Manners and customs of ye Englyshe/A Raylwaye Meetynge. Emotyon of ye Shareholderes at ye Annovncemente of a Dividende of 2d.½.
Manners and Customs of ye Englyshe in 1849. No. 19.
A Raylwaye Meetynge. Emotyon of ye Shareholderes at ye Annovncemente of a Dividende of 2d.½.
MR. PIPS HIS DIARY.
A Raylwaye Meetynge. Emotyon of ye Shareholderes at ye Annovncemente of a Dividende of 2d.½.
[Monday, July 1, 1849.]
COMES Mr. Stagge to take me to the great Railway Meeting at the London Tavern; and we up the Back Stairs to the Platform among the Directors, and glad of ſo good a Place; but fearing to be taken for one of my Company, did get behind a fat Man to hide myſelf. The Shareholders below met to hear their Affairs debated, and what a Collection of wry and doleful faces! Methought the poor anxious Parſons and eager Half-pay Officers among them was a pitiful Sight. Looked hard about for the Railway King, but Mr. Stagge did ſay in my Ear he was not likely to ſhow his Face. The Secretary reading Bills to be brought into the Parliament to join other Railways with this, and all the while interrupted by the Shareholders with Noiſe and Outcries; but at laſt got through. Then the Chairman did propoſe that the Bills be approved of; but an Amendment moved with much Clapping of Hands that the Meeting do adjourn for one Month to examine the Company's Accounts; which they do ſay have been cooked. Upon this a long Speech from a Director, denying that it was ſo, and One made anſwer to him in a bouncing, ranting Harangue; but to hear how the Shareholders did ſhout and cheer whenever he accuſed the Board of a Piece of Roguery! He complained that Proxy Papers had been ſent out by ſome for Votes, whereby to gain their own Ends at £900 Expenſe to the Company; whereat more Uproar, in the midſt whereof he moved another Amendment; when the Noiſe greater than ever, with Groans and calling for Dividends; and ſeveral in the Meeting ſtrove to ſpeak, but could only wag their Jaws and make their Fiſts at the Chairman, and he imploring Quiet in Dumb Show. Howbeit, one old Gentleman got Attention for a Moment, and in great Wrath and Choler did declare that the Directors' Statement was all Humbug. Then Another with much ado to get a Hearing, did move a third Amendment: and after that, more Wrangling and Jangling, until the only Man of any Brains I had yet heard, up and mowed the folly of moving Amendment on Amendment. So the firſt and laſt Amendment withdrawn, and the ſecond put to the Vote, and loſt, and then the Chairman's Reſolution put and loft alſo, and the Shareholders hooting and hiſſing, and ſhouting "Shame!" and crying that they could not underſtand the Queſtion. So the Amendment and former Reſolution both put over again, and both again loſt; whereupon the Shareholders ſtark mad, and ruſhed in a Mob on the Platform, raving at the Chairman, who jumped up in his Chair, throwing his Arms abroad, and ſhrieking for Silence; till at laſt a Poll determined on to decide whether for Adjournment or not; and ſo the Meeting brought to an End in as great a Hurly-Burly as I ever heard, and a pretty Chairman methinks they have to keep Order, and brave Directors to cook their Accounts, and their Meetings do ſeem as confuſed as their Affairs; and thank my Stars, I have not ſunk my Money in a Railway.