The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-10
From the New York Evening Post.

ONpON-In his delightful lover
 Bemertons," MT. E. V. Lucas pie - lures the disappointment of a born Londoner at the changes he finds in the great city on returning after an absence of 30 years. He grumbles at the clear ance of Clare Market and Holywell street to make way for modern Improvements. He misses the sulphurous smoke on the underground railway. Most of all, he la menfs the capture of the streets by the motor car. They had motor cars in Bue- nos Ayres and he did not want to come back to London to see them. For how many nights" he says, before I came away did colored omnibuses in full sail fill ny dreams in irresistible onset! That was London"
 It will not be London any longer. With in a few days the leading omnibus com pany in London will take its last horse drawn busses off the streets. We nave known for some time that they were docned, but their actual disappearance will cause most of us sincere regret. In spite of his irreyerent comparisons to Noah's Ark, the Londoner has always had an affection for the horse bus and it's re- noval will be almost like the departure of an old friend.
 The omnibus system may be traced back to line started In Paris by Lafitte the banker politician, in 1S19. An English man named Schillibeer, working as a coac..maker in Paris, had built some of Lahttes busses' for him. It occurred to him that the scheme might "catch on" in London, and in 1929 he made the venture
 IL was a notable occasion in the history of London-a kind of Londoners' Inde- pendence Day, in fact-when, on tue Fourth of July, 1929. Shillibeer's first omnibus started from the Yorkshire Stin- go" public house in Paddington for the Bank of England. The pictures of this vehicle remind one irersistibly of a hearse. Believers In omens should observe that shiIllbeer subsequently himself became an undertaken. The bus was drawn by three horses abreast. It had no provision for outside passengers, but carried p pas- sengers inside, who were provided With newspapers and magazines gratis to be- guile the tedium of the journey. The fare was shilling.
 lie DrOSDeTlty Ol tlC l@ohuoi hotSO oeo reached its highest point in 1905, when there were reported 34s4 such vehicles. with 6169 drivers. The same year the re- turns also included the ominous item Of 2H motor busses-an innovation which has since proved fatal to the older con- veyances.
 The most inveterate conservative must admit that the opportunity of quicker travel is a gain. But 1t is not all gath. exile "The motor bus has It's onset, too, but if hac none of the old rollick. It comes rlgidly toward you. immense and terrifying. It does not sway nor roll It wears tho inf1exible, pitiess air of prog ress. It is Juggernaut. How human aud genial was the bust"
 l For one thing, there was nothing to equal seat on the outside of the horse bus If the foreign or country visitor wanted to see London. On the motor bus, 1t Is true, he can cover more ground in the same time, but he cannot really see so much
 l And If you travel inside your oppor- tunity of studying character-one of the
 great charms of the old style buss l equally curtaied. Your neighbor or
 vis-a-vis has reached his Journeys end before you have had time to watch his mannerisms, much less to listen to his gossip What a rare chances the old bus gave you of hearkening to the voces pop uli As Mrs. John Lane puts it, the Ion don bus was ''the true republic" where all sorts and conditions of men met on common level.
 How, too, we shall miss that unique product of the Victorian Era, the London bus driver ",rhat great artist in horses.
 Mrs. Lane calls him, who. tucked aloft
 on his little throne. with flower in his button, his whip waving, his hat on one vide, his improving exhilaration and slr