New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-01-08
THE TIPPING SYSTEM.
IT HAS OVERGROWN REASONABLE
BOUNDS IN LONDON.
THU DEGREE AND EXTENT OF THE POVERTY
FROM WHICH 1T SPRINGS

Julian Ralph. in The Providence Journal
The American who is only short time in
England as a tourist invariably laments the
breadth and depth Of the tipping habit. es.
pecialy if he comes from any OF the smaller OF
our cities. In the larger American cities meniai
service both private and public. has fallen into
the hands Of Euro peans OF many sorts, ana all
Europeans of the servant and waiter class are
alike i'm their willingness to receive pourboires.
and in their habit Of depending upon gratuities
to augment the small wages with which they
are thus made content. once heard an Ameri-
can say at the end of a months visit 10 Lon
don 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 everybody in the ranks of the working
folk or the poor who performs any service
whatever looks upon a tip either as money
earned or as a material proof hat 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 matter
He talked and acted as If every outstretched
palm deserved To be crossed with copper or sill
yer and if man who occupied a position
above the masses owed IL TO his self-respect 10
beStOw largess on every SIDE Tnus giving Il
tip can become Self-lattery. and the giVer Is
able to get back more than he parts with.
Not all Americans can bring themselves TO
this point Of view. To the end of their acquaint-
ance with the English it cuts them to the soul
to have a skilled mechanic nger after his work
Is done. in the expectation of getting TIP
And to the close of many Americans days
he will never understand why he should give
present to the man who delivers goods. the mes
5enger who brings a letter the furniture deal
er's porter who brings in chair. the policeman
who directs his way about the streets or 10 any
other person who is already pald by others lot
what he does.
To be sure. there are possibilities in the tip
ping system which the English have not
reached. The British tramcar conductor does
not expect tip with each fare. as is the case
In places in Germany. 1t cannot happen in Eng
land as it did to friend Of mine who travelled
in Spain that the gendarme who arrests you for
being without a passport asks you for a dOuceur
for having taken you into custody And. 10
speak frankly. know Of no such grotesque ex-
aggeration Of wrong conditions on grand scale
as is shown by at least one great American
TRANSFORMATION company which pays its porters
very much less than it costs them to live. re-
1uring them to depend upon the public to make
W the differences in Ups.
WARNING SIGNS AGAINST TIPPING
The English realize that tipping has over
grown reasonable bounds-in London. at all
events We see that by noting the recent multi
picatOn of signs warning US not to give fees IN
places where the larger public ~ catered to-as
in the theatres and cheap restaurants. But it
will be hard to destroy the evil. The root OF 1t
Is in the degree and extent Of the poverty from
which ii springs. The American visitor sees
the beggars in The streets. the sidewalk artists.
the endless procession Of street MINISTRIES. He
Is shocked by the hideOus litter Of tramps asleep
In the West End parks and. once in a while.
he gets glimpse Of a sum quarter. with its
greater wretchedness and filth than can be met
with in any other capital of Europe. He shud-
ders as he fancies that he realizes the extent of
the poverty around him. and he wonders. as all
men must wonder. how it happens that nation
which has led in the heaping up Of wealth for
q century and half can have so mSapplied It's
vast gains.
But he must live in England and become at
home there in order to understand that genuine
poverty is to be found far above the sums. in
he hat pc
pendent in America When ne learns mat the
policemen are regarded as well PAID with 30 a
week. he pauses to investigate what Is earned
by those hard working folk who consider 70
good wages. Then he finds that the girl who
waits upon him in restaurant receives only
81; that the girl cashiers in many busy places
are paid but 81 10 a week: that the average
pay of the domestic servants-the neatest. ros-
est. most willing helpers that any nation pro-
duces-is only 81 a week. or half the money
paid for the same service here-and that CORE
spending prices prevail in every avenue of labor
After that ne let's his hand go oftener and deep
er in his pocket 1t is the hopeessness of the
life Of millions which accounts for the many who
to hope. and abandon themselves to
drunkenness and rags. 1t is the keenest truest
knowledge of the value of a penny that leads
otherwise proud and decent men to stoop to
accept tip.
WORSE THAN TIPPING.
There are common everyday Objects ten
times more deporabe than tipping to empha-
size the unequal division of Engands wealth.
Among them are the hundreds of flower girls
who roam the streets at night. pursuing the
dangerous and degrading business Of cajong
dissipated men to buy their wares. There are
those other hungrier children who tidy the
Stops of the dwelling houses daily for few
pence week. There are the able bodied men
who run for miles beside any cab that carries
a trunk in order to get sixpence for taking
the trunk into the travellers house. Again.
there are the boys who turn handsprings beside
fhe coaches that run to and from the suburbs.
On one day when was boating on the Thames.
Ii was young girl on the verge of wOmanhOod
who turned cartwhees for a mile or two on the |
towpath beside my bOat-an incident 10 make |
humane man wTetched for a month
Tie harmful practice of giving to the poor. !