Peeps into Omnibus History-1.
Page 8
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Few people, in these days of rush and hurry, find time to inquire into the origin of public passenger service vehicles. To the French capital belongs the honour of their inception, for omnibuses were started in Paris under the name of "carrosses h cinq sous" in the year 1602. Seven of these vehicles, each constructed to carry eight passengers, were built under a decree of authorisation granted by Louis XIV. to M. Blaise Pascal. A brilliant send-off ceremony was carried out on March 18th of the year quoted, the king and members of the aristocracy taking rides during the early days of the innovation. It is, in fact, recorded* that many persons who possessed private coaches drove daily to the starting-point and yet FAILED TO GET A SEAT in one of the omnibuses for a week or two. The original service was between the Luxembourg and the Porte St. Antoine, but by the time four other routes had been added the fashionable craze came to an end. The poorer classes appeared to find it cheaper to walk, and the result was that Pascal, who died five months after the inauguration, saw his coaches frequently half-empty even some weeks before his death. The carrosses h cinq sous lingered only a few months after their originator, and Paris had no organised service of the kind again for more than 150 years.
It was in the year 1819, after sundry desultory and unsustained efforts in London, that M. Jacques Lanus a prominent banker, who subsequently became a Minister to Louis Phillip°, introduced the "omnibus" as it is known in Paris to-day, though he did not give it that name. There were no roof seats, the inside seating capacity being for 16 or 18 persons, and the cinq sous charge of 1662 was revived as the fare from one side of Paris to the other, with amazingly satisfactory results. The first year's profits were said to have recouped M. Laffitte his whole outlay. It is, however, to a M. Baudry, a retired military officer, who owned some baths in the suburbs of Nantes, that the credit of applying the word "omnibus" must be given. He rau,sc., a conch, about the year 1827, for the convenience of his patrons, at fixed hours to and from the town, and the vehicle bore the lugubriously heavy inscription " Voiture des Bains
de Richebourg. A happy inspiration one day came to him, aml the conveyance was forthwith re-named "L'Omnibus." This same M. Baudry instituted various omnibus services in Paris and Bordeaux, with the result that the word was quickly adopted by the public at large. M. Laflitte's and various other omnibus enterprises continued to prosper in Paris, and the banker-politician, with a view to maintaining a lead over his rivals, resolved to have two specially handsome equipages constructed. He placed the order for these with MR. GEORGE SHILLIBEER, who was then firmly established as a leading Parisian coachbuilder, and the instructions practically gave carte blanche as regards comfort and appearance. Shillibeer had been a midshipman in the British Navy, but he had left the sea to learn coach-building at Hatchett's, in Long Acre, London, after which he had successfully cultivated an extensive trade on his own account in Paris. M. Laffitte's commands gave him the idea of starting omnibuses in London, and he lost no time in executing the intention. His French business was disposed of, and he opened premises in Bury Street, Bloomsbury, early in the year 1829, with the announcement that he was about to introduce "a new vehicle called the omnibus." He selected the route from Paddington to the Bank, via Marylebone, Euston, and Pentonyille Roads, where a number of short-stage coaches were plying. The time occupied on this trip by these old vehicles was three hours, and the terms for outside passengers were : PADDINGTON TO THE ('ITV—TWO SHILLINGS.
Inside seats were three shillings each, and much inconvenience was caused by the collection, carriage, and delivery of luggage on all the journeys. July 4th, 1829, witnessed the first runs of Shillibeer's two new omnibuses; each carried 22 passengers, all inside, and each was drawn by three beautiful bays harnessed abreast. The fare for the whole journey was only one shilling; half-way, sixpence. Newspapers and magazines were provided free of charge, and the conductors, who were friends of Shillibeer's and sons of British naval officers, often conversed with the passengers in French! The takings averaged Jo a week per omnibus, and the older proprietors spared no pains to incite the populace against Shillibeer, whom they alleged to be a Frenchman. This pioneer of improved travelling facilities had also to face petitions from the aristocratic and wealthy residents of Paddington Green, who strongly objected to the traffic through their "select neighbourhood." When the omnibuses were in good working order, Shillibeer's genthanen-conductors relinquished their duties, and the more ordinary mortals who replaced them suffered from a settled belief that to rob an omnibus proprietor was no sin. Shillibeer found that each conductor helped himself to about per week. At his wits' ends, he welcomed a patent register which was designed to record every person who stepped front the conductor's platform, but a gang of MEN SMASHED THE REGISTER, and nearly murdered its inventor after it had been in successful use for only two weeks, This first machine had cost Shillibeer £300, and his next endeavour to stop peculation was to fit in each omnibus a clock with a notice fixed beneath it informing the public that it was the conductor's duty to move the hand a certain distance whenever a passenger entered. Not a single information was ever laid, and not it few passengers amused themselves by turning the hand round until it recorded an impossible number of passengers. This recreation was getting very popular when. Shillibeer removed the clocks and trusted to his conductors' honour—a step which proved to be an entirely misplaced confidence.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, Shillibeer had twelve omnibuses at work in less than nine months, and a few of these were of the two-horse pattern, with twelve inside and -two outside paSSellgM4. In 1837 there were 54 omnibuses on the Paddington-City route, and the fares then were sixpence for any distance. Competition at this date was very keen, and different proprietors did all in their power to make their respective vehicles attractive. One of these made all his drivers wear a WOODEN RING ON EACH ARM,
with strings attached to them which ran along each side of the roof of the omnibus and hung down to the conductor. The passengers would then pull the cord, or tell the conductor which to pull, according to which side of the road hp wished to be set down. This arrangement was most popular with passengers, who grumbled and wrote letters to the proprietors if the strings were absent or defective; but it seems strange to Londoners of to-day that such meanderings could be allowed. Many of the omnibuses had clocks in them, whilst a Mr. Cloud's line of vehicles, which ran from the Haymarket to Hammersmith (fares is. outside and 2S. 6d. inside), fitted libraries. Books were expensive in those days, and many people rode to Hammersmith and back for the sole purpose of reading a particular one; but there was so much thieving that this attraction had to be discontinued, It was the abolition of these bookcases which gave rise to the introduction of the thirteenth inside seat, and an omnibus with a seat in front of the fare-board was running between Oxford Cirrus and Hendon as late as the year 1882.
George Shillibeer came to grief through competing with the railway to Greenwich, and his vehicles were seized several times for arrears of payments to the Stamp and Taxes Office. This proceeding was unquestionably a most arbitrary and unfair one, and all promises of compensation. were conveniently shelved by successive Governments. Shillibeer became an undertaker, and but for this fact our Metropolitan Stage Carriages would have been called " Shillibeers" instead of "omnibuses." People did not fancy the connection between their regular daily lives and the much advertised " Shillibeer Funeral Coaches." He died at Brighten on August 22nd, i866, in his 70th year.