a very considerate person. He assists
you in every possible way he can. With every dish he practically jogs
your memory; and, as an accompaniment to the dessert, he informs you
that he "must now leave"; is there "anything else he can do for you?" If
you are of a reflective nature you may, in a moment of abstraction, rise
from your seat and shake hands with him; but if, as a right-minded
citizen, you have constantly in view the universal claim upon your
purse, you will thank your friendly and condescending attendant, and pay
him for the services he has rendered to his employer. You may in your
thoughtlessness and abstraction have jeopardised the success of the
waiter's arrangements for carrying off a certain bottle of wine which he
had planted for convenient removal. How much you should give him is
considered to depend upon the quality of the wine which you have been
fully charged for with your ticket; and this question of cuisine and
wine still further complicates the difficult adjustment of the rightful
claims of the attendant and what is due to your own honour, not to
mention your reputation as a _gourmet_. An irreverent American, after a
first experience, I conclude, of English travel, said that you are safe
in tipping any Britisher below the dignity of a bishop; but a
fellow-countryman, guided by this opinion, felt very unhappy when,
after being shown over a famous cathedral by the dean, he slipped
half-a-sovereign into his very reverend guide's hand, and received, in
return, an intimation that the poor's box was in the porch. I remember
on one occasion, when I was investigating a question that called for
special courtesy on the part of a public official, I was disturbed
during my work with the question whether I might tip him, and, if so, to
what extent. The subject almost "got on my nerves" before the inquiry,
which lasted an hour or two, came to an end; at last I determined that
it was a case for a tip. I gave him ten shillings. For a moment I
thought I had offended him, and, remembering the dean and the poor box,
was about to say, "Give it to a charity," when the official plaintively
inquired if I couldn't "make it a sovereign?"

* * * * *

[Sidenote: He discourses concerning the ethics of tipping.]

Give up the idea that tipping will succumb to any agitation. So long as
commodities have to be paid for in cash, and not in fine words and sweet
smiles, tipping will exist. The moral