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Exit the Night Hawk
Old John Dimming, “Honest John” as his patrons used to call him, has stabled his
nag for the last time. The famous hackman has surrendered to the taxicab, and
his weather-beaten vehicle will be seen no more in Powell Street. It was
inevitable. The cab made a heart-breaking stand against the motor; the night
hawk refused to retire before the chauffeur. But it looks as though the end has
come. Who hires a hack these days, except for a funeral? Almost nobody. The
prices are higher than taxi rates, and the pace is much too slow for this
speeding age. One or two more of the old time cabbies still lag superfluous, but
they are not earning their salt. The good old days of plenty have departed, and
it’s a long time now since any of these jarvies has been able to afford the
luxury of a new beaver. Old Finney died before the business went to smash, but
Dimming lives to hear its last wheeze. It is the same elsewhere. The last street
cab disappeared from K Street in Sacramento last week. There was nothing doing.
Tax-eaters drive in taxies nowadays when they do not board streetcars. A far cry
from the golden yesteryears when the hackman of Sacramento knew every
millionaire in Northern California. What stories those old cabbies could tell if
they would. But your cabman was always close-mouthed. Discretion was his
greatest asset. The passing of Dimming’s cab recalls old memories. But why rake
up the past? There is a new generation which knows nothing of the trouble that
Dimming passed through. It is just as well.
The Spectator
Town Talk The Pacific Weekly
January 3, 1914
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