Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-11-08
THE CUSTOM OF TIPPING."

relatives, writes us his opinion OF that
prevailing custom of petty brides to
walters and other attendants, which
p owes such a persisting annoyance to
travellers of limited means, who have
paid in passage money presumably for
all the care and courtesies that cor
poration employees can bestow. He
writes:
When a man of limited means pays
three cents a mile for travelling
over our northwestern railroad, two
dollars and fifty cents each night for a
bed, and the same amount for the
privilege of occupying his seat in the
Pullman cars during the day, and
finally, as if this were not enough,
after paying a dollar per meal in the
dining car, he feels i'll at ease when
the darky porters mutely importune
him for tips" in order to secure their
decent discharge of legitimate duty.
II upon being shown the number OF
his seat and berth on the sleeper by
the car porter passenger losses to
that dusky functionary shiny fifty
cent piece, or better, dollar or two as
a starter, this act with the identity OF
the generous donor is telephoned to
every other porter and waiter on the
train and his personal comfort is as
sured for the entire trip. Everything
is lovely and the goose honks high.
He finds his dusty shoes neatly shined
and his coat carefully busted and fold
ed every morning, while other atten-
tions too numerous to mention are
showered upon him during the monot-
onous hours OF the day.
When he enters the dining car for
breakfast, lunch, or dinner, Q burly
servant draws back his chair and low
ingly slips it under his neither parts
AS be sits down, while another equally
obsequious sycophant hands him a
menu blank with all the studied grace
of a Chesterfieldian student. His
every desire, indeed, while at table, is
practically anticipated and he goes
through the pleasant exercise with as
much gusto as If he were million.
aire in his own private car. When he
arrives at his journeys end q whisk
brush plays over him from head to
foot, his hand luggage is gathered up
and carried out for him while the
strong arm Of a negro helps him step
down 10 the platform.
This is one phase Of modern railroad
travelling; now let us examine another
scene enacted on the same train. If a
Pullman passenger fails to deposit the
almighty "tip.p although his record
is clean regarding all other legitimate
expenses, however exorbitant they be,
he. is an unknown quantity to the
porter and waiter fraternities and he
encounters cold shoulder at every
turn. OF course, he can have his
shoes shined by paying for that ser.
vice, but his coat is never brushed
and many nameless little attentions
20 wholly by default. Entering the
dining car he goes foraging for an
empty chair and when seated the
walters are always looking the other
way or hurrying past him on urgent
business for somebody else. He
wrestles through his meals and goes
back to his berth demurely picking
his teeth and mentally discussing the
inscrutable ways OF the great big
world around him. Taking from his
memorandum his Pullman car check
he reads the apocryphal injunction,
Passengers are requested to report
any neglect of duty or incivility on
the part OF employees" ETC., and then
ponders on his chances of redress.
Sullenly replacing the bit OF paste
board,
"He lisps great words OF sulphurous hue
With countenance all black and blue"
Arriving at his destination no gathers
up his dusty belongings and numbers
off the car as best he can, glad to find
himself once more occupying equal
ground with his fellow men.
Now these are not overdrawn pic
lures, but truthful statements OF what
is every day taking place on our great
trunk railway lines. But the tipping
system is waning and is destined
boomer or later to relapse into abject
desuetude. Curiously enough, while
the Objectionable practice is an impor-
tation Of European snobbishness, the
servants catering to English nobility,
from liveried buffers to frowey soul
lions, are clamoring for it's abolish
ment, and the tide Of agitation has al.
ready reached our own shores.
Railroad porters and walters in this
country are loudly complaining OF the
alarming deficit, year by year, in their
tipping receipts. II is but recently
that convention of railroad car EN-.
ployes was held in St. Louis to DELHI
crate upon the uncanny situation
Intelligent delegates were chosen from
the ranks of porters and waitere run
ming on all the principal overland and
trunk lines from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. The convention was model
assembly for deliberstive action. Res
olutions were passed embodying an
appeal to the travelling public fol-
righteous redress from the soulles'
corporations which do not pay theiI
portcrs and walters enough to keeE
soul and body decently together