The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-02-24

when the Hon. Mr. Murphy, Of Mis-
souri,, introduced bill prohibiting tip
ping any steward. waiter. or other en-
ploye, remarked a clerk Of a we'll
known hotel in this city, "he didn'
reckon upon thu ways and means of the
porter. nor did I know the game until
recently. and / got wise in this way For
some time my attention has been at
tracted TO certain porters employed here
"a the hotel, by their strange and until
now unaccountable actions regarding the
arrival of new guests. Every time guest
appears. these men make a wild dash for
his baggage, and Immediately begin a
hasty, but thorough examination Of it.
Then their manner as quickly becomes
one Of marked and really unnecessary
politeness or one of painfully evident
duty. knowing that tips are not to be
expected until some service is rendered.
certainly not until at least the baggage
has been landed. the cause Of all this /
could never penetrate. But one morning
last week I hit upon the thing in quite an
unexpected manner.
There was some mistake about
guests trunks-an actress who was 10
play in this city-that night. She did not
arrive until Monday at noon, so there was
no time TO be lost and / at once took
things in my own hands, and started IN 10
search for she trunks. When l entered
the baggage room I noticed the porter,
bending over the different trunks, eX-
aiming the labels, and was astounded by
the accompanying remarks / overheard
no good. nothin doin, can't squeeze
blood out Of a turnip. said one. There
a good thing came from another diree-
ton. and in less than second the bag
gage was divided. The \. G. side and the
good thing side. as I afterward learned
90 Now see here. boys.' said I, I want
to know the game; what does this meanE
and / explained how 1 had been watching
them for some time, but that now 1 must
have the reason for all this unusual con-
duct. and that it was up to them to con-
fess.
You see, boss said one porter, we've
got To study this question of tips, a TIP
on tips, you know, and We work together
like: say when a guest leaves hotel 70
so TO another the porter, If he's on,
pastes the labels on his baggage in a
slanting position, which means he Is SOOd
for tips. When the labels are pasted on
straight. it means that this guests name
can be spelled "Tight-wad," and he Is
the sort OF man Mr.. Murphy is. He con-
sideTs that the hotels pay us for our ser
vices. and we know there's nOthin' dom
and we only do our duty, cause what's
the use. anything extra would only be
wasted on the Murphy family. Tricks
in all trades, boss, he concluded, and
quickly repeated the name of the actress
and walked right over to the y. y side
and put his hand on her trunk without
any trouble
Show me the label said, and there
IL was as straight rs q string. And this
means I ventured, that you'll get no
tip. 1t does, sir he answered.
II made it a point to inquire about this
later. and much to my surprise 1 learned
the actress had confined her tips 20 the
dining-room, and that none of the wait
ers there had become Independently rich
SO. after all, the communication through
labels may count for something. At any
rate. il is novel. and may prove inter-
Cstlng TO Mir. Murphy. Of Missouri