Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-26
THE IRISH JAUNTINe CAR.
An American Corr esp0ndent's Amusir
Experience In Dublin.

An American Cor1espondent's Amusing
Experience In Dublin.
The haunting car IS the great feature Of
street life in Dublin. 1t is the popular
method of conveyance. 1t win hold two
people on each side besides the driver.
The regular fare for their use 10 two shil-
rings fer the first hour and eighteen pence
for the next You learn this after you
have paid all kinds Of prices. These
haunting car drivers are perfectly merci-
less in their charges unless you make q
bargain with them beforehond. No mat
ter how liberal you may think you are in
paying them, these drivers always look as
reproachfully at you as it you were at
tempting to rob them.
The Irish drivers in the streets Of Dub
lin are the most wreckless OF any 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 gallop.
AS the streets are very uneven and badly
paved, riding on a jaunting car gives
much more exercise than ordinary horse
back riding. The first driver / had
overcharged me in such stupendous
way that he could not keep his face
straight when he named his price. Then,
after roaring at his own avarice, he
calmly lowered the price himself and an
nounced that he would take so much. l
paid it to him, telling him that knew it
was double his fare. After he had re-
ceived it he burst out in another roar.
"You are right; it is about double, but it
isn't every day we get chance" and
then went off in perfect commissions OF
amusement over his successful strike at
the stranger.
The excessive vclubflity Of the drivers is
marvellous. They won't drive you well
unless 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 tho shafts
of his car full tilt into the back Of another
car. I thought for q moment that he
would take the back Of the head car OH.
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 behind when you are driving"
And with this he swung out to the right
and passed his friends wheel by about q
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 1 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
60 for sixty guineas. pretended to mis-
understand and said did not think she
was worth six guineas. This made my
driver indignant, and he spent the next
fifteen or twenty minutes in trying to tip
me off, by whirling 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, because they met
every possible situation with such wit
and with such assurance. Wednesday
afternoon l asked one car driver how
much he would charge to drive me out to
the horse show and back, about mile dis
tant. He promptly responded half
guinea, without blink. The next man
was ready to go for two shiuings. This
extraordinary drop did not decompose the
first driver. He stepped forward as If l
were going with him as matter Of course,
saying in the most contemptuous way, in
speaking of the two shilling man, "He
will not be able to give you such drive
as 1 will" AS / was not engaged at that
particular time In buying any fanciful
kind Of superior Irish driving at high
class figure l went with the two shilling
man.-T C.. Crawford in New York
World