AMATEUR CABMEN. 207 



usual price being about ten pounds a leg for a really 

 good sound horse, whereas screws can be picked up at 

 any price from five pounds and upwards. The price 

 for a good cab-horse is about the same as what is paid 

 by Government for cavalry remounts. Some of the 

 London hansom cabmen are first-rate coachmen and 

 understand cutting in and out amidst crowded traffic 

 without colliding, and have a marvellous knack of 

 keeping their horses on their feet on wood pavement, 

 which continuous rain has made as slippery as ice. 



It must be remembered that, when driving a han- 

 som cab (and, as a youngster, I have, of a night, driven 

 one myself about the London streets, which may be 

 all very well for the fun of the thing, but must be very 

 different when circumstances force one to adopt this 

 humble calling as a profession), from your elevated 

 seat, you can see nothing of your horse but his head, 

 and very little of that, the wheels can scarcely be seen 

 at all, consequently it is very difficult to judge what 

 space you have to spare. Hansom cabmen, who are 

 not proprietors but merely drivers, occasionally have 

 much difficulty in making a profit ; out of the season 

 they pay about fifteen shillings a day to the cab pro- 

 prietor, that is in the utterly dead time of year, but 

 in the busy times they pay as much as twenty-five 

 shillings ; but I am informed that, as a rule, they pay 

 seven shillings at mid-day when changing horses, 

 and ten shillings more w^hen they return to the stable 

 of a nio'ht. 



A correspondent to the Pail Mall Gazette, who 

 drove a cab for one entire day in order to furnish his 

 paper with some information respecting cabmen, states 

 that, in addition to the sum I have named, the driver 

 pays a fee of two shillings, called "yard-money," also 

 a tip of threepence to the horse-keeper, who is, in fact, 



