Culled from Contemporaries.
Page 18
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A Selected Collection of Extracts from the British and Foreign Press.
The Link We Shall Miss.
With the hansom-cabby will disappear one of those priceless links which bind the classes and the masses amicably together.—The Sketch.
Chiswick Wants a Motor.
In August last the horses attached to the Chiswick fire-engine bolted from the engine house, and, dashing wildly down the street, terminated their short spell of freedom in the windows of a grocer's shop, scattering the contents and injuring a number of persons. One of the latter, a Chiswick lady, on February 12th, recovered £50 damages from the Crban District Council.—Fire and Water Indian Requirements.
In a country covering so vast an area as India, and at the same time none too wealthy, it is apparent that railways cannot for many years to come succeed in adequately covering the land. The main lines, thanks to the enterprise of Government, are in existence, but the feelers progress but slowly. Just here comes in the advantage of a good system of road transport independent of rails.---Railways, Calcutta.
Seven Cabs for ZS.
The "four-wheeler" holds its own better than the hansom for the present, as it possesses greater capacity for carrying luggage. But it also is menaced by the doom which is overtaking its two-wheeled competitor, and as motorcabs multiply, it, too, must be displaced. The change has already brought many hardships to individuals. Cabowners find that their plant is practically worthless, and some remarkable figures as to the prices which hansoms now fetch are given in our columns to-day. Seven cabs, for example, which cost 175 each, were sold the other day for £8. It is not only the proprietor who has suffered. One mechanically-propelled vehicle will do the work of two or more horse-drawn cabs, and thus the ranks of the unemployed may be temporarily increased.— The Daily Mail, London.
The Absent-minded Loafer and the Taxicab.
The taxicab drivers have no reason to congratulate themselves upon the result of their deputation to Mr. Gladstone. He seemed to acquiesce in their being regarded as pariahs and incessantly harassed by the police. As taxicabs have come to stay, and must presently oust the few remaining hansoms and growlers from the streets, it is ridiculous to regard them as interlopers, only to be tolerated on sufferance. The only result of persecution will be that drivers will disregard the wishes of their fares and travel far below the speed limit, so as to avoid all risks. The idea that they constitute a danger to pedestrians is quite unwarranted, now that everyone has grown accustomed to them. Streets are meant for busy people, not for absent-minded loafers. The enemies of motorcars ought to go away and live in the country, wrapped up in cotton-wool. —John Bull.
A Curious Prophecy.
In view of the recent decision of the Birmingham Watch Committee to grant licenses for another IO motor taxicabs, which will bring the total number of such vehicles in the city up to 30, a representative of the "Evening Despatch " has interviewed a number of people interested in the cab and car business today. One cab proprietor stated his opinion that if the speed of the taxicabs was not reduced there would be a great many accidents of a serious character, especially iii the centre of the city, where they flashed about as though they were the sole occupants of the earth. This high speed would eventually cause them to be ignored.—Birmingham Evening Destatch.
Walk Less—I-1ide More.
The breakdown of one bus is merely an incident in the day's service, and although it may have to be towed back to garage the stoppage of a unit does not extend to the rest of the machines. It is the ability of the bus to give the passenger just the service he desires that is another of the advantages. The tendency of the twentieth century is to walk less and ride more, and if the business man can be taken from the door of his house to the door of his office he is going to give his patronage to the conveyance that will supply his needs. When a man can manage to filch an extra 10 minutes at home in the morning, by reason cif saving a long walk to reach the tram, he will be glad to pay something extra for the privilege. —Noiseless Age, New York.
The Fighting Weight of a Motor Omnibus.
That wonderful invention, the motoromnibus, is only in its infancy, but in spite of the fact that, like the human infant, it is apt to make a good deal of noise and to betray a certain waywardness of disposition, it is already a favourite with the travelling public. Of course, there are good motor-omnibuses and had, just as there are with most other things, and the Commissioner of Police has found time in the intervals of catching burglars and forestalling Suffragette raids on Cabinet Ministers to play father to the whole tribe, to encourage the good and to take effective measures for the suppression of the bad. To this end he has not only asked in quite a stern voice for less noise, but he has let it be known that in future only a lighter type of vehicle will be licensed.
While reserving our opinion as to what ought to constitute the fighting weight of a motor-omnibus, we cannot help referring with something like alarm to the proposition that the companies might possibly meet the problem of the lighter motor by abolishing the twodecker as we now know it and providing seats for inside passengers only. It ap. pears to us that such a notion would be very unlikely to meet with popular approval. There is a charm about the outside of an omnibus which the most airy interior can never hope to equal.— The Evening News, T.ondon.
U.S.A. Activity.
There are more than 100 manufacturers actively engaged in the building of motor trucks and delivery wagons in the United States at the present time, and every few days the name of some new maker is discovered to be added to the rapidly-growing list. Some are making only a few machines a year, while others are turning out several hundred. Already the industry has reached considerable proportions, but they are as nothing compared with the promise for the near future.—The Commercial Vehicle, New York.
The Wisdom of the Ostrich.
The action of the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis in regard to requiring all public carriages propelled by mechanical means to be fitted with a device " to give audible warning of excess of speed to the police and others, and to the driver himself," is one of those proposed regulations the wisdom of which is on a par with the conduct of the hunted ostrich, which buries its head in the sand in the belief that in so doing it has hidden itself from its pursuers. One would imagine that by now we had had experience ad nauseam to teach us that danger from motor vehicles cannot be measured in terms of miles per hour, but that it consists wholly in the manner of handling the vehicle in relation to the precise circumstances prevailing—The Automata, Journal.
The Vanguard Casablanca.
In a way it is a compliment to the motorbus that the public treat the breakdown of one of those vehicles with such interest. Such occurrences have not satiated the curiosity of the average wayfarer, who always can spare a moment to inspect critically, silently, and dispassionately the investigations which the driver and his less technical, but willing conductor are making in the dim recesses that lie beneath the bonnet of his stationary bus. But while it is the stubborn mechanism of the vehicle that attracts most notice, the behaviour of the passengers also, a correspondent suggests, affords rare food for observation. For the first few moments of the delay they do not realise that the stoppage is an illegitimate one. They have all been in breakdowns before, but each new occasion finds them incredulous of a repetition of such an untoward event. They sit tight. They ponder on their business, absorbed in their own thoughts. Presently one of them begins to suspect. The suspicion subtly spreads. Somebody gets up. The inside seats are hared as though by the action of a cyclone. The "outsides' follow ; all except one. And who this one is, nobody knows. You will see him alone on an outside seat of every stranded bus until he is literally hounded to earth by the officials, a figure vaguely reminiscent of Casabianca. Whether it is a kind of heroism or mere physical deafness that glues him to the derelict is as yet undecided.— The Globe, London.