=TIPS=

The “tip-roll” in a big house seems to us rather appalling, but compared with the amounts given in a big English house, ours are mere pittances.  Pleasant to think that something is less expensive in our country than in Europe!

Fortunately in this country, when you dine in a friend’s house you do not “tip” the butler, nor do you tip a footman or parlor-maid who takes your card to the mistress of the house, nor when you leave a country house do you have to give more than five dollars to any one whatsoever.  A lady for a week-end stay gives two or three dollars to the lady’s maid, if she went without her own, and one or two dollars to every one who waited on her.  Intimate friends in a small house send tips to all the servants—­perhaps only a dollar apiece, but no one is forgotten.  In a very big house this is never done and only those are tipped who have served you.  If you had your maid with you, you always give her a tip (about two dollars) to give the cook (often the second one) who prepared her meals and one dollar for the kitchen maid who set her table.

A gentleman scarcely ever “remembers” any of the women servants (to their chagrin) except a waitress, and tips only the butler and the valet, and sometimes the chauffeur.  The least he can offer any of the men-servants is two dollars and the most ever is five.  No woman gets as much as that, for such short service.

In a few houses the tipping system is abolished, and in every guest room, in a conspicuous place on the dressing-table or over the bath tub where you are sure to read it, is a sign, saying: 

“Please do not offer tips to my servants.  Their contract is with this special understanding, and proper arrangements have been made to meet it; you will not only create ‘a situation,’ but cause the immediate dismissal of any one who may be persuaded by you to break this rule of the house.”

The notice is signed by the host.  The “arrangement” referred to is one whereby every guest means a bonus added to their wages of so much per person per day for all employees.  This system is much preferred by servants for two reasons.  First, self-respecting ones dislike the demeaning effect of a tip (an occasional few won’t take them).  Secondly, they can absolutely count that so many visitors will bring them precisely such an amount.

[Illustration:  “IN SMALL HOUSES BREAKFAST TRAYS FOR WOMEN GUESTS ARE CARRIED UP BY THE WAITRESS.” [Page 426]]

=BREAKFAST DOWNSTAIRS OR UP=

Breakfast customs are as varied in this country as the topography of the land!  Communities of people who have lived or traveled much abroad, have nearly all adopted the Continental breakfast habit of a tray in their room, especially on Sunday mornings.  In other communities it is the custom to go down to the dining-room for a heavy American (or English) meal.  In communities where the latter is the custom and where people are used to assembling at a set hour, it is simple enough to provide a breakfast typical of the section of the country; corn bread and kidney stew and hominy in the South; doughnuts and codfish balls “way down East”; kippered herring, liver and bacon and griddle cakes elsewhere.  But downstairs breakfast as a continuous performance is, from a housekeeper’s point of view, a trial to say the least.