The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1872-02-27
Glbe 0iaressoNew Btoonlielo, pa,

moil with cabmen. They carry a table of
distances in their pocket and never pay a
fare without an alteration or quarrel.
They look upon cabmen as natural born
robbing Williams, created only for the pur-
pose of being wrangled with, and they
would be disappointed if one of them qui-
etly accepted the short fare they tender
him. The women are worse than the men.
You can scarcely pass through any street
| in the business part of London without
seeing some rcd-faced woman or sharp
faced dowager or sharp-nosed spinster
shrielSing with rage, or going into mock
Mysteries, because cabman demands his
legal fare, which she fully intends to pay,
but will not yield the point until she has
shown him and the bystanders her indo-
pendence, and her opinion of extortion, and
informed everybody of her position in So
ciety, and her acquaintance with Lord this
or Lady that or Sir somebody else. The
cabmen recognizes this class of persons at
glance-in fact by constant practice,
they become judges of human nature-and
they receive them with submissive resigna-
ton, and part them with them with relief.
You need never have any trouble with a
London cabman if you treat him with the
least liberality. He understands you in a
moment, and while you are in his charge
he is your friend. A sixpence or a shilling
over his fare is almost charity anyhow.
Look at him. That man with his rough
overcoat and battered hat and fragment of
horse blanket over his knees, with i'm
mense pudge hands and broad cheeks so
Redeemed by exposure to the storms of win
ter and summer, by day and by night, that
they look like great pieces of raw beef lined
will blue VEINS has wife and seven chill
drer living over the stable, where his horse
is kept. He must clear two dollars day
fol the owner of the horse and cab before
he receives anything for himself and family.
If it is a bad day and he takes in less than
that, he falls so far behind hand, and must
make it up another time. A rather preca-
rious way of getting livlihood in the great
city of London, l assure you. A good
fellows who ten years or twenty years ago
were known as young men about town;
Bond street loungers and swells around
Convent Garden Theatre; young fellows
who sported diamond studs in their shirt
fronts, sailed on the food tide along the
sunny side of Regent street, flirtcd with
the ladies, and on Sundays drove out to
Richmond, four-in-hand. Times have
changed since then.
He has come to it at last. The claimants S
box affords him the refuge it has afforded
to hundreds of the same class before. He
takes to his fate kindly; he is not soured
with the world, but as he drives along the
street you can see, by the half-serious, half
jocular twinkle ofthe eye, that he knows
thing or two. If you have delicate mis-
sion to execute, he is just the man to exc
cute it, and if there are ladies in the case,
he will astonish you by his sagacity and fer
tility in expedients.
With the cab system the Londoner or
the stranger even, is always at home in the
vast metropolis in any locality, and at any
hour of the day or night. Four millions
and half of dollars are spent annually for
cab fares in London, at sixpence per mile,
or two shillings per hour. No matter
where you are, whether in the meretricious
blaze of the haymarket at two O'Clock in
the morning, or away off in the blackest
and remote suburb, five, ten, fifteen miles
from home, in any imaginable condition
yourself, you can always find cab in five
minutes.
Tell the driver where you want to go,
1901 Strands wherever it is you live, then
tumble into the corner of the seat and sleep
soundly until he draws up in front of your
door, and arouses you with shake. If
you cannot find the keyhole, he will find it
for you, and when you pay him shilling
beyond his fare, he will put his knuckles to
his forehead and make you bow, and
when he picks up his reins to drive off will
mentally calculate that he "knowed how
that was a gentleman"
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