Europe from a Motor Car

If there was an ascenseur in the hotel the elevator boy never looked insulted when we gave him ten or fifteen centimes. If extra service was rendered, we paid for it accordingly. This scale of tipping secured us good service in the small provincial towns. In the larger places the maître de l'hôtel (head waiter) plays a more important role and ranks in tipping dignity with the concierge. In Italy the equivalent of four cents per person would be considered liberal in most restaurants. In Germany, where the rise in cost of living is more noticeable than in France, the item of tipping was slightly larger. Austria gave us the most difficulty. Here the system is more complicated. The Speise-traeger who brings you food, the Piccolo who ministers to your thirst, the Zahl-kellner who receives payment for the bill, all expect their contribution of hellers. These dignitaries were ordinarily satisfied with tips of twenty, ten, and forty hellers in the order named. The value of hellers and centimes is so nearly equal that it was not confusing to pass from the Austrian to the French system of coinage.

The largest single item of expense was of course the cost of transportation, which always depends on the size and weight of the car. The cost of ocean transportation for an ordinary four-seated touring car would run from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and seventy-five dollars. To this amount must be added fifty dollars to cover cost of boxing. In our case, since the car was purchased abroad, it was necessary to pay a duty of thirty per cent on the original cost, minus the agent's commission of twenty-five per cent.

Transcriber's note:
The Illustration captions were printed without accents. This has been left as it was in the original.