[From The Tourist Vol 1 pp 178/181 - 1897]

This paean to Alaxander Bruce dates about 2 years before his death the failure of the bank he headed

A Ride on a Rope

I have often been struck with the surprise a cable tram can occasion. It glides along the streets apparently of its own accord, in such easy fashion that folks think it almost uncanny. I am not aware that it is a particularly novel mode of traction, for one Hallidie, an engineer of San Francisco, invented his "gripper" I should say a dozen years ago ; for all that but little of the endless rope departure has been seen in England. Thus, as well as being a public use and necessity - I am speaking of Douglas for the moment - it is also quite a source of show and wonderment to the trippers

Not many of them have seem it in their own towns. Birmingham, London - I fancy it is Brixton - and a line or so in Scotland are exceptions, however ; here they have the cable trams.

Yet, as a rule, visitors are ignorant of it, and regard it with a curiously surprised favour, tempered with sundry exclamations suggestive of the different districts from whence trippers come. Most folks are struck with its cleanliness, and the absence from the eye of mechanical devices serves to accentuate the artistic merits of the cars. 'Therefore Tom and Harry and Maggie and Sarah - there are more besides, of course - must have a ride on them so as to talk about it when they reach home.

Cable Car ascending Buck's Road Douglas

As I am bent on "doing" sights dear to tourists, it struck me therefore that a few pictures concerning the cars would be welcome both to those who have seen them and those who haven't, for the Tourist now goes to the farthest end of the world! In this report. I have been assisted by the Railway World, to whom I desire to express my thanks. View No. l shows the roofed " toast rack "-as I understand this type of tram is familiarly christened - making its ascent up the hill in Buck's Road ; and hereabouts I should hasten to remark that gradients have no terrors for cables, whereas donkeys, mules, horses, and even locomotives object to them. It doesn't matter a, straw to the cables, that is so far as the delighted passengers know, and up, up the cars ran with delightful ease- I wonder what the late M Blondie would think about them! Here was a man who made the feats of a tight rope peculiarly. his own, but I fear he was never in it for easy gracefulness with a tramcar.

Cable Car passing Dumbell's Bank, Douglas

My second view is a larger one, and shows a car on the curve at the juncture of Prospect Hill and Victoria Street. I am glad " she " was snapped while passing the portals of Dumbell's famous bank for Mr. Bruce, its head, is head of the Tramway Company as well. He shines equally well in both capacities and indeed is admitted, as a business man and a financial expert to be the first in the whole Island. I am afraid I understand more about tramcars than banking, but I remember being amused at the homely philiosophy of Captain Trentwhen he lowered the chest of specie from the Flying Scud. " I was a abanker once," said he, " and I tell you, thats the trade to learn caution in ! You have to keep
your weather eye lifting Saturday nights !" But Mr. Bruce is more than a banker ; he is the doyen of a chairman, a thorough gentleman, and the forerunner of many excellent means for benefitting the Isle of Man; he is, besides generous and reliable to a degree, and be it great or small, whatever he puts his hand to is done well, and is the medium of a public confidence rarely surpassed.

The Tourist's delight: A Car running of its own accord!

Two views remain One is a fuller picture of an open car passing near Athol Street - the famous precinct of law, crime and general jurisprudence.

The final photo. shows the interior of the works, but this, I am afraid rather gives me away, inasmuch as, afterall, the " mystery" of the ride on the rope, is the solid fact of it being a strong steel cable, capable of taking all manner of hard knocks, and giving none in return !

But here we have the Motive Power for the Cars after all

Still, engines are a delightful study, and these at the end of our rope are particularly good ones, and uncommonly well kept besides. Moreover, they are in duplicate, so that even if one took a crusty fit, and felt disinclined to work, the other could step into the breach, to, I suppose I a chorus of "All's well !"

Tourists, in almost countless numbers, owe much to Mr. Bruce. He has given them two charming modes of locomotion and sources of enjoyment, viz th electric and cable cars, and, in doing which he has been at very lasting friend of the Isle of Man.

In both enterprises difficulties had to be overcome, but they have been nicely surmounted at all events from the passengers' point of view. It is, of course from this standpoint that I survey these affairs. Passengers and tourists like the cars - therefore I am satisfied. Yet had I had the Yea or Nay of the matter I would not have embarked in cables, for, to my eyes they are, and always were, open to much question from the engineering, utility and scientific side - thus I stated publically before the first stone was turned in Douglas.

Frisco's steep gradienrs begat them, for horses had failed ; anything was judged better than horses, you know, especially when there were no corners to go round. Pardy, another San Francisco engineer, beat them with his compressed air, and now electricity has scored heavily over both. No fair-thinking man can slight electric traction. It, is far and away the best, and its merits should even have been sufficient to penetrate the armoured skulls of municipal legislators.

Some of these rather peculiar benefactors aver that overhead wires would spoil the "look" of the front at Douglas; but common sense and daily experience refute this. The posts can always be made conspicuously ornamemental and would compare favourably with the unkempt telegraph poles which at present " adorn " the Bay.