The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-01-16
THE TIPPING SYSTEM
TT HAS OYERGROWN REASONAB
 BOUNDS IN LONDON.
The Degree and Extent of the Poverty
 From Which 1t Springs.

The Degree and Extent of the Poverty From Which 1t Springs.
 The American who is only short
 time in England as a tourist invariably laments the breadth and depth of the
 from any of the smaller of our cities.
 In the larger Ameri~an cities menial
 service, both private and public, has fallen into the hands of Europeans of
 many sorts, and all Europeans of the
 servant and waiter class are alike in
 their Willingness to receive pourboires,
 and in their habit of depending upon
 Gratuities to augment the small wages
 with which they are thus made con-
 tent. l once heardan Americansay, at
 the end of a months visit to London,
 that he had tipped everybody he had
 met except the Prince of Wales" Had he gone into business there or
 taken up housekeeping, he would have
 had more warrant for his statement
 He would have found that nearly every l or the poor who performs any service
 whatever looks upon a tip either as money earned or as a material proof that he has dealt with a gentleman. A
 distinguished member of the American colony in London, lately deceased. came
 to share the English view of this mat ter He talked and acted as if every outstretched palm deserved to be CT ssad with copper CT silver, and as if a man who occupied position above the masses owed it to his self-lespect to bestoW largess on every side. Thus GiVing tip can become self-hattery, and the giver is able to get back more than he larts with.
 Not all Americans can bring them- selves to this point of view To the end of their acquaintance With the English 1t cuts them to the soul to have q skilled mechanic finger after his work is done, in the expectati II of getting tip And to the close of many an Americans days Pe will never und slst2nd why h. should give present to the man who delivers goods, the mess =nger who brings a let ter, the furniture aler's po1tes who brings in a chairs tte policeman who di- rects his way about the streets or to any other person who is already paid by thers for what he does.
 To be sure. there are possibilt es in the tipping system which the Eng ish have not reached. The British tramcar conductor does not expect a tip with each fare, as is the case in places in Cern any. It cannot happen in Eng land, as it did to friend of mine who trave,ed in Spain, that the gendarme who arrests you for being without passport asks you for a Gouceur for having taken you into custody. And, to speak frankly, I know of no such gro tesque eXags serat,ol of wrong cond- tors cn a grand sSale as is shown by at least one great American transportation company, which pays it's rorters very much less than it costs them to live. re- quiring them to depend upon the pub lie to make up the differences in tips
 The English realiz3 that tipfing has oyerglown reas1na ble bounds--ln Lon con, at all events. We see that by noting the recent multiplicati n of signs warning us not to give fees in places whe.e the larger public is catered to- as in the theaters and cheap restau- rants. But 1t will be hard to destroy
 
 and extent of the poverty from which it springs The American visitor sees the b. sgears in the streets, the sidewalk ar lists, the endl2ss procession of st eet mnstrels. He is shocked by the hide ous litter of tramps asleep in the West End parks, and. once in a while he gets a glimpse of a slum quarter, with it's greater wretchedness and filth than cen Ia. ,1+ 1, [. Europe. lie shudders as he fancies that Ee realizes the extent of the poverty around him, and he wonders, as all men must wonder, how it happens that na tlon which has led in the heaping up of wealth for century and half can so m seppled it's vast gains.
 But he must live in England and be- come at home there in order to unGe"- stand that genuine poverty is to be found far above the slums, in the many ranks that would be proud and inde- pendent in America. When he learn that the policemen are regarded as well paid with five dollars week, lie pauses to investigate what is earned by those hard working folk who consisted five dollars Gocd wages Then he finds that | the girl who waits upon him in a res taurant receives only two dollars; that the girl cashiers in many busy places are paid but $1.75 a week; that the av- craze pay of the domestic servants the neatest, rosiest, most willing help CTS that any nation pro luces-,a only l. two dollars a week. or half the money paid for the same service here-and that ' corresponding prices prevail in every avenue of labor. After that he lets his . hand go oftener and de per in his peck et It is the hcpelessness of the life of | millions which accounts for the many | who cease to hope, and abandon them selves to drunkenness and rags. It is l the keenest. truest knowledge of the value of penny that leads otherwise | proud and decent men to stoop to ac- | rept g tip.
 There are common, everyday objects ten times more depl9rable than tipping to emphasize the unequal division of Eng'and's wealth. Among them are the hundreds of flower girls who roam the streets at night, pursuing the dangerous and degrading business of cajoling dis 'ipated men to buy their wares. There are those other hungrier children who idly the stCops of the dwelling houses laily for a few pence a week. There Ire the able-bodied men who run for niles beside any cab tEat carries a runk, in order to get siXpence for