Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/26

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HACKNEY COACHMEN.

ture is told by an old man in Lad Lane, that when he and a certain great man there, were upon the same coach, not one of six inside passengers were down upon the way-bill; and, that he having proposed to give their employers at least one of them, the great man threatened to kick him for this puling conduct, and did actually collar him; and applied to him the words—"fool, rascal, and b—— thief." Thus it is, the worst spoke in the wheel generally cries out the first.—They "shouldered" the whole six!

Those who travel much by stage coaches, should always take care to see themselves booked, as in case of accident, they cannot recover damages against the proprietors without it.

Every one knows (and their employers know it) that hackney coachmen invariably share with their masters in large proportions. Those often get good prizes left in their coaches, by people who carelessly leave their boxes or parcels behind, in the hurry to meet their friends; or what is more general, those who take out their papers, money, pocket-book, &c. to look over in a hackney coach, in order, as they thiuk, to save time, too often leave some part behind them; or, by the motion of the coach get it jostled out ef their hands. At no time has a hackney man been