The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-05
MANY NEW WORKERS WALK BUT LITTLE Many Rich People Barely
 Touch Sidewalk STREET CARS AVOIDED More Than One Hundred Thousand Never Use car-Three Thousand
 Have Never Entered a
 Subway Train.

Subway Train.
 New York. April 4-More than 7500,- GOO pounds Of human beings, or over 375O tons of humanity are transported through the streets of New York every day in public cabs. In other Woras' more than 50,OO0 different people use hired vehicles every day to take them about the city on business or in search of pleasure. Moreover, according to the cab people, who have made study of the situation, there are fully l1o,- GOO people, exclusive of babies and in xalids, who never use the street cars, and of these, at feast 5000 could not tell from personal observation what the inside of a trolley Is like and have DO conception of the rush hour In the subway. Many of these people never walk on the street except to cross 70" sidewalk to get from their homes or hotels Into their own vehicles or pub uc cabs. and the longest walks they ever take are from those vehicles through the aisles of the fashionabie stores the corridors of the hotels, or around the semi circular passages bacK of their boxes at the opera. They are New York's cab using public, who think as little of hailing a cab for ride of a block or two as the average man does of hopping on a street car.
 Many of the cab users hold that IL is really cheaper for them to use tax ameter cabs. For, in addition to say ing the strain on my lady's nerves trip in cab does not subject her hne clothes to the jostling of the crowd, does not make her jewelry attractive to the covetous-fngered, and mini imizes her chance of losing her jeweied gold vanity bag or other costly knlck- knacks. Moreover, my lady's pet Por'- eranian or Jap spaniel can ride With her in a cab.
 As one rich woman put it: "Tte other day, because Charles had been talking hard times, I took a car @ save the cab fares l saved just 4o cents, and the crowd crushed ST worth of orchids so that I could not wear them to dinner that evening. When Charles had to get more flowers he begged me not to be economical any nore."
 But there is rush hour for the cab users, just as there is for the traVeler on the more plebeian car line. To be sure, the cab user is not crowded and rushed and hauled and told to step y. a rush hour when more people are using cabs than at any other time In the day. In fact, at some of these rush hours the pressure on the cab service is so great that many cab users cannot get into cab at all--A far more disconcerting situation for him than crowding into an already filled car is for the Harlemite. This hour however, comes only on race day IxNr Nd o'clock it is practically impossible O rent any public vehicle in New Yo k and the streets are deserted, while the road to the race tracks is one string C. motor cabs, horse cabs and, in fact. anything that will go for hire and carry passengers down to lose their money. Sometimes there comes dan Serously near being cab famine or winter nights.
 This is when Madame Einalti or Sig nor Lowaledgeri is to make a debut at one of the opera houses. Then are the cabs busy almost the whole 2500 of them, and there is not a 'To Hire" flag to be found on taXameter cab far or wide.
 The first rush hour for cabs ac- cording to the starter for the New Yock Transportation company, which ope1- ates 500 public motor vehicles and tax ameter cabs, is from to 10 o'clock in the morning. This is heaviest on Mor- days. and most of this traffic starts from the detots or the docks of the Newport boat Some of it is MT. Money bags returning from his country placo after Sunday and anxious to De whisked down town to Wall street. But the largest part of this rush is made up of the people who have been at tending house parties and have come into town to take some other train to their next visiting place, or to meet some steamer.
 In this rush, however, are also ,aroe number of women who have been giving week ends and who come in on Monday to go shopping and lay in their s,,nn,ies for the coming week. Many Of ,be.a are taken direct to the fashio1a- iIo stores. the swell grocers, fruiterers cnd caterers, and after luncheon at me Colony club or some stylish restaurant eo mack to the depot. This rush Is 1,ohtcr in winter than in summer. +hough it takes jump because ol skating parties after q cold spell Strangely enough, the shopping serV'ce o; cabs is lightest on the days when ,ro ,tores advertise their great bar yain sales. so the New York Transpor- tation compauy's expert ayers
 The next rush for the taXameters and monthly service vehicles is from noon to 8 o'clock. This is one of the women's rush hours. Very few men use cabs at this time, but the wealthy women begin to go down town to luncheon engagements or to the homes of th cir intimate friends for bite There are also dressmaking trips, shop hing in the stores, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays the matinee is often the objective.
 But the real rush hour for the wo- men is between and or 5:30 This is the calling hour and the time Cor driving through the park. The calling service is particularly active on Wednesdays and Thursdays, because fhere are a number of well known so- ciety people who are at home on these days.
 To show how the cabby is dependerf on society the starter said that if the leaders of the Four Hundred changed their receiving days to Monday, the public conveyance people would feel the difference in a week and Mondays would be heavy days. Still, he said there are many people who call on other than calling days, when Mrs.