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CAB STANDS .—Though the metropolitan cabman has not of late years enlisted much public sympathy, we cannot but feel some satisfaction that philanthropists, in pity for his exposure to many hours in wet and cold in the winter and extreme heat of summer, have interested themselves in providing him with shelter during the time he is waiting for a fare on his stand. The Westminster Board of Works have accepted the plans proposed for the erection of a shelter-house made of glass and iron for the cab-stand in Knightsbridge at the top of Sloane-street, and it will be commenced forthwith. At one end a waiting- room for the drivers, and at the other a kind of coffee-house will be provided, and thus it is hoped many of their number will be saved from the temptation, which it is almost impossible for them to resist, of continually refreshing or muddling themselves at some neighbouring public-house with beer or spirits. The cabman’s life is doubtless a hard one and as he is often but badly clad to endure rainy or cold weather, this shelter will doubtless be a great boon to him, unless—as it may be argued by another class of philanthropists—the sudden change he may experience when he gets a job will make him too susceptible of cold. The public will also be gainers by the arrangement, as it frequently happens that late in the evening and at night a driver is not to be got for some minutes, though there may be half-a- dozen or more cabs on a stand. They are in the public-houses. But our own sympathies extend to the poor horses, who, perhaps, are almost as much to be pitied as their drivers. At Liverpool the shelter-house system has been put into practice by the erection of three such edifices, with facilities provided for the men to cook their own dinners. Perhaps this movement will be extended to the metropolis.
The Leisure Hour, 20th April 1872, quoting the 'Globe'