THE UPTURNED PALM.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15035, 1 August 1914, Page 2

THE UPTURNED PALM.

(By H. B. Marriott TVateon. in tho London "Ifciily Mail"). I am writing this article to to printed in tho "Daily' Mail /, and I shall bo paid a certain sum for it. According to' the unwritten law r/ijcii prevails in this country, I shall be justified, after receiving payment, in going to tho proprietors of the paper and demanding an extra sum of, money as a "tip"': and if Ido not get it I shall bo entitled to eibuso tho proprietors and let thorn know they are a- shabby lot. That, in effect, is a plain statement of the position which a majority of my countrymen take up. If 1 tako a taxi-cab and pay tbo driver his legal fare as registered on tho dial, he scowls at mc, stares insolently at the coins, and drives off with an oatl- , , or maybe ho deigns to bo playfully sarcastic. If, when the waiter has brought mo my bill at the Royal Restaurant, I discharge it accurately, he waits in a fienso otlier than his duties exact; which is to say, he hangs about mc, and finally marches off with a sneer on his face. " .Next I go to the Royal he will serve mc with cold soup, lough meat, and corked wine in revenge.

COUNTRY ROTJSE EXACTIONS.' If I stay at my friend's in Loamshiro,i on the morning* of my departure I ■am expected td slip coins of various sizes and values into itching palms. If I am asked in the autumn to shoot, I must offer a "fiver" to the head gamekeeper for having looked after Ins master s preserves at a quito respectable wage. You remember that absolutely true story of tho gamekeerer who disdained and declined gold on tho ground that he had never anything offered him but

\i\<l now let rrie go to stay for a week at tho Bear and Buns, in the oldfashioned and very English town ?l •Lumpton. Incidentally, I P»y n abou * three times as much as I should pay in any inn or hostelry of the sfcme cuaracter'and class iv France or Germany. But I am not concerned with that dismal fact here. What I am concerned with indignantly is that when I leave the hotel there i 5 a solemn row bis people drawn up with extended hands, to.wit, boots, chambermaid, two waiters, stableman, and odd-job man. jNow each of these people presumably receives an adequate wage from the landlord of the Bear and Buns, and_ yet 1 am taxed, and.others in a continuous stream after mc, to swell their weekly emoluments. I cannot pretend to exhaust the list of ' complaints, as they exhaust my patience;.but here are one or two more, illustrative of an abominable abuse. A friend of mine who lives a quarter of a mile away kindly cent mc two or three cuttings ' for my garden. I thanked him in anticipation, and when they arrived by the 'hands of his undergardener," the gentleman: expected to receive sixpence, and, I am ashamed to say, got it. For what? Apparently for obeying his employer's instructions in hie employer's time! I even know of people, dear idiotic fools, who will offer money to maids who have watted on them at lunch at a host's house. As well may I beg my host to give mc a guinea for dining with him! , WAGES ON THE TIPPING B.A SIS. An excuse that is often given for .this'accepted'system of brigandage ie that the hapless employees, -cabmen, waiters., porters, et hoc gemis omne, are-paid inferior wages.■ and have to make up from other illicit > sources. This may be true in the case of some badly conducted fnjWni' restaurants, and, if.' the sooner trade unions intervene, and alter the system the better.; • But I am , writing -'of' • cases where -a good wage ,is paid and blackmail Lβ added. Servants in good houses aro housed well and paid- well and fed well; cabmen make a good living wage. Porters-are sufficiently paid by tho railway companies. Why does not the tradesman -who takes my order for a leg of mutton put a pistol to my head and demand, half a orown to boot? There would bo just as much, reason iii this action ; as ;in the porter's demand for sixpence because he, paid by the company, trundles my. luggage thirty yards along a platform! The fact is that English peoDl© are living under a system of blackmail, and have not. the courage or the energy to rise against it. Just in the same way New York is'blackmailed and. misgoverned by Tammany Hall, and/no one apparently, except' at rare intervals, has a soark.of decent spirit to resent it. What is wanted is some man with a genius for organisation who. wall save us from this tyranny despite ourselves. AH credit is due to those* various firms and. institutions in London and elsewhere that publicly invite co-opera-tion with the management in stopping the evil. But they are few and far betAveeji. • . : THE OBSEQUIOUS .WAITER. How many times have I, hay© all of us, been irritated at a public dinner with effusive brushing of imaginary crumbs by an obsequious waiter and his subdued whisper, "I'm-going now, sir; I hope you're had all you want." It -s nothing short of Pick Turpiri and "stand and deliver" on'the highway. One cannot leave an overcoat in a vestibule without being cajoled into dropping coins in.a plate in which the silver only is exhibited as ground-bait, all coppers having been carefully seoluded out of sight. So far, indeed, is blackmail carried that in those far-famed and - much overrated old English eating-houses that ar e celebrated in fiction and in— well, newspapers, one has to tip tho chef. at. tho grill in order that he Tnay pick out a nice fresh chop or steak for us. . . .

I am told that the bad custom is still more prevalent iv the United States; fri'nd I know that it is in some other countries under our flag. The independent democrat in Australia who will address you as if you -were dirt will pocket your "bob"-with a grumble, and would show his independence by throwing your, coppers in your face, dared yo-J offer them. It is not a question of democracy, and "a man's a man for a' that," and it is,the veriest cant to say it is. It is a pure question of blackmail, graft, greed, .and could bo prevented by organised public opinion. UnfoTtuua--tely public opinion only concerns itjEeJf apparently with, professional golf matches, cricket, football, and the Derby. A NATIONOF -CADGERS. I I'.nderstan'd that there are waiters in New York hotels who die dollar millionaires, and I -know that butlers in this countiy set themselves u,p comfortably as landlords of luxurious hotels. We are,-in fact, a nation oF cadgers, and the indictment might be carried even further and to other regions and other classes. If I want to buy a car, I can manage for myself, thank you, "bufc the Hon. Adalbert Iβ Touche. descendant of Norman swashbucklers, -s at my elbow, , smiling, smirking, and with a plausible introduction to "Messrs Sharp, Grind, and Cutout, ready for his substantial tip. This commission business is really on no higher a level. And | the "common man" who is "bled white," as the phrase goes, lias not a kick in hhn, unless this article be considered one. Do you remember Kipps, at the Royal Grand, with his orgy of tipping? I have a great sympathy with that poor mind thus desperately thrust off its balance: : He saw red at last. anJ tipped everyone, including the' hotel guests! ." ■.-••'. . . :■'_ -.