TIPPING RUN MAD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 23, 10 January 1912, Page 3

TIPPING RUN MAD.

_—o—.— £IOO FOE HALF< AN HOIJR’S

WAITING

In America tips are often (not always) enpnnous, said the popular head Waiter of a West End (London) hotel; I have known the soli of a >vell-kn6wu piulti-millioiiairc hind 500 dollars to the principal waiter fat a- dinner-party of a half -a dozen—at the rat© of dvef jCIU for each dinner. The lucky recipient was M. Oscar, of the Waldorf- , Astoria. When I puce asked Mr, Gay, another of New what was his biggest - “A trip to Europe,” bwhicii ' I learnt, cost every bit of £500; The donor was Mr. David H. Moffett, a Denver railway magnate and millionaire. One guest who has lived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel-;for many years is said to disburse tips at the rate of ten dollars a day—over £7OO a year; and 1 know of one case in which a wealthy and eccentric American, on leaving the St. Regis after a stay of four weeks, handed his favourite waiter an envelope containing 5000 dollars. ’No wonder the American waiter turns up his nose contemptuously at anything under a dollar, or that some of them are richer than many of the customers they serve. A good number could retire any day on an income which most of your lawyers and stockorokers would envy. One man I know, whose clients are chiefly Wall Street brokers, the most generous of tippers, is worth half a million dollars to-day at the very least, mostly made from lucky investments of his tips under the advice of his patrons. And quite apart from tips, these men receive good wages, ranging from idle equivalent of £BO to £l5O a year, md all "their meals; but a good many of them would grumble vastly if their Lips did not come to many times the amount of their wages. Of eccentric tips the waiter mutually receives a good ■many on both sides of the Atlantic. One patron I know of had a most perverse and tantalising way of tipping, offering the waiter the very last thing he had any use for. If he were a non-smoker he would present him with a pipe and some tobacco or a few cigars. Another man used to bring his own knife, fork md spoon, and at the end of the meal would present them to the waiter. A third would give the waiter a framed portrait of himself, varying the gift ay a hook of sermons or pious metlL bations; while another eccentric I have hoard of used to tip in foreign postage stamps, some of which were valuable. The most remarkable tip I can recall in England was given by a wellknown sportsman. He was dining at one of the big London hotels a week or so before the Derby of three years ago. At the conclusion of his meal lie produced a sovereign and, handing it to the waiter, said, “Take my tip and put it on Signorinetta for the Derby.” The man took the advice, backed Signorinetta- at 10 to 1, and pocketed £IOO for half an hour’s waiting!