Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-12-25
A TRUCKMAN'S STORY.
TRIALS AND TRieULATlOMs OF A
BIG CiTYS TRANSFERS.

Worrying the Street Car Dripcrs-Womer
| the BaRe of Their Exissence-Long Waits
| to Get to the Docks.
eyes, Tn tIuckInan, and I own two
| trucks. The two horse one / drive myself
and my boy has the other. It's not the most
| profitable business in the world, but we make
living, and that's more than some people
can say. No, can't afford a stable OF my
! own, so / board my horses. They cost nA
SIS per month, and shooting and repairs &c
wheels and springs and such things, not
counting paint, come to S25 more. So you
see have to make 500 month fore | can
get cent for myself or my son.
owe have the regular trade of two or three
good houses down town, and pick up extra
jobs as they happen to como along. It's q
poor week don't make SIS, and that is not
SO much when you remember the risks run
Ii a horse gets sick or dies am out just so
much capital, and they will get sick and die,
just like people. We do all sorts of work. ex-
cept moving peoples furniture That's a
special business, and big prices they charge
for it, too, though they don't make a great
deal of money after all, for they're idle half
the time.
WHEN GREEK MEETS GREER.
1.-THE trouble truck driver has nobody
knows except them that's in the business.
Them car drivers is the worst. They think
they own the whole street and are as sassy as
the devil You bet we like to wc1ry 'em.
It's awful fun to drive right in ahead Of a
car when the driver thinks we are going to
stop and let him pass You see they don't
have any poles, and there's nothing to pro-
tect their teams, so they have to swing them
around, while we go on, laughing
''The law says street cars have the right Of
way, but it's just as easy to get the best of
the cars as not. Ii car drivers were less
sassy and didn't act as though they were the
whole company, they'd have an easier time.
But truck drivers have their feelings just like
other men, and we pay taxes, which car
drivers don't, SO you see we're bound TO have
our share OF the streets. 1t seems easy enough
to stop heavily loaded truck, but just you
try it and see Then we arc often pushed for
time and want to catch steamer or be on
hand in time to unload before the pier gate
closes. hen just as you come to car track
along c mes q car and blocks the way If
you want an inch or two the car driver gets
suddenly deaf or wants to talk to the con-
ductor, all the time Keeping his eye open for
break In the line, and then he kicks his brake
pin and splurges along careless of every body,
knowing that we don't dare spoil his pretty
paint with jam. If we DO the company
soon has our number and we get more law
than we want until we settle up
''Some people never seem to know how to
cross street. They start off all right, and
just when we have calculated to 90 behind
flax- Hro hao .;orbt
the horses noses, and imagine we did it on
purpose. The women are the worst. Not
one in a hundred knows we are Watching for
them, and we get all the blame, just as if we
wanted to run over the little dears
KEEPING TRUCKS IN TIE STREET.
'The greatest hardship we have is about
our trucks. There isn't room in New York
to house them, even il we could stand the
cost, SO they have to be left in the street.
Sometimes we get the privilege for nothing,
but l have to pay man IS month to leave
my trucks in front OF his door. We lose a
good deal by keeping them in the street, for
the iron rusts, the paint peels off and the
whole thing wears out more quickly. On
the whole, trucking isn't what it's cracked up
to be, and it's not over and above profitable
when you take everything into calculation.
'tNO, don't know how many truckmen
there are in this city, though understand
there are II, S2i of them. | do know there's
an ALFRED lot Of em, and it sometimes
bothers me where they aI come from. Ihave
stood for six hours-at so cents an hour time
pay-at the end OF string which ran all the
way from the foot Of Desbrosses street up te
Canal Street, and along South Fifth avenue
rs far as Houston street. Every once i'll q
while there would be a movement, but it
took Inc three hours once TO go distance of
twelve blocks. When the season Is brisk we
are lucky to get rid Of two loads day, and
that's what makes trucking SO expensive to
merchants. II tho road was clear and there
were no blockades We could Go twice tho
work and at half the cost.
~ don't know Just what it costs to ship
goods, for it all depends on the weight. II
the goods are Light we can take big loads and
fill car in 10 time, but do most of my
work for the hardware houses, and bulk
don't count. We are often out sixteen hours
at a stretch, and have at times taken nv
horses out and sent them to the stable for feed
and rest at night while I slept rolled up in
blanket on top Of my load. That was when
we got In q string at nishtfall and wanted to
ship early in the morning, so as TO get OF an
other load before noon.
$50 you see trucking isn't the easiest bust
ness a man can turn his hand TO, though Eve
been in it since l was a boy, and drove for my
father just as my boy does for me. We work
early and late, and are responsible for the
goods in our possession. But somebody has
to DO it, SO here | am handling the reins and
breaking my back handling cases big and
heavy enough for ST elephant to tackle. I'm
now waiting 20 reach the Fall River steamer,
but the Lord only knows whether I'll make
It or not, for the suns going down, and they
pull out into the stream at sharp, merchan-
disc or no merchandise. New York Herald
Empress Elizabeth.
No clio If tia of {ba