At 05:44 PM 8/8/97 -0500, Jon Miller wrote:
 
>Steve's theory also fits well with my failure to find any references to
>tips in the antebellum temperance literature I've been working with
>lately.  Even in the coldest of money-saving arguments, temperance
>advocates fail to score points by provoking outrage over the "hidden"
>expense of the tip.
...
>On the other hand this explanation does not consider the relationship
>between tipping bartenders and tipping bellhops, waitresses, cabbies,
>hairdressers, pizza boys and even the guy who tattoos you.  These
>practices are popularly considered as of a piece, too.
 
Just an observation: do you think there was any connection between tipping
and tippling, which I seem to recall being a concern of earlier temperance
reformers.  Tippling, the practice of buying rounds, was a form of
indulgence and extravagance that seems to have contradicted ideas of
frugality espoused by the emerging industrial bourgeoisie.  In the material
I've read, commentators also link tippling to addiction, with some
slippery-slope argument about how tippling=excess=addiction.
 
As I said, just an observation.
 
Dan Malleck
Dept of History
Queen's University
 
...if the truth be told, most historians work less like a scientist testing
a hypothesis than like a small boy fondling sea shells.
                Terry Parssinen, _Secret Passions, Secret Remedies_