The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-03-09
SPREAD or THE TIP GRAFT.

Inc manner II. WHICH tue pSOpl@NA
the United States are borrowing the
tipping habit from Europe is a matter
for grave concern. Take the case OF
your smiling friend, the Pullman pof-
ter. Do you know that the dimes
and quarters and half dollars given
him by our travelling public every
year amount to more than So, 900. 600
and that we present him with $4,000
every morning before breakfast |!
Let's figure it out. There are about
5000 porters in the employ OF the
Pullman company. If the total
amount received by each of them
was dollar a day. that would be
So, 900. But in order to make allow
ance for time off and for stingy or
frugal travellers who give little or
nothing, suppose we knock off cou-
pie of thousand dollars every morn
ing. Thar would make SC, 900 day,
or Sc, 100, 900 for the year.
This generosity on the part of the
travelling public would be all right if
the porters got the benefit of it. But
they do not. Under present condi.
tions the tips are merely another
source of profit for the Pullman COM
pany. One would suppose that all
the time of a grown up man, in most
instances with family to support,
would at least be worth $40 week,
or $40 mouth, to a concern earning
millions of dividends. But the por-
ter gets only $25 month, and is
left to get the remainder from the
public. Therefore the Pullman CON-
pany, on account of tips given to its
employees, makes saving of SIS per
month on each of them, amounting to
$12o, 900 or ST ,44o, 900 year.
After the thousands of passengers
arriving at their destination in this
country every morning turn over
IS, 900 to the Pullman porters, they
give away another thousand to sta
ton boys who carry their bags out
from the trains. Before they get
comfortably settled down to the
breakfast table another donation of
So, 900 or so is made to hack drivers.
Then the walters proceed to "get
theirs" After the porters no other
class of servants depends so much
upon tips as the walters.
In many of the large establish
ments in the cities the attendants
have perfectly organized system for
securing and sharing the proceeds
they get from the public. One way
of working it is this: When you
enter the dining room for first meal
at hotel the head waiter places you
at table and then watches carefully
when you leave to see if you fee the
waiter. If you leave some change
the head waiter claims part of it. 1t
the Que who attended you should re-
fuse to divide, the next time you en-
ter the dining room you will be put
at some other table, presided over by
a 'ssquare man." Sometimes the
only way a waiter can get prompt
service in the kitchen for a favored
guest is to "see'' the server. Thus,
when you leave quarter under the
edge OF your plate it does not always
go into the pocket of the man who
attended you, as you might suppose,
but is distributed among number of
employees with whom you do not
come in contact. If you fail to leave
any change under your plate and re-
main at that hotel for any length of
time you will be likely to receive
scant consideration, for the servants
will be busy looking after those people
who are not absent minded when they
finish their meal.
One hotel proprietor tells this ex-
perience he had with new waiter
who came to his place. The new
man came on at the breakfast hour,
and in the course of time was set to
wait upon the manager without know
ing who he was. Instead of serving
small cup of cream for the coffee he
brought milk with it. The manager
said to him: "Here, take this milk
back and bring me some cream. !"
eve have no cream" said the
newcomer. The surprised manager
looked up at him quickly and said :
"Like thunder you haven't. am
the manager of this place, and I just
checked.in hundred gallons of cream
not more than twenty minutes ago"
With genuine embarrassment the new
recruit replied: ooh, I didn't know
you were the manager TIL bring it
at once, SIR" The motive was to
please certain regular customers of
the dining room, who made practice
of tipping, by keeping liberal guam
tity of cream in reserve for them,
giving ordinary patrons milk with
their coffee.
The BARRIERS in the large establish
ments of the cities are also we'll or
ganized for securing tips. Most OF
them work on percentage and have
all kinds of extra things they try tc
sell each customer. The man who
does not give ten cents above the reg
ular tariff is an unwelcome customer
in most of the big shops. The up-to-
date barber "educates" his customers
to the idea of tipping. He begins a
friendly line of talk and tells you
con6dentially that things are going
pretty bad with him. He will likely
say: "Do you have any idea what
wages they pay in this place They
pay SO little that if it were not for
the tips we get we could not pay rent
and provide for our families. Ol
course, nearly everybody that come.
in here gives US something, so We
manage to worry along" By such
means the barber makes his customei
understand that something extra 1:
expected. If a good educator
opens up on you and you fail to take
the hint, you had better look for an
other shop.
L n.