TWO ENGLISH NUISANCES--DRESS AND TIPS.
With that propensity for lying on the part of traveled men and women to
which I have had occasion to refer, the intending tourist is warned by
all who have crossed the water to take as little clothing as possible,
for the reason that "you can get any clothes you want in London at half
the money, and then you have the style, you know." What infernal spirit
seizes traveled people and compels such terrible falsification, I cannot
conceive.
Quality considered, clothing is no cheaper in London than in New York.
Which is to say, if you are so lost to all sense of what is due yourself
and the world as to wear such clothes as the Londoner does, you can get
them quite as cheaply in New York as in London, and even if you want bad
clothes the style will be better. Should the American tailor try ever so
hard to make a badly-fitting garment, his conscience, his taste, his
everything, would rebel against doing such work as the English tailor
considers quite good enough for anybody.
You can get at a fairly fashionable shop in London a suit of black or
blue, frock coat, trowsers and vest, for five pounds, which looks very
cheap to one who has been in the habit of paying sixty-five dollars for
the same clothing in New York or Boston.
But just wait till you get the clothes and the idea of cheapness goes
like dew under a July sun. All there is cheap in the transaction is the
suit. The material is very cheap, cheap to the point of flimsiness, and
the making--heaven help you--it is thrown together. There are no stays
to the pockets, no reinforcing to the seat, no leather on the inside of
the bottoms of the trowsers, and the linings of the coat and vest, or
waistcoat, as these semi-barbarians call it, are of the cheapest and
flimsiest material that a devilish ingenuity can weave. The suit cannot
possibly wear a month and look decent.
But the worst is yet to come. You try it on. We will suppose the coat to
be a single-breasted frock. You are immediately astonished at the
liberality of your tailor in the matter of cloth, for when you draw the
lapels together you find yourself able to button the right hand one on
the left hand shoulder.
"Too much cloth in front," you remark.
"I thought you wanted an easy fit!" the villain answers without a blush.
"So I did, but I did not want all the cloth in your shop."
Then comes an animated discussion. You insist that it never has been
your habit to go about in a sack, that you prefer not to appear habited
in a bag. The tailor stands off a foot or two, and admits that while it
is perhaps "a trifle easy," it is still a proper garment and quite in
the mode. But if you prefer he will alter it. Prefer! why it will fit
Daniel Lambert. It is twice too large for you and of course it must be
altered. Then he takes French chalk, and makes a lot of marks on it and
you leave it. In a few days he sends it to you altered. You put it on,
and commence swearing if you are a profane man, and objurgating, if you
are not. I objurgated. For the trowsers hang about your legs like bags,
the waistcoat climbs up the back of your neck to the ears, the coat is
loose where it should fit closely, it is tight where it should be easy,
the skirts hang about you awkwardly, it is angular, stiff and awkward,
and yet it comes so near to being a garment that you are compelled to
take it, especially, as, following the advice of the infernal tourist
who said to you to take only one suit with you, you must have it at
once. And so you put it on, and go out into the street, feeling as
though you were an object to be stared at, and blighted. You bear not
only the burden of physical discomfort, for a misfit is always
uncomfortable, but have the consciousness that you are badly dressed,
and that every bad point in your physical make-up, is made still more
conspicuous by the lack of skill in a tailor.
[Sidenote: THE MIX IN CLOTHES.]
The only comfort you have is that everybody else is just as badly
apparelled. Your American friends know at a glance that it is not your
fault, but that you have passed under the blighting shears of an English
tailor, and your English friends are all in the same fix. But then they
enjoy bad clothes, never having had any other.
There were four Americans in one house in London who each ordered a suit
of clothes of one tailor at one time. The four suits came home Saturday
evening, and were all tried on Sunday morning. One was tall and slender,
another short and stout, the third was dumpy, and the fourth was medium
in height and breadth.
[Illustration: THE SUITS COME HOME.]
No. 1 rushed into my room. "Look here," he exclaimed "there is a mistake
somewhere. These clothes must be yours. They were never made for me."
No. 2 entered. "These d----d trowsers must be yours. They were never
made for me."
And in a minute No. 3 came in with the same exclamation. An examination
of the addresses on the wrapping paper showed, however, that each had
received the clothes intended for him, notwithstanding that each suit
would have better fitted some other man. And then I soothed them by
explaining that the English tailor makes all clothes alike; that he goes
upon the supposition that every man should be so high, and so broad, and
that measurement is a mere form gone through with as a professional
fraud, the same as a lawyer looks the wisest when he knows the least;
and that to make any fuss about it would result in nothing, and the only
thing to do was to take them, pay for them, and wear them while in
England. They were no worse off than everybody else, and that they
should be philosophical and content. One remarked, with a great deal of
truth, that all the philosophy in the world wouldn't make a six foot man
look well in a pair of trowsers constructed for a five foot sixer, and
another that he knew of no philosophy that would support one under the
trying affliction of a coat that bagged on the shoulders and in the
back, and that had no more shape to it than a bean sack.
That is where they were wrong. That is what philosophy is made for.
England has given the world its greatest philosophers, her philosophers
being made necessary by her tailors, the same as every country that
cherishes an especially poisonous serpent, also grows a particularly
powerful antidote, and the snake and antidote grow together.
The women dress a trifle worse than the men--their dressmakers are a
trifle worse than their tailors. If an English woman would only buy her
gowns ready made, it would be better, for there would be a chance--only
a slight one, it is true, but yet a chance--of her getting a fit; but
she will not. She goes to the most expensive modiste, "to get something
good," and then all hope of a prettily dressed woman is gone, and gone
forever.
[Sidenote: A BADLY DRESSED PEOPLE.]
You can tell an American or French woman as far as you can see one. The
neatly fitting dress, so neatly fitting as to make you almost think the
woman had been melted and poured into it, the dress of which an American
girl said, that when she got into it she felt as if she had been born
again; the neat little shoe; the grace with which the dress is carried,
and the grace of the woman who carries it; all contrast terribly with
the angular gown, the shawl badly hung, and awkwardly worn, the ugly
shoe and the large foot it covers, and the square, steady,
grenadier-like step of the English woman.
No matter how expensive the material, or how costly the garments, no
matter how much Nature has done for the Englishwomen, (and they are, as
a rule, magnificent specimens of womankind,) they can't dress, and
consequently lose half their attractiveness. They have strength, but
they sadly lack grace.
It is all well enough for me, for I prefer badly fitting clothes,
desiring to keep down to the ordinary level, and not be made too
conspicuous; but it is hard upon those less favored, and who need to
reinforce nature by art.
But always bear this in mind. When you come abroad bring with you all
the clothes you think you will need, unless, indeed, you come flying
light in the matter of baggage for convenience of transit. If that is
your idea it is well, but if you come expecting to furnish yourself in
England at a less price, or to get superior styles, you will be the
worst deceived man or woman in the world. Quality considered, there is
nothing cheaper than in America, and, as for style, it is a Parisian
dandy to a Hottentot. The English tailor is the most detestable
cloth-butcher on the globe. So unutterably bad is he that I cannot
ascribe his miracles of misfits to lack of mechanical skill, or general
imbecility; there must be underlying his work a fiendish purpose and
determination. The English tailor or dressmaker must be a misanthropic
individual who has a spite against the human race, and they must have a
vengeance to wreak which they accomplish in this way.
I don't wish it to be understood that all English men and women are
badly dressed. I have seen some most charming toilettes, but on inquiry
I found that they were well-to-do people who could afford to go to Paris
to get their clothes, or those who had just returned from New York.
If you desire to be well dressed in London, take your clothes with you.
This is the parting advice of a sufferer and victim. I have paid for my
experience--I give it to my readers gratis. That is what I am here for,
and I shall discharge my duty regardless of consequences.
The next principal nuisance you meet in England is the system of
"tipping." "Tipping," be it known, is gratuities given to servants, or
whomsoever does anything for you which, in any other enlightened country
on the face of the globe, is considered an act of courtesy, or a matter
of right.
It commences the moment you leave the dock at New York. You have paid a
very large sum for your passage, enough to entitle you to every comfort
that money can buy. But there sets upon you immediately a horde of
blood-suckers who never let go, till, gorged, they drop off at
Liverpool. There is a sovereign to the man who makes your bed; there is
the chamber-maid, there is the table steward, the smoking-room steward,
the deck steward; there are collections for asylums in Liverpool; there
are collections for the man who attends to the purser's room, where a
select few are treated to a little refreshment at five in the afternoon;
there are fees for showing the machinery of the vessel; there are tips
for the Lord only knows what. The only thing free about the vessel is
the water outside, and could a scheme be devised for making you pay for
a sight of that it would be put into operation at once.
Then there is the English hotel. The landlord measures you as you come
in. He inventories you. He says "this man will stand six pounds, or
eight may be. That will leave him enough to get back to London, with a
cab fare to take him to his lodgings." And so when he makes his bill he
manages to make it to the exact amount of what he thinks you have about
your person, irrespective of what accommodation you have received. In
paying this enormous bill should you display more money than he supposed
you carried, he gnashes his teeth and howls with rage. But he very
seldom gnashes or howls. He is a very skillful person, and knows
intuitively to a half-sovereign how much you will, or rather can, bleed.
[Sidenote: AT AN ENGLISH HOTEL.]
You contract for your room for so much a day--and the sum is always a
round one--and it is explained to you that you may order your meals from
a bill of fare, the price of each dish being set down opposite its name.
Very good, you say to yourself, I know now what I am to pay, and you
fall to work. Do you? Not much. There stands a waiter, who makes a
frantic effort to appear like a man, but only succeeds in getting to
where Darwin commenced the human race. But he rubs his hands, and
smirks, and smiles, and brings you your orders, and still smiles and
smiles, and would be a villain were there enough of him. He does all he
can in this direction, however.
When you are through, you rise and prepare to get out. The waiter stops
you with an obsequious smile in which there is much determination, and
remarks, "the waiter!" You are made to understand that he expects a
shilling. You give it to him. Getting to your room you want a pitcher of
water. A servant brings it, and waits till you give him a six pence. You
take a drink--if you do drink--I know this from seeing other
victims--you pay for the drink, and the servant who brings it to you
expects and manages to get three pence. The boy who cleans your boots
wants six pence, the chambermaid who sweeps your room wants a shilling,
the boy who goes down to see if you have any letters wants six pence,
and after paying for all this you get your bill. Understand you have
already paid exorbitant prices for each and every bit of service you
have received, but nevertheless, there in your bill is an item,
"attendance four days, eight shillings." You pay it without a murmur,
externally; and hope you are done with it. Not so. As you leave the
hotel, there stands the entire retinue of servants, the boots, the
chambermaid, the bar-man, the bell-boy, all with their hands extended,
and every one expecting a parting shower of small coin. You pay it.
There is no other way to do.
You see how it is. You pay the servants for the performance of every
possible duty when they perform it; you then pay the landlord for the
duties already paid for, and then as you leave the house you pay the
servants over again. Three times for the same service, and that whether
any service has been rendered or not.
You get into your cab and drive to the station. The legal fare is one
and six pence. The cabby expects six pence in addition, for himself, the
porter who shows you what car to get into, with the uniform of the
company on his back, expects four pence for that, the other porter who
takes your valise to the car-door, must be fed, and so on, and so on
forever and forever.
I tried conclusions with a hotel clerk in a city in England, but I shall
never do it again. There is no use. You might as well submit first as
last. You may struggle, but they have you as certainly as their
ancestors and prototypes, the old Barons, had the Jews.
I went to bed at night with two candles on the mantel. It was bright
moonlight, and as I had read my regular chapter in the Revised Testament
in the office, I had no occasion for light. I simply wanted to get into
bed, therefore I didn't light the candles, at all.
The next morning I found in my bill a charge for two candles, two
shillings. I protested.
"I used no candles," I said.
"But they were there," was the cool reply. "Perhaps you used matches--it
is all the same."
"But I didn't use matches, and if I did, I had my own."
"We do everything for the comfort of the guests of the house. There were
candles and matches for you."
He never blushed but took the two shillings as coolly as possible,
receipted the bill and said "Thank you," and hoped if I ever visited the
place again I would call upon them.
[Illustration: THE CANDLE EPISODE.]
I presume I shall. It doesn't make any difference where you go, it is
all the same; and if you are to be swindled, it is preferable to have it
done by somebody you have a slight acquaintance with.
It reminded me of the man who built a tavern in Indiana. A traveler
stopped with him one night, and the next morning asked for his bill.
[Sidenote: THE ENGLISH LANDLORD.]
"Twelve hundred and fifty dollars," said the landlord, promptly.
"Twelve hundred and fifty dollars for one day! It is outrageous!"
"It is a little high," said the landlord, "but I'll tell you how it is.
I opened this house exactly a year ago yesterday. I expected to make a
thousand dollars the first year, and you are the first customer I have
had. I ought to charge you a little more to cover insurance, but I like
you, and don't want to be hard on you. Twelve hundred and fifty dollars
will do."
The English landlord likewise makes out his bill with the calm
confidence that he will never see his guest again. He seldom does--if
the guest can help it.
[Illustration: THE LITTLE BILL.]
I have orated much against the American hotel clerk and his diamond pin
and cool insolence, but I shall never do it again. He is a babe in arms
as compared with his English brother.
[Illustration: GETTING READY TO LEAVE A HOTEL.]
The system of feeing goes into everything and everywhere. You are
begrudged a breath of fresh air, unless you are willing to tip somebody,
and I suppose a tip would be required for a snore, if a servant could
possibly get into your room.
[Illustration: THE LAST STRAW.]
In fact, you cannot go anywhere in London without the everlasting and
eternal tip, except the British Museum. That is the single and sole
exception. There, on certain days, there is no admission fee, and you
pay nothing for having your cane and umbrella cared for. But everywhere
else you pay an admission fee, you pay a swindler for taking your cane,
and you pay the guide for giving you an entirely unintelligible account
of what is to be seen. Even Westminster Abbey, the most sacred spot in
England, has its regular system of tips. It is not as it was in the
Temple of Jerusalem, in the time of our Savior. There were money
changers there--here the vergers give no change. They keep all you give
them. Consequently they are not liable to be scourged out.
[Illustration: THE CABMAN TIPPED.]
In the restaurants there is a charge on the bills for attendance, but
nevertheless you are expected to tip the man who waits upon you. By the
way, these waiters get no pay for their services; they pay the
proprietors a bonus for their places.
[Sidenote: WOULD THE QUEEN ACCEPT A TIP?]
The hackney coach driver gets about two shillings a day from the
proprietors of his vehicles, and makes his money from his customers. The
man who drove us down to the Derby expected, and did not expect in vain,
for he demanded it directly, two shillings each from his twelve
passengers, notwithstanding the fact that we had paid twelve dollars and
fifty cents each for our passage.
[Illustration: THE UNIVERSAL DEMAND.]
It runs through everything. I will not say that the Queen herself
divides with her servants the tips they receive, for I do not know. I
will not make statements rashly. But I presume she does. I do not see
how so important a source of revenue should escape her notice, or be
neglected. I shall not offer her sixpence when I inspect any of her
palaces, nor do I say she would take it from me. But so firmly fixed is
the infernal system, so much is it a part of English life, that I verily
believe it would wrench the amiable old lady's heart not to take it, and
I also believe that she would so manage that I should not get away with
it in my possession.
Oh! my countrymen! It is my duty to warn you against a great impending
danger. The system of tipping is, gradually but surely, getting its
rapacious fingers upon your vitals. It has its clammy grasp upon your
sleeping cars; it is gradually working into hotels, and everywhere else.
Strangle the monster in its infancy. Declare war upon it at once, and
fight it to the death. Refuse to pay the sleeping car porter for what
you have already paid the corporation of which he is an excrescence.
Refuse sternly to fee the servant at a hotel, the porter who handles
your trunk, and the man who waits on you at table. When he says to you,
"My wages are small, and I must have fees," say to him, kindly but
firmly, "Either make the proprietor pay you proper wages or quit his
employ. If you cannot plow or hammer stone, go out quietly and die for
the good of the many. It is not necessary that you should wear a
swallow-tailed coat, and make more for trivial services than the average
mechanic does for a hard day's work. We will none of it."
And so shall you rid yourself of the most infernal nuisance that
afflicts England, the one petty worriment that makes the life of the
tourist unhappy. We can endure a giant monopoly, but these small
tyrannies are unbearable.
[Illustration: THE LORD MAYOR'S SHOW--ON THE THAMES.]