The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-12-23
THE TIPPING HABIT.

THE TIPPING HABIT.
II maintain that the indulgence in the
tipping of walters, servants, such as bell
boys, porters, and the like, barbers-the
practice of tipping of any sort, in fact, is
mixture of vanity and a lack of moral
courage on the part of the Upper, re-
marked well known Washington clubman
the other day Along with my neighbors,
I'm hopeessly addicted to the tipping
habit, but the mere fact that I'm Upper
myself doesn't serve to blind me to the
moral cowardliness and the vanity of the
practice. | am so vain that l don't want
menials or understrappers to think i'll OF
me if l fail to tip, and L haven't the
moral strength not to care a rap what they
think under such circumstances so long
as L feel the consciousness that | really
have the best of the contention. That, in
my opinion, is the tipping situation in
nutshell, and it is the simple weakness of
the tippers that permits of the continue
ton, not to speak of the constant spread of
the tipping evil. Every man, no doubt, or
nearly every man, has once or twice in his
life made up his mind with what he con-
sidered great positiveness that he would
stop tipping his barber for shaving him. He
has looked at the situation from all points
of view, and he has failed utterly to see
why the barber should be entitled to tip
after being paid his legitimate price for his
work. Yet | would venture to say that
there is actually not one man out of a hum
dred who has ever been able actually to
keep his vow that he would not tip the
barber. He finds such an acuteness in the
situation by the time he has placed his hat
on his head and started for the door, there
is such light of expectancy in the BARRIERS
eye, an expectancy based upon so many
tips received, that the majority of men
simply cave utterly under the situation
and pass over to the barber the customary
tip.
''Just how strong character it takes to
assume the genuine anti-tipping stand and
stick to it is shown in the case of no less
eminent an individual than j. Pierpont
Morgan. Mr. Morgan is the chief of all the
anti-tippers. He's a liberal man with his
employers, and at Christmas, every year,
he distributes literally hundreds of thous-
ands of dollars in the form of presents
among them. He's a generous man in his
handling of his household servants, of the
people employed on his yacht-of all hands
whose names appear on his regular pay
rolls. But it is straight fact that he has
not handed out single ten cent piece in
the form of a tip to persons other than
his own employees or servants in five years.
system as he had seen it exhibited for so
many years in Europe about that time, and
he made up his mind that he, for one.
would utterly drop the habit of tipping.
He's pretty strong man, it is needless to
say, and he has stuck to his determination.
My route was good deal along the same
general path as his last summer, for ex-
ample, and / saw him leave no less than
eight hotels, some of them in France, but
most of them in Switzerland, without con-
| ferring even copper pourboire upon the
eNpectant and sorely disappointed and
mystified servants.
you know how the hotel employees line
up over there for their tips when you're
taking your departure from the hostelry.
| It's the regular and accepted thing for them
| to form themselves into the hedge forma-
ton, so that you'll have to pass through
the two lines of them in order to reach
the conveyance that is to carry you to the
station. You begin at the two rows of eN-
pectant ones as you emerge from the hotel,
and you make your donations in accordance
with the degree of the recipient extending
his hand. They're all there, from the
house steward down to the boots and they
all confidently look to you for a tip, no
matter whether they turned over a hand
for your comfort not. Indeed there
are some of the hotels in Switzerland where
even the proprietors incredible as it may
seem, expect their tip when you leave their
hostelries.
But Mr. Morgan was equal to it, as
say, on the several occasions that | saw
him leave the continental hotels, and the
amazement with which he was regarded by
the eNpectant ones, who looked for little
less than shower of gold from so fabu-
lousy wealthy an American .Milor',' as
they all took pains to call him during his
stays-the establishment with which they
gazed after him as he swung serenely
through the long lines and stepped into his
carriage without so much as once putting
a hand into his pocket, was nothing short
of amusing. They didn't dare, in his case,
to make audible remarks about him as he
swung along, for the respect of European
undertakings is pretty strong for those who
invariably occupy suites of rooms set aside
for royalty, but their Darkness in looking
into each others eyes and throwing up their
hands and Struggling their shoulders as
| Uuey ulSHldlly SlOucHeQ Dack TO Ine1F WOTk-
ing stations was worth witnessing.
but there are, as say, few men capable
of sticking to such determination with
the calm Indifference of j. Pierpont Nor
gan. A few weeks ago dined at a famous
New York restaurant, where the walters
are all Frencamen, in company with New
Yorker of large wealth. We fell to talk
ing of the tipping business during the meal,
and ba announced 10 mo +bo+ bo
going to tip the waiter serving us-he had
invited me to dinner, and of course he
was to settle the reckoning. / laughed at
him, and told him that he wouldn't have
the nerve to fail to tip steely eyed French
waiter with black mutton-chop whiskers,
who was SO obsequious in his attentions,
and whose manner so plainly betokened
that he expected to be well rewarded for
his exertions.
"'I won't, eh?' said the New Yorker.
well lust watch me- LII not only do