The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-01-01
LONDON ON WHEELS.
HOW 100000 BUSY PEOPLE GET
AROUND TOWN.

! Above Ground - On the Ground - And
Under Ground - "Grovlers'' and
| Eiansoms Street Cars Scarce-How IA
| "Dlock' Ia Managed.
How the 100000 of people in London
"get about" to their daily avocations and
homes is mystery to those who have
not made the subject a study so have
| gathered some information which will
throw little light on it.
Let me start out with the statement
that beside the 10 large terminal stations,
like the Eaton Square and the Midland,
there are 430 railway stations within the
metropolis, and the underground lines
alone carry annually 125,000,000 of
passengers. The underground roads have
been in existence for more than quarter
of century, and are found to answer
the purpose admirably of relieving the
overground traffic. They are convenient,
cheap, and comparatively quick; but de-
cidedly unpleasant, il not positively un-
healthy. Although the engines consume
their own smoke, it is impossible to keep
pure the air in the tunnels, and you
usually emerge from them with q head
ache.
OF course, the cars have to be lighted
artiiicially, and they had not learned to
use the electric light in them when was
last in London-last October. Gas is "a
poor substitute in such place. You are
forced to read your newspaper in dim
light, and the gas consumes much of the
oxygen which gets into the tunnels from
openings, en- route, which are made for
the purpose.
Yet you do not get about as quickly in
the underground as you would imagine.
To avoid distractions and for mechan-
ical reasons the road takes circuitous
route, and you frequently must ride
long way around to go q comparatively
short distance.
Millions of Londoners, who 90 direct
from home to business, seldom get into
an underground train. There are many
overground lines built on brick arches
which so to the suburbs, where rents are
low; for every Ell slishman must have
his own house, no matter how small.
which he regards as his "castle." These
trains are quick and cheap, and you are
blessed with ample light and good air-at
least as good as you can get in foggy,
smoky London.
On all roads, whether on trunk lines,
on local, overgroLnd, or underground
lines, there are first, second, and third
class cars, or carriages" as they call
them. Even some Omnibuses that ply
from the trunk line station also have
compartments for different classes; your
Englishman is very particular with whom
he rides.
There are no street cars run by the
trolley, storage, or any other electric
system; no cable cars, no horse cars not
a track laid for s,.rface road in the city
proper. Many Americans leave London
without ever seeing a street car of any
kind, and yet in the metropolis 900 street
cars run daily over 100 miles of track.
but they are not permitted in crowded
thoroughfares they are confined to the
outlying districts. have only seen them
in the east end. The street cars are
"double deckers," and, like the buses,
they carry more outside than inside pas
sengers, but the number of passengers is
limited. When the car has reached its
limit it will take up no more passengers.
Every passenger has the right to seat,
and, to use paradoxical phrase, every
Englishman stands up for his right to
seat.
Street cars are not needed in the city
Nearly all London streets are in as good
condition for driving as our Central Park
roads. There are 5000 hansoms, 4,OO0
four wheelers, and 1000 omnibuses, SO
that you are not obliged to walk on &C.
count of the absence of cars. The London
cab service is the best and cheapest in
the world. The writer says this, notwith-
standing that he remembers that you can
hire cab in Key West for dime. But
such cabs and such horses! The fare in
a hanson for two mile drive is one
shilling (25 cents); by the hour, two-and-
six (62 cents). There are no such smar,
horses for public hire anywhere as the
London cab horses. They go like the
wind If by the course, and they go at
similar gait by the hour if you promise
an extra sixpence.
London drivers are not so brutal nor so
i'll tempered as New York drivers. They
do not, as rule, curse or swear at each
other as ours do, who are always ready
with foul oath, On my last visit to
London, where l staid one month, saw
a great many "blocks," but heard only
one quarrel between drivers, and that wus
not at all serious. The 1900 omnibuses
keep employed 5000 or 0, 1000 horses. Tie
number of miles run annually by the
omnibuses is 5,500,000 and the number
of passengers carried not less than AZ, ,000,-
| 000.-Home Journal.