Everything is registered, numbered
and catalogued, and if returned to the owner his address and the date
of delivery are carefully noted. The strict surveillance of the police
contributes greatly toward keeping the Parisian cabman honest. Instances
are on record where costly sets of jewels, bags of napoleons and
pocket-books crammed with bank-notes have been faithfully deposited at
the prefecture by their finders. On the other hand, an anecdote is told
of a cab-driver in whose vehicle a gentleman chanced to leave his
pocket-book, containing fifty thousand francs which he had just won at
play. He traced his cabman to the stable, where he was in the act of
feeding his horse, opened the carriage-door, and found his pocket-book
lying untouched upon the floor. On learning what a prize he had missed
the coachman incontinently hung himself.
The great source of supply for public vehicles in Paris is the Compagnie
Generale des Voitures, one of the most gigantic of the great enterprises
of Paris. It possesses five thousand cabs and over two thousand handsome
and stylish voitures de remise. It furnishes every style; of carriage
for hire, from the superb private-looking barouche or landau, with
servants in gorgeous livery and splendid blooded horses, or the showy
pony-phaeton and low victoria of the _cocotte du grand monde_, down to
the humble one-horse cab. This beneficent company will furnish you, if
desired, with a princely equipage, with armorial bearings, family
liveries, etc.
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