THE ART OF TIPPING

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2328, 23 December 1925, Page 7

THE ART OF TIPPING

HOW IT IS DONE. GOOD AND BAD EXAMPLES. To those people who continuallyput forward the plea that tipping in English hotels, and restaurants should be standardised, as it is in Italy today. 1 would utter a word of warning. Go to Italy and study for yourself the system in practice, writes Fonthill Beckford in the London “Daily Mail.” On the Lido and at Venice a charge of 12 per cent, "servlzio” appears on every bill. Notwithstanding' this, servants invariably expect something further, and if ones adheres strictly to the suggested regulation ,the service is anything but satisfactory. The head waiter usually shows little en, thusiasm in providing a table, and the same attitude prevails throughout the menage. In France and England 10 per cent, of the bill is considered an ample tip. Two shilling's for the first pound and a shilling for each additional pound has been found a good rule. When the whu<> waiter has shown judgment and suggested a good brand ,a further half crown is considered a suit, able reward. Tipping at country houses is the rock upon, which so many good intentions founder, tor the instinct to give the right amount to the right servant—including the fellow who valets where one is not travelling with one’s own man, the butler, grooms, chauffeurs, gillies ;and, at a small house, the maid who waits and the chambermaid —comes only with many years’ exeprience. These things are not to be learned by hurriedly perusing a manual, but only by experience in the right environment. It is a moment of agony for the parvenu if h offers half, perhaps what is usual. On the other hand, to be too profuse is a vulgarity and the result of inexperience again. You nnd the browbeaten man, shrinking from the hostile glare of (aayj a taxicab driver, giving and giving again. This is not -generosity; it Is lack of moral courage. It is a bad example, too, for those to follow in his wake. Yet, in spite of all the sublcties accruing to tipping .there is no denying the fact that there are supermen to whom the whole, thing presents no difficulties, either at home or abroad, in hotels or houses. They arc bland men; they stride the world like coL ossl. They get the best and give just what is right; How I envy them.