before me were burning low; my eyes rested
on the table; the dead man's manuscript was
gone!

DON'T!

THERE is probably no country in Europe
where, compared with the amount of the
population, so little is spent in gratuities as in
England. It will be understood that, in speaking
of gratuities, I am in no way treating of
charitable donations, contributions to good
works, public or private, or indeed of any
branch of almsgiving. My assertion is made
with regard rather to complimentary presents,
what were formerly termed vails, or more
properly vales, and now are more generally known
as tips. In other countries immense sums are
disbursed in this way. In Holland, a gentleman
going to spend a night at a friend's house
Avill leave a sum not much short of three pounds
behind him distributed among the servants. In
Belgium, as a guest leaves the house where he
has been feasting, he passes down a lane of
domestics, who stand there waiting to be
tipped; and in France, the étrennus, or New
Year's gifts, amount to such a tax that I have
even seen a French work on the national
customs obtaining in France, in which the reader
is recommended to feign a month's absence
from Paris at the coming in. of the new year, in
order to avoid the otherwise inevitable drain
upon his finances.

But though the imposts laid upon us in this
country are lighter than those by which some of
our neighbours are burdened, we ourselves have
yet, in connexion with this subject, serious
matter for complaint, as any person of limited
income, and of social habits, will find if he will
systematically set down all that he spends in
gratuities in the course of a single year. Those
who go out a great deal, or who visit much at
friends' houses, and those who travel, will find
this especially, though they are far from being
the only classes which suffer largely in this way.
But perhaps the members of the community on
whom the necessity of spending money in
gratuities falls most heavily, are young men of good
birth and connexions, but narrow means; and
unmarried ladies similarly situated. Many a
young ensign, or cornet—this is no imaginary case
—who is at this time of year actually unable to
accept the offer of a day's shooting at a country-
house, because he really cannot afford the sum
which he will be expected to spend among the
servants with whom the day's transactions will bring
him in contact. And well may he shrink from so
expensive a day's pleasure. By the time that he
has presented the gamekeeper with a guinea-fee,
by the time that the butler has been rewarded
in a manner becoming that gentleman's dignity,
by the time that the man who brings the hot
water and the brushed clothes into the room in
the morning, the housemaid, the gamekeeper's
assistants, and perhaps the groom who drives our
young friend over to the station in a dog-cart,
have all been duly acknowledged, the guest will
find that his day's shooting has, in gratuities
alone, cost him upwards of a couple of pounds,
a sum which, if he gets many invitations, he will
find it very inconvenient to spend whenever he
ventures to accept one of them. It is really
difficult to understand why this state of things
should exist. Every one of these servants is
well fed, well clothed, and well paid. Their
wages are paid by their master that they may
do their work, fulfil all the duties of their
respective positions, and among other things, most
assuredly, attend to the wants of their master's
guests. Why are those guests to contribute a
supplementary salary, and a high one too, for
the benefit of each one of their friend's
domestics?

But the evil of which we are complaining is
by no means confined to the depredations which
we suffer from when we fall into the hands of
our friend's gamekeepers or other of his
retainers. When we come in contact with hotel
or tavern waiters, with railway porters, and with
other officials of the same kind, are we not
immediately expected to dive into our waistcoat-
pockets? It is very well to say that the different
railway stations have notices placed about them
to the effect that the porters have no right to
receive any fee in return for the services
rendered by them to the public. It is very well
also to put down "attendance" in the hotel bill,
and to say that servants are "charged for." The
fact whatever the theory may be—the fact,
we say, is, that if a railway-porter does not see
sixpence- or a shilling gleaming in your eye he
will be reluctant to show you any attention.
Be the rules what they may, the porter who
renders you any service at the railway station
demands a recompense for it, just as plainly and
unmistakably by his manner and bearing as if
he asked for it in so many words; while in the
case of the hotel waiter we are worse off still,
as his services are charged for in the bill, and
he yet expects (and generally gets) a fee besides,
to induce him, we suppose, to put up with the
affront of being mentioned in his master's little
account.

I believe that none but very stringent
measures will ever be of service in getting rid
of the gratuity tax. I have heard, though I
cannot vouch for the fact, that there are some
proprietors of country mansions who put up
in all the spare rooms in their houses an earnest
request that no money may be given by any
guest to the servants of the establishment, as it
is contrary to the rule of the house that they
should receive it. It must be owned that such
a system as this would give to a country-house
rather the look of an inn, but the rule in itself,
would be an excellent one. The question is,
whether it would be in any degree more effective
than the somewhat similar announcement found
at railway stations? Would it really arrest the
hand of the guest on its way to his waistcoat-
pocket? I should be disposed to fear not.
The real fault in this matter lies more, far
more, with the giver of the gratuity than with
the receiver. It is not, as might at first be