The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-10-15
Tine TAxIMETER A BOON
TO TRAVELLERS IN LONDON

1t is the fear of the unknown which
scares many people away from cabs
When | first came to London the cab
drivers were in their wild and savage
state. Their oaths and their inso-
lence made it dangerous to go home
after the theater. In a ferocious
voice they demand your destination,
and if it did not tickle their fancy
they drove off with fearing laugh
l recollect one wild December night,
in the nineties, snowstorm was in
full blast, when, with a lady, | en-
tered cab outside the st. James
Theater. When cabbie heard our
destination he poured out stream
of horrible oaths and refused point
blank to go. A benevolent policeman
interviewed and forced him to drive
off, but at the top of st. James street
he pulled up, said his horse was lame
and compelled us to alight. 1t was a
very unpleasant predicament for a
woman in thin evening shoes, but in
those days it was a common one.
smile now when | think of the fares
| used to pay to those nineteenth
century pirates. In my simplicity l
would ask them what they would
take, and they would demand, with
an air of condescension, half SOW
ereign for two shilling ride. If you
refused to pay them more than
double their fare they would hurl
lyddite expletives after yQu,and rouse
the whole neighborhood with their
decorating blasphemies. Sometimes
they had the audacity to climb down
from their perch, and, selling your
knocker, thunder on your door until
in sheer terror. you bribed them to
go away.
The taximeter has changed all that.
1t tells you exactly what you have to
pay, and it has made brigandage and
blackmail impossible. 1t has created
a new class of cabmen. The driver
Of the taximeter is amazingly polite
stupefyingly clean and astoundingly
sober. His neat uniform is a well
come change after the dilapidated
garments to which the ancient cab
man used to cling. In some cases he
carries civility to the point of servll-
ity, touching his cap like a groom or
footman. He never demands tip,
and he is grateful If you give him the
odd twopence or fourpence. He
skill. Although his charge is higher
than that of the horse cab, it works
out at lower rate. for there is no
extortion. The only drawback at the
present is that the supply of taxi
meters does not equal the demand.
Londoners are beginning to dis
cover that the taximeter can be used
outside London as we'll as within the
radius. 1t takes the place of a
private motor, and the cost is not
really exhorbitant. A party of four
can run down to Richmond, take tea
at the Star and Garter, enjoy a stroll
on the terrace and the famous view
from Richmond hill, getting back in
time for dinner, for something less
than five shillings a head. During
the past summer I have seen taxi
meters in all sorts of outlandish
places twenty or thirty miles from
London. 1t is quite possible that the
time may come when the taximeter
will be serious competitor with the
railway, but of course that develop
ment is long way off.
The taximeter is not only polite it.
self, but 1t Is cause of politeness in
others. 1t has taught the London
cabdriver the value of courtesy. He
has discovered that it pays to be
amiable. Today he thanks you for
a fare at which few years ago he
would have sworn. He beams on
you if you give him an extra six
pence. Altogether the public has
benefited by the competition between
tubes, motorbuses, horsebuses, trans,
hansoms, GROWERS and taximeters.
The only thing needed to complete
the travellers millennium is the air.
ship. I daresay there will taximeter
airships in the twenty-first century,
London Leader,