OCR Text |
Show A TIP mOM PARIS. Cabs Co Ms Warmod In ttlaUr Alamt for Nothing, The acceptable footwarmer In winter win-ter which the London hansom lacks, owing to Scotland Yard's red tape, la a characteristic feature of the cabs, trams and 'busea In Paris, aaya a Parla correspondent of the London Mail. Tho weather has been very mild hitherto, and so far the cabs have not been heated, heat-ed, except in a few Instances, but the tram cara and the 'buses follow the almanac rether than tho thermometer, and for some time past they have been provided with chautlerettea. Tho thing In very simple and very comfortable. In an ordinary Parisian 'bus much bigger, by the way, than the London 'bus, and accommodating more than twenty people Inside there la a solid thick plank, but flush with the floor, running tho length of the 'bus. This plank Is about a foot wide, and In It are cut flro cavities about two fedt long by six Inches wide. In these the chaufferettcs of about the ssme dimensions di-mensions are placed to that they, too, are flush with the floor and Just In nlco position to rest the feet These chaufferettes are not hot-water bottles, bot-tles, for that system required frequent chsnges and did not give much warmth; they are really little stoves, In which the mlnlsturo fireplace is beneath, be-neath, and opening Into the air below the floor of the 'bus. The firing Is formed of a "briquette" literally a llttlo brick of about the dimensions of an ordinary sheet of note paper by an Inch and a half deep, made of coal, anthracite an-thracite and other combustible materials materi-als a good deal compressed. A briquette bri-quette costs Id and lasts about halt a 'bus day, I had a conversation with a cabby on the subject He said that formerly the fumes used (o escape In tho cab, and that this was disagreeable, disagreea-ble, especially If you took the cab by the hour and went to sleep. Now all the fumes escape outside. This cabby ssld one briquette at Id lasted alt day, but this was perhaps an undue economy econ-omy on his part. Another gave me a briquette and halt a day. The chauf- ferettea belong to the cabbies, but they buy tho "briquettes" and have them put In burning. In winter time the cabs to provided have the legend "Chauffre" (heated) exposed In targe letters on a plate on the cab and thereby hangs a tale. I met an Englishman Eng-lishman one morning who had come to Paris for the first time. He pointed to one of the cabs and said: "He must be very rich, that man." "Who!" said I. "Why, Chnuffee, of course I see bis name on nearly every cab In Paris." . |