Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-03
OLD HORSE CAR DAYS

II wonder how horse cars on the streets
Of Washington would look to the young
folks who have grown up since the horse
cars were superseded by power cars here?"
unused an old Washingtonian. There are
thousands of young men and women in
Washington who never saw a horse-pulled
street car except during the period imme-
diately following the burning of the big
power house on the avenue, and the horse
drawn cars looked very peculiar to them
then. And yet to us old fogies who are get
ting on 1t surely doesn't seem any long
stretch of time since there were nothing
but horse cars in Washington Ny dad is
old enough to remember when there were
only buses in Washington, but 1t seems a
singularly short bareback to me to recall
Washington was pretty slow, as we can see
now, of course, but we thought We had
great street-car system when 1T was going.
Member that old bob-tail line OF cars
that ran from the Treasury to the Capitol,
the cars pulled by one horse to one car? I
declare that the day Of those old bob-tailers
doesn't seem like ancient times to me, look
ing back. but how extraordinary they would
appear to the young fellow of today. Those
bob tailers, IL 1 remember correctly, were
abandoned either in 1884 or 1885, SO that
have seen them. It was a fine, homely,
democratic outfit, that bob-tail line along
the avenue. The fare was cents per ride
and the driver of the one horse was the
whole thing. He had to drive the horse
and work the brake and see that the fares
were deposited and make change and harry
the non-payers into dropping their pennies
into the fare-receiving box and run the
whole game himself. There wasn't any
platform on the back Of the car, just
step, and the aisle was mighty narrow,
compared with the aisles in the roomy cars
of today. The aisle was thickly covered
with straw in the cold weather, but there
were lot of kicks over the straw on &C
count of the unhealthfulness of that ar
rangement. The anti-sptting crusade was
unheard of in that day, and a lot more
men chewed tobacco than at the present
time, and the straw certainly was not
Clearly.
when you got into the car it was up to
you to attend to the paying Of your own
fare There was little glass box screwed
alongside the front door of the car, on the
right side, and into this box you were sup
was there to see that you dropped your
money into the repository, too. If you
didn't have the pennies in change it was
up to you to stick your coin through hole
driver. The drivers money box was
screwed to the cars dashboard. You'd
stick your hand through the hole in the
door, prod the driver in the back, and
hand him your coin. Then. while he drove
his plug with one hand he'd get the proper
change out of his little tin box. arranging
matters so tIat you De PROVIDED with
pennies to stick into the box inside When
you put your pennies in the box the driver
would pull little lever from the outside,
dropping the fare into the bottom of the
repository. If you were dilatory about pay
ing your fare the driver would glare in at
you for while, and then he'd turn around
and bat on the glass of the front door to
attract your attention, and when he caught
your eye he'd make peremptory motion
toward the fare repository. and then you'd
settle. The game of passing fares along
used to be great thing in those days. The
person who got the seat right alongside
the box got most Of the fare money by
chain arrangement and he stuck most of
the money into the box. Some quite noted
men tourneying every day to the Capitol
used to enjoy doing that. Chief Justice
Supreme Court used to have that forward
seat in the old bob-tail cars very often. and
he'd enjoy serving as the feeder of the
money box for all hands.
During his last administration as Pres
ident it was a common thing to see Gen.
Grant standing alongside the driver of the
bob-tail cars. smoking his black cigar and
chatting with the boss of the car.
I'm those days the 18th street horse car
line-two horses pulling the cars-used to
extend only to Florida avenue, which was
then the actual boundary of the city. to 18th
street and New York avenue, where
transfer was given to the avenue horse car
line. The 18th street horse car line was
conductorless outfit, too. and the driver
had to bully the forgetful ones into drop
ping their nickel into the slot. The fare
was a nickel on all of the two-horse car
lines; not because they went any faster, be-
cause they didn't, but because there was a
sort of primitive transfer system.
THE drivers of the old horse cars of Wash
ington were generally jolly and character
istic lot of men, and there was one driver
on the 14th street line who was called the
horse car poet l believe his name was
Wooster. but 1 won't say for certain as to
that. He was great at making impromptu
verses on current topics. and men living
along the line used to like to ride with him
on the front platform to hear him get off
the curious rhymes he'd make up as the
horses logged along the cobblestones in the
middle of the track. The poet was a great
snap for US youngsters, too. On Saturdays
we'd play down around back of the White
Lot, and then, pretty tired. we'd make up
scheme to brace the poet driver for ride
up to P street, where we lived We'd stand
on the corner of New York avenue and
18th street and wait for him to arrive there
with his car. and then we'd all gather
around the fine, hearty, bushy-bearded fell
low, and make long faces, and pretend that
were a whole heap more tired than we
actually were, and we'd look the eyes out
of the poor, good-natured chap, and then
he'd say, in a voice of assumed gruffness
Where's the nickels the mothers Of you
youngsters gave you to ride home?' and
we'd all look as If we'd never heard of so
much money as nickel in all our lives; and
then he'd sort of rubber around to see If
there were any spoilers about, and then
he d wink at us all to get aboard and he'd
ride US all the way uptown for nothing.
Most of us would ride on the platform to
hear him talk. He was a fine man with
children. that poet driver. and shall never
forget his kindly eye and CHEEKY voice.
ut was a great treat for young ones, too,
to be staked to a nickel to ride all around
town on the old brown cars of the Belt
line. 1t was powerful long nickel ride for
those days of horse cars. But, long as it
was we'd try to stretch the nickel into the
price of two rides, but we never got away
with this. The driver of the Belt line car
always knew just where each passenger got
on, and he remembered it, at that, and when
you were brought back to the corner at
which you had got on and made no move
to get off at that corner the driver would
invariably bat on the glass of the front
door and remind you to dig for another
fare.
when you started out on horse car
trip, though, there was never any element
of speculation in 1t as to whether you'd get
to your destination. Rain, shine, snow or
hail, you'd get there all right, in time.
Horses would slip and fall down. but they'd
get UP again, and there was no such thing
as a tie-up of whole line owing to some
thing happening to the juice
"At the bottom of hills there were boys
will hill horses to help the regular car
horses on the hard yank up the hill. The
et1