While the tipping system may not be worse in France than in other countries, it is certainly nowhere more fully developed. It is said that in some of the fashionable restaurants of Paris the tips are so valuable that the waiters, instead of receiving wages, pay a bonus for a chance to serve. But all over Europe service of every kind is rewarded with tips, and a failure to comply with the custom makes the delinquent a persona non grata. At the hotels all the attendants seem to get notice of the intended departure of a guest and they line up to receive a remembrance—porter, chambermaid, valet, bell-boy, elevator man, and some whose faces are entirely new to the guest. The cab-drivers collect the fare fixed by city ordinance and expect a tip besides. Ten per cent is the amount usually given and anything less fails to elicit thanks. An Irish jaunting car driver at Queenstown took out his tip in making change. While the traveler is often tempted to rebel against the tip system as it is found in Europe, he finally concludes that he can not reform a continent in one brief visit and submits with as good grace as possible.
Guides can be found at all the leading hotels and they are well worth what they charge. They are acquainted with all places of interest, and can act as interpreters if one wants to make inquiries or do shopping.
The rivers of Europe which have been immortalized in poetry and song—the rivers whose names we learn when as children we study geography—are a little disappointing. The Thames at London, the Seine at Paris, the Tiber at Rome, the Danube at Vienna, the Spree at Berlin, the Po in northern Italy, and the Rhine are not as large as fancy has pictured; but the lakes of Switzerland surpass description.
I regretted that I could not visit the Bay of Naples for I never think of it without recalling the lines:
I care not if My little skiff Floats swift or slow From cliff to cliff.
With dreamful eyes My spirit lies Under the walls Of Paradise.
Surely it must be a delightfully restful place if it justifies the description given by the poet.
I was disappointed that I did not have time to see more of Germany. Berlin was the only city in which I stopped, and the fact that the holiday festivities were at their height made it difficult to prosecute any investigation. In another article I have discussed the German socialistic propaganda, and I shall here content myself with calling attention to their railroad system. The total railroad mileage at the end of the year 1900, as reported by the American consul, was 28,601. Of this mileage private companies owned 2,573, and the federal government 798, the remainder was owned by the various German states, some of the states owning but a few miles of line. The ownership of the railroads by the various states does not in the least interfere with the operation of the lines. The plan in operation in Germany suggests the possibility of state ownership in this country as distinguished from federal ownership.
In Austria I saw for the first time the systematic cultivation of forests. In some places the various plantings were near enough together to show trees of all sizes. At one side the trees were but a few feet in height while those at the other side of the forest were being converted into fuel.
Vienna, the capital of Austria, is not the "Old Vienna" which was reproduced at the Chicago World's Fair and at the Buffalo Exposition, but is a substantial, new, and up-to-date city. The stores exhibit an endless variety of leather goods, and I found there, as also in Belgium, many novelties in iron, steel and brass.