Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-08-02
STREET TRANSIT IN EUROPE.
Trolley Almost Unknown and No Ele-
 Vated Roads.

1 gin to appreciate the enormous adYan- tages he has in the way of rapid transit by street railways over his European brother similarly situated. With us a city that still clings to her ancient horsecars is considered dead slow and considered not up 10 date. The rapid trolley stretches it's rails in all direc- tions, traversing all of the principal streets of our cities and connecting them with miles and miles of their suburbs and often even with other cities In our larger cities, like New York, the elevated railroads or the cable cars daily carry their thousands of passengers with the highest possible speed consistent with safety, reeogniz- ing the great American need of cover ing given distance in the shortest pos sible time.
 Across the ocean all this is changed; there the trolley is almost, and with one exception the elevated road wholly, unknown, and the residents of even London have to depend almost entirely on the primitive bus. This seems al most beyond belief to an American, but such is the fact.
 Let us therefore glance at the differ ent methods of public conveyance in this, the largest city in the world. Tn London the principal means of getting around is by buses, and it is estimated that there are nearly thousand of them in use every day. The greater part of them are owned by the Lon don General Omnibus company, and their semi-annual report shows that in six months they carried the enormous number of 53,s43, ATT passengers, the total distance driven being 90o1 ,33o miles,
 Omibuses first came into use in 1920 Before that time people had to get around as best they could. They run daily from a. m. to 12 at night, and the fares vary. according to the distance, from l pence to 6 pence in English money, or from cents to 12 cents in ours. Contrast this with our elevated trains running all night and on which one may ride from the Bat tery to Harlem for nickel.
 The London bus is a huge numbering vehicle drawn by two or three horses and plastered over with advertising signs. They are all double-decllers- that is, they have seats both inside and on top, the inside seats running length wise, and those on top crosswise. with an aisle down the center. These top seats are reached by means of a spiral stairway from the rear. Each bus ac- oors,,,,es1a4oes al4a,,4 ,.e,z. person being entitled to a seat, and when all are taken the bus is declared full and no more passengers are admit | ted there being no such thing as hang ing on to strap for three or four miles. or erowding hundred people into a place intended to hold half that num- Der, and there is no necessity for a gentleman to rise and give a lady his seat.
 As soon as q passenger mounts bus he takes q seat inside or on top. as he may prefer and there is room. both be- ing the same price, and the conductor immediately comes to him, inquires his destination and charges him accord ingly, and gives him a ticket which he is required 10 show in ease of dispute and which contains the principal sta tions of that line, the one nearest his stopping place being punched. The ticket also contains the amount of his fare. In case the passenger should let 1 himself be carried beyond the station punched, another fare is immediately collected. The conductor does not an nounce any stops, so each person has to look out for himself.
 Undoubtedly the best method of transportation in London is the under ground railway This, however, only serves a certain portion of the city, and its stations are quite widely sep arated. Its fares are trifie more than those of the omnibus company.
 In sumner great deal of travel for points near the Thames is by rive$ steamboats. This traffic is all in the hands of the Victoria Steamboat as seeiation, whose boats run every few minutes from London bridge to GheI sea, calling at 15 intermediate piers The fares are from one penny to six pence on week days, and double that oIl Sundays and holidays. These boats all set low in the water and have only one deck, which is all open. the only protec- tion being an awning which is stretched over a portion of the stern As most of the bridges are very low, the boats. in order to pass under them at high water, have to have a iointin the smoke stack which enables it to be lowered to the deck while passing through the arches.
 For those who can afford it nothing can beat a cab as means of getting around There are two kinds of these, the four-wheeler and the two-wheeler or hansom. The hanson IS by far the easier riding of the two, and as the driy- er is perched up behind there is nothing to obstruct the view. The fares are fixed by law, cab hired by time cost ing two shillings sixpencet about 60 cents) per hour, while those hired by the distance eharop aceOrfIiDUIy no