"SNYDER'S" SENTIMENTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 312, 18 September 1874, Page 4

"SNYDER'S" SENTIMENTS.

[From the Auckland Herald.'} SCIENTIFIC AND* SOCIAL. There are men in this world who devote whole centuries of their lives to ff^ihg. calculations which, when made, ain't of any use to themselves or anyiM^lse. They'll-tell you to a halfmile how, many years it will take a Wy_°fld.»ir to get to, the sun, starting from London Bridge and allowing it to travela million of miles in the millionth part of a* second. Well, there's no gun that has been made as yet which is game to do sach a thing, though probably there will be by-and-by, the way the 'gftid-trade is oeiog improved upon. What. Jtwapf to. know is, what's, se nse of these calculations? ISto one will live to see them proved by ocular demonstration.: Men think they have done a wonderfal deed when they tell yoa that __y_i cubic inch of sand contained, go jmany grains, and that all the woiTd was composed of sand, it would 'take 'three*- millions of generations so many billions of years to count them. What's ihe good of all this talk? The world aint all sand, or there would be no room for fools, and we've got them very eiteneively sorted np. Here's *y lv &of practical calculation if . yoa-. like My friend Mir; -Tonka . told me * but yesterday, that last week he disposed of by public auction, in various lota, three tonj^jf. pepper. Then, I said, let me 'do a bit of calculation which shall ex-1 ceed anythiag done in the cannon-ball, line; ./Three tons o' pepper means six! thousand six hundred i and seventy* two] pounds avoirdupois, which is equal to eighteen thousand eight hundred and jßtfglji^fotir ounces, also avoirdupois^ Now, allowing that a pepper-castor contains three, ounces, and would, when filled, require two thousand shakes before it empties itself, it will take thirty-eight-millions pf shakes, less a few decimal fractions, before three tons of pepper can be got to pass throngh the electro-plated perforations of a pepper-castor. Very good. Now, I'm not done yet. Supposing that a^_.U of oysters can't be consumed under two thousand shakes of pepper, aod each shake occupies the fourth part of a aecond, then the time I find which will ■be used up in disposing of Mr Tonka' ? |hVee^tons of pepper will occupy exactly n _ne same timejhat a balloon travelling forty miles an hour would take to reach number -three of Jupiter's satellites. I challenge criticism as to the accuracy of recalculations. This is what I call scientific aud useful. :•--.; ABOUT CABMEN. i .-■l 'When a man in this -city of Auck*/ land, even in the desperation of thi most unheard-of circumstances, is rasa enough to take to driving a cab, it ]b not long before he makes tbe discoveny that ii. would have been far better ftr shim In a worldly point of view had he gone right off and committed suicide. That's just what a cabman told me oae -i.ig_.t--ofc long ago. "You se«, Mr Snyder," he went on to say, "whenTa 'insin "' turns ' to cab-driving he fiads every man's hand, especially if it'/ a city councillor's hand, against him, i nd then' his hand goes against every oa in. A cabman is dealt with quite diffei Bnt from anybody else. He ain't allowed tp run alone. The Corporation says, 'Xou-4nuß.be licensed'; and youi go ito get licensed, when the CorporsKon . jaysy *.Yon cant-get licensed witlout you pay for it.' Well, you pay, rind "yoa go. .oo'king abonfc to see wheth( rig gent or a lady wants taking apy wh ire, when the Corporation's up to you, __td says, / You mustn't do that on my account or you will be fined; ' and tbe Corporation says, « It's * surprisin, ; if J yon ;ii%* t Sued as it is.' Then the .Corporation says, ' You must > nly .charge so much for so far afc c a ,? certain -time, and so much more afi ar a certain time, if it's beyond or tint beyond a certain distance.' , The Dor--1 poration doesn't leave anything f r a cabman to form his own judg sent upon. He must carry lamps, and he's to be civil on all occasions tc his customers, or he will be took up A baker or a batcher may be saucy k> a .customer; but — oh, no — not a bit f it :9a ihe part of a cabman. That loxtry's .denied him. When the Corporation ■fixes the figure a passenger shall tay -for being driven so far and no furtler, . Why dpn't they fix the price of the Ate "a cabtc)^ feeds his horse with, whVe to-day it is one thing and to-morrow it\ . *__.bth*r ? Why don't they fix the price? that his horse is sold to him for, whichi <3_f ) __e_igure this week and it ain't t? begot for double tbe money on the month after next ? Why do the Corporation " make, a fellow feel fas if he . waa .an out - and - lot vagabond ? I drives a man unf a steep hill ioa pelting shower of rim, and when I a. kes him the regular fere, he says I am an imposition — tlat's what lam he says. I tell himlrm nothing of the kind;' when he eaysjif I give him any pf my insolence he'l pull me — thatfs |vhat he will db. Iw< jder that the Corporation don't have t j all phofogr'a^hed, aod bung up ! ii_ tbe police barficks to be identified, like robbert and burglars, as tbem so fof fellotfi. are done with; for^» ion't seem to be. muM/M ** an> aore acwant. J I_oBS_RI7Mr Snyder, I ( o aid f »e_/pnm for a secret if yon dWt sf.liti !i And if you promise -you wbn't I will. ° You won't, you* say? Is thai it? Well, then, I tell you if the Corporation would only let us be, and notttrooile us any! Snore thai, the man that^mafeaa •Xoacnott)^ or the man as sells us o_A horse?, yrg would serve the public much ta.taP_tai-W<.h cheaper. Why do I u c_iarge half a croSvo fora/are? Because

the Corporation aay I may, I make the charge, so to speak, an official one. Coald Ido it for less? Of course I . could. Now you ask me would Ido it for less. Why, I'm almost certain I would. You see, if the Corporation wouldn't insist that I mast do this, and I mnstn't do that, and keep everlastingly going on making by-laws and regulations, we should feel that we were responsible men, and would act accordingly. Cabmen don't want to impose more than any other class of men, nor, I suppose, less. If a man goes into a shop to buy a thing, I guess he asks the price first, and if he thinks it too much, he goes somewhere else, and tries to get it for less money. Well, what's to prevent a man doing the same when be wants to boy a , mile or a couple of mile of cabhire? Men living in the city know the price of cabs, and you can't take them in, and men coming among as as straogersj if they do have to submit to a little extra charging, why, they are only paying for their experience. Cabman ain't tbe only men who lays it on occasionally rather thick. You see a greenhorn go into a shop, and when the chap behind comes forwahd to serve, the master says Xis V, I ) or some sort of a signal, whioh means he^-fthe customer) don't know any \ better, and so you can stick it on. Another man comes io, and ha . says to the shopman, V is X, which means, you musn't try to come it over - that fellow; he's all up to what he wants, so cut it low. Why don't the Corpora- _. -tion interfere in this line? Why don't they? Well, because they aih't cabmen, but are councillors, Sp to the X is V j business to a naughtography."