Germany's Char= acteristics.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 June 1910, Page 4

Germany's Char= acteristics.

THE LAND OF TIPPIXG.""* Germany i.s par excellence the land of tipping. The tip may not be large, but a tip of some sort i.s universally expected, and 'the wise traveller will accommodate himself to the habits of the country by tipping little jmml often. lliii't tho tipping .system is organised is shown by an incident ait Hamburg recently. There i.s a regular scale ol oharge.s there for the station porters who carry travellers' baggage from the train to the cab or automobile as tho case may lie. If the traveller gives more than the scale the porter is hound to hand tho extra tip over to a common fund, ft has been fount], however, that in busy times the porter's ailteil'tion is too much occupied with his work to allow of his complying with the regulation, and the result has been that the company lately dismissed n dozen porters for "dishonesty." The company went further, for it punished the good just as well as the wicked by withdrawing from the whole staff ol porters the winter privilege, of nn extra 20 cents a dnv. The Hamburg paper which reports the incident does no*t so much' resent the disobedience of regulations hv the porters as tfye snobbishness of the public, which, it assumes, gives the extra tip simply to appear generous in the porter's and suggests, sensiblv enough, that the best thing for the company to do in the matter is abolish tipping altogether. That, however, is more e.nsilv said than done.