San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-04-16
THE IRISH HAUNTING CAR.
An American Correspondents Amusing
Experiences in Dublin.

The jaunting car is the great feature OF
street life in Dublin. 1t is the popular
method OF conveyance. 1t will hold two
people on each side besides the driver.
The regular fare for their use is two
shillings for the first hour and eighteen
pence for the next. You learn this after
you have paid all kinds OF prices. These
jaunting-Car drivers are perfectly merCi-
less in their charges unless you make a
bargain with them beforehand. No
matter how liberal you may think you
are in paying them, these drivers always
look as reproaChiully at you as if you
were attempting to rob them. The Irish
drivers i'll the streets OF Dublin are the
most reckless of any l have ever seen.
Their horses are tough and wiry and are
always driven nearly on the dead run.
At the slightest opportunity the driver
forces his horse into a gallop. AS the
streets are very uneven and badly paved
riding on jaunting car gives much more
exercise than ordinary horseback riding.
The first driver | had Overcharged me in
keep his face straight when he named
his price. Then, after roaring at his own
avarice, he calmly lowered the price him
so much. paid it to him, telling him
that l knew it was double his fare. After
he had received it he burst out in an
other roar. "You are right; it is about
double, but it isn't every day we get a
chance" and then went off in perfect
commissions of amusement over his sue
cessful strike at the stranger. The ex-
cessive volubility of the drivers is mar
velous. They won't drive you well I'M
less you let them talk. They get sulky
directly, and make it up by extra charges.
They are much better-natured to each
other than the English cabbies. The
first night was out my driver ran the
shafts OF his car full tilt into the back of
another car. | thought for a moment
that he would take the back OF the head
car of, but he backed his horse of, and
when the driver he had run into looked
angrily back at him he said: "Look
ahead OF you, my boy. Never look be-
hind when you are driving" And with
this he swung out to the right and passed
his friends wheel by about quarter of
an inch, going on the dead bolt down
Sackville street. The aggrieved fellow
grinned at the assurance of his associate
and stopped looking behind.
The last man | had continually called
my attention to the beautiful black Irish
mare attached to his car. He told me
she could make ten miles an hour day in
and day out for years. He would let her
go for sixty guineas. | pretended to
misunderstood him and sid 7 lid not
think she was worth six gun cas-. This
made my driver indignant, and spent
the next fifteen or twenty III Iutes in
trying to tip me oil, by whlrling suddenly
around corners, or spinning his car along
on one wheel down some dark street or
slippery lane. But yet on the whole
they were so much more interesting and
amusing than the English cabbies, be-
cause they met every possible situation
with such wit and with such assurance.
On a recent afternoon l asked one car
driver how much he would charge to
drive me out to the horse show and back,
about mile distant. He promptly re-
spOnded half guinea, without blink.
The next man was ready to 90 for two