The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1872-02-27
THE LONDON CABS.

months, and my only business was TO sec
it, both by daylight and after dark. do
not know how much money l spent during
that time for cab hire, Mt sixpence n mile,
in exploring the great city, or, as Thomas
Carlyle has it, the world of London.
The cab of London is the great leveler,
and is used alike by prince and costermon-
GER. Do you remember the Mordaunt di-
vorce case of last summer, in which no.
BILE English Earl brought suit against his
wife for confessed in6delity? A witness
testified that Lady Mordaunt acknowledged
of her own accord that she was guilty of
her own discretion with the Prince of
Wales and others. This brought the Prince
into court to clear his reputation, and, in
the course of his examination, the question
was asked if His Royal Highness was accus-
toned to ride in public cabs and his an
swer was, eyes, frequently" No one
could see what the question had to do with
the case, but it served to show what was
the custom of even royalty. And any We
hcle or class of vehicles that Albert Ed
ward honors with his august presence can
never be too common for the daily use of
the highest nobility and gentry Of the king
dom. The titled lady who rides down OK
ford street or Picadilly in the morning in a
hackney cab, will probably be seen the
same afternoon in Rotten Row upon a
blood steed worth thousands, and surround
ed by Earls and Marquises.
Call the nearest cab to take you any
where, and you will recline against cush-
ion which, perhaps, has just been pressed
by the jeweled hands of a Duchess, or still
retains faint odor of gin and water, ex-
hailed by some tremulous hag lately hauled
to the parish workhouse.
The London cabman is at once your cab
the vast metropolis, with no human soul
for an acquaintance, and with no knowledge
of it's inexplcable labrynth of streets and
thoroughfares, save simple address in a
strange and by you, unheard of locality,
hail the first cabman who drives by, get in
and tell him where you want to 60. You
can trust him implicitly. If the place is
anywhere in London or the suburbs he will
be sure to find it. Through all the ins and
outs, and winding and turnings, along dark
alleys and grimy lanes, driving carefully
over wretched, broken pavements, amid
filth and squalor or dashing down brilliant
ly lighted avenues, thronged with the equi-
pages of wealth and fashion, never fear
that he is not taking the shortest course or
will not bring you to your journeys end as
speedily as possible. He knows what he is
about Whether it is one mile or ten miles,
is all the same to him, and he never stops
or hesitates, until he reins in his horse with
jerk, shouts out cheerily, "Ere we are,
sir" And he does not try to cheat in your
fare. Suppose he does charge you whole
mile further than he has gone. 1t is only a
sixpence, anyhow. That is not much of a
"gouge," and if he sees you are gentle
man, he had as lief tell you he has asked a
little too much as not, and if you see fit to
add couple of pence to get q glass of ale,
he will drink your health heartily, and sim
cerely too.
1t is not strange that all foreign travellers
who land in New York complain of the mis-
cradle hack system of the American cities.
A California United States Senator ar
rived at the Metropolitan Hotel, in New
York. In the evening he concluded to go
and see Forest as Coriolanus." In front
of the hotel he found a hackman, and told
him to drive him to Nibo's Garden. Said
hackman drove him round nineteen blecks,
and landed him safely at the theatre, wait
ed until 3he theatre was out, and then drove
round seventeen blocks back to the hotel
His fare was fifteen dollars. 1t was not un-
til the enext day that the successful politician
discovered that both the hotel and theatre
were under the same roof, and that the en-
trance to each were less than twenty feet
apart.
An American gentleman once gravely in
formed me that he had seen the whole of
London in one day. Seen all Of London in
one day--how? His time was limited; he
had but one day to spend in the city. He
was provided with a list of the noted OBJ
jects of interest, commencing with West
minister Abbey, and ending at Madame
Tussard's exhibition of wax-work. Rising
early in the morning he employed cab
man, promising him a couple of shillings in
addition to his regular fare If he put him
through the list before night. He agreed,
at the same time suggesting the propriety
of drinking an occasional glass of ale dur
ing the day. This was readily assented to-
The traveller found his cabman the best