ON TIPPING SERVANTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2745, 1 December 1894, Page 3

ON TIPPING SERVANTS.

An article on tipping servants in country houses, in the National Review, raises a question that concerns many, and is worthy of notice. The writer, “ X,” pleads for uniformity and a stand against extravagance. He says : “ Let us take the simplest case, that of an unmarried man who stops from Saturday till Monday in the house of a friend who only keeps a parlor-maid or single man-servant. Here half-a-crown should be quite enough for the servant. In the case of a married couple, the lady, if without a maid, adds half-a-crown for the housemaid. The coachman, if there is one, must have his shilling after driving you to the station. If the visitor stops for a week he should make his donation 4s. He should allow that is, about 6d a night and 6d over as a sort of ground tax. We come next to the case of Saturday to Monday in a more elaborate establishment—i.e. y where a butler and footman are kept. Here the Saturday to Monday guest must distinguish. If the footman looks after him the footman should have half-a crown and the butler also half-a-crown in consideration of the fact that the butler will probably order your fly for, you and look you out your trains. If, however, the footman is kept in the background altogether and the butler valets you, the butler takes the whole ss. If you stop for a longer time, say a week, these sums should be raised to four qr five shillings in each casp. If the visitor brings a man of his own the tip to the footmau, of course, disappears, but that to the butler usually remains.” X ” proposes to organise a sentiment of “ bad form ” against people who tip extravagantly. “Could not MrduMaurier give ns a series of pictures in Punch 1 One might represent a butler pocketing a £5 note presented to him by young Midas, and saying with an air of lofty scorn, ‘ Pore young mpn j yoq cap see he ain’t accustomed to visit houses of this sort. Why, I haven’t had a paper since I lived with a city family’.”