ON WAITERS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIII, Issue XVIII, 3 November 1894, Page 428

ON WAITERS.

Middle-aged habitute of hotels mast have noted, sometimes with regret, the gradual disappearance of the English waiter ; it may be that, in a few years, his place will be entirely supplied by the enterprising Teuton, and the English waiter figure among our recollections of the pursuers of many bygone industries—the • Buy-a-broom ’ girls ; the street exhibitor of fantoccini, dancing dogs, etc ; the vendors of strawberries in pottles, and cherries tied on sticks. We have nothing to say against the German waiter, but he certainly lacks many peculiarities and characteristics which made his English predecessor interesting to a student of * types.’ Wilhelm or Fritz is seldom, we had almost said never, the undisputed autocrat of his coffee-room as was the English ‘ Robertthe hotel or restaurant proprietor is in no awe whatever of his German assistants ; and they, even in the case of the man elevated to the post of * head waiter,’ seldom possess that calm dignity or exhibit that ‘ ruling instinct ’ characteristic of the higher class of English waiter. To the customers (or ‘ guests,’ as the modern hotel-keepers prefer to term their patrons) the German waiter is on a different (and far lower) footing of intercourse than his prototype enjoyed. Now and then, in old fashioned hotels and country places, one comes upon A ‘ ROBERT ’ OF THE OLD TYPE—and the traveller is then tempted to regret the gradual effacement of this pleasant functionary. It is, we believe, universally admitted that the hotel keeper chiefly patronises the Teutonic waiter because he is both cheaper and harder working than the English one; Fritz counting his opportunities for • picking-up ’ English—at the cost of the customer—as part of the advantages of his situation, and therefoie to be ‘ considered ’ in the wages. We pass over the effect produced upon irascible visitors, wanting their bills or their meals in a hurry, when the especial Fiitz who attends their table has ‘ picked up ’ extremely little English, and forgets that little when hurried and confused. Hotels on the lines • for Continental traffic' have, as is perhaps natural, a great affection for employing foieign waiters ; tut travellers who chance to be attended by a newly arrived German (why, even on the routes to France, do we scarcely ever find a French waiter in the hotel ?) sometimes grow irate at finding—on this side of the Channel—a difficulty in making themselves understood. Even in his later days, when he has acquired a perfect command of English, THE GERMAN WAITER is a totally different being from the typical English one. The Teuton may be—often ia—both civil and obliging ; but be is rarely genial and conversational. * Robert ’ of yoie was a far more important person—in the eyes of the

visitors—than the actnal proprietor of the bote). It was the head waiter who received the travellers on their entrance into the coffee-room, with a pleasant courtesy which made one think of the poet’s lament that one often, in this life, meets 'one’s warmest welcome at an inn.’ This busi-ness-like element, so strongly marked in the civillest of foreign waiters, was conspicuously absent in the manner of the old-fashioned English head waiter at a high-class hotel. Fritz will deal fairly and justly by you, and give you the amount of ‘service’ and attention which he has engaged to render to all hotel visitors ; but he will not * distinguish * you, will not make you feel that you are the one particular guest FOB WHOM THE HOTEL HAS LONG BEEN WAITING AND YEARNING. The Teuton will indicate the table you are to occupy be cause it is the only empty one. but will never add the graceful * I have laid for yon and the lady here, sir, because it is out of the draught of the door,’ or * near the window,’ or for some other reason—apocryphal enongh, no donbt, bat which yet gives the traveller a pleasant sense of being thought about and considered as a man and not as a number. Our American cousins say that a man who can successfully * run ’ an hotel possesses all the qualities for filling the Presidential chair; the old-fashioned English head waiter would have made no mean diplomatist. Like the seneschal of yore, he was singularly acute io detecting rank, and in placing his guests accordingly. At some provincial hotels, patronised by the ‘county,’ it was often amusing to note bow the presiding * Robert ’ would reserve his choicest seats, his most toothsome * cuts,* for guests whom he knew, or guessed to be, like St. Patrick, ‘come of decent people,' even though their attire and equipment were less gorgeous than that boasted by some nouveaux riches among the visitors If the traveller often frequented the same hostelry, and so comported himself as to find favour in the eyes of the ruler of the coffee room,

‘ ROBERT ' COULD MAKE HIS STAY REMARKABLY PLEASANT. ‘Robert’ knew all the local gossip, and was an authority regarding all the local lions. He could tell visitors what great bouses in the vicinity were worth a visit, where boats could be hired, how fishing tickets were obtained. It is true that the modern hotel sticks up notices of this kind of information in its hall, but this is a less pleasant way of gaining the knowledge than having it retailed to one in genial gossipy style, between the soup and the fish, by a polite attendant. The old fashioned * landlord,’ who brought in the first dish, and expected to be asked to partake of a glass of his own wine, has long ago vanished from the earth; bnt something of his mantle of urbanity descended upon the English head waiter. THE TYPICAL ‘ BOBEBT ’ WAS ALWAYS POLITE, even to the crustiest of travellers, and frequently displayed no little diplomatic skill in managing his customers. ‘Robert’ was in variably dexterous in pacifying rival claimants to particular tables, especial dishes, lavonrite chairs. If he ciuld not give the visitor exactly what he asked for, * Robert ’ generally succeeded in making him feel that he had obtained wbat was equally suitable and agreeable. * Very sorry, sir, the table yon always had last month is engaged today, ;but,’ insinuatingly, ‘don’t you think,sir, it was rather hot there, so close by the fire ’ I did what I could for you by putting up a screen, but if I’d been free to find you a place I’d have recommended No. 7, which is empty now.’ ‘ Why, you yourself put me into the place by the fire,’ expostulates the visitor ; to which ‘ Robert ’ responds, cheerfully and unabashed : * Yes, sir. I was forced so to do, then ; it was my only vacant table.’ So the visitor patiently seats himself at draughty No. 7, half persuaded that this is after all the * best place in the coffee-room ’ —a view * Robert’ has ingeniously succeeded in impressing upon every other visitor regarding his special • locale.* Would any Fritz or Wi'helm thus trouble himself to explain and soothe 1 Wonld not the foreigner be content with stating the bard fact, * Dis is de only empty table,’ even if he were gracious enough to add ‘ very rorry ?’