A SMART HANSOM. 203 



Court reports, and who was frequently summoning the 

 poor cabbies because they would not submit to be paid 

 sixpence for driving a mile with a stout old lady 

 frequently accompanied by a heavy trunk. 



Had a cabman driven twenty miles a day at this 

 rate of remuneration he could only have made ten 

 shillings a day ; besides which, before the Act of 16 and 

 17 Vict., c. 127, cabs had to carry a moderate amount 

 of luggage without extra payment. 



A shilling a mile is a very fair charge, but sixpence 

 a mile was insufficient. It must be remembered that 

 cab proprietors have to keep, on an average, two 

 horses to every cab, sometimes with smart hansoms 

 even three, when they have to do a lot of night work. 

 Well-appointed hansom cabs do not commence work 

 very early in the morning, unless it be on unusual 

 occasions ; they first appear in the streets when 

 business men are hurrying citywards, or wherever 

 their business happens to be situated, those who have 

 to attend to business earlier in the day being generally 

 clerks and people in a subordinate position who cannot 

 afford to hire cabs. 



Nothing could be better than the present condition 

 of some of the best hansom cabs in London, and 

 nothing could be much worse than the condition of 

 the London four-wheeler.''" If we take one of the 



* Four-wheeled cabs are frequently employed to remove fever 

 patients from their homes to the hospitals ; and owing to this fact, and 

 to their not being disinfected, but having their windows afterwards 

 closed, they act as perfect traps for the conveyance of contagious 

 diseases from one person to another j and the fresh fares, being 

 unconscious of the danger they run, can take no precautions against 

 infection — besides which, the cabby himself may not be aware that 

 he is conveying a fever patient. The penalty for engaging a public 

 conveyance under such circumstances ought to be a very heavy one ; 

 and this ought to be enforced by law. The hospitals should be forced 

 to maintain vehicles for this purpose. 



