THE ENGINE WILL START EASILY If YOU FIRST FLOOD THE CARBURETTOR SLIGHTLY
CHAPTER VIII
TIPS—NECESSARY AND UNNECESSARY
Motoring now so general that an Owner of a Car is not any longer considered to be necessarily a Millionairess—Tipping should be on a sensible Basis—While the Motor-car has emphasised Tipping, nowadays the modest Shilling receives quite a Welcome—When to tip and when not to tip explained from Personal Experiences
If there is one thing more than another which the motor-car has revived and intensified it is the habit and practice of tipping. I need not give a lecture on tips. All of us agree, more or less, that the present-day tip is one of the banes of existence. But there are two sides to the question—one we as the givers of tips know a good deal about. Few know much about the other side—the side of the worker for and receiver of tips.
Tips must therefore be divided into two classes—the necessary tip and the unnecessary. There are more of the latter than the former. Under the head of necessary tips I would place the garage tip, whether the garage be a public one or a private one at the house of a friend. There are a few other necessary tips, such as when a friend lends you a car for a drive or a tour or when your friend’s chauffeur drives you to the railway station at an unusual hour or in very bad weather.
Luckily the motor-car is coming into such general use to-day that those who may possess one are not necessarily put down as millionaires. The chauffeur, attendants and servants generally are beginning to realise this and no longer expect a handful of money from every motoriste.
The amount of tips which should be given, in the numerous cases which I am going to mention, should depend on your income and ability to afford. That millionaires are not usually generous tippers is a well-known fact. Generally it is from the woman or man who is not very well off and who can ill afford it that the biggest tips come.
To those who count their half-crowns as worth a full thirty pence and value them accordingly, I would say—Do not be afraid to accept a friend’s invitation to visit them with your motor-car because you cannot afford to do much tipping. Be sensible about this matter and I can assure you that your friend’s chauffeur, or groom, will also be sensible and welcome the modest shilling or half-crown you give him.
Tipping at a public garage, if you keep your car there, has already been touched on in a previous chapter. If you go on a tour or a little trip, driving yourself, and put your car in a public garage or the one attached to your hotel or roadside inn, your car will not be touched unless you so order. Then for cleaning it, furnishing petrol, charging battery or anything else which may be wanted, there are regulation charges and these will be put down in your bill. The attendant at the garage may or may not be the man who did the work, but if he is it would be quite the proper thing to give him a small tip, just as you might tip the waiter or the chambermaid had they done any satisfactory work for you. But this need not be more than either waiter or chambermaid receive, and if your car has not been cleaned it is scarcely necessary to give the attendant even sixpence unless he has done some service for you.