Tyranny of the Tip.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9, 4 March 1905, Page 50

Tyranny of the Tip.

There is little doubt that this question of tipping contains a grave social nuisance; in fact, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that it is fast becoming a tyranny. Even the well-to-do are finding that tipping servants is making country visiting an absolute luxury. I heard a lady say lately that where, ten years ago, a sovereign would get you through with the servants, you must now be prepared to give five. There seems to be something against the very root of hospitality in this enforced payment for service. Let us for a moment return to Miss Ramshackle. An invitation to a house ought to mean complete comfort and equality' for her. Yet, bow can she have either when her host and hostess, cognisant of her means, arc also cognisant that tribute will be expected from her in their house which she cannot afford to pay? Whether she is to blame for being in a humiliating position has nothing to do with the matter. Hosts are under obligations to their guests, and if they' cannot protect them from the unwritten laws of the servants’ hall then they ought not to invite them to their houses. The remedy, so far as the exorbitant tips now the fashion are concerned, rests entirely with the masters and mistresses. A rule that the taking of tips was not permitted might be easily' promulgated. And if .1 notice to that effect were displayed for visitors’ guidance, it should certainly be supplemented by a special warning to the nouveaux riches. “Millionaires,” ‘t might run, “are cautioned that their invitations cannot be renewed if they are found guilty of tipping”; for, it seems, the millionaire’s five-pound note is at the bottom of the abuse. —Frances in “Five o’clock Tea Talk” in “T.P.’s Weekly.”