The sun., 1901-04-10

gigantic policeman who stayed or started
traf1'c with his wand. Few more inde-
pendent or hearty citizens than those stage
drivers we're to DO found. Their views
were rs lofty as their station. They might
be dragged OF by policeman, but they
looked down. indulgently and not bitterly.
upon all the world They got to know
almost everybody from the crook to
the merchant prince" They were not
rich but they were genial philosophers.
Rosy men were they. with a strange gift
for old and dilapidated coats and uls,ers;
and although We never had the pleasure
OF meeting any Of them In their un-
official and lighter hours, we still cher
ish the theory or illusion that they drank
buttered rum.
Those stages all went TO pieces at once,
We believe in the true One-Hoss Shay
manner, and the spectral horses vanished
as suddenly. To what Avalon worthy Of
them were those drivers taken? One Of
them. a lovely man, drives a Fifth avenue
stage. or his ghost does. A man whose
views about bicycles and automobiles
keep him on the edge OF apoplexy and who
shamelessly deceives strangers by point
ing out every house on the Fifth avenue
~ the residence or the death place of some
famous rich New Yorker. lie had the
price to live there. anyway" is his grim
ming answer when you gently reprove him.
We are far from saying anything against
the 'steersmen of the horse cars They.
too, were men 10 whom it was an honor
10 give a cigar and whose powers OF con-
versation. reDartee or silence were ad-
mirable. But the Broadway cars were
too now for the praisers OF rast time. Con-
servatives preferred the Eighth avenue
line. for example There was more and
better straw in the winter there We're
conductors in the early morning who made
point of insisting that you smoke inside
the car, at least as far as Hudson street.
The cars you'd sometimes be stopped TO
allow conductor and driver 10 take a drink:
and there were grizzled drivers who would
thaw into enthusiasm over Ed FOREST.
JoHN C. HEENAN and BILL POOLE. In going
through the old Ninth ward, some Of the
Eighth avenue men had acquired some
NnlllS VI llN l'll'. IlHii'H dN'llh' lldu NV
then become the gltteriug boulevard
which it now is and the drivers and con-
ductors took life moro easily. Now there is
almost always "sumthin doin somewhere
along the line, and the reflective tenn
perament of some Of the old employees
would now be lost in observing the
pageantry of life"
The drivers on the old Rleecker street
line had n wilderness of narrow streets
to traverse, and they became the most
expert wheedlers and coaXers in town
They had grown weary Of fighting. They
used diplomacy. Say, young feller
can't you turn out a littlet" we have heard
one say TO an ancient hack driver, I'm
going to wine supper at BEEFsTEAK
JOINS" The ancient ono grnned and
whipped out Of the way. Ten years
back Id called him an old RUBE and been
ten minutes late. You have 10 stroke en-
the right way in this business All the
car drivers had their good points. Many
OF them were philosophers, The public
IL shut of from humani2ing converse with
the mOtorman.
Let us be gentle to the horse cars while
they are stll with US Like most antiA
qudted things they have had great Uses in
their day.