Page:Omnibuses and Cabs.djvu/282

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Omnibuses and Cabs

been a proprietor for a very short time when his horse bolted, and the cab was smashed. Again Cockram had to drive for a master, but this time he refused to drive on Sundays.

"If you don't take the cab out on Sunday, you shan't on Monday," the proprietor declared; but Cockram at once offered to pay him 5s. every Saturday night to allow his horse and cab to remain in the yard on the following day. The proprietor agreed to this arrangement, and Cockram drove for him for two years, during which time he paid off the money which he owed for the smashed cab, and began educating himself, while waiting on the rank, by studying Cassell's Popular Educator.

In 1860 Cockram competed for and won a prize of £20 offered for the best essay on "Sunday cab-driving, and its influence on the religious, domestic, and physical condition of those employed." Cockram wrote his essay in the streets, using the top of his hansom as a writing-desk. On the essay being published in book form, George Moore, the philanthropist, Sir Hope Grant, and Mr. J. T. Delane, the editor of the Times, sent for Cockram, ongratulated him on his work,