Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1900-07-12
TAKING AN OMNIBUS IN PARIS.

An American who has long since
ceased to count his visits to Paris
said to me: How do you take an ON
! nibus? | wanted to hail one the other
| day, but realized | didn't know how"
| Here at last is man who has & glim-
| mering Of the difficulties before him.
Perhaps you have a guide book; they
can be procured all along the Rue de
Riyoli, printed in English, and cheap
at one franc twenty-five There you
| find that the Care st. Lazare, one of
the large railway stations, is an excel
lent point at which to capture an ON
nibus. But how to get to the Care st.
! Lazare. and why not take one at the
! corner? AS like as not none pass
your corner. and if they did you have
! only to stand there with uplifted finger
to find out that they won't stop for
you. No Partisan will acknowledge
this, but Try it and see. Your finger
will develop rheumatism before the
impossible happens.
Having acquired the "Bobbie" habit
in London, my first step after an igno-
minious defeat of this kind was to ask
a sergeant de Vile ooh, yes" said he,
true to his country and the unwritten
law to lie to the stranger, they all
stop anywhere, anywhere!" Perhaps
Monsieur" will be kind enough to tell
me what omnibus to take for such a
place? After moment of deep
thought an expression of Joy crosses
monsieur's face. Take a cab" said
he, and hurried away to tell friend
of his inspiration. After seeing blue
buses, green buses, white buses pass
it dawned upon me that standing on a
corner was decidedly not the way to
hail an omnibus, and | prepared to
walk to my destination.
An old Scotch saying runs: "A gaein
fits aye gettin'," and so it proved, a
block or two away was a crowd stand
ing around small house of one room,
officials walked hither and thither,
wrapped in capes and infinite superb
GRITTY 1t looked like an accident, but
just then a bus stopped, some passen-
gers descended and the crowd got in.
Each person held a ticket received in
the little house, and when the number
of this ticket was called by the numero
man, the holder gave up the ticket and
mounted the bus. Think of that sys-
tenn at Twenty third street and Broad
way, or Thirty-fourth and Lexington
avenue, at $3.50 p. m. When you have
not secured a ticket you take your
chance of a seat after the elect have
entered. No one is allowed to stand
they couldn't if they wanted to, so
shaky the vehicle and so confined.
Upstairs, "enhaut," or ia haut," as
the conductors always say, place"
costs three cents, 10 confines; ia bas,
downstairs, six cents, 30 centimes.
Oh, the confusion before you learn
this; the certainty that you are being
cheated, If you travel in a party, some
finding seats inside and some out, and
you pay different fares each time,
queer odd numbered fares that will not
divide equally any way you try! Ask
the conductor? OF course you do, but
think you he would part with so prec-
ious a bit of information as that?
Never He will shrug his shoulders
and pass on to the next.
The omnibus stations are to be
found all along the omnibus routes,
three or four blocks apart, sometimes
in a small office in a building, some
times il the little detached house. !
think II you ask a policeman he is
bound to tell you where the nearest
station is. but, of course, ! am not
certain. Therefore, knowing where
you want to go, and what bus to take,
you seek the nearest station, pick up
"numero" at the "guichet" the man
sitting behind it is obliged to tell you
from which pile of tickets to choose,
and you have only TO go outside and
await the bus and your number to be
called. Buses up and down town stop
al the same place. II the bus Is full
before your turn comes the conductor
will shout "--pletl" meaning complete,
: and you will wait for the next Let
not the eyer-swelling crowd dismay
you. your number comes frst-and this
is where the beauty of the system
comes in; enjoy il to the full; you earn
that in surmOunting It's many diff
eulties.-Paris Letter in New York
Times.