e of revenue they constitute in many cases. We fail to
realise that, were servants well paid, "tipping" would not take the form
of an imposition. Employers, especially at hotels and restaurants,
either give ridiculously low wages, or suppress these altogether, and in
many establishments hire the tables to the waiters at so much a day or
week for the privilege of serving. At present this custom has become so
deeply rooted that it has given growth to a most perfect secret code of
signs and marks by which each class of servants is informed how much he
has to expect from the liberality of the inexperienced and unwary
stranger. This applies especially to hotel servants, and has become the
crying abuse against which we try to react. This code is not local, but
has acquired an internationality which professors of Volapuk would be
proud to claim for their language. I remember once an irascible old
gentleman complaining bitterly against the incivility of the hotel
servants, who never helped him with his traps. He found no exception to
the rule except when his wanderings took him to some remote part of
Scotland, where, he assured me, the "_braying of the socialist pedants
had not yet been heard_." I suspected that my friend was not
over-generous, and timidly sounded him on the point. His reply confirmed
my suspicion. I thereupon showed him the cause of the servants'
inattention, amounting sometimes even to rudeness--a _little chalk mark
on each bag_. I advised him to carefully wipe that off after leaving the
hotels. The effect was most satisfactory--my friend has had no reason
to complain since, at least when he got into a hotel. The position of
hotel labels also serves to indicate if anything can be expected from
the traveller. Of course, this is not countenanced by "mine host," who
dismisses the user of such messages, but as that man is generally a
wide-awake and useful rogue, there is little doubt but that he is
reinstated in his functions shortly after the traveller is gone. Beggars
and tramps have a similar system of conveying to their _confreres_
information as to the likely reception they may expect from the
occupants of the different residences on the road. They never fail to
warn them against dogs and other disagreeable surprise or dangers,
should they by some unaccountable absent-mindedness forget that there is
such a thing as the eighth commandment. In conclusion, _pourboire_,
_buona mancia_, _backshish_, tipping or brib