From the 1905 Directory of the cities of Albany and Rensselaer, a detailed description of what were then called “hack fares,” the equivalent of taxi fares today, which applied to hackney coaches, cabs or other carriages for conveying passengers therein..
- For each passenger for any distance, within the paved streets, not
exceeding one mile, fifty cents. But no omnibus shall charge or receive
more than twenty-five cents for the conveyance of each passenger within
the paved streets, not exceeding one mile. - For each passenger for any distance within the paved streets over one mile and not exceeding two miles, seventy-five cents.
- For each passenger for any distance over two miles, not exceeding three miles, one dollar.
- For each passenger from any part of the paved streets to the Alms House and back with the privilege of detaining the carriage at said Alms House, two dollars.
- For each passenger from any part of the paved streets to the Penitentiary and back, with the privilege of detaining the carriage at said Penitentiary thirty minutes, seventy-five cents.
- For attending a funeral from any part of the city east of Robin street, to any part of the public burial grounds of the city, for each carriage two dollars.
- The owner or driver of any hackney coach, cab or other carriage, shall be allowed for every hour the same may be detained, except as aforesaid, for each carriage one dollar for the first hour, and for every additional hour seventy-five cents; or the passenger or passengers may have the privilege of keeping the carriage all day, between the hours of eight in the morning and six in the evening, for eight dollars. Such owner or driver shall also be allowed to charge for one hundred and twenty-eight pounds of baggage at the same rate as for a passenger.
Why a trip to the Alms House cost more than twice as much as a trip to the nearby Penitentiary is simply not explained. The Alms House was an institution that housed those who had no home. A history from 1857 notes:
“Of the inmates seventy-three are lunatics, thirty-two males and forty-one females, seventy are paupers, the remaining, three cases pay from $3.00 to $4.50 per week . . . One half, at least, of the paupers are reduced to their present position by reason of intemperate habits.”