Cañon City record., 1910-03-03

comes inevitably, If one considers too
long the history Of England with its
tales of lust and brutality and cruelty.
| that make men ashamed of humanity
"a splendid tonic for the blues that
comes to one in the Tower and st.
Paul's Is a ride in a London bus.
There is the great heart of the democ-
racy.
A London bus is not a thing of
beauty. 1t looks like collision be-
tween a street parade and a dray;
but it is joy forever. and long may
it's loveliness increase" 1t will be
hard to convey to Emporia people who
have never seen London bus. any
adequate idea of how one looks.
Imagine Pete Newton's hotel bus
with a fiat top, with stairs leading
from the step behind to the top. I'm
agine double row of wooden seats
on the fiat top of the bus; put Jim
Boyd, of Fleming & Potter's (the only
distinguished bus driver in town
since Charlie Gilchrist left Emporia)
put Jim Boyd on the drivers seat in
a plug hat, driving three horses, all
abreast, and you have fair idea of
London bus.
Put fourteen people in the seats on
top, and twelve inside below, paying
from / cent each to s cents each, let
Jim crack the whip and keep the
horses on dog trot, up hill and down
dale, and you have the speed OF 1t.
But many London busses-at least
half, maybe more-are motor busses.
So we will have to spit on the slate
and rub the picture of Jim Boyd and
his bus out and begin a new one. A
motor bus accommodates from TWEEN
ty-eight to thirty people-sixteen on
top, and the rest downstairs inside.
The back stair steps run up as they
do on the horse bus. and to get on
the top one climbs a spiral iron stair
ease, as the bus whirls along ut six
teen miles an hour. 1t is real sport
The motor bus Is larger than the
horse bus. and the motorman sits
down stairs In front-not SO imposing
a looking creature as the horse driv-
er, and more modern and business
like.
As there are few street cars in Lon
donor in Paris or Berlin, for that
matter. either-most of the traffic Is
handled by these buses and the mo-
tor buses have the advantage over
the horse 'busses in speed, so they
have the crowds.
The conductor of a bus stands at
the rear near the spiral stairway. and
collects his fare. He is not an impos-
ing looking man. He wears no uni
form. He always is seedy. He looks
battered and forlorn and seems to
have como down in the world. Gen
orally. therefore. he is sad-sad, but
polite; solemn. but circumspect He
tolerates no foolishness. but he Is al
ways a gentleman. Women throng
his bus by the hundreds every day.
He suffers their fooilshness-you can
see that-and is strong. He helps
them up stairs and helps them down
stairs. He is a father and brother to
them. He makes that obvious.
And so when an American woman
the other day-the other windy day
was coming down the iron stairs of a
London bus. the wind caught her
skirts and she caught them. and as
the bus lurched he caught her. She
blushed and started to explain, when
the Perfect Gentleman sighed sadly
and stopped her. saying: "Ah. miss.
'rouble on my account. Legs amt no
treat TO me, LADY,"
+++
To an American, green from the
great plains. where there is no insig-
mia of rank. the oldest thing about
London is the plug hat In no other
country OF Europe, and in no place in
the United States is the high black
hat so common. Some way, the plug
hat, which with us is the banner OF
cheap politician, is supposed in Eng
land to be the sign and index OF
gentleman. So all persons who con-
slider themselves gentlemen. wear
black tiles. Moreover, they are like
''hot cross buns" in that you give
them TO your sons" Little boys. from
ten to dozen years old, who go to
fashionable schools, wear plug hats
and wide starched collars and long
trousers.
But, strange to say. the rise of the
man who has the price of a high hat