Omnibuses and cabs

by Henry Charles Moore

On January 1, 1870, a new regulation, compelling all cab proprietors to display inside their vehicles a list of fares, came into force. Four-wheelers were to have them fixed or painted on their doors; hansoms, facing the passengers. By the same Act the cost of licences was reduced from £19 and £17 to £2 2s.

In the same year the Cab-drivers’ Benevolent Association was founded, to make some provision for deserving aged or infirm cabmen unable to earn their living. The late Marquis of Townshend, a staunch friend of cabmen, took an active part in establishing it, and for many years it was known among cabbies as “The Marquis’s Society.” The objects of the Association, of which His Majesty the King is patron, are (1) to give annuities of £20 each to aged cab-drivers who from infirmity are unable to earn their living; (2) to grant loans, without interest, to members requiring such aid, and to give temporary assistance to those who may be in distress through unavoidable causes; (3) to give legal assistance to members who may be unjustly summoned to the police-courts.

In 1900 the Society had sixty-five annuitants, and also granted small loans to seventy-six members, nearly the whole of which were repaid.

Cabmen becoming members while under thirty years of age pay an annual subscription of 5s. and an entrance fee of 2s. If over thirty the entrance fee is 3s. There is also a Widow and Orphan Relief Fund, for which an additional subscription of 2s. a-year has to be paid.

At the annual meeting of the Society in March, 1900, Benjamin Heppelthwaite, aged 74, was elected one of the annuitants; but, feeling that he was still able to work, he waived his right to the annuity, which was then given to the highest unsuccessful candidate. Heppelthwaite’s generous behaviour did not go unrewarded. The chairman, Viscount Duncannon, at once announced that he would give Heppelthwaite, for the next twelve months, a sum equal to the annuity which he had refused in favour of a weaker friend.

In 1871 the London Cabmen’s Mission was started in premises adjoining the King’s Cross Station of the Metropolitan Railway, and during the thirty years of its existence has done much to improve the moral character of cabmen. Religious services for cabmen and their families are held at the hall at King’s Cross on four days in each week, and the missionary also visits the men on the ranks to talk with them and distribute bright, wholesome magazines.

We read, frequently, in the daily papers, of cabmen being drunk while at work, and it will, therefore, surprise many people to hear that there is a large number of total abstainers among London cab-drivers. During the summer months a cabmen’s Gospel Temperance meeting is held every Sunday evening on the stand outside King’s Cross Railway Station. The speakers and singers are all cabmen. Last year they held, at the same spot, an open-air Harvest Festival. Fruit, flowers, vegetables and bread were displayed on the temporary platform, and a cabman sang, “Oh, what shall the harvest be?” At the conclusion of the service the fruit, flowers, and other gifts, were taken in cabs and given to a Rescue Home.

The London Cabmen’s Mission also distributes among the men, woollen mufflers, cuffs and hosiery—presents which are greatly appreciated. One lady subscriber gave the Mission six dozen sun-bonnets for cab-horses, and thereby added to the comfort of the animals and the gaiety of the streets.

Another very excellent society, the “Hackney Carriage Proprietors’ Provident Fund,” was founded, by the late Mr. Herbert Rymill, in April, 1873. It was started to establish a fund for providing annuities of £26 to aged, decayed, or disabled cab proprietors or their widows, and to afford temporary relief to its members or to the widows and children of deceased members. It was registered under the Friendly Societies Acts in July, 1878, and in January, 1887, its title was changed to the “Hackney Carriage Proprietors’ Provident Institution.” For an annual subscription of £1 1s. a member is able to make provision against misfortune. Many a cab proprietor has, through no fault of his own, been reduced from comfortable circumstances to want. One of his horses may have contracted glanders in consequence of the driver foolishly permitting it to drink at a public trough; the disease spreads through his stables and a number of his horses have to be destroyed. To a wealthy cab proprietor this is a serious loss, but to a man who owns only three or four cabs it would mean ruin but for the “Hackney Carriage Proprietors’ Provident Institution’s” assistance in helping him to tide over his difficulties. And it must be remembered that the majority of cab proprietors are small owners; on December 31, 1900, there were 2782 licensed cab proprietors in London, and of these 2207 owned from one to five vehicles.

The “Hackney Carriage Proprietors’ Provident Institution” had been in existence barely two years when the “Cabmen’s Shelter Fund” was started. Its object was to provide for cabmen on the ranks a place where they could obtain protection from the weather, and purchase good, wholesome food at moderate prices.