WOMAN AS TAXI-DRIVER

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1931, Page 5

WOMAN AS TAXI-DRIVER

SEEKING LITERARY DATA. GOES TO MEET ADVENTURE. Having passed a physical examination at police headquarters, Mrs. Barbara Schmidt became a licensed New York cab driver in order to collect genuine literary material on New York life. Mrs. Schmidt was the first woman cab driver to go there for an examination, the few other women who are driving cabs in the city having been examined at the license bureau. She is S 6 years old, brunette, and comely, and was found to meet the legal requirements of a cab driver, although weighing only 1201 b. The police tried at first to dissuade her They pointed out that hack driving in New York City was not what is 8 known as an easy job, and that there might be certain hardships connected with it which she did not expect. Their advice was met, however, with determination on the part of the aP Lea[Pnt the policeman slightly nuzzled about her real purpose, Mrs. Schmidt admitted later that she became a hack driver in order to have adventures suitable for literary exploitation. Her husband is a’mechanic employed bv the New York Edison Company, and 6 he has a two-yea.r-old son. Mr. Schmidt is not very much in favour of it, she-eaid. But she is not worried herself, she declared, since ehe has had ■ some experience in -practical life, hav-

ing sold cosmetics to theatrical people. “l"know a little bit about the motor of a car—enough to get me by, she said, “and I know my way pretty well in New York. I don’t know much, about Brooklyn, though.” The only thing she is afraid oi is the rivalry of ’ other cab drivers, because she will take their trade away from them. “But, then, there are a good many people who won’t be driven by a woman,” she said. She has al- | ready three offers from taxicab opera. - tors in Manhattan and Queens to work for GO per cent, of the earnings. . With her New York hack driver experience Mrs. Schmidt expects to set out for more adventures. With (the direct .and the literary proceeds of her work she hopes to go to Pans and study the conditions in the French taxi business.