A Quet Rebuke. Cartoon by John Leech (1817-1864), Punch, 1864. Fare (who has driven a hard bargain and is settling), "But why, my good man, do you put that cloth over the horse's head?" Cab-Driver, "Shure, yer honour, thin -- I shouldn't like him to see how little ye pay for such a hard day's work!" Punch readers in 1864 would readily identify the stereotypical Irishman from the brogue in the caption, his carefully delineated facial features and the ragged state of his clothes, but it's the jaunting car that places the scene in Ireland rather than in an English city. Cartoonist Leech's sympathies are obviously with the cabby in keeping with the magazine's early radical-reform posture. But as Punch became more successful its politics increasingly reflected the interests of the cab riding as opposed to the cab driving class. Out of 26 cab cartoons in the Pictures from Punch collection (1894), at least 18 make disreputable drivers, emaciated horses and/or dilapidated cabs the butt of the joke. Source: Pictures from "Punch", volume 1 (London: Bradbury, Agnew & Co., 1894), p. 19.