A Mistake. Cartoon by J.P. Atkinson, Punch, 1878. Old Lady (emerging wrathfully from a Cabmen's Shelter), "I say, Conductor! If you don't send this 'ere tram on directly, I'll report you! Arf a hour I've been settin' a-waitin' a'ready. Ain't you ashamed of yourself?" The clay pipe in the bemused cabby's hand would have identified him as an Irishman to contemporary Punch readers. Expatriate Irishmen made up a significant part of the cab driving fraternity in both England and North America. The semicircular shape at the near bottom corner of the shelter in this picture may represent a wheel. At least one early shelter (in Oxford) was equipped with small wheels so that it could be moved if necessary. Even without wheels the size and dimensions of the cabmen's shelter and its location on the street gave it some resemblance to a tram. Perhaps not enough to fool old ladies, but enough to make the joke plausible. Source: Pictures from "Punch", volume 1 (London: Bradbury, Agnew & Co., 1894), p. 35.