a few tell some good stories of "slouches," "bums,"
and "beats," the names given to those gentlemen whose principal object in
this world is to sponge upon poor humanity to as great an extent as the
latter will permit. One of the cheapest ways of "getting a ride" is to
present a five or ten dollar bill; very few drivers carry so much money,
as they hardly ever have that amount on their morning trips; the bill
cannot be changed, and the owner of it gets "down town" _free_.

Apropos of this method, a talkative Jehu said to me one morning, "When I
was a drivin' on the Knickerbocker," a line that ran some twenty years
ago from South Ferry through Broadway, Bleecker, and Eighth avenue, to
Twenty-third street, "there was a middle-aged man that used to ride
reg'lar; all the fellows got to knowin' him. Well, he'd get in and hand
up a ten dollar note--you know the fare was only six cents then--and we
never had so much 'bout us, so, of course, he'd ride for nothin'; well,
that fellow stuck me five mornin's straight, and I sort o' got tired of
it; so on the six' day I went to the office and says to the Boss,
'There's a man ridin' free on this line. All the fellows knows him; he
gives 'em all a ten dollar note and they can't break it. He's rid with
me these last five mornin's, an' I'm goin' for him to-day, I want ten
dollars in pennies, an' six fares out. If he rides I'll git square with
him.' So the Boss he gives me nine dollars and sixty-four cents all in
pennies--you know they was all big ones then--an' they weighed some, I
tell you. When I got down to Fourteenth street he hailed me. Then the
fares used to pay when they got out. So he hands up his note; I looked
at it--it was on the "Dry Dock"--an' I hands him down the pennies. Well,
how he did blow about it an' said how he wouldn't take 'em. Well, says
I, then I'll keep it all. Well, he was the maddest fellow you ever seen;
he was hoppin'! But he got out an' some one inside hollers out, 'Put
some one on the other side or you'll capsize,' an' he thought it was me.
He jumped on the sidewalk an' he called me everything he could lay his
tongue to, an' I a la'ffin' like blazes. Says he, 'I'll report you, you
old thief,' an' I drove off. Well, I told the Boss, an' he says, 'Let
him come, I'll talk to him,' but he never made no complaint there."

Said another: "A lady got in with me one day an' handed up a fifty cent
stamp. I put down forty cents. I don't never look ge