Culled from Contemporaries.
Page 15
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A Selected Collection of Extracts from the British and Foreign Press.
No Flowers, by Request.
We regret to have again to draw attention to the almost complete cessation of progress in the development of electric traction in this country shown by the annual tables. Such additions as have been made during the past year are almost all in the nature of minor extensions to existing tramways, and these are mainly confined to municipal systems.—" Electrical Review."
Pigs, Ploughs and Potato Diggers.
Highly-bred stack never fails in its appeal to an agricultural show crowd, but visitors, even the most critical in judgment, tire eventually of sleek horses, big-headed, broad-backed cattle, stupendous sheep, and extraordinarily proportioned pigs, and turn with a sense of relief to the ploughs and the harrows, the potato diggers, and the threshing machines, and the hundred and one examples of the successful application of mechanical science to the work of the farm and the field.—" The Mancheeter Dispatch."
An Organization with a Purpose.
Since 1908 the number of motor vehicles employed in the public service has risen by 3,000, and in one year no fewer than 6,000 commercial vehicles were placed on the streets or roads. Five years ago there were in London two taxi-cabs; to-day there are 5,000. Moreover, motor omnibuses have almost entirely superseded the horse vehicle. Five years ago there were nearly half a million horses stabled in London nightly ; to-day there are only 110,000 left. All of which shows the necessity for reciprocity as between road users and road maintainers—both of whom are separate sections of a common body with a community of interests—and justifies at the same time the existence of the Commercial Motor Users' Association.—" The Stirve
A Boudoir Taxi-cab.
In one of Newcastle's new taxi-cabs yesterday 1 saw something that pleased me greatly. In the two corners of this vehicle, facing the passengers, the chauffeur had placed two tiny flower holders, and these he had filled with pink carnations. All the fittings were as might as polishing could make them, and the effect was wonderfully agreeFile. The interior was as dainty as a lady's boudoir. The driver was evidently a man with good taste. He was a man also with an eye to business; for, if I had to choose between a cab with flowers in it, and one without. I should certainly choose the former. These mechanically-impelled vehicles have made a wonderful improvement in the method uf getting about from one part of the city to another. They have been in use ouly a few months; but already we wonder what we should do without them. They are swift, they move silently and smoothly, and they are eminently cornfortable.—A writer in " The Newcastle Chronicle."
Impressing the Dubious Ways of the Cabby.
The recent publication of a user's guide to the hiring of taxi-cabs in the metropolis, though being a useful and even necessary step to protect the public, is calculated to impress the visiting stranger that, the dubious ways of the cabby have neither been ended nor mended by the passing of the horsed vehicle and the introduction of a taximeter.—" The Motor Trader."
An Unnecessary Permit.
It supplies a somewhat curious comment on the recent Home Office order permitting drivers of taxis to smoke on the box even while carrying a fare that the men themselves have been passing resolutions against the rule, and under. taking not to avail themselves of the altogether unnecessary licence accorded. That the drivers should be allowed the solace of a pipe or cigarette while waiting for custom is reasonable enough, hut that passengers should be compelled " by administrative order " to swallow their tobacco smoke is another matter altogether, and the aforesaid action of the men would seem to show that their sense of the fitness of things is more acute than that of the official who was respell sible for the order.—" Truth."
The Spectrol.
We have now definitely grown accustomed to the presence of the taxi-cab, and to the taxi-driver ; and when we find a cab-rank full of motors we have ceased to shake our heads and, from the disappearance of the hansom in particular, to stifle a general homily regarding the constantly changing facets of London's social life. But having become inured, as we may say, to these things, we are tempted to probe deeper and discover the inner meaning of the spectrol. We suppose that that is what you call him; it seems, indeed, the only name for this spectre who lurks around the petrol. He appears to he a sort of attaché at the rank ; or, rather, a Vulture of the kind described by the late Mr. Henry Seton Merriman in his novel of that name. The spectrol hovers near whenever a pedestrian approaches the line of taxi-cabs aud exhibits signs of wanting to be a fare. The spectrol opens doors, receives your destination, drags the taximan away from his cribbage, and sees to it. that the cab is set, in motion. So much we have realized. But what we should like to acquire information about is whether the spectral is a legitimate candidate for a tip. Is he a retainer of the rank and eligible for feudal bounty, or is he an irresponsible free-lance haunting the petrol on sufferance? Sometimes when the world does not quite come up to our expectations—well, on a day like yesterday, for instance—you can detect pathos in the spectrol. He is a taxi-driver manqué. A man who ought to be controlling the steering wheel, hut to whom circumstances have said ; and them you forgive the boredom he inflicts.—" The Globe." One Hears That—
People in the South tell us that the development of the motor van and light lurry business in and around London is now very marked. Of course, in Lancashire and Yorkshire alone there is att enormous field for this business ; and we have noticed, of late, that the textile combines in particular are using motor lurries to a considerably growing extent for the conveyance of cloth and other goods to and from their works.—" The Manchester Courier."
A Wayside Problem.
From a notice-board set up by the S.E. and C. Ry. :—" This Bridge is insufficient to carry a Heavy Motor Car the registered axle weight of any axle of which exceeds Five Tons or the registered axle weights of the several axles et which exceed in the aggregate Seven Tons or a Heavy Motor Car drawing a Trailer if the registered axle weights of the several axles of the Heavy Motor Car and the axle weights of the several axles of the Trailer exceed in the aggregate Eight Tons." We can almost see the chauffeur stopping and working it. out.—" Punch."
The Taxi-driver's Pipe.
Lord of the throbbing engine, at thy touch
We whirl through giddy mazes of the street
And yet to us thou seemest, daring much.
Wholly unconscious of each breathless feat.
We reverence the nerve that still can guide Our swifter progress through the roaring tide.
But while the exhauet pants forth an azure haze That trails behind in the unequal race, What denser smoke is this that rearward strays?
What funnel fixed in thine immobile face Thus belches noxious fumes and sparks withal That on the dainty gown of beauty fall!
A common pipe! Alack and fie for aflame!
Is it the absence of thy pacing steed That renders thee thus careless of thy fame?
For here is lack of chivalry indeed Since even when the final goal is gained Thy black and odorous clay is still retained !
Foully bepiped, thou takest beauty's tip (All undeserved because thy ways are vile), Nor do clenched Levitt or firm prehensile lip Part in the faintest semblance of a.
But, though thou goest on thy way onchid, Remember handsome is as hansom did ! --" Touchstone "—in " The Daily