The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-11-08
The Hanson Cab.

'sWell, rode in Hanson cab when
was in Chicago 'tother day." said an
old kicker to another old kicker, as they
met in saloon for lunch at midday
1.-The streets are full of them, and they
make me laugh. :"
What kind of things are theyP"
asked the second old kicker al have
read about Hanson cabs ever since
was boy, in Dickens works, and all
English publications, but / wouldn't t
know one if saw it in the road What
do they look like?"
80, they look like the very deuce.
Take your top buggy and knock off the
front wheels, and hitch the shafts on the
hind axle-tree, and put an office-stool
up behind the top of the buggy, with a
driver screwed onto the top of the stool,
with the lines running over the top to
the horse, and you would have Han
som cab. looked at lots of them, and
honestly, | couldn't help laughing at
the imitation English affairs. Those
Gurneys that have been on the streets
of Chicago for q year Or two are bad
enough about shaking a fellow up, but
the Hanson cab will dislocate man s
liver, and shiver his spinal column, and
scare him to death quicker than any
thing. You get in and there is couple
of doors shut in on your lap to, keep
you from being shaken out, and then
the driver locks he''door5 and throws the
key away, and when you get to the end
of your journey somebody happens along
with another key and lets you out, or
may be the doors are locked with a
time-lock that opens when you get to
the depot. The driver sits up behind. as
stiff as frozen pickerel, and l was told
by a Palmer House liar that an
iron rod runs from the seat right up the
spinal column of the driver, to the top
of his head, where his hat, which has
an iron nut on the inside, screws on to
the rod and holds him tight He looks
as though that was tie way he was
fastened on, but the fellow may have
been lying to me. The horse seems to
know where you are going, and all the
driver does is to hold on to the lines.
suppose he is up there so if the horse
runs away the driver could get off
without being run over, and go around
a block and stop the horse. In the
meantime passenger would be killed.
To ride along the crowded streets in one
of the Hanson cabs, and see tn horse
going through the crowds with no
driver in sight, makes you have respect
for the sagacity of the horse, and yet
| you feel as though even horse sense was
not enough, and you are re that he
| will run into the next beer wagon that
comes along. You forget all about the
galvanized EDglishman perched upon
the shelf behind, and you feel like grab
| bing the lines that pass over your head
| md driving the horse yourself, and
when you stop to get out, and the
driver appears to open the door, you
look ut him in ;sstonishment, and say
''Well, how did you get here, for
Heavens sakc?n When the cab strikez
a rough place in the street with the
right wheel, your thigh bone goes right
up and knocks your ear around on TOP
of your head, and you feel lop-sided
until the left wheel strikes something
and averages you up. When both
wheels strike an obstruction at once
the bottom of your stomach is struck
by your boot-heels and paralyzed, SC
you can't eat anything but soup for q
week, and your liver is just as liable tc
be around by the small of your back,
or under your arm, as anywhere, when
you get to the depot. tits a lonesome,
melancholy feeling, to ride in Han.
som cab. In any other conveyance
you can hail the driver and talk with
him, but to make the driver of Han
som cab hear you, you have to shout
against the side of a building. and de-
pend upon the echo coming back to the
| I.;x, o,,I srrbI
seem as though Hanson cab woulc
be good thing for a young fellow tt
take his girl out riding in, if he wanted
to spark her, the driver being away
back behind and binders on the horse
but it wouldn't be safe, as the driver
has hole in the back of the top so hi
can look right through, aud he woulC
be sure to keep awake if there was any
thing going on in the cab that the pas
sengers didn't care to have commented
! on; besides, it seems as though TIT
weight of the vehicle was liable at an,
minute to raise the horse right off hi
feet and cause him to sit down in YOU
lap, and no fellow riding with CIR
likes to have horse sit down in thei1
laps, when they become interested in
conversation. The Hanson cab look
sort of tony, but a man who rides il
one feels as though he was marked
Everybody looks at the rig and laughs
and the passenger feels uncomfortable
These cabs can never take the place o
street cars, that is sure" and the oil
kicker, who had rode in cab the da,
before, began feeling under his shoul
der blade, to see if the calves of hi
legs were not beginning to work bacl
where they belonged.-Peck's Sun.