Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1898-12-02

Even portefs do rot do that They come
around. brush your coat and hat and
run the wEisk over your trousers, but
1t is seldom that they ssA you for any
money, let alone a specified amount
On the passenger steamers the stew
ards regard their fees as a matter OF
right as much as the steamship COM
pany regards your passage money. It is
possible to avoid paying the fols. as
they are not colleotable by law, but the
passenger who does not pay them viii
have trouble in getting his luggage of
tho steamer, and 1t would be well for
him to keep of steamers afterward
where any Of the servants Of that boat
are employed.
The stewards seem TO have some sort
Of fee guidebook or black list of passen-
gers who do not give fees, so that they
can make them suffer on future trips
Certain fees are regularly fixed aud ex-
pected, irrespective Of the cost Of the
stateroom or the style in which a man
travels. while certain other fees depend.
ON the style. For an ordinary passenger
there are fees to be given to the state
room steward, the saloon steward, the
deck steward, the smoking room steward
and the barber aud bath man.
The fee to the steward who looks
after your stateroom is about 10 shil-
lings. The steward who waits on you
at the table should receive the same fec
The deck steward, for bringing you au
occasional drink and looking after your
steamer chair and rugs, expects 8 shil-
lings, but he will take half a crown
The smoking room steward expects 3
shillings, and If you are in the smoking
room great part of the trip he feels
that he is entitled to as much as the
stateroom steward or your waiter A
bath every day on the passage can be
had for shilling fee.
These rates are fixed by long custom
The stewards can tell whether or not
man understands tho rates and IL he will
pay at the end Of the trip. II they do
not think that lie will, they give him
hints from time to time until they get
some assurance ON his part that he
recognizes the obligation Of the fee sys-
TEN. If they think he will not pay. he
will have hard time of it. He viii
find that his stateroom is not well made
up; that he does not got care whom he
IL seasick; that he is served last at the
table and does not get the things that
he ordered; that the wrong drinks and
cigars como to him in the smoking
room, and that his steamer chair is con
stantly lost. The servants arc as elfeo-
tive as seasickness in making o mans
trip miserable.
These fees are not to be paid until
the last day of the trip. Tho servants
very speedily find out at which place a
passenger is to get of. If making his
first trip, they are pretty sure TO know
| it. It is advisable for him in that case
to tell his stateroom steward aud his
waiter that he will give them the regu-
lar fee at tho end Of the trip if they
serve him properly and that if they do
not they will not get q penny. If be
tells them this in the proper way. be
will get as good service as tho man who
is well known.
The last morning Of the trip the state
room steward comes round for his fec.
If the passenger docs not offer it. the
steward suggests that it is customary
TO give him fee and that the regular
fee is half sovereign. If anything less
is offered him and he thinks no can get
a half sovereign by refusing to accept
less, he will at once hand the proffered
sum back and say in an insolent way
that he never takes less than the regu-
lar fee
With many passengers, particularly
women, this remark and the tone ex.
tract the 10 shillings. The saloon stew
ard does tho same thing The stewards
work in with each other, and if O man
succeeds in avoiding the stateroom stew
! ard the saloon steward will ask him for
both himself and the stateroom steward.
AS man cannot get off the ship until
it stops, there is no way of escaping
these demands, which will be repeated
during the last day of the trip until the
passenger succumbs. New York Homo
Journal.