Culled from Contemporaries.
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
.Press Comments from all Quarters on Various Aspects of the Taxicab Situation.
"'Null Said."
Taxicab drivers have held a meeting to protest against, the allegations that they embezzle £150,000 a year, chiefly by pocketing extras. The figure, it seems, is exaggerated.—•" Punch."
On Time as Usual.
THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR issues at the price of id. " Twenty Points for Users of London Taxi-cabs," which is certainly a publication that is considerably apropos at a moment when there is a public controversy on the subject of motorcabs in -the metropolis.—" Morning Post."
Logical Deductions.
If we do not accept the more inflated -estimates of their earnings we decline to believe that so much arrogance, indifference, and unwillingness to work could be sustained on a bare living wage. A man who can earn only five shillings a day • does not voluntarily rest for a third of the week.—" The Outlook."
A Non-existent Relationship.
Mr. George du Cros asked if Mr. Shrapnell Smith was present, but nobody answered the challenge. Driver Tom Wall, continuing, remarked that this was not the first occasion Mr. Smith had attacked the business men of London. He was tale-bearer for his brother-in-law of the Vanguard Company, and was behind the Masters' Federation. (Cheers and laughter.)—From the reportof a drivers' meeting in "The Chauffeur."
The "Hanger-on.
My particular grievance just now is the loafer who hangs around a taxi-rank. He annexes that rank. For all practical purposes the drivers on that rank might be men in his employ. If you want a -cab you first buy hint off with coppers, and then, and then only, can you start esff on your journey. If you do not settle with him you find him hanging like a leech to the door handle, so that yoo cannot enter. . . . If drivers wish to keep a call-boy, it is their business to pay him, and not the business of the public.
This is the parasite performing a more
or less useless purpose. In the more common form he is simply a hanger-on. If you hail a cah from a rank it comes up to you towing one of these wretched creatures who has affixed himself to the door handle. When you get out there is always another one somewhere about ready to plunge forward and hold the door open. If by ally chance there is not ne of the hoary professionals hawking
round, the odds are in favour of two or three little guttersnipes, with or without evening papers, dashing forward to assist you. These imps I imagine arc the young of the parasite, and I loathe them. If you happen to be with a lady they are even more officious. I have had as many as three at once struggling to put their grubby little hands on the door and claim a tip for so doing. . . • I have patented a new method now which I find most efficacious, because it annoys both the driver and the loafer, and therefore shows the driver that it is to his interest to help to put down the nuisance. When I call a cab, and it conies up with one of these leeches on the door handle, I say very politely, " l'm so sorry. I see that's your cab; I'll get another." Then I walk away promptly, leaving the other two to fight it out between them.— A writer in " Truth."
Laborious Brain Work.
Mr. A. Smith is a dear. Mr. A. Smith is the president of the London Cab. drivers' Union ; he is also a wag, a pet, and a nut. Pray silence for Mr. A Smith on the grievances of the obsequiousi, cringing, half-starved drivers of taxicabs. " The companies seem to forget that all the money they earn is due to the brains of their drivers. It is the skill of the driver that brings in the money. There is a great art in finding the most likely spots to pick up passengers. The driver is in the same position as a fisherman, whose skill brings him in the fish." Precisely Oh, you treasure of a president. Every Londoner will
thank you for that just and striking simile. How often hive we seen the dear little trout leaping from the water in order to catch the eye of the fisherman. How often have we seen the salmon standing on his tail by the side of the river, whistling, an whistling, and whistling for a rod and line. Doesn't your heart warm to Mr. A. Smith, friend the reader? " There is a great art in finding the most likely spots to pick up passengers." Why, to be sure there is. It takes years and years of training before the drivers discover that people come out of hotels and restaurants between eight and nine, and leave the theatres and music-halls at 11. Such laborious brain-work cries out for lavish payments. Dow II with the mere owners.
I have drafted a few rules for the betterment of the sad lot of the taxi-cabman, and venture to submit them to Mr. A. Smith :— (1) No driver to be subject to the humiliation of police control.
(2) In wet weather, all drivers to sit inside cab on knee of fare. (3) At end of journey, fare to hand purse to driver for selection of coins. (4) Taximeters to be abolished forth with. Owner to accept small gratuity from driver at end of day.
(5) Relations of drivers to ride free (as at present) without unkind comment from owner.—Keble Howard in " The Sketch."
A Would-be Carnegie Hero.
" Doctor," he said, " I want bucking up. A real tonic. Something that will fill me with courage and determination."
" But, my dear sir," said the physician, " that's not my function. I am here to look into your general health, not prescribe for sudden emergencies. What you want is not a doctor, but an American bartender. Leave it to Charley ' was invented for such cases as yours."
"But surely the pharma.copeeia contains something that imparts resolution and address! " said the trembling man. "t particularly don't want to take alcohol. Thera might be trouble, and my chances of carrying the thing through would he ruined if it could be proved had just come from a bar. No, doctor, I implore you to give me something. I can't do it without."
" But what is it you have to do? Tell me that finst."
The patient clutched at his heart. " It's terrible," he said. " I hardly know haw to say,it. I belong to a club —a new club—formed to deal with taxies. We are pledged not to take a cab unless the driver promises not to smoke. That is one thing. That is not so hard, but difficult enough to a retiring man like myself."
"Ye.-." said the doctor. " Yes; what next? "
" Ah ! " groaned his visitor. " Next?
That is much more serious. We are pledged not to tip the drivers. It seems that they get 25 per cent, of their earnings, and we think it's erough. So we took a terrible oath, and sealed it in a loving cup of petrol, never to tip them again."
" Well, and what has happened? "the physician inquired. " Nothing yet," replied the shaking man. " We only begin to-day. We drew lots who should act first, and the lot fell to me. To me I am pledged to take a taxi this morning at 12 o'clock, and first tell the man I won't have him if he smokes, and then, at the end of the journey. give him only as much as is marked on the meter. Doctor, it's a quarter to 12. I implore you to give me something powerful—something that will make a hero of me. My heart is going 200 to the trinute."" Punch."