The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-06-21
AN EXPENSIVE LUXURY.

Before you turn to enter the house
your shilling has changed hands. 1t IS
no longer yours, but cabby's, and you
have no more change. When you nave
finished your business and come out
you yield again to temptation and call
another hanson. That half-sovereign
in your purse must be changed, then;
and before night you put your hand TO
your pocket for money and find that
there is none there; the change from
your half-sov.," as they call,
is gone. Then you cudgel
your brain, and by and by re-
member the hanson to Bakersfield
Station, the hanson to Kings Cross,
the hanson over Tower Bridge to Ber-
mondsey, then back again, and two or
three more hansoms later on. The
British silver coin becomes very soft
in London; it melts away in the pock-
ct and oozes out, and no man may tell
where it goes. But the jolt of the han
som Hquefies it entirely, and it disap-
pears like snow under a hot sun. For
this reason, few Londoners of ordinary
means make habitual use of the ham
SONS. Their best customers are
strangers, who have not yet learned
better. The hanson is swift and con-
venient, but far too expensive for COM
mon use.
81 always took a hanson when 1 first
came here" an American said to me
yesterday-an American whose salary
is something over f1,0O0 a year. But
l could not stand the expense. 1 travel
in penny buses now. My firm at home
has an idea that 5000 year here is
equal to almost $4,000 a year in New
York, but that is a great mistake. Lon
don is by no means a cheap city; it is
a very expensive city. Don't tell me
about the necessaries being cheap. In
a big city a thousand extras become
necessary
If your pocket is we'll lined with SOW
ereigns, there is still an objection to
the hansoms. They are almost sure to
give you cold. 1t does not take long
to find that out, for everybody tells
you SO, and your own cold is sufficient
proof. With the doors open, as they
generally are you ride into the wind,
and the wind retaliates.
THE PENNY BUSES.
When you have nearly ruined your
self with hansoms, and, instead of half
sovereigns you have only pennies and
HAPPENINGS in your pocket, you turn
naturally to the buses. They are un-
calmly looking things, and uncomforta-
bic, but you cannot help yourself
There is hardly anything on the sur
face of the earth to compare them
with for description. One of our old
Broadway stages, made somewhat
larger, but no higher, with a platform
at the back, from which a narrow and
winding stairway leads to the roof, and
row of low seats on each side of the
top, four seats on each side, and each
seat wide enough for two, will, perhaps.
give some idea of it, You must mag
inc the thing so low inside that a man
Of even ordinary hight must stoop, and
the rail on top, like the backs of the
seats, is SO low that the same man must
bend Well over before he can reach any,
thing to hold on by. And just as he is
about to crawl into a seat the bus
starts with a jerk, and he is spilled into
somebody's lap. Many serious acct
dents happen every year on the tops of
London buses.
Put sixteen persons, beside the driv-
er, on top of a bus. and you have a.
something that looks topheavy enough
TO turn over at any moment. But they
never do turn over. The outside seats
are the favorites, and people wait for
the next bus rather than go inside. The
male Londoner climbs up, gets his seat
and loads his pipe, and goes to smok-
, ing. He may be seated beside a lady