The sun., 1908-12-06

be sprang In FrSfn hll tho giatnourone
novels Of the Earl Of Beaconshsld no
saying has attained wider circulation
In London than this comprehensive
Characterization of the semi-romantic
quality Of the London hanson and OF
It's distinct indIgenousness. They do not
know the london hanson who only know
II elsewhere. A cockney born and bred.
this vehicle ceases 10 be itself when
exported. New York. Paris, other alien
cities. have wooed its fascihatlonsi but
though doubtless continuing its utilitarian
functions, Its deeper charm vanishes when
II changes ita streets, even as the charm
Of the gondola vanlshes when exiled
from the canals OF Venice to those Of
Amsterdam or Bruges, or to some lake
or river abroad. According to recent
report of the Board of Trade. London
hansoms are decreasing OF the alarming
rate of 500 a year. Alas for the ruth
lessness Of horseless cabs. motor buses,
+tuppenny tubes and other mechanical
methods Of transportation Doubtless
they mean TO make an end Of the butterfly
hanson, and--that doomsday will infict
= severer loss ON the picturesqueness OF
English traffio than any ii has suffered
since steam trains disinherited stage
coaches,
The London hanson has never deigned
to conflde In its simply mechanical utility.
II will indeed convey you for one shilling
mile. but so does the variously named
fourwheefer. hackney coach. boneshaker,
or groVler. The hanson for It's part
has always appealed definitely to sort
Of artistic sporting instinot in the public.
It Is now close on eighty, years since 1t
was invented, and in all that while, 1t has
perpetually. relied for attracting clients
on it's superior smartness Of appoint
ments. its better blooded steeds, its
@genteeler' drivers. its faster pace and
larger spice of risk. Thaekeray, writing
in Fraser's Magazine in 1851, contrasted
the hanson with the fourwheeler in Ian
guage which holds good to-day. aThe
hansoms man. he said. sis fresh COM
plexioned. stouter and better built; he
sports a spruce buttonhole. smokes a
cigar instead Of pipe, and decorates
each of his horses blinkers with a cab
bage rose or dahlia.'
The fourwheeler man, on the other
hand. is squat and swarthy.' His mode
Of catching q fare is at all times abrupt
his whip or an inquiring elevation OF his
eyebrows. Half a telegraphio motion
Of yours in return Win fetch him In a
moment As for the fourwheeler. ~it
follows you the whole length even Of
Raker street. hugging the curb stones
with its pottering wheels and trying to
inveigle fare with all the coaxing humil-
ity Of a hawker Of bad sealing wax or
worse pens."
From another writer of the same period
we learn that every clubhouse in Pail
Mall and st. James's Square has a fringe
Of hansoms hanging about it's skirts. ?
while they "never wait near chapels or
churches, and are rarely seen in the City
or business quarter. -Staid people dis
like them.' Thackeray mentions con-
frmatively that @hansoms are most pat
ronized by young men. who like them as
vehicles in which they can see and be
seen. and because they are fast and will
push on despite policemen In fact
they were the automobiles Of the period;
they travelled eight miles an hour. Thack-
cray adds, still moro significantly, that
they were upheld by 'the Colonel Old
boys Of to-day. who are we'll pleased with
any safe opportunity Of displaying a
little youthful temerity.' So late as 1882
the shrewd lawyer Sergeant Ballantine
wrote: Il have lived to see an Arch
bishop in hanson cab
For long while indeed the hanson en-
ioyed the profitable repute Of being fast
| L.
would woman ridein one. although once
having acquired the habit she would now
be angry with a squire who should hand
her into afourwheeler. This risky" repu-
tation Of the hanson appears odd when
one remembers that 1t was originally
invented as a patent safety cab by the
A ecclesiastical architect Joseph >Aloysius
HansoSn. To understand the safety one
must 20 back to the date Of the invention,
1884. England had long possessed four
wheeled hackney coaches when in 1906
the French two wheeled cabrioIet de
place was imported. This was an open
gig, able to outpace the hackney coaches
and therefore combined against by them,
90 that at every opportunity they veered
or stopped dead when a cabriolet came
along. with the intention. often success
full. OF upsetting it in the gutter Hence
Aloysius Hanson invented vehicle with
wheels feet 9 inches high and low hung
body. practically immune against upset.
ting. He placed the driver on the roof.
not as now behind. but on the front edge
OF 1t. because apparently lately invented
cab. Boulnois's had Its driver in front and
it's exit behind, and the fares often got out
without paying. Hansom's driver had
them under his very soles. The driver
however, was soon moved to the "dicky
In the rear. where he was quite as wei
able to oversee the exits. and since thf
no change to speak OF has occurred n
oept in the reduction OF the diametetf
the wheels. r.
It used to be said Of the old cabrtets
or 'bouncers' that nothing al
bellyband stood between you ANDES
truotion.' Compared with the grdsiling
fourwheeler this still holds goodi the
modern hanson; but there is thelnset OF
It's superior smartness and ofthe wen
known fact that sprigs Of the ppiiity de-
light 70 disguise themselves AZ Shansom's
men, The passenger is alySs sunlect
to the pleasing surmise that eoaohman
might be mortally offended y the proner
Of tip L
| Ths .Ioiu sr,s We.