Among the present cabdrivers are to be found, as I learned from
trustworthy persons, quondam greengrocers, costermongers, jewellers,
clerks, broken-down gentlemen, especially turf gentlemen, carpenters,
joiners, saddlers, coach-builders, grooms, stable-helpers, footmen,
shopkeepers, pickpockets, swell-mobsmen, housebreakers, innkeepers,
musicians, musical-instrument makers, ostlers, some good scholars,
a good number of broken-down pawnbrokers, several ex-policemen,
draper’s assistants, barmen, scene-shifters, one baronet, and as my
informant expressed it, “such an uncommon sight of folks that it would
be uncommon hard to say what they was.” Of the truthfulness of the
list of callings said to have contributed to swell the numbers of the
cabmen there can be no doubt, but I am not so sure of “the baronet.”
I was told his name, but I met with no one who could positively say
that he knew Sir V---- C---- as a cab-driver. This baronet seems a
tradition among them. Others tell me that the party alluded to is
merely nicknamed the Baron, owing to his being a person of good birth,
and having had a college education. The “flashiest” cabman, as he is
termed, is the son of a fashionable master-tailor. He is known among
cabdrivers as the “Numpareil,” and drives one of the Hansom cabs. I
am informed on excellent authority, a tenth, or, to speak beyond the
possibility of cavil, a twelfth of the whole number of cabdrivers
are “fancy men.” These fellows are known in the cab trade by a very
gross appellation. They are the men who live with women of the town,
and are supported, wholly or partially, on the wages of the women’s
prostitution.
These are the fellows who, for the most part, are ready to pay the
highest price for the hire of their cabs. One swell-mobsman, I was
told, had risen from “signing” for cabs to become a cab proprietor, but
was now a prisoner in France for picking pockets.
The worse class of cabmen which, as I have before said, are but a
twelfth of the whole, live in Granby Street, St. Andrew’s Place,
and similar localities of the Waterloo Road; in Union Street, Pearl
Row, &c., of the Borough Road; in Princes Street, and others, of the
London Road; in some unpaved streets that stretch from the New Kent
Road to Lock’s Fields; in the worst parts of Westminster, in the
vicinity of Drury Lane, Whitechapel, and of Lisson Grove, and wherever
low depravity flourishes. “To get on a cab,” I was told, and that is
the regular phrase, “is the ambition of more loose fellows than for
anything else, as it’s reckoned both an idle life and an exciting one.”
Whetstone Park is full of cabmen, but not wholly of the fancy-man
class. The better sort of cabmen usually reside in the neighbourhood of
the cab-proprietors’ yards, which are in all directions. Some of the
best of these men are, or rather have been mechanics, and have left a
sedentary employment, which affected their health, for the open air of
the cab business. Others of the best description have been connected
with country inns, but the majority of them are London men. They are
most of them married, and bringing up families decently on earnings of
from 15_s._ to 25_s._ a-week. Some few of their wives work with their
needles for the tailors.
Some of the cab-yards are situated in what were old inn-yards, or the
stable-yards attached to great houses, when great houses flourished
in parts of the town that are now accounted vulgar. One of those I
saw in a very curious place. I was informed that the yard was once
Oliver Cromwell’s stable-yard; it is now a receptacle for cabs. There
are now two long ranges of wooden erections, black with age, each
carriage-house opening with large folding-doors, fastened in front with
padlocks, bolts, and hasps. In the old carriage-houses are the modern
cabs, and mixed with them are superannuated cabs, and the disjointed or
worn-out bodies and wheels of cabs. Above one range of the buildings,
the red-tiled roofs of which project a yard and more beyond the
exterior, are apartments occupied by the stable-keepers and others.
Nasturtiums with their light green leaves and bright orange flowers
were trained along light trellis-work in front of the windows, and
presented a striking contrast to the dinginess around.
Of the cabdrivers there are several classes, according to the times at
which they are employed. These are known in the trade by the names of
the “long-day men,” “the morning-men,” the “long-night men,” and the
“short-night men,” and “the bucks.” The long-day man is the driver who
is supposed to be driving his cab the whole day. He usually fetches his
cab out between 9 and 10 in the morning, and returns at 4 or 5, or even
7 or 8, the next morning; indeed it is no matter at what hour he comes
in so long as he brings the money that he signs for; the long-day men
are mostly employed for the contractors, though some of the respectable
masters work their cabs with long-day men, but then they leave the
yard between 8 and 9 and are expected to return between 12 and 1. These
drivers when working for the contractors sign for 16_s._ a-day in
the season, as before stated, and 12_s._ out of the season; and when
employed by the respectable masters, they are expected to bring home
14_s._ or 9_s._, according to the season of the year. The long-day men
are the parties who mostly employ the “bucks,” or unlicensed drivers.
They are mostly out with their cabs from 16 to 20 hours, so that
their work becomes more than they can constantly endure, and they are
consequently glad to avail themselves of the services of a buck for
some hours at the end of the day, or rather night. The morning man
generally goes out about 7 in the morning and returns to the yard at 6
in the evening. Those who contract sign to bring home from 10_s._ to
11_s._ per day in the season, and 7_s._ for the rest of the year, while
those working for the better class of masters are expected to give the
proprietor 8_s._ a-day, and 5_s._ or 6_s._ according to the time of
the year. The morning man has only one horse found him, whereas the
long-day man has two, and returns to the yard to change horses between
three and six in the afternoon. The long-night man goes out at 6 in the
evening and returns at 10 in the morning. He signs when working for
contractors for 7_s._ or 8_s._ per night, at the best time of the year,
and 5_s._ or 6_s._ at the bad. The rent required by the good masters
differs scarcely from these sums. He has only one horse found him. The
short-night man fetches his cab out at 6 in the evening and returns
at 6 in the morning, bringing with him 6_s._ in the season and 4_s._
or 5_s._ out of it. The contractors employ scarcely any short-night
men, while the better masters have but few long-day or long-night men
working for them. It is only such persons as the Westminster masters
who like the horses or the men to be out so many hours together, and
they, as my informant said, “don’t care what becomes of either, so
long as the day’s money is brought to them.” The bucks are unlicensed
cabdrivers, who are employed by those who have a license to take charge
of the cab while the regular drivers are at their meals or enjoying
themselves. These bucks are generally cabmen who have been deprived
of their license through bad conduct, and who now pick up a living by
“rubbing up” (that is, polishing the brass of the cabs) on the rank,
and “giving out buck” as it is called amongst the men. They usually
loiter about the watering-houses (the public-houses) of the cab-stands,
and pass most of their time in the tap-rooms. They are mostly of
intemperate habits, being generally “confirmed sots.” Very few of them
are married men. They have been fancy-men in their prime, but, to use
the words of one of the craft, “got turned up.” They seldom sleep in a
bed. Some few have a bedroom in some obscure part of the town, but the
most of them loll about and doze in the tap-rooms by day, and sleep in
the cabs by night. When the watering-houses close they resort to the
night coffee-shops, and pass the time there till they are wanted as
bucks. When they take a job for a man they have no regular agreement
with the driver, but the rule is that they shall do the best they can.
If they take 2_s._ they give the driver one and keep the other for
themselves. If 1_s._ 6_d._ they usually keep only 6_d._ The Westminster
men have generally got their regular bucks, and these mostly take to
the cab with the second horse and do all the night-work. At three or
four in the morning they meet the driver at some appointed stand or
watering-place. Burleigh Street in the Strand, or Palace Yard, are the
favourite places of rendezvous of the Westminster men, and then they
hand over to the long-day man “the stuff” as they call it. The regular
driver has no check upon these men, but unless they do well they never
employ them again. For “rubbing up” the cabs on the stand these bucks
generally get 6_d._ in the season, and for this they are expected to
dish-clout the whole of the panels, clean the glasses, and polish the
harness and brasses, the cabdriver having to do these things himself or
having to pay for it. Some of the bucks in the season will make from
2_s._ to 2_s._ 6_d._ a-day by rubbing up alone, and it is difficult
to say what they make by driving. They are the most extortionate of
all cab-drivers. For a shilling fare they will generally demand 2_s._
and for a 3_s._ fare they will get 5_s._ or 6_s._, according to the
character of the party driven. Having no licenses, they do not care
what they charge. If the number of the cab is taken, and the regular
driver of it summoned, the party overcharged is unable to swear that
the regular driver was the individual who defrauded him, and so the
case is dismissed. It is supposed that the bucks make quite as much
money as the drivers, for they are not at all particular as to how
they get their money. The great majority, indeed 99 out of 100, have
been in prison, and many more than once, and they consequently do not
care about revisiting gaol. It is calculated that there are at least
800 or 1000 bucks, hanging about the London cab-stands, and these are
mostly regular thieves. If they catch any person asleep or drunk in
a cab, they are sure to have a dive into his pockets; nor are they
particular if the party belong to their own class, for I am assured
that they steal from one another while dozing in the cabs or tap-rooms.
Very few of the respectable masters work their cabs at night, except
those who do so merely because they have not stable-room for the whole
of their horses and vehicles at the same time. Some of the cabdrivers
are the owners of the vehicles they drive. It is supposed that out of
the 5000 drivers in London, at least 2000, or very nearly half, are
small masters, and they are amongst the most respectable men of the
ranks. Of the other half of the cabdrivers about 1500 are long-day
men, and about 150 long-night men (there are only a few yards, and
they are principally at Islington, that employ long-night men). Of the
morning-men and the short-night men there are, as near as I can learn,
about 500 belonging to each class, in addition to the small masters.