The Van Buren press., 1897-11-27
DRIVING A FINE ART.
The English Whip Is ImperturbabIe,
the French Nervous.

The most striking contrast between
English and French character one may
see is afforded by the drivers in London
and Paris The London driver is the
best in the world. No matter whether
he is on the box of an omnibus or the
high seat of hanson cab, he knows
his business through and through. He
is never nervous and never makes his
horse nervous. He rarely uses the whip.
He is quiet and steady and alert. He
takes chances that amaze his passen-
gers-slipping through narrow open
ings, where hub grazes hub. But the
hubs never come into collision. One
may stay in London week without see
ing a street accident, notwithstanding
the wonderful congestion of traffic, the
apparently inextrieable maze of horses
and vehicles in the narrow thorough
fares. At some corner there is a gath
ering, a pressure, n crush. Lines OF
traffic crossing one another at right
angles. To the average observer it
looks well-nigh hopeless. Perhaps
hours will have to be spent in unray-
cling the tangle. But in a moment or
two the policeman waves his hand, the
big omnibuses are set in motion, the
hansoms take their proper places, the
carts move along with the mass, and
almost before you know it all is clear.
The London driver. in his calm, imper-
turbable way. is master of the situa-
ton.
How different in Paris There the
drivers are nervous and exeitabe.
They whip their poor horses and swear
at them. The vehicles dash about,
often with hairbreadth escapes from
collisions, and every now and then
without escapes. When two vehicles
come together there is an explosion Of
temper and of language. The air is
filled with blue smoke. One expects to
see a murder or two committed before
his eyes. The horses are like Their
masters. They, too, are irritable and
nervous, hard to control. Wide as most
of the principal boulevards of Paris are,
and with not one-fourth the traffic
which surges through London's mar
row streets, the number of accidents
there must be a dozen times greater
than in the English metropolis. These
drivers Of the two capitals are exem-
plars of the national characteristics OF
their respective countries.
In London the drivers are all licensed.
No man can go upon the streets IN
charge of omnibus, hanson or cart
without license in his pocket. If he
gets into trouble once through his own
fault he is fined and warned, The sec
ond time his license is taken away from
him and he is never allowed to drive
again on the streets of London. Be-
fore drivers are given their licenses
they are required to pass a civil service
examination. 1t is not in extracting
the square root or bounding Timbuctoo'
either. II is in actual driving. They
are taken into a yard where there are
many posts set up in the pavement
and required to drive in and around
these obstacles. They are asked what
street they would take in order TO go
from one place to another at ten O'Clock
in the morning. at one in the afternoon
and at four o'clock. Unless they are
able TO tell the best routes all over the
city at various times of the day-lh-
dicating the thoroughfares which are
least congested as the traffic shifts ana
changes-they get no license. Our
English friends know how to do many
things better than we do, and this Is
one of them.-Walter Wellman, in Chr
cago Times Herald.