all the public servants which depend upon Shanghai for their livelihood, it is probable that none is s6 insolent as-the conductors and drivers of the French tramway company. This state ment may be contested by those who have no Aenowledge of the French tramway employees, but have suffered from time to time from the employees of the Settlement bus company and tram company. During the past few days there have been several letters in the correspondence columns criticizing the manners of the conduct tors of the Settlement communications companies, They can be assured that the treatment they receive from the conductors of these two Seltlement utilities is nothing to what the aver= age traveller in the French trams has to put up This is surprising when it is the control of public appear to be better in the French Concession than elsewhere. But the fact Is that there 1s smaller choice of means of travel in the French Concession than there is in the Settlement, and that the employees of the French travel companies have, therefore, greater licence, which they apparently do not hesitate to abuse. Tt may be contend ed that these are matters which might well be taken up between the victims of the insolence of the drivers and conductors and the company itself; but, in fact, this ly not the case. This Journal has had representations from so many of its renders who have complained to the company without success, that it feels justified airing what is now a'public grievance. The French tramway company hag been at some pains and expense to mark stopping places at which the public may board its vehicles. The public faithfully observes these stopping places, Dut the employees of the company do not, An Instance occurred the other day when an American resident had to walt at one of these so-called stops while three trams passed him, none of them more than a third full, He stop: ped the fourth tram by standing in the middle of the tracks and running the risk of being cut down by the driver, whose object seemed to bbe to reach the end of his journey with just as Little inconvenience to himself as. possible, The American happens to be well acquainted with the Chinese language, and he understood that the driver, forced to briny few feet, did not like it. the American was able to tell the driver, in his own language and possibly almost as forcible the driver had expressed his feelings to him, what he thought about it: The crestfatlen driver, who had imagined that he way talking simply fo another foreigner who did not understand the language, apologetically explained that had to make haste. If he explained truthfully, then the tram company is in some way to blame for the incident. If the time-table set for the trams calls for such speed that the trams cannot stop to pick up passengers, then that time-table should be revised without a moment's delay. This is a matter which the tram company can take up this morning. If, they do not, failure to do so can be taken us a sig that they approve of the Insolence of their employees and be interpreted by the public accordingly. The excuse put forward by that driver does not, however, account for the insolence of the conductors. The other day we Indies with a small child between them were hurrying to board a tram' which was tess than half full, when the conductor snapped the gates closed in their faces. The two Indies and the child were no more than ten feet away when he did so, The conductor then went to one of the windows of the tram and through the glass laughed heartily at the anger the ladles quite justilably displayed, Similar incidents could be quoted ed nauseam, Ly this public service? It the tram company executive imagine that It is, then it is high time that some. drastic reforms were introduced 10 enable them to see that the People who pay for the service do not agree with them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.