It was not to be expected that the pedicabs would appear as by the wave of a magician's wand, solve the traffic problem and prove to be an unquestioned boon and blessing. The first day they were out one of them became somewhat bent and before they had been on the streets a week they were the cause of, or at least the excuse for, strike. Those, however, are small matters and do not call for the appointment of a Commissioner of Ricshas. But something has developed that could conveniently be checked before it becomes any worse. If it were possible to lay asphalt track a mile wide across the Sahara Desert, keep it of any other living thing, then put a Chinese on a bicycle and set him podalling across, he would ring his bell the whole way. To be fair, It must be added that a chauffeur in a car under similar conditions would blow his horn at least every hundred rds, The pedicab coolies—full Apologies are offered in advance they have some other title—havo bells on their machines and they ace serenely happy, for they can add yet more noise to the nerve-trying: chorus of our streets. Of course, when a fare is in the boot the bell has to be rung continuously, for tone never knows when a miner will Jump up out of the deep-level bores of the Tramway Ca, the Waterworks Ca, the Gas Ca, the Elec Department, the. Telephone Ca. and the Public Works Depart ment, but for a few days the coolies Tooked sad when at rest' for they had not then discovered an excuse for using the bell in such circumstances. Now the solution has arrived. When not engaged, the coolie pedals slowly along road, close to the kerb, ringing his bell continuously. Approaching a foreigner, he works the trigger with the speed of a maxim-gun in a tight corner, and so continues until he attracts attention. Bells are not allowed on the ordinary rieshas, but if this sort of thing is to continue the next strike will be on a demonnd for "bells for all."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.