THE LURE OF THE TAXICAB.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 545, 28 June 1909, Page 3

THE LURE OF THE TAXICAB.

' i SMILING TJIEACHEBX. • The taxicab which is already an old resi dent of 'London, which figures in almosl elderly novels of American life, and witl which even the long dull lanes of Christ church are familiar, has come at last tc Wellington. ' Slook, well-gioomed, smug and well behaved, with an unmistakable air of having always lived in the best families, it now stands by the sito of Martin's vaniahec fountain, meekly waiting for orders, read} to amble forth at the bidding of anyone posi sessed of not less than one shilling for biro The ordinary four-wheeler may bo commorf, tie hansom is dissipated, the taxicab is most happy when going to church; to be connected with it is to receive a certificate of respectability. So pleasant, too, is it to ndo in— the carnage most comfortably upholstered, the springs perfect, and the motion delightfully easy. Let the spirit of curiosity seize you; make up your nund to try at least a mile of taxicab, and off >ou go with a ■delightful gliding motion. Your first minutes pass pleasantly as you philosophise about, the advance of civilisation, taking the taxicab as a text, comparing its smug comfort with the wild behaviour of the ordinary automobile. ( < How Ml of passions ia the motor-car; how swerved 'by, wicked, idle impulses; how tun- ' ously its savage heart beats.; bow it resents all control, striving vehemently to break away from the ordered patn, desiring to frighten pedestrians, to murder chickens; now to climb a'fence, and now to leap into a deep abyss, <or how ; when its most evil mood is upon it, it 'will sulk and refuse to go anywhere at all, black revolt clogging its wheels. ' ' How different is the taxicab I Like. Sir > Lancelot it is sweetly ,< obedient to the least wish of its chauffeur, and, with such pleasant little quotations from tne'domostto poets running through your mind, you gazo placidly at the people walking or driving past, feeling most serenely' superior to all who are not tiding in Wellington's one and only _ taxicab. . v t It is some time later that disillusionment comes- In front of the car, storing rudely through tho_ window into your face, is a round with, various figures. A little red ticket informs,.yon that tho taxicab is hired. •_You, know that well enough—you will know 'it better later on You have the shilling for tho hrre in your pocket It also has a space to mark shillings, and another for pence, thus reckoning tho distance travelled at a mdo for every shilling. It hoists the shilling mark right from tho start, so that no "mistake shall arise. This is no threepenny tus. After thatj the distance is indicated, m quarter miles. Of course, at first it does not matter. In the early moments of the now experience, you do not notice that you have now had' Is. 3d. worth, ,that now , you must pay Is. 6d. for 'the fun,' and that now wild extravagance has plunged you into Is. 9cL * But at last you do notice as the fata] 2s,' goes up, before you have' ha'd nearly, enough "of this a voice suddenly hoarse with anxiety'you say , "Hojrie, John," wondering how much you will be able to economise by a short cut. On. tho return journey yon dovoto' your attention entirely to the dial, and it clicks up almost as rapidly as ,tho figures on a totahsator board five minutes before a race, 2s. 3d., -,2s 9d.. 3s. 3d.' You are nearly homo now,i and, wank goodness, you have 3s. 9d in jour pocket; 4s says the dial, and you are really not nearly homo. You hunt madly in each compartment of jour purse, at last producing painfully 4a. 3d., and you wonder whether people go to prison for paying this nice, meek, well-behaved taxicab less than it demands. Besides it isn't nico or meek or well-behaved. With a delusive appearaneo of virtue repossesses the heart of a pirate It is a true twentioth-oentury villain, luring people on by rapid devouring of tho miles to think it has not gone anywhere worth mentioning, it gives wings to the shillings and the pounds. > Homo, and tho dial says 4s. fid, and you have ctutehed very tightly m your hand exactly 4s. 3d "I think that dial must be wrong," says the chauffeur ' " It can't bo more than two % miles out and twd miles back." .This may ' bo -his lendly way of letting the taxicab's latest notun down gently; it may be true. One thing is certain: you know much more about Wellington distances than you ever did before. Prom Martin's Fountain to Newtown School is two miles / But, as you slowly walk away with only 3d , between you and the Benevolent Board, 1 you go' on moralising, and you wonder whether romance and a taxicab could ever live together, or whether that staring dial face would' not impress itself so vividly upon the mind of eiery passenger as to divert his thoughts from overy ,other matter—whether young Lochinvar in a taxicab would not bo doing all the while subtraction - sums and saying "That's so much less for the honeymoon expenses", whether even m the mind of a Colonial,-Treasurer there would not be produced,a confusion of figures When the passenger woman the dial should be veiled. Some nerves cannot stand that tort of thing.