Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-17

glad the men and women who work for him
is the exception that proves the rule.
certain big department store in one of
the eastern cities has given each of its
2,C00- odd employees s. apiece for several
years past. The amount is not graded ac-
cording to the employees position and i'm
portance The members of the firm take
the ground that they give the s. bills sim
ply as a reminder of the good will they
bear their workers, and so the head of the
silk department is not entitled to 4 gift one
1.-THE bigger than that received by the
humblest package wrapper in the store.
For some reason or other s. has come to
be looked on, outside of banking and finan-
cial circles, as about the right sum to be
given to employees. Inquiry among office
workers in the skyscrapers and the sales
people in the retail and wholesale stores
has substantiated this statement.
A Rich Reward.
But many a firm does not limit its Christ
mas box contributions to those who work
for it directly. This is particularly true of
concerns with offices in the skyscrapers.
The elevator men, the superintendent. the
window cleaners. the scrub women, all are
taken care of. And the amount of money
they get is a caution. In one of the lesser
skyscrapers of New York the three elevator
men, when they counted up their gifts on
last Christmas eve, found that they had
received little over 500 apiece. These
men had put up a box. artistically painted
with holly designs, in each elevator. Quite
a lot of small change was dropped into
them, but more was given them direct by
the tenants, In sums varying from one to
twenty-five dollars.
The Christmas pickings of this trio is
small, though, when compared with that Of
the men who run elevators in the great Of
flee buildings that have several thousand
tenants instead of several hundred, as in
the trios case.
Another class of men which reap har-
vest during Christmas week IS the walters
In the downtown restaurants of New YORK,
Philadelphia and Chicago, where only lunch
is served, the waiter who does not clear
S75 over and above his usual perquisltes
feels sure that there is no good Will to-
ward men" on earth. Yet his holiday tips
would be regarded as mere pittance by
the dignified automaton who attends to the
stomachs wants in the swell hotel uptown.
Five and ten-dollar bills come his way in
seemingly never-ending stream. for your
millionaire at dinner around the mellow
season finds the chief aid to good digestion
in making happy those who wait on him
Walters who ought to know declare that 1t
is not uncommon for waiter to come out
three and four and even five hundred DOL
lars ahead during holiday week
Up in the Thousands.
Merely in New York's first-class hotels
and restaurants there are over 1000 wait
ers. Chica go has about 1000, and Phladel-
phia 9 900 less. Nine thousand walters, all
told-and in the light of the hgures already
set forth their share of the millions in the
Christmas box certainly amounts to several
tens of thousands of dollars. Even if each
waiter got only So the sum total would be
S45 1000 But it Is undoubtedly above that
for even the food singers In the bean
shops and ''hasheries' say that nearly
every one remembers them; and as each
waiter of this grade has to look after sew
eral scores of customers in the course of a
day the nickels and dimes soon turn into
dollars.
Another contribution of generous proper
tions put into the Christmas box is that for
dinners to the poor. Hundreds of dinners
of this character are given on Christmas
day throughout this broad land-dinners
with turkey and cranberry sauce and pie
and ice cream and all the good things asso-
ciated with the day And these good things
cost money-turkey at % cents pound
and the other delicacies in proportion.
Last year the Salvation Army fed $4,000
poor in our large cities, and over Sl00,ooO
was collected for this purpose by means OF
the army's pot, now a familiar sight at