After this we continued our journey, and as they got out of the cab our
friend was saying, My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or
wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves
sharers in the guilt.
39 Seedy Sam
I should say that for a cab-horse I was very well off indeed; my driver
was my owner, and it was his interest to treat me well and not overwork
me, even had he not been so good a man as he was; but there were a great
many horses which belonged to the large cab-owners, who let them out to
their drivers for so much money a day. As the horses did not belong to
these men the only thing they thought of was how to get their money out
of them, first, to pay the master, and then to provide for their own
living; and a dreadful time some of these horses had of it. Of course,
I understood but little, but it was often talked over on the stand,
and the governor, who was a kind-hearted man and fond of horses, would
sometimes speak up if one came in very much jaded or ill-used.
One day a shabby, miserable-looking driver, who went by the name of
Seedy Sam , brought in his horse looking dreadfully beat, and the
governor said:
You and your horse look more fit for the police station than for this
rank.
The man flung his tattered rug over the horse, turned full round upon
the Governor and said in a voice that sounded almost desperate:
If the police have any business with the matter it ought to be with the
masters who charge us so much, or with the fares that are fixed so low.
If a man has to pay eighteen shillings a day for the use of a cab and
two horses, as many of us have to do in the season, and must make that
up before we earn a penny for ourselves I say 'tis more than hard work;
nine shillings a day to get out of each horse before you begin to get
your own living. You know that's true, and if the horses don't work we
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