
II they serve him properly, and that IL they
90 not they will not get a penny. II he
tells them this in the proper way he will
get as good service as the man who is we'll
known.
The last morning of the trip the state
room steward comes round for his fee If
the passenger does not offer it, the stewa rd
suggests that 1t is customary to give him a
fee and that the regular fee is half SOW
ereign. If anything less is offered him. and
ne thinks he can get half-sovereign nv
refusing to accept less, he will at once
hand the proffered sum back, and saw In
an insolent way that he never takes less
than the regular fee. With many passen-
gers, particularly women, this remark and
the tone extract the ten shiliings Th, sa-
loon steward does the same thing The
stewards work in with each other. and il a
man succeeds in avoiding the state room
steward. the saloon steward will ask him
for both himself and the state room stew
ard. AS man cannot get of the ship un-
I'll it stops. there Is IN way of escaping
these demands, which will be repeated dur
ing the last day Of the trip until the pas
senger succuuSbs