For as long as I can remember there has been a movement to abolish tipping in hotels and restaurants, but the practice continues, and is not likely to stop until human nature alters. Managements, of course, take advantage of the habit to underpay their staff. A man employed to pen doors outside a well-known West End restaurant admitted the other day that. his salary was 10s. a week. But he made about £7 weekly in tips. In some of the more exclusive establishments. waiters and others pay for the privilege of working there.
It is natural to want to reward good service, but in many instances tips are given in return for services which are merely nominal A city san of my acquaintance, who lunches regularly in the West End, probably about 275 times in the course of a year, calculates that his 30s. hat costs him £13.15s, annually in tips. He feels that the man who smilingly greets him by name, while taking his hat, and gives it a brush (not needed) before handing it back, cannot be rewarded with less than a shilling.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.