THE TRAMWAY.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 24, 28 July 1881, Page 3

THE TRAMWAY.

? TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING POST. Sir—Among the many illegal thinga whioh are winked at by the powers that be, there is none so glaring a breach of law, or so fraught with danger to tho publio generally as the escape of steam from the city tram engines. Twice has my own life been endangered by these clouds of steam that, without a momenta warning, drop and envelop the heads of horses travelling on the publio roads. It ia enongh that the trama monopolise the middle of the road, the only level spot—Bufficient aurely that they monopolise the cornera of our streets, and in the locality of Sußsex Square the whole of the road—setting at defiance the rule which other vehicles are compelled to follow {i.e.) keep to the left, Baying nothing of wheels torn off by the tram rails, or the reckless speed in the main thoroughfares All these things are sufficiently bad in themselves, but the escape of steam in an abominable nuisance, whioh drivers of vehicles cannot avoid. I venture to assert that if any poor man committed bo great a nuisance ho wonld Bpeedily bo bronght to justice, or if any illegal act was committed by drivers of vehicles whioh waa as dangerous in its effects to the tram traffio as the escape of steam iato hor so traffio, it would be punished with a stern hand. Where are the police or the Inspector of Nuiaanoes, that so long is this distinctly illegal and dangerous practice allowed, or is it permitted simply to illustrate the fact that there is one lair of indulgence for the rich and another of persecution for the poor? A cabman without a light, a hawker without a chain on his wheels, a horse left unattended, or a thonghtlesa boy driving for a few yards on the footpaths- are all sins that the ''bobby" is instructed to bring to conrt; but this sin of the tram company, more dangerous, as illegal, more glaring, is sanctioned and permitted every half-hour of the day, unnoticed and uncondemned by the same authorities. lam, Ac, R. E. Evenden.