A London Tragedy.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 9, 26 August 1908, Page 60

A London Tragedy.

There have been visitors to London who have shrunk from it in horror. Edward Fitz Gerald, for example, “though no prude/’ was appalled by its wickedness; and a colonial bishop at the recent Congress said if he lived to a hundred he would never get the tragic look in the Jxmdun horses’ ever* out of his mind. In regard to Fitz Gerald there is nothing new* to l»e said. There is wickedness, and always will be: but there is more goodness. With the bishop, however, we can speak comfortably. The overworked horse, with bent head and bloodshot eye, dragging his cab ur his omnibus along over seething streets, is gradually passing out of sight. At the present moment, says the Home Secretary, considerably more than a fifth of the licensed vehicles in London are motor-propelled. Tlrere are over l.‘»(X» motor-cabs and more than 100 motor-omnibuses: and the drivers of the growler and the hansom are saying that ths- motor-cab is urging them and their trade to perdition. Sonic of us have even noticed, of late, a pathetic willingness on the part of ‘Tabby" to accept bin legal fare wth comparative calm. The taxi-cab ic\ indeed, achieving great marvels. That the horses it is relieving from one kind of drudgery are being utilised in another is probable: but sensitive visitors will not see that: and in their ignorance will be bliss.