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Show TODAY IN HISTORY THURSDAY, MARCH 17. Establishment of tho Omnibus. The Improvement In the moans of rapid transit today, through steam and electricity, elec-tricity, recalls to mind the slow progress made by our ancestors In "getting about." The first public convcvancc of any character was the omnibus, "and It Is only about .'iiO years ago that this means wus established. Paris Ik credited with tho Introduction of this conveyance, which took placo on March IS, 1062. The first lino was" started on that da to at 7 o'clock In the morning, the old chroniclers tell us, and It wns a grand and gay affair. For a number of years previous to this date carriages could he had In Paris on hire, but It was too expensive for tho middle and poorer classes. In 1GG2 Louis XIV. authorized tho establishment es-tablishment of a lino of twopence-halfpenny omnibuses by a company, with the Duke do Doancs and two marquises at Its head. Tho decree stales that those coaches, of which there were originally peven. each containing eight places, should run at fixed hours full or empty, to and from certain extreme quarters of Paris, "for tho benefit of a great number' of persons lll-provldcd for, as persons ongagod In lawsuits. Infirm people, and i others, who have not the means to ride In chaise or carriage, which cannot bo hired under a pistole, or a couple of crowns a day.". "Ueforo the first seven coaches started on March IS, 1662, two commissaries of tho Chalclct, In legal robes, four guards of the grand provost, half a score of city archers and as many cavalry, drew up In front of thc people. The commissary delivered an address upon thc advantages of thc carriages, exhorted the riders lo observe good order, and then, turning to the. coachmen, covered the body of each' with a long blue frock, with t lie arms of tho king and the city showily embroidered embroid-ered on tho front. With this badge, ofi drove tho coachmen : but throughout thu day a provost guard rode In each car-rlnuc. car-rlnuc. and Infanlrv and cavnlry. here and there, proceeded along tho tcqulslto. lines, to keep them clear. F"or a while all Paris strove to rldo In tlie.se omnibuses, and some stood Impatiently Im-patiently to gase at thoso who had succeeded suc-ceeded holler than themselves. The wealthier classes seoiu to have talten possession of them for a considerable time; anil It Is singular when they ceased to be fashionable the pooror classes would have nothing to do with them, and so the speculation fulled. They reappeared in Paris agnln In 1S2. From Purls the omnibus was transplanted transplant-ed to London. Mr. Shllllhcer, In his evidence evi-dence before Ihe board of health, slated that, on .Inly I, 1SJI), ho started thc llrst pair of omnibuses In the metropolis. They carried twenty-two passengers each an" were drawn by three horses, and the riders wero provided with periodicals to read. Consequently the. llrst omlnbuso" were called "Shllllbecrs'." and wero known as such for a long time. They were llrst Introduced Into this country In New York In isno. Omnibus Is a Latin word signifying sig-nifying "for all." .March IS Is the day in which Inoculation Inocula-tion was llrst practiced in England In 171S. The day In which the .stamp act was repealed by tho British parliament In 177C.; the birthday of John C. Calhoun, the statesman (17S2): of Fomuel Hunt. Ihe omliiont clergyman (IS10); G rover Cleveland (1S)7); the Duchess of Arg.vlc (IS4S). and tho anniversary of the death of Edward, king and martyr (07S): Sir P.obort "SValpole. tho English statesman (1715). and Rev. Laurence Sterne, thc English humorist, who wrote "Tristram Shandy" (176SL |