Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 49
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[Page 49]
24
Rubber-tyred two-wheeled Hansom cabs, engaged from numerous conveniently situated "ranks", were the only passenger vehicles plying for private hire. They were strictly licensed and held two people comfortably, on a wide cross-seat: three with a squeeze. The driver controlled his horse, over the top of the cab roof, from a small seat perched behind it. These "cabbies" had a bad reputation for overcharging, and deliberately not following the shortest route to a destination. A few years after the turn of the century the first private motor cars were appearing on the streets, mostly driven by liveried chauffers. The enterprising Foy Brothers (sons of Mark Foy) had put themselves well in the motoring forefront by importing six single-cylinder 6 h.p., De Dion-Bouton, single-seat cars from France. A two-cylinder, 10 h.p., two-seater appeared about two years later.
City dress for men was the same as the "Edwardian" fashion of sixty years afterwards; narrow single-breasted coats with small lapels, and stove-pipe trousers without cuffs. But there was a matching waistcoat with four small front pockets, and the cotton shirts had stiff starched cuffs, dickeys (under the narrow straight tie), and a single or double, detatchable collar. The majority of the older men wore bowler hats, and the younger ones favoured straw boaters, though in the country these were worn only by women. All ages wore boots, not shoes. In the rural areas wide brimmed felt hats were the fashion for male wear, though in the hot weather, a few seniors sported white sun helmets or Panama hats.
Women appeared in public in long voluminous dark dresses, the skirts of which had trains, that had to be held up with one hand to prevent their sweeping the dusty pavements and footpaths. Bustles or improvers (large bows or paddings) were fashionable and underneath the skirt, two or three petticoats were worn, sometimes an extra one in cold weather. Torsos were compressed into thick tightly laced steel-ribbed corsets, the tops of which supported their breasts; "bras" were yet to come.
Pleated blouses with long sleeves and plenty of lace or muslin insertion over the bosom were gathered in tightly at