Page:Omnibuses and Cabs.djvu/71

 "Smart coachman! Have you let many horses down?"

"Never let one down, sir."

"Get out of my yard," shouted the proprietor, fiercely; "you're no good to me. I want a man who's had plenty of practice at getting horses up. Mine are always falling down."

About this time, the latter part of the thirties, omnibus conductors began to fall into disrepute. The chief complaints against them, apart from their ordinary rudeness to passengers, were that when they were wanted to stop the omnibus they were always busy talking to the coachman along the roof, and that they banged the doors too violently whenever a person entered or got out. Others complained of their shouting unnecessarily, and of standing at the door gazing in at the passengers, thereby preventing fresh air from coming in, and polluting the atmosphere with their foul breath. Moreover, the "cads", as the conductors where now called, were not at all careful to keep objectionable people out of their omnibuses, and one passenger, an old lady, had an exciting experience. She entered an omnibus, and the door was banged behind her in the usual nerve-