The Sunday herald., 1882-03-19
4 IOCAL NEED.

prepared for it at 400 Tenth street
A LOCAL NEED.
Why cannot Washington have line of
cheap cabs, like London, Paris, Vienna, and
other capitals of great countries This
question has often been asked before, but
never receives any adequate answer. Let us
suppose a man wishes to drive rapidly from
hi hotel to the Capitol or a railway station.
II is willing to pay several times his car
ft:e, which, of course, is cheap enough here,
(though the accommodations are generally
nasty, and slow, in proportion but he fnas
he cannot do anything short of hiring great
lnmbering four-wheeler, adapted to hold six
people almost as easily as one, and drawn
with the most pathetic waste of natural
economy, by tro horses, as if the single pas
sen ser weighed ton. The driver has proha-
bly, been doing on his stand all day, and
may have TO depend on this one trip to feed
h brutes, his family, and himself, besides
paying for wear and tear of his heavy vehicle.
1t is no wonder that dollar is the very least
he will look at under ordinary circumstances,
and that many times he will resort to irregu-
N 4ed police regulation apparently under any
system; the question now is in regard to the
service Of the public. With an adequate
supply of small, light-running, one-horse
vehicles, such as could so well ply over our
smooth streets, two persons with their lug
gage and q child extra, if required, could
easily be whisked off to the train, to the
Capitol, or to an evening entertainment at
one-fourth the price, and it might almost be
said in one-half the time that the lverymen
or " night liners " exact. The investment
for capital seems SO tempting that it is a
wonder there is any necessity to argue about
it. The only reason we can see for adhering
to he 'hack - is that it gives an opportunity
for using up the battered wrecks of old family
coaches which would otherwise go to the
lnackers, while cabs require to be specially
built. Against this in to be set the continual
feeding, grooming, Gfthey ever arcgroomed, }
etc, of the extra horse required by the hack
And when we come to compare the probable
earnings of the two systems, the above con-
sideration becomes futile. 1t is not merely
the class who ride in street cars rather
than hacks that cabs would largely draw
upon there is another very large class who
actually walk because carriages are now lit
tie too expensive and street-cars are repul-
sive or do not 60 exactly the right way
and We may further add 4 very important
class who keep their own carriages, and
would either dispense with them altogether
or at least keep them in the stable during
bad weather or at night, in favor of cheap
cabs, if well organized. The haok-stand
nuisance would then settle itself. Cabs
could be kept under shelter at few conve-
nient points, subject to call by District
Telegraph or telephone, or when on the
streets would be so constantly in requisition
that the question of their standing any
where would not amount to grave issue.
We have no animosity against the present
generation of Washington hackmen. We
have found good men and bad among them,
as in other human vocations. We rather
pity them and speak in their interest when
we see them trying to make a living on the
fundamental error or folly of keeping two
horses to do the work of one, and so putting
a prohibitory tariff on their own wares
They would all do much better in the service
of consolidated company, leaving the
family carriage business to the livery stables,
on special orders.
1t is said we are not to have any more
tramways laid in this city. This is well
enough in itself, but it requires something
10 take their place in the new sections.
Lines Of fast buses, like the Herdics, can do
much, but for population like ours, fond
of the best comfort and impatient of any de.
lay, cabs can do far more. As a New York
paper says in discussing this question there:
The difference between going In a cab from your
house. or from stand to your place Of destination
and going In public conveyance like car, which
Involves pedestrian labor at the beginning and at the
end is difference, not Of degree, but OF klnd-the
difference between comfortable and convenient trans
poTtatlOn In vehicle which temporarily belongs 10
you, and the public consignment OF yourself wedged
In with a ear-full Of other flares - TO be carried
from street 20 street or terminus to terminus-on n
small scale much as sheep cattle are carried 'on
the hOof - from Chicago 70 the seaboard
II no progress had been made In New York for
Washingonl during the past twenty-five years In the
direction OF cheap cabs there would be reason for
scepicism as to the possibility Of further cab reform
II might be doubted whether any large class existed
iu the city which recognized the Importance of the
difference between the oommunistIc and tho
system Of transportation. But matter Of fact the
advance that has been made shows that there Is such
class, ana that il Is a growing one. Twenty -hye
years ago there We're no cabs In New York, and the
''h hack - MAS the only means OF private ranspora-
ton. The regular price for New York "hack -
II seems Incredible when We recall lie laCt-was Is,
and the exlortlOns Of the - haokman - were among
the regular topics for journalistic lamenlatlon dur
ing the ante -Delluin period. Since the war, how
ever, The ''fourwhseer has taken the place Of the
hack, aud the fare lag declined from IS to co. It
IS OF eouse long step TO reduce this to twenty
cents bat the spirit Of reform always gathers head
way In iis progress IN this city one of two OF tho
Clubs have private cab system Of their Own, the rate
for which Is hfty centsa nilethe highest level as yet
marked BY the rising tide Of reform. Into the details
Of tho bin, however We have no space 10 go We
merely wish 10 call the attention OF all well inten-
TONED members Of the Legislature to the fact that in
the words OF great man, Reform is stil needed In
Cabs.