Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-02-04
THE CABMEN OF PARIS
Hailing One Is the Same as a
Declaration of War.
THEY ARE INS0LENT R0GUES

sneers and Caustie Advice Are Show
cred Upon Those Who Engage Them.
On Wet or Festal Days the Cabbies
Spurn Those Who Want to Ride.
Among Anglo-Saxons there is gen.
eral and instructive desire to do busi-
ness on the basis OF an entente cor
dale. In Paris the hailing OF cab
man Is looked on by both parties to
the transaction as an implied declara-
tion of war. The cabman takes your
measure, and you take his number II
you are wise. At once he will give
you reason to remark that he has q
rooted and premeditated objection TO
drive you where you wish to go. Per-
haps he prefers the opera quarter be-
cause ii is central. or should the wealth
er be fine his heart Is probably set
upon driving In the Bois, while you
may have business at the bourse. he
explains his views on the subject self
ishly and rudely.
A foreigner alighted recently from
the Calais train at the Northern rail-
way station In Paris and ordered a
typical Partisan cabman, bloated, pale
and absinth soaked, to drive him to
the Rue Blomet, which is a street In
the relatively distant Vanguard quar-
ter. "Peut on habiter Ia Rue BlometY'
CTS it possible to inhabit the Rue
BlometT) exclaimed the ragged ruff
fan in an epigrammatic note of dis
dain which would have done honor to
Beau Brummel.
But 1t is when the Paris cabman has
once started on his Course" war
path in the strict sense of the term,
that be proves to what limitless ex-
tent he is the enemy Of mankind. His
hatred OF the bourgeois" the "man in
the street." in spite of and indeed be-
cause OF his being potential client.
Is expressed at every yard. He con-
stantly tries 10 run him down, which
makes strangers to Paris accuse the
Paris cabman OF driving badly, while
in point Of fact he is not driving at
oil, but playing with miraculous skill
a game of his own which suggests can
non billiards in the hands OF a worlds
champion.
But It is not with the public alone
that he is ut war. On all other cab
men whose path he crosses, on omni-
bus drivers, motorcar men, bIcyclists,
private coachmen, costermongers with
barrows and (sotto voce) the police he
heaps deadly insults, the least outra-
geous of which are "Oursr' c'BeargD
and ''Fourneaur' COvenrO, the latter
containing a subtle double meaning,
ineligible only to those who have
Paris "argot" or slang at their finger
ends and too long to explain.
The cabman's wild career through
the streets, the constant wavering and
slashing Of his pitiless whip, his mad.
cap hurtlementS and collisions, the
frenZied gesticulations which he ex.
changes with his "fare," the panic
stricken fight of the agonized women
whose lives he has endangered, the
ugly rushes which the public occasion.
! ally makes at him with a view tc
lynching him, the sprawlings and fall
ings Of bis maddened, hysterical, starv
ing horse, contribute as much as any
thing to the spasmodic intensity, the
electric blue fire diablerie, which are
characteristic of the general move
ment OF Paris.
All that can be said in mitigation oi
the Paris cabman's method is that
''he has them in the blood" Every
Partisan (and the cabman is no excep
tom has the soul of q dictator and
the spirit Of an artist. To exercise au
tocratic power and. failing this, to en-
Joy the maximum OF personal freedom