Click on the picture to see a larger version.

This picture shows a Paris horse cab (or "fiacre") with a load of luggage, probably heading to or from a railway station.

Source:

"One's First and Last Impressions of Paris." Photo by V. Gribayédoff in "The Paris Cabman" by By Vance Thompson (Outing, vol. XLIII, no. 3, December, 1903, pp. 241-251), p. 244. See an online version at www.taxi-library.org/vt/vt2.htm.

The Cab-Hold-Up Affair / 3

Horse Cab Robberies / 2

It took special circumstances for cab drivers to attract the attention of robbers.

In London, for example, organized gangs of luggage thieves would occasionally waylay cabs bringing well-to-do travellers home from a railway station. The target was trunks and bags exposed on the cab roof or on the rear platform or "boot". The driver and passengers were usually left unharmed.

In the cab hold-up affair the target was the cab itself which the bandits saw as a tool for perpetrating other crimes.