Part 5 (1/2)
HOW THE BOOKS HELP
”The Cyclopaedia of Social Usage” states the tipping obligation as follows:
”In a large and fas.h.i.+onable hotel generous and widely diffused gratuities are expected by the employees. The experienced traveler usually distributes in gratuities a sum equal to ten per cent. of the amount of the bill. It is customary when a lengthy sojourn is made in an hotel or pension to tip the chambermaid, the various waiters and the porter who does one's boots, once in every week. Once in every fortnight the head waiter's expectations should be satisfied, and where an elevator boy and doorman are on duty, they, too, have claims on the purse of the guest.
”In a fas.h.i.+onable European hotel the rule of tipping a franc a week all around may safely be observed during a long stop. But at the hour of departure something extra must be added to the weekly franc, and the head waiter will scarcely smile as blandly as need be if he is not propitiated with gold.”
Others, the writer says, have claims that it is well to recognize and meet before they urge them.
Practically all the books on etiquette have the same note of subserviency to the custom. The point to be remembered is that, without being conscious of it, these writers are in league with the beneficiaries of the custom to perpetuate and extend it. Most of the authors think the custom is right, they have the aristocratic viewpoint that servants should ”know their place” and, in a republic, be made to acknowledge it by accepting a gratuity. Others simply take conditions as they find them and write to inform readers how to avoid unpleasant incidents. But regardless of the opinion of the writers on the ethics of the custom, the books are one of the princ.i.p.al supports of the custom.
Leaving the hotel, and considering the tipping custom in its relation to private hospitality, we find this advice in ”Dame Curtesy's Book of Etiquette”:
”It is customary to give servants a tip when one remains several days under a friend's roof. The sum cannot be stated but common sense will settle the question.”
IN PRIVATE HOUSES
The theory of tipping to servants in private homes where one may be a guest is based on the a.s.sumption that one's presence gives the servants extra work and they should be compensated therefor. The extra work undoubtedly is involved, but in a really true conception of hospitality, should not the servants enter into it as much as the hosts? Or, if the guest entails extra work should not the host's conception of hospitality cause him or her to supply the extra compensation? The guest who tips servants in a private home implies that the host or hostess has not adequately compensated them for their labor.
The tips under such circ.u.mstances are a reflection upon the hospitality of the home. A host should ascertain if servants consider themselves outside the feeling of hospitality and pay them for the extra work, thus giving the guest _complete_ hospitality. It is bad enough to tip in a hotel, for professional hospitality; to tip in a private home is, or should be, an insult to the host.
ON OCEAN VOYAGES
The same author advises in regard to the Pullman car that ”a porter should receive a tip at the end of the journey, large or small according to the length of the trip and the service rendered,” and then considers the custom aboard a s.h.i.+p, as follows:
”There is much tipping to be done aboard a s.h.i.+p. Two dollars all around is a tariff fixed for persons of average means, and this is increased to individual servants from whom extra service has been demanded.”
The traveler boards a s.h.i.+p with a ticket of pa.s.sage which includes stateroom and meals and all service requisite to the proper enjoyment of these privileges. The stewards and other employees on board are expressly for the purpose of giving the service the ticket promised.
Hence, extra compensation to them may be justified only as charity. They cannot possibly render extra service for which they should be paid. If a pa.s.senger called upon the engineer to render a service, that employee would be rendering an extra service, but stewards and stewardesses and like employees are aboard to render any service the pa.s.senger wants or needs. Moving deck chairs, bringing books, attending to calls to your stateroom, serving you food and the like duties are all within the scope of their regular employment.
But read another writer's p.r.o.nouncement:
”At the end of an ocean voyage of at least five days' duration, the fixed tariff of fees exacts a sum of two dollars and a half per pa.s.senger to every one of those steamer servants who have ministered daily to the traveler's comfort.
”Thus single women would give this sum to the stewardess, the table steward, the stateroom steward, and, if the stewardess has not prepared her bath, she bestows a similar gratuity on her bath steward. If every day she has occupied her deck chair, he also will expect two dollars and fifty cents.
”Steamers there are on which the deck boys must be remembered with a dollar each, and where a collection is taken up, by the boy who polishes the shoes and by the musicians.
”On huge liners patronized by rich folks exclusively, the tendency is to fix the minimum gratuity at $5, with an advance to seven, ten and twelve where the stewardess, table steward and stateroom steward are concerned.”
Then follow instructions to tip the smoking-room steward, the barbers and even the s.h.i.+p's doctor!
THE ”RICH AMERICAN” MYTH