The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1904-10-01
"TIP"-TAklNo IN EUROPE.
Few In Public Life, Excepting the
Titled, Are Above the
Itching Palm.

/ have just returned from a trip
through Europe. where naturally
made frequent comparisons betweel
the status of the foreign worker and
that of his American brother. says
Lydia X. Commander, In the Amer
lean Federationist.
One Of the most noticeable differ
ences is the constant presence of the
man with his hand out for tip. When
you leave the steamer fully ten peo-
pie expect to be remembered" OF
these fully half consider two dollars
or less an open insult to be resented
by marked insolence Of manner, and
only five-dollar bill can move them
to thanks.
At every hotel from eight to a dozen
tip-hunters shadow the departing
guest, and he is expected to go the
rounds.
Nor is this all. If you hire a car
riage. you are expected to tip the
driver. II you ask the street car con-
ductor question or request him to
call your street you must give him
fee When you take boat ride you
pay for your ticket and pay the man
who takes it from you. If you in
Quire your way Of passer-by, you dip
your hand in your pocket as you do
so. You tip the clerk in the store,
the man who delivers your goods, the
postman, the policeman, and, for aught
know to the contrary, the doctor.
the lawyer and the preacher I
heard it said that everyone in Eu-
rope will take a tip. except the
crowned heads" but I'm not at all pre-
pared to admit the exception.
When you demonstrate against this
continual tax you are met with the
argument: THE poor things get very
little. and they must live. You are
really paying them wages. and it is
unfair not to give It,"
II you ask: why do they receive
such small pay?" the reply is: "The
employer knows they will get tips.
and counts on it," and again you are
assured that tips are wages, and
should not be withheld.
But a few minutes consideration
shows that not only are tips not
wages, but they destroy wages. Wages
are a definite sum agreed upon by
employer and worker. To pay them
is an obligation, to receive them is
right A tip is favor, charity. 1t
can be given or withheld at will. Its
bestower swears with self-satisfed be-
nevolence. Its receiver, true funky.
graduates his thanks to match the
amount of the gratuity. A tip is not
wages, for no man has a right to de-
mand it. He can only cringe and kow-
tow in the hope of not missing 1t.
Nor does the amount gained offer
any atonement for the manhood sac
rificed in the getting. The steamer
stewards are more favored and more
arrogant than the man beyond the
seas. In Germany you may give your
street car conductor small coin
worth one and one-fourth cents; in
France a cent will be accepted, ana
the naughty Britisher only stands out
for ''tuppence." OF course the tips
run from these trifes up. and some
times high up-and that's the way
the money goes"
But it was, after all, the small tips
that shocked me most. To think that
men, full-grown. white, civilized, FREQ
men-not children nor Filipinos nor
savages nor slaves-would take one
cent charity and say: THANK you
for it!
1t made me heart-sick and ashamed
TO see it. | blushed to- think that
they hadn't the self-respect to blush
for themselves.