New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
The Anti Tipping League Holds Its
Annual Dinner
Land and Water

bring; in London there is not a restaurant,
however cosmopolitan, where he has not to
be asked for, usually again and again.
Why? Who shall say? Can it be that al
though these foreigners are ready to serve
US and take our money, they are unfriendly
at heart and have no reluctance to bring
about our discomfort? Is that an impos-
sibe theory?
suppose that English waiter does
now and then emigrate and carry on his
old work. but he must be very rare. To
spend our lives alien soil in ministering
to the hunger and thirst of foreigners is
not English CUSTOM but how natural
to foreigners it seems to be to feed us,
What the number Of foreigners settled in
England in the catering industry is | have
no notion, except that it must be immense
You meet them everywhere; they are in
London in battaions and singly in the little
watering places. Swanage knows them, and
Herne Bay. Strange destiny for q youth
from, say, Bellinzona, that North Italian
town Cor is it in Switzerand?) where the
train stops to take breath after the tortuous
descent from the st. Gothard, to wear even
ing dress all day long in hotel in Liam
dudno carrying chops. | always ask these
foreign boys where they come from, and get
such unsettling replies; unsettling because
they conjure up visions of other lands
As to nostalgia, l wonder what proper
ton Of the walters who come to us return
home. Some, of course, do so as quickly
possible, for they are here purely for
back to assist their hotel-owning fathers at
Zermatt, Lucerne and elsewhere. The arts
tocrats OF the calling these-often the
millionaires-a although we, Offering them
shillings and sixpences and ordering them
about little dream of it. Of the humber
others, all probably when they first arrive
here intend 70 90 back; but so many seem
to remain. There are foreign walters in
London who have been here to my knowl-
edge, for a quarter Of a century. | can
remember them as long That they never
contemplated such an exile | am certain,
but they Londouers now; in London
their poor feet have grown fiat and in Lon
don they will die. Usually having English
wives and English children, they are Eng
lish in everything but syntax. All these
old foreigners either Italian or Swiss.
French walters in London one seldom or
never meets. Considering that the French
waiter in England has long been familiar
figure on the stage, this is odd, But emf
grafton is not French foible! There is
no question of shame about it: the French
waiter on his native soil is az independent
gentleman as you can find, and very happy
In his work; it is simply that he does not
care TO leave his country
Of no class Of public servant does one
Know so little as Of waters. How do they
spend what little spare time is theirs
"nat are their tastes, their hobbies ?
Where do they keep their non-official
clothes, at home at the restaurant
When do they have their own meals? And
have they good appetites? What, would
you say, is the first English word that they
acquire? have my own view, but what
wonder, Is yours. Mine is that their first
English word IS also their last-"nicc. >
What do they think Of US? What do the,
who serve think Of us who eat and pay
DO they deSpise US more when the tip il
700 wncn II is too large? But the
subject Of tipping is so vast that | mus,
stop. Let me merely remark that have
long held the belief that the right time
10 tip waiter IL not At the end Of a nea
but ut the beginning. II | seldom put thu
plan into practice it Is because ! have such