New-York tribune., 1901-11-03

club, which is also an employment agency,
where one may hire not only waiter for the
day by the year. but stewards. cooks, head
walters or buffers. The negro walters have no
club in New-York but there are places in the
vicinity of employment offices which are monop-
olized by them and one has little difficulty in
finding 'colored hotel help which is the trade
term for their business.
There are hundreds of walters who are not
recognized by the men of good standing in that
business. Among these the summer excur-
sion resort walters. They are described by
Geneva Club man painters. shoenakerS'
streetcar men, BARRIERS and tramps, who all
think they know enough to be walters. These
men get very little pay in direct wages put
they are allowed to charge from . to III per
cent on their sales and for few months they
manage to make good living
The East Side has the queerest walters. They
are in most instances men who have been
graduated from Vienna. Prague and Budapest
coffee houses and restaurants. Their tips are
small and their pay large in comparison with
that Of walters in the better parts of the city
They enjoy more freedom than walters in up
town restaurants and in slack hours entertain
the guests at the restaurants where they are
emp Dyed give their opinions when debates be
or skat- and give their patrons to understand
that they are just as good the men whom
they serve. even if they do wear white aprons
and shiny black jackets
The nobleman waiter is one of the popular
myths of the business. There may have been
some young men in the business said a Vienna
waiter. who had right TO put a Won in front
of their names. but in order to get job 4 man
must know his business and by the time he has
learned ii the mobility is pretty well gone We
had handsome fellow here a few years ago
whom all called Herr Baron, Just for fun,
Some OF the customers heard it. and asked the
head waiter to allow Fritz to wait on them
just that they might tell the women in their
party who their waiter really was Fritz made
a good thing out Of l. in the way of tips. and
acted the grand man nicely that some of the
shoddy guests wilted before HIM
Walters can til by the looks and actions Of
people what they better than any other
class. 1t is not the tap that tells, but the way
that the waiter is treated otherwise that does
the business. The waiter sizes up the last
Side butcher. no matter how many diamonds MS
wife wears or how liberal his tips are
The downtown restaurant walters who receiv"
from 81 10 81 a week are nearly all Germans
Most Of them have night jobs in uptown r"stau-
rants or clubs. where they work from Il y IN.
TO ] a IN. Their pay in thosr places Is ais"
about 81 week. This class OF walters also mas
its clubs and social and benefit organizations
"A few dollars week downtown ana a Sd'o"''
ioi, uptown at night" said the proprietor "t d
popular beer garden seems poor paying work
for a man who has a family ana who must be
in harness from IL o'clock ia the morning Until
after l the next day. with few hours 10 h'n-
self in the afternoon. Still. thrifty men who
leave drink alone and know how to hold good
trade makt. a fair living Thor" three walt
ers in one place uptown who own the houses
in which they live, and other property besides,
and mor- walters would be well off if they had
killed their ambition u become proprietors OF
saloons restaurants. They save a few dol
lars and then sink it in business, for there ar"
only few good walters who would make good
proprietOrs.'