The New York herald., 1872-10-18
Our Cab and Hack system.

A subject has been brought to the surface Of
late which all who are interested on one side
have regarded as hopeless. Need we say it is
the system Of hackney carriages which afflicts
New York? We have certain city ordinances
formulated and passed for the protection ~
of the public, but any well-ordered hackman
who has ever been known to care the crack of
whip for them would be curiosity. ft for
sideshow attraction to the Mayors Office.
Money could be made by exhibiting him at
handsome sum per head. We do not mean to
say that in this genteel class there are not
numbers of deserving men, who do as hon
estly as their opportunities for doing other
wise will admit; but with them, even, it is the
force Of individual honesty and early piety,
for the legal restraint is q fiction. In point
of fact, the person who desires to hire
coupe or clarence enters it with the conviction
that until he has heavily ransomed himself
he is in the power Of despot with lash on
the end of his sceptre and at needs another on
the end Of his tongue. In other words, with
Indifferent accommodation he is absolutely at
the caprice Of the driver as to what his fare
may be. Americans who went abroad to
travel have been heard to wonder that cabs
in their various European forms were under
police control, and that if they only took the
trouble to inquire into the rates Of hack hire
no extortion would take place. The genus
hackman is eminently knowing and discrimi-
mating, and although in London or Paris
verdant foreigner will be overcharged, as he
will anywhere else, the smallest twinkle of in
formation by the traveller upon the rates Of
fare will meet with an astonishingly quick
abatement Of cabbys pretensions. That
such an era may dawn in New York we fer
vently hope; what is more, we are deter
mined to pay some attention to the matter
until a real instead of an imaginary system Of
regulations is in force.
resolution has been brought before
the Board Of Assistant Aldermen to repeal a
section Of the present city ordinance which
forbids drivers leaving their vehicles to solicit
or stout" for fares. The law, as it stands
now, is almost dead letter, for drivers and
their runners can and do annoy and impor-
tune people to hire them as much as they
pAOucCs no iuOo Uhuu uAAvOAo oAC AOuAA~A "N~o
conspire to make the passage through num-
Der of them equal to running the gauntlet,
as recited Of medieval times, is no reason why
the luxury of this special annoyance should
be clothed, as the Assistant Alderman 8
resolution would provide, with legal right
We are assured that the great body Of virtuous
hack drivers do not desire any such privilege !;
that it is only sought in the interest OF the
| 'snight owls and other dark-visaged birds OF
prey who haunt the steamboat landings, the
| railroad depots and the other portions OF the
great town which open special opportunities
| for their double trade of hackman and thief.
We ore glad to find such spirit extant as
that possessed by the Hack Drivers Association,
! and are sure that this body will hail with
satisfaction stringent application Of the rules
already supposed to be in force. 1t would be
hard work to eradicate from the entire profess
sion the villains who will rob drunken fars
or perform any other scoundrelly piece o.
business Of which extortion is the smallest
for cabmen are only human, after all, and
there is frequently "a deal Of inhumanit!
abont man"