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Two gentlemen appear to be sending a trunk (on the driver's seat) and a large suitcase somewhere. The tophatted driver is in the background.
Source:
Often Used as an Express Wagon. Photo by V. Gribayédoff.
Outing magazine, vol. XLIII no. 3, December, 1903, p. 247.
Vance Thompson's Cab Drivers / 6
The Paris Cabman / 5
I had dined at a famous restaurant in the quai des Grands Augustins. Coming out into the blue of the night I turned up a little street which made a short-cut to the Place Saint André des Arts. 'Twas a grim, black little street, known as Git-le-Coeur. Whether it is the street of the broken heart, or the street of the buried heart, I know not; only the name has the charm of an old legend. As I idled there, there came a sudden onset of rain. At the turning I hailed a sapin*, to use the good old slang word. "Cocher, psitt! psitt!" "Voila, bourgeois." The side-lights showed red*, so I knew it was a cab of my quarter and would journey not unwillingly out toward the Bois; as I got in I recognized the cocher; it was Pierre-Marie, who has driven me any time these five years. "Bon soir, Pierre-Marie – un cigar?" "Merci, M'sieu." We jogged out into the Boulevard Saint Germain, along the wet asphalt. It was late; it was later than it should have been; when we had crossed the river and turned we had the Cours-la-Reine almost to ourselves. Now and then we passed a cab, or a private brougham slipped ahead of us on silent tube-bound* wheels. Once a huge crimson automobile passed us with a rush, its lights blazing against the dark. Pierre-Marie spat in the air and cursed it, and cursed the fleet, abstract and hoofless horses of it – the whole twenty of them. So eloquently he swore that I knew him for an intelligent man. I made a rendezvous with him for the next day. "There will be eating," said I, "and drinking." Pierre-Marie hesitated between the "Rendezvous des Cochers" and the sign of the "Ancien Cocher"; finally he said, "Let it be chez Père Alfred." "Père Alfred?" "In the rue Van Loo." "Good – I'll find it," and bade Pierre-Marie goodnight and went softly into my house, for it was later than it should have been. At ten in the morning I was in the rue Van Loo. *The side-lights showed red. Carriage lamps were evidently colour coded to indicate the city district from which the cab operated. *Tube-bound. Pneumatic tires were first installed on Paris cabs in 1896 but in 1903 most cabs still rumbled along on steel-tired wooden wheels, judging by the photos in Thompson’s article.
*Sapin. Slang term for a fiacre, meaning "evergreen tree". Origin unknown.