uld
understand this as regards the latter but not the former. Anyhow they
proved failures. Blocks of stone, when of one size and height, and
laid in the best way, make a jolting, noisy road, but it is not even
thus in New York. Take Broadway, the principal thoroughfare, the
stones are not the same size, and a large proportion of them are one
to two inches higher than their neighbours, while every here and
there are depressions. This being so, I imagine, accounts for the
scarcity of wheeled vehicles except tram-cars. These latter,
generally drawn by horses, seemed to me to run in every street and
road in the city. Of course on rails they travel smoothly, but they
and the rails greatly increase the difficulty for cabs and carriages.
The traffic in a New York street in no way resembles that in a
London one. Where there is one tram-car in London there are fifty in
New York, and fifty cabs here to one there. The same as to carriages.
Nearly the whole of the passenger traffic is done in the tram-cars
and elevated railroads, and no wonder it is so, for to traverse the
streets on wheels in any other way is very painful.

The foot-pavements are not much better than the roadways. The
paving-stones are not evenly laid, and every here and there a thin
iron ridge runs across an inch or so higher than the foot-way,
apparently ingeniously placed with a view to cause accidents.

In two words, I have never seen a city with such bad roads and
pavements as New York.

The tram-cars are much better than ours. They are better designed,
far more roomy, and commodious. The fares, too, are moderate,
generally five cents = 2 1/2_d._ for any distance. Another advantage:
when you want to get out, you pull a rope, and the driver stops. How
much better this than poking the conductor with an umbrella, the
general plan in London!

The few cabs there are resemble ours, four-wheelers and Hansoms. But
woe to the visitor who hires one. I was told, and believe, there _is_
a tariff of fares, but in no way is it acted up to. For a short
distance, say one mile, the least demanded is one dollar = 4_s._
2_d._, and if you object there's a row. I asked several Americans why
the tariff is not enforced. "Few, only rich people, use cabs," they
replied, "and it's not worth their while." Anyhow the cabbies have it
their own way. I was warned on this head before I arrived, but I was
obliged once to take one. I paid about six times the London fare.
However, as you