McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1885-02-19
PUBLIC coNvEYANcEs IN LONDON.
Tho Guardian Angel" Of the Past-Cabrio-
lets and Modern Vehicles.

Tho Guardian Angel" Of the Past-Cabri0-
lets and Modern Vehicles
In that quaint and amusing work,
NV alker's Original" which was pub
ished rather more than half century
lso, tho author, who was long a metro
pOlitan police magistrate, tells us, says
The London Telegraph, in illustration
If the changes which had occurred in
The town and its fashions during his
lifetime, that 'sretired hackney coach
nan, giving an account of his life, re-
sently stated that his principal gains
had been derived from cruising at late
hours about particular streets to pick
up drunken gentlemen. If they we're
,ble to tell their address, he took them
straight home; if not, he carried them
20 certain taverns, where the custom
was to secure their property and put
Them to bed. In the morning he
sailed to take them home, and was
generally handsomely rewarded. He
,aid there were other coachmen who
pursued, the same course, and they all
considered it their policy to be strictly
honest. The same calling was pur-
sued for many years in Paris. The
tariff for taking drunkard home was
20 sous, and his conductor was known
as 'L'Ange Gardien,' or The Guardian
Angel These words were written
about 1880, and they give US a strange
peep into the social history of London
md Paris during the early years of the
present century. 1t is encouraging,
1t the outset, to find that the. French
capital had its drunken gentlemen"
as well as the English, and that the
Partisan "Jarvey" of those days was
satisfied with the modest reward of a
franc for rendering them a service
which would now be thought lire
quilted unless at least five, and per-
maps ten, times as much were given.
Mr.. Walkers typical hackney coach
man did not, it may be pretty safely
affirmed, make enough money to Sc
cure a comfortable provision for his
old age upon these self-sacrifcing
terms. The e7er-obliging and ubiqui-
tious policeman generally performs
now the voluntary functions discharg-
ed when George III. and George ".
were upon the throne by nigbt-prowl-
ing 'jehus'' who piled for hire. A
story is told of an lncorrigible joker
who, being considerably the worse
for liquor, was picked up one night in
the Strand and safely deposited by
benevolent policeman in a comforta-
Die s'growler." In answer to the in
quiries of his auxiliary for an address
to which the cabman was to drive, the
bibulous wit, whose sense of fun was
not wholly quenched, could only reply,
in husky voice, ''Kensal Green"
Nowadays it is but too probable that
gentleman IN the streets who was too
overcome to furnish any address to
his guardian angel would pass an
uneasy night at the police station. 1t
is evident, however, from Mr.. Walk
er's story, that within the lifetime of
many who may chance to read these
words hackney coaches were so scarce
at night that few enterprising driv-
ers of these ramshackle vehicles found
it worth their while to traverse the
dark streets, into which gas was not
generally introduced until George
Tvs reign, in pursuit of gentlemen
in liquor" Sydney Smith tells us, in
deed, that until he was himself nearly
80 years old he could not afford car
rage OF his own, and that the straw
from the bottom of the hackney coach
which conveyed him to dinner stuck
to the flounces of his wife's dress, and
exposed them both to the jeers and
aouts of powdered lackeys in the
service of aristocratic hosts, who had
issued their cards of invitation with
the words: "To meet Mr.. Sydney
Smith," inscribed at the top.
1t makes a great deal of difference
at what time a man chances to be
born. At present there is no more
difficulty in hailing a four-wheel or a
hanson Gao at any time of the day or
night in the central parts of London
than in obtaining change before mid
night for good haf-crown. Men and
women are all so accustomed to the
comforts and conveniences of this
kind which surround them on all sides
that they are apt to forget-if, indeed,
they know-the straits to which their
fathers and grandfathers were reduced
within living memory. Not until 1928
were those one-horse vehicles-long
known by the names of ''cabriolets,"
but now universally spoken of as
''cabs'' into the metropo-
Titan streets, and in that year the num-
Der of such cenveyances plying for
hire was only twelve. The driver sat
upon pelch attached to the right
hand of the two-wheeled vehicle, and
heard every word spoken by the two
friends who were his fares. If the
horse fell the fares had an excellent
chance of being flung into the street,
and the rain was kept out by leather
curtains drawn across the front. In
1881 tie number of cabs had increased
to 165, and in that year the licenses to
drive them were granted to all decent
ly conducted applicants. Prior to
1881, when the trade was thrown open,
the number of carriages or cabs ply
ing for hire was limited to 1.200, and
omnibuses. which were first started in
1929, were few and far between. What
contrast to these antediluvian times
do the London streets now present {!
In addition to about $500 omnibuses,