Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Nke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: If you work as a food server in a restaurant
Speaker 1: or ever have, you can expect a typical customer interaction
Speaker 1: to go something like this. The customer arrives, they eat
Speaker 1: their meal, and then you take them their bill. When
Speaker 1: they pay, they hopefully leave you a nice tip. And
Speaker 1: then finally you clear the table of any remaining dishes,
Speaker 1: wipe off the table, and reset it for the next customers.
Speaker 1: After your shift, you count up all the tips you earned.
Speaker 1: Hopefully it's a good amount, because other than that, your
Speaker 1: employer probably only pays you a couple of dollars an hour,
Speaker 1: and there's a whole history behind that. The history of
Speaker 1: tipping in the United States is actually complex and controversial.
Speaker 1: Its origins can be traced back to medieval Europe, when
Speaker 1: the feudal system dictated that wealthy masters employed servants and
Speaker 1: paid them in tips. This practice continued in various forms
Speaker 1: across Europe and eventually made its way to America. Following
Speaker 1: the Civil War, Americans who traveled to Europe and European
Speaker 1: immigrants brought the custom back to the States. However, not
Speaker 1: everyone welcomed this practice with open arms. In fact, many
Speaker 1: found it offensive and un American people believed tipping was
Speaker 1: insulting and that it allowed employers to shirk their responsibility
Speaker 1: to pay fair wages. One such critic was William Howard Taft, who,
Speaker 1: during his presidential campaign in nineteen oh eight, was hailed
Speaker 1: as the champion of the anti tip movement. He prided
Speaker 1: himself on never tipping his barber, reflecting a sentiment shared
Speaker 1: by many who saw tipping as unjust. In nineteen fifteen,
Speaker 1: the anti tipping sentiment led to the passing of laws
Speaker 1: in states like Iowa, South Carolina, and Tennessee which aimed
Speaker 1: to abolish tipping altogether. Even Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky joined
Speaker 1: the fray, refusing to tip and arguing that tipping allowed
Speaker 1: capitalists to exploit the workers. But despite this resistance, opposition
Speaker 1: to tipping waned over time. A nineteen forty two Supreme
Speaker 1: Court ruling argued that employees had the exclusive right to
Speaker 1: their own tips, preventing employers from forcing those employees to
Speaker 1: share them with other workers. However, this ruling did little
Speaker 1: to address the underlying issue of low wages for tipped workers.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty six, Congress introduced the concept of the
Speaker 1: tip credit, which allowed employers to pay tipped employees a
Speaker 1: subminimum wage under the assumption that the tips would make
Speaker 1: up the difference. This is why, even today, the federal
Speaker 1: minimum wage for tipped employees remains as low as two
Speaker 1: dollars and thirteen cents per hour. Interestingly, while tipping originated
Speaker 1: in Europe, countries like France have long abandon the practice.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of debate these days about whether the
Speaker 1: US should do the same thing. After all, American people
Speaker 1: contested tipping as soon as the practice arrived here. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing. The people who opposed tipping didn't oppose
Speaker 1: it for all types of workers. You see, how tipping
Speaker 1: spread first through the US is darker and more complicated
Speaker 1: than tourists and immigrants simply introducing a concept. Let's go
Speaker 1: back to the post Civil War era. Millions of formerly
Speaker 1: enslaved people found themselves, without land, without education, and without
Speaker 1: employment opportunities. Restaurant owners began hiring them as workers, often
Speaker 1: paying them nothing and expecting them to rely solely on
Speaker 1: the tips from the customers as income. And the restaurant
Speaker 1: industry wasn't the only one taking advantage of people like this.
Speaker 1: Another example is a guy named George Pullman who specifically
Speaker 1: hired black back Southern men as porters for his Pullman
Speaker 1: Car company. These workers received inadequate wages and relied heavily
Speaker 1: on tips to survive. The prevailing racism of the time
Speaker 1: justified this exploitation, perpetuating the notion that it was acceptable
Speaker 1: for black workers to rely on tips while white workers
Speaker 1: deserve steady, livable wages. Even with the establishment of the
Speaker 1: first federal minimum wage law as part of the New
Speaker 1: Deal in nineteen thirty eight, restaurant workers were excluded, further
Speaker 1: entrenching the reliance on tips for income, and this exclusion
Speaker 1: codified the practice of paying workers solely through tips, cementing
Speaker 1: its place in American restaurant culture forever. Many people don't
Speaker 1: like to tip workers because they think that their employers
Speaker 1: should just pay them a decent wage in the first place. However,
Speaker 1: restaurant owners argue that in order to do that, they
Speaker 1: would have to raise all the menu prices. There's no
Speaker 1: telling where this debate will lead us. Restaurant culture has
Speaker 1: changed so much over the years, but hopefully there's even
Speaker 1: more to come. In the years following the Revolutionary War,
Speaker 1: the growth of this new nation skyrocketed. People started leaving
Speaker 1: the more populated cities on the east coast to explore
Speaker 1: and settle territories elsewhere, and not just out west either.
Speaker 1: Mainz population ballooned from about fifty six thousand to over
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand by eighteen twenty. Now, by this time,
Speaker 1: the original thirteen colonies had expanded to include states as
Speaker 1: far west as Missouri and Arkansas. Things were moving fast,
Speaker 1: and it was up to cartographers to keep up with
Speaker 1: it all. But no two maps were the same. Map
Speaker 1: making was at art as much as it was a science,
Speaker 1: and there was a heavy dose of politics involved too.
Speaker 1: You could take a map of the same part of
Speaker 1: the country drawn by two different individual map makers and
Speaker 1: they would show you shockingly different results, which was why
Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty two, the best way to get the
Speaker 1: lay of the land, so to speak, was to see
Speaker 1: it for yourself. That's when two Connecticut business men, Frederick
Speaker 1: and Roe Lockwood, started giving tours of the United States.
Speaker 1: Their father, Lambert, had made his living as a bookstore
Speaker 1: owner in Bridgeport, but his sons, wanting more, moved to
Speaker 1: New York City sometime during the eighteen tens, and several
Speaker 1: years later they came up with their big money making idea.
Speaker 1: Here's how it worked. They would offer customers the ability
Speaker 1: to see the country, but only if they could prove
Speaker 1: themselves first. It was a kind of contest in which
Speaker 1: travelers would be quizzed on the names of cities in
Speaker 1: each state. Sometimes they would be asked about the local populations,
Speaker 1: and they could only progress to the next location if
Speaker 1: they answered it correctly. Whoever made it to New Orleans
Speaker 1: by getting all the answers right won. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: There was no cash prize or free trip for the winner,
Speaker 1: only bragging rights because the Lockwood brothers weren't travel agents
Speaker 1: or did they guide anyone across the country. They were
Speaker 1: book publishers. They had started out by publishing titles from
Speaker 1: foreign countries before moving on to religious texts, but then
Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty two they branched out into a new
Speaker 1: industry entirely so new, in fact, that by all accounts,
Speaker 1: they started it all. They released a board game. It
Speaker 1: was called The Traveler's Tour of the United States, and
Speaker 1: it was designed to teach players about America's changing geography.
Speaker 1: The board game was printed on wood and relied on
Speaker 1: a numbered teetotem or spinner to determine how pieces moved.
Speaker 1: Dice were not allowed because they were considered tools for gambling.
Speaker 1: As many as four players could engage at one time.
Speaker 1: According to the official rules and I quote, the numbers
Speaker 1: commenced at Washington and end at New Orleans. The Traveler,
Speaker 1: arriving at New Orleans first, wins the game. On the
Speaker 1: opposite side of the game board was a list of rules,
Speaker 1: as well as information about each state on the map.
Speaker 1: This included its name, what it was known for, and
Speaker 1: its estimated population. The Traveler's Tour through the United States
Speaker 1: was sold around Christmas time, even though many New Yorkers
Speaker 1: back then didn't celebrate Christmas the way we do. The
Speaker 1: tradition of visiting family and exchanging gifts often occurred around
Speaker 1: New Year's Day. This explains the eighteen twenties newspaper advertisement
Speaker 1: the Brothers published. When their game was released, it read
Speaker 1: Valuable New Year Presence. The game was a big enough
Speaker 1: hit that it spawned two sequels, including one named Traveler's
Speaker 1: Tour through Europe and another titled Traveler's Tour around the
Speaker 1: World Now for a really long time. Historians believe that
Speaker 1: the first American board game ever produced was an eighteen
Speaker 1: forty three Christian morality game titled The Mansions of Happiness.
Speaker 1: It had been adapted from an English board game, one
Speaker 1: in which the player navigates a series of vices and
Speaker 1: virtues on their way to that thing in the title
Speaker 1: The Mansion of Happiness. But after a little bit of research,
Speaker 1: Traveler's Tour revealed itself as the prototype for all American
Speaker 1: board games going forward, and it held onto that title
Speaker 1: for a long time. It would be another sixty one
Speaker 1: years before another land based game, called The Landlord's Game
Speaker 1: would make its way into the public Created by Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Maggie in nineteen oh four, it was a not so
Speaker 1: subtle illustration of how the wealthy stayed wealthy by buying
Speaker 1: up properties and forcing everyone else off the board. Sound familiar, Well,
Speaker 1: that's because The Landlord's Game went on to inspire the
Speaker 1: creation of another game, Monopoly. But even though Monopoly has
Speaker 1: withstood the test of time, it lacks one thing that
Speaker 1: the travelers tour had in abundance, a whole lot of homework.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at Theworldoflore
Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.