, all complete and got up specially to suit the ideas of
the hirer. Nine-tenths of the elegant turnouts in Paris are supplied in
this manner. There is a regular tariff for everything: each additional
footman costs so much, there is a fixed charge for powder, for
postilions, for a _chasseur_ decked with feathers and gold lace. You can
be as elegant as you please without purchasing a single accessory of
your equipage.
The cab-horses of the Compagnie Generale are usually brought from
Normandy, and belong to a specially hardy race, such a one being needed
to endure the privations and trials to which a Parisian cab-horse is
exposed. Each horse has to be gradually initiated into the duties of
his new calling: he has to be trained to eat at irregular hours, to
sleep standing, and to endure the fatigues of the Parisian streets. Were
the country-bred horse to be put at once to full city work, he would die
in a week. He is first sent out for a quarter of a day; then after a
week or two for half a day; then for a whole day; and when accustomed to
that he is considered fit for night-work. The horses of the Compagnie
Generale remain in the stable one day out of every three. If well fed,
well kept and well looked after, the life of a Paris cab-horse may be
prolonged from three to five years, but the latter is the extreme limit.
The Compagnie Generale not only buys its own horses, but constructs its
own carriages. Its coachmen are obliged to pass through a preliminary
examination, not only as to their capabilities for driving, but as to
their knowledge of the streets of Paris.
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