Chicago: The Hotel Monthly Press, 1914.
Price: $2,200.00
Softcover. Third Edition, revised and enlarged. Narrow 12mo. 225, [2], 8 ads pp. Illustrated. Flexible black leatherette covers, with titles stamped in gilt. Owner's label front fly, obscuring original owner's holograph name, with an additional name and address on rear fly, very light wear else clean and near fine.
The third edition of John B. Goins's 1902 manual, the first edition was entitled *The American Colored Waiter*. Goins was an African-American headwaiter with 18 years experience serving in Chicago's upscale dining rooms, who also ran a school for black waiters. The waiters' job in these dining establishments was complex, demanding, and competitive - especially for black men. "By reacting immediately and cheerfully to the client's wishers - and all the clients in the expensive restaurants were white - the black waiter could be seen as assimilating the enforced obsequiousness and racial subordination that had been, and still was, the norm for all blacks in the South" (Alexandrov. "A Black Waiter in Gilded Age Chicago." The Black Russian Blog, 2012).
As a seasoned man, Goins's instructions to prospective waiters extended "to the entire man," dealing with everything from dress, demeanor and hygiene, to detailed diagrams on place settings and the handling of various dishes. In an effort to train waiters - particularly blacks - to become as harmonious with their surroundings as possible, Goins provides a list of "dont's" ranging from the innocuous to the critical:
DON'T pull your mustache
DON'T fail to report for duty without permission
DON'T play or get familiar with female help
DON'T complain about your work
DON'T dictate to guests
DON'T play in the kitchen
DON'T use tobacco or gum in the dining room,"
and above all - "DON'T strike."
The manual went through several incarnations, beginning with the first edition titled *The American Colored Waiter* (1902, 94pp.); by the time the second edition was published, with additional content, the title was modified to *The American Waiter* (1908, 152pp.). This final edition, considered the most complete, is substantially expanded from the previous two, retaining the modified title and issued with an additional 73 pages of content. Uncommon in commerce.
Item #443978
