One's First and Last Impressions of Paris. Photo by V. Gribayédoff. A top-hatted Paris cab driver taking passengers and luggage either to or from a train station. His cab is a four-seater, larger than the two-seat fiacre that abounds in Paris street scenes of the time. Although pneumatic tires and wire-spoked wheels were introduced to Paris cabs in 1896, most of those depicted in Thompson's 1903 article still have steel tires and wooden-spoked "artillery" wheels. Source: Outing magazine, vol. XLIII no. 3, December, 1903, p. 244.