The forty-three shelters maintained by the Society are used daily by nearly four thousand cabmen. The attendants in charge of the various shelters make their living by selling provisions to the frequenters, and cooking, at a charge of one penny, any food they may bring in. Every shelter is divided into two compartments--a mess-room and a small kitchen. The mess-rooms are supplied with newspapers, and some of them possess small libraries. In the mess-rooms the following rules are displayed:-- 1. This Shelter is the property of the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund and is for the use of CAB-DRIVERS solely. 2. The Drivers of the FIRST TWO CABS on the rank are not to enter the Shelter. 3. No bad language, card-playing, betting, or gambling allowed. 4. The Attendant in charge is authorised to sell Tea, Coffee, and Bread and Butter to the Drivers using the Shelter only, at prices as per Tariff. 5. The Attendant is instructed to see that the above Rules are strictly kept. Any complaints as to attendance, quality of refreshments sold, etc., etc., must be made to the Hon. Sec., and will be at once attended to. The Committee appeal to the good sense and feeling of the Drivers to help in maintaining the respectability of this Shelter, and by every means in their power to prevent its being damaged. During one of the recent cab strikes an attempt was made at some shelters to prevent non-strikers from using them. This was, of course, in direct opposition to the rules of the Society, and the strikers were taught that the shelters are for all cab-drivers. CHAPTER V Cab show at Alexandra Palace--Forder’s cab--The strike of 1894--Cabmen become organ-grinders--The Asquith award--Boycotting the railway stations--The “Bilking Act.” On October 4, 1875, a Cab and Cab-Horse Show was opened at the Alexandra Palace, and attracted a large number of people to Muswell Hill. The first prize for the most convenient and best appointed hansom cab was awarded to Messrs. Forder, who also exhibited one of the same type which they had built for the Prince of Wales. Two years previously, a cab built by this firm had been awarded the Gold Medal of the Society of Arts, and this identical hansom won at the Alexandra Palace the second prize for vehicles which had been at work for not less than six months. Forder’s cab had been working in the London streets for two years. In the class for horses which had been at cab work for not less than eight years, during which they must have been the property of the exhibitor, the first prize was won by Mrs. Ruth Farmer, whose bay mare, aged twenty, had been in constant work for seventeen years. Prizes were also offered for cabmen who had retained their badges and been exempt for the longest period from any charge of cruelty to animals, reckless driving, drunkenness or any other offence, and who had constantly driven for upwards of ten years. The winner of the first prize had been a cab-driver for forty-six years.