’Bus Humour.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 21, 23 November 1907, Page 49

’Bus Humour.

Your London 'bus-driver, says Jord Madox Huefer in “England and the English,” takes his day off sitting on the front seat of an omnibus with his head close to that of the driver at work, just as the sailor lounges round harbours, glances along ropes with quietened but still professional eyes. He gets in thisway the feeling of leisure “rubbed in" and, without anxieties, his mind is-kept employed by the things he best understands. And it is because in Lonuon there are so many things to see, so many anecdotes to be retailed, such a constant passing of material and human objects, that London uolds us. I do not know that it really sharpens our wits. 1 fancy that it merely gives us more accidental matters on' which to display them, more occurrences to which to attach morals that have beem for years crystallized in our minds. I was listening to the observations of two such ’bus-drivers. They were like this: of a red-nosed four-wheel driver: “Now then, old danger signal!" To a driver of a very magnificent state carriage: “Where are you going with that glas; hearse?” Of a very small man conducting a very tall lady across the road: ' I reckon he wants a step-ladder* when he kisses her good-night!" Whereupon the driver who hadn't* Whereupon the driver who had'nt made the remark muttered: “.lust whit I was going to say. Hill. You took the very words out of my mouth.” Th.i; these famous witticisms of the London streets are largely traditional and com mon property. No doubt London breeds a certain cast of mind by applying men's thoughts to a similar class of occurrences, but the actual comment; float in the air in class and class.