Durango semi-weekly herald., 1906-11-12

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and the motive power is
electricity, so that they run silently,
swiftly and smoothly and are as COM
Portable as underground cars can be.
Electric surface cars run by storage
and underground and over
head trolleys have been introduced in
several directions and extend to all
the suburbs. They are even laying
track on the Thames embankment,
which is desecration because that
have been retained as prom
enade and driveway. The county
council, which is the municipal gov
ernment of London is laying the
tracks, however so that nobody can
object, and will operate the cars as
a belt line between two great systems
on the south and the north sides OF
the Thames.
There is good deal of municipal
ownership in London. The county
council operates a fleet of passenger
boats on the Thames. line of busses
and hlaf a dozen or more street rail-
ways and makes profit out of every
one of them by enterprising and pru-
dent management. The manager OF
the steamboat service is so enterpris
ing that he got up half dozen ex.
cursions and carried thousands of peo-
ple I'D the Thames to see the boat
race between Cambridge and Harvard
last month. The fares were low. the
advantages were great, there was no
crowding, everything was well ordere :,
wholesome luncheon was served on
board for a low price and a large
profit was turned into the city treas
ury Think of the common council
of Chicago running excursion steam
ers to see boat race, or the district
commissioners of Washington organ
izing holiday trips down the Potomac
as a matter of profit to the city gov
ernment. But over here such things
can be done without criticism, even
in competition with private enter
prise.
Notwithstanding the bright, new
"tuppenny tubes" with their swift and
frequent electric trains, the favorite
vi " hHSpoi III iSohuoh IL
still the old-fashioned omnibus, and
do not think it will ever be super
seded. For a man who is not in
hurry, and especially for one who is
fond of human nature and loves tc
observe the conduct of his fellow men
| do not know any more agreeable
means of getting about crowded
city like London than in a seat on
the deck of one of these busses. Yor
have continuous panorama of hu
man affairs passing before you, ant
can witness 1t from an elevated plat
form; and. if you are so fortunate az
to get a seat next to the driver, yor
can enjoy continuous conversations
monologue, and get great deal oi
valuable information and philosophy,
The London buss driver is unique
character He is both an oracle and
an encyclopedia; he knows every
house along his route and all the
history that has been enacted be
tween the'termini. He is also phil
osopher; he is well posted as to cur
| rent events, and his comments are
not only amusing but instructive. He
is wit and bit of cynic. He has
his jokes his anecdotes and his crit
icisms, which | suppose he repeati
daily, or perhaps several times day
but 1000 busses are running in the
streets of London, and you are no
apt to get the same driver twice. ]
have never found one who was moi
entertaining, and all of them are par
ticularly willing to furnish strangers
| with information as to the interesting
localities during the ride. have
never found a more entertaining wa,
of spending an afternoon than on the
| top of a London buss in the seat next
| to the driver.
There are, as | have said, more than
1000 busses on the streets of London
| running in every direction, to every
part of the city, at an average fare
of one cent per mile. There are five
big companies and several smaller
| ones. The largest, the London Gen
| eral Omnibus company, has 1897 ON
| nibuses on the road, and employs 3,
| this company alone carried 215,000,
900 passengers; during the first 81,
months of 1906 it carried 10S,341 1851
and ran 16.652,150 miles. The re
celpts FOR 1905 were $2,OO2,7O2, and
for the first six months of the cur
rent year s1.202,796, an average OF
$11.555 per omnibus per day. The
routes vary from six to ten miles
Each omnibus is expected to make
| five trips a day of twenty miles each
| and has five teams to every driver
No team is allowed to go over twenty
| miles, and half of the horses are laid
up every Sunday. The drivers re-
ceive wages of $40 mouth for twelve
! hours work. Those who start out at
O'Clock in the morning lay off at 6
| at night; those who start out at 10 in
the morning lay off at 10 at night
| and so on
Within the last few years between
800 and 600 motor busses, as they
| are called, run by electricity, gaso-
line or steam, have been placed on
the streets. and although they are
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