The Harrison times. (Harrison, Boone Co., Ark) 1876-1938, 1900-08-25
GREAT is LONDON,
In Her BeWilderlng Business Activity,
Thinks Our Correspondent.

|
cabs there are in London. They are
numbered, and presume the proper
official at the Office where they are
registered, could give me information
only | haven't time to look him up,
| am told there are 80, 000policemen,
and there surely must be 3 or 4 cabs
to every policemen. 1t seems | must
have seen so, 900 cabs, though 49,
600 and something was the highest
number have noted. \ friend tells
he rode a day or SO ago in one that
was something over $1,000. | am
pleased with the cabs, while the
knowledge Of the labyrinth districts
in this enormus town, displayed by
its driver is something astonishing,
You can blow a whistle,-or have
the hall porter at your hotel do so,
and instantly, from somewhere,
emerges cab, perhaps half a dozen
cabs, You step in, one of you, two
OF you, or three OF you, give
your Instructions. and are
whlrled along with lighting-like
rapidity, through a perfect maze of
omnibuses, cabs, vans. carts, all of
them going at break-ncck speed, up
one street, down another, across
another, until finally eabby pulls up
at the curb and points out your
number. He gets shilling if there
are not more than two of you, or Is
pence il here are three of you if the
distance is under 2 miles, 1t is great
| tell you. For instance, when YOU
get out of the opera house, at u
O'Clock at night, and know your
hotel is a mile and a hall or two
miles away,-and do not know, flare
you like me, in which direction,-it
is very comforting to be able to call
a cab and be landed at your door in
a jifTy for shilling Why, service
like that in New York would cost
you dollar and half, and you might
have to rely on your muscle to keep
the charge down to that limit, And
all of these cabs are doing business,
too. And then, so great is my cur
iosity, | would like TO know how
many omnibuses there are in London.
| know there are some more than
500, for | noted a number above
that, and, upon a mere venture, |
should say there are $4,000 of them.
And you can get anywhere in them,
too. There are lines of them, RUM
ing from fixed points to fixed points,
but they connect with other lines
that are sure to land. on where you
want to get. And the fee,-why it
is next to nothing l found myself
yesterday, to illustrate, at the Tate
Art Galleries, on the Thames en-
bankment, half mile from the Par
lament houses, and two miles from
my hotel Along came a buss that
carried me, for ha penney, to
Victoria station, from where, for a
penny, | was conveyed by another
bus to Duke street, within two
blocks ofmy hotel These omnibuses
carry a dozen people inside, and two
dozen on top,-the latter being
reached by spiral stairway at the
rear,-are pulled by two horses and
and managed with a driver and
collector. On some of the main
thoroughfares there are SO many OF
them that Mt distance they have
the appearance of being the COM
ponent part, a bit irregular at times,
OF a vast moving train cfomnibuses
And they, also, are doing business
| was much pleased with my first
experience on top of one of these We
hicles. | had been advised that
about the best cicerone, and The
cheapest,-a stranger could. have
was one Of these bus drivers, and
put the advice to the proofand iounC
it good. The driver pointed out ,-thi
was on Piccadilly, the town house
of several Roths childs, score o
Dukes, of Lord Salisbury, ofMr. 10
Chamberlain, and other notablcs
and threw in bits of information a
to their other residences, as well a
pointers concerning their idiosyn
crasies. This information is no
always reliable, | am sure, but i
costs nothing, unless you are please,
to give the driver, generally an oil
and needy man, penny, and i
: HELPS you to get your bearings
There are other public conveyance
besides the cab and bus, SO many {
, them that I ind myself wonderin
who is left to transact the bushes
of the town, since it all appears t
have gone a-riding What will yo
think, therefore, when / tell you tina