EVILS OF TIPPING

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 152, 24 December 1926, Page 16

EVILS OF TIPPING

EXTENSIVE INDULGENCE ON

CONTINENT,

One of the main drawbacks of modern travel from a tourist point of view is tipping. Practically from the commencement of the voyage the first thing one has to do is tip. Of course a tip should not bo begrudged where it is deserved, but the objection lies in the giving of gratuities where they are not justified. On landing at Marseilles, if you ai-e in a hurry and you wish to liavo your baggage examined quickly, you give the Customs oflicer 25 francs (about 3s), and he will not take the trouble to open your bags, but chalks them, and you pass on without trouble. In most of the Continental hotels 10 per cent, is added on to all bills aa gratuities for tho staff. Despite this, waiters, chamber maids, porters, and bell boy are all lined up and waiting when you take your departure. Each of these expect an additional "pourboire." Even if one is served with a bottle of wine at lunch the customary 10 per cent, is added on. The staff of tho hotels say they do not receive any of this money due to them, butr it is kept by the managers.

It is the recognised custom at all Parisian theatres to give the usheress one franc for each person she shows to their seats. One instance came to my notice at ! the celebrated I'ollies Bergeres. An American with a' party of six were shown to their seats. This man offered the girl four francs, but she created such a disturbance, and the

modest American, who by this time was the cynosure of all eyes, had finally to give the six fanes.

At the conclusion of. sight-seeing tours the guide generally receives a small tip; but in some places, especially in Germany, he does not let the tourists forget about his gratuity. In fact, at the conclusion of the tour, he makes known to them that he receives no wages, and that he has a family to keep, and reminds them not to forget the guide. This outspokenness deters many of his clients from the giving of the tip.

Luggage porters can always tell a traveller, and they certainly know how to profit by their knowledge. These porters will take a small amount frovn one of their owii countrymen or from one who speaks their language, but a stranger has to pay treble the usual price.

In Milan, an Italian -with the same amount of baggage as I had gave the porter two liras for carrying it to the train. I offered the same porter five liras for carrying mine, but this was not accepted, and finally I had to give ten liras. Tlie only way is to give what one thinks a reasonable price and refuse to give beyond that. Many of the luggage porters make a princely wage by the fleecing of unwary tourists.

It is surely degrading to any country to have their inhabitants begging and grovelling for gratuities. The tipping system is mostly indulged in on the Continent, but England and America have their share of it, but not to the extent that Europe has.