Cabby's Outlook

Northern Advocate, 29 July 1939, Page 5 (Supplement)

Cabby's Outlook

WHEELMAN’S WIT AND WISDOM

Every one of us at some time or another takes a taxi. How many of us notice the driver sufficiently to recognise him again. A few. And still fewer think of him as a fellow human, who has behind ’his polite silence (except when addressed) a remarkable fii-st hand knowledge of character and life as the ever changing scenes in the daily panorama of town and city come within the close-up focus of his driver’s seat. Whether we notice him or not, he generally notices us, and forms an unobstrusive estimate.

Herbert Hodge bethought himself of all the things a cabman could tell—if he would, and forthwith set out to write a book on a cabman’s life and experiences. Cab Sir? is the result, published by Michael Joseph at 8/6. This is a book to enjoy thoroughly. Whosoever cannot enjoy its piled up anecdotes and reflections is like: Shakespeare’s man who has no music in him. I mentioned close-ups of the panorama that daily shifts its scenes across a cabman’s outlook. Here are lifelike pictures of various types—the

fussy lady who is uncertain of the address, and relies for help on the assumed omniscience of the driver —the impatient fare who asks the driver to “hurry up” in the midst of a traffic block—the mean hirer, who will offer less than the fare rather than a bit over—the patronising backseater, who furnishes a hint or two, on the ground that he drives a car of his own they are all here, not forgetting the merrymaker who has dined and wined himself with a liberality that doubles his vision while it halves his vocabulary. Really a jolly book, generously sprinkled with wit and wisdom.