Short, braced up by his luncheon, was now ready to set out for the wilds of Plumstead--a somewhat long journey. He started by train from the “Elephant and Castle” _viâ_ the New and the Old Kent Roads, New Cross Road, Greenwich Road, Trafalgar Road, Greenwich and Woolwich Lower Roads to Woolwich, and by the Plumstead Road to Plumstead itself. He worked the two districts together, but his luck had deserted him, and orders were fewer and farther between than he altogether liked; but he was not going to “chuck the thing up” yet. He would do a bit of the East End, and thus complete the circuit of London. He took the same route back from Plumstead as far as Blackwall Lane, then _viâ_ the Blackwall Tunnel to East India Dock Road, Burdett Road, and Mile End Road to its junction with Cambridge Road. In this neighbourhood he did his only extensive bit of walking. The district, though poor, was large, and he did a fair amount of business, but as time was getting on he decided to return home; so by Cambridge Road, along Cambridge Heath, Mare Street, Lower and Upper Clapton Roads, he got back to Stamford Hill, and was put down almost at his own house. He had travelled by electric tramway some fifty miles at a cost of about 2_s._ 1_d._ (or a halfpenny a mile). He had done a lot of business, and had been absent just twelve hours! In the bosom of his family he found ample compensation for his exertions. A hearty welcome and a savoury supper, accompanied by something that was _not_ coffee, awaited him, and the following day the firm received him with acclamation. The Teuton was not “in it,” and Ben Short reigned supreme as its chief and highly appreciated traveller. LONDON UNITED TRAMWAYS COMPANY Want of space forbids more than the mere mention of the South Metropolitan and the London Southern, the Woolwich and South Eastern, the West Ham, and the Northern Middlesex Tramways. But this chapter would be incomplete without some reference to the useful and popular organisation, the London United Tramways Company, that takes up the running at the London County Council’s boundary. Forty million passengers were conveyed last year over its original route of twenty-two miles, extending from Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith to Southall, Hounslow, and Twickenham. In one week alone over a million were carried. Last April an important extension was inaugurated from Twickenham, which brought the trams through Teddington and Hampton Wick right to the gates of [Illustration: FIG. 17. BOILER-ROOM, LONDON UNITED TRAMWAYS CO.’S POWER HOUSE AT CHISWICK, FITTED WITH VICARS’ AUTOMATIC STOKERS _By permission of T. and T. Vicars_, _Earlstown, Lancashire_]