NE thing is cheering about the American tipping problem (says Miss Mildred Tonge Brown, author of this article), in many years of tipping in the United States I have never had a tip argued about or thrown back, as I have in France and, other Continental countries. The nearest I came to it was when a dour-locking New Englander who helped us to get our car out of a snowy ditch handed back the quarter we left for him. "You forgot this, I think, madam," he said courteously, and we drove off, remembering that in the American democracy there are many who at heart prefer to do you a service as an equal rather than be considered one to whom you would give a tip.
American visitors are baffled by the English system of tipping, but a Britishe: going this summer to the New York World's leave a dime or nothing. She would not appreciate cents equal in value to twopence or threepence. Among the millions of New York's workers breakfast and lunch at a drug-store counter or at a street stand is popular because no tipping is expected there.
If you sit at a table and order a regula: meal tipping is necessary. The 10 per cent rule holds here, unless you are paying for two or three others at your table, and then for an average daytime meal fifty cents Fair may be equally bewildered.
"Do I tip when I get a shampoo one friend asked me. "Do I tip Negroes as much as whites?" "Do I tip after a shoeshine down on Washington Square "If my taxi comes to two dollars and fifty cents do I actually tip twenty-five cents "What should I tip the Negro porter in the Pullman?" "What about the Negro maid in the lounge car?" "The porter in the day-coach?" "In the dining-car?" "Is the 1C per cent rule always safe to follow dimes are even better, since the Negro porters at the huge New York stations tend to work in pairs, slinging suitcases over their persons instead of using barrows. A dime to each porter is better than a quarter between them.
Ten per cent to the taxi-man is usual, and since New York taxis are moderate and there is no extra charge for luggage carried outside the traveller usually feels generous towards the taxi-man even though he may look like the gangster in an old-fashioned movie.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.