The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-26 00:00:00

MADAME RACHEL'S COUSIN.

The Inclipendance Beige gives a sequel to the mysteries
of Bond-street—that delightful domestic drama which
was wound up in a manner so appropriate by Mr.
Commissioner Kerr. The heroine of Bond-street
had a cousin, whom we shall call J. B. This
aristocratic personage officiated for some time as
bill-poster to Drury-lane Theatre, and afterwards as clerk
in a great brewery. He then chanced to make some
brilliant speculations in stocks, and thus acquired a con-
siderable fortune, to which were added the important
" presents " which he received from his celebrated
relative —the lady who took for her motto " Beau-
tiful for ever." This personage—J. B. we mean—became
acquainted with a ballet-girl of the third rank
at Drury-lane. The lady willingly consented to a
little pantomime in real life, and the tv.-o did a little polite
travelling together, visiting all the watering-places of Bel-
gium, and finally settling at Spa, where they dwelt in one
of the most elegant chalets of the place. The two emi-
grants lived high : kept horses and carriage, were
out all day to return home only in the even-
ing, and after dinner promenading in the
public saloons—never venturing into the ball-room.
On one occasion, indeed, they attempted to gain
admission, but either they were known or the out-
ward and visible signs of their social position were too
marked to escape notice : a‘linis6ioo was refused. The
clay after they left Spa, J. B. received news, at the
moment of departure, of his gaining a prize of over
£IO,CCO in a foreign lottery. From Spa the pair went to
Paris, where they installed themselves in a small hotel in
the Avenue of Eylau. Here they made the acquaintance
of an actress—by no means in the bloom of her youth or
reputation—and this new friend, who called herself
the Countess A— de V—, persuaded the fugi-
tives to hire a more expensive dwelling. All this
time J. B. never thought of returning to England ; in
fact, he was " wanted " there. Speculating was all very
well, and even running off with ballet girls without pre-
liminary ceremonial is not within the reach of the law;
but the police were anxious to know where J. B. ob-
tained the money which furnished capital for his
speculations. At this point J. B. conceived the
fatal idea of getting married; and for that purpose he
sought and obtained the papers which are necessary for a
marriage in France, but his companion seemed strangely
backward in obtaining hers. The " union" was, how-
ever, effected at last in the Church of the Trinity ;
but, when too late, the French police learned
that it was illegal. Madame Rachel's promising
cousin had been married once already. One
disclosure followed another. The police learned the
whereabouts of their man. He learned the intentions
of the police, and took flight immediately, not deeming him.
self safe at any distance less than the space between France
and the East Indies. It appears that the pair had been
received in good company both in Germany and Paris.
The story has rather a tragic ending. The not very strong
intellect of the ballet girl succumbed to her grief at being
abandoned, and she became a lunatic. She also had been
married before.

THE STOCK EXCHANGE

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Bulls and bears, dealers and jobbers, have in a social
sense all improved marvellously during the last quarter
of a century. There is as much difference between the
stockbroker of to-day and the stockbroker of the essayist
and funny writer as between the walking gentleman of the
stage and the gentleman of real life who walks. Nor is
there anything wonderful in this. The influences of the
time have merely exercised the same influences in
Capel-court as elsewhere, and the ameliorations experienced
by other callings have softened down or obliterated the
exaggerations and extravagances .to which, if our social
satirists are to be believed, the stockbroker was especially
prone. Mr. Wilkins Flasher is no more. Our typical
visitor has probably come into the land of scrip and shares
with some lively anticipations as to the treatment he will
receive. Paraphrasing the speech of the ancient maiden
in the captured city, he asks "when the bonneting is
to begin," with real tremor in his voice ; and is
barely reassured by the statement that the Stock Exchange
has been caluminated, and that a polite request that they
will withdraw is the roughest treatment accorded to the
unaccredited. Practical joking is fast disappearing, even
the excellent humour of surreptitiously tipping off a
fellow member's lint, and watching the effect from a
distance, appears to have lost its time-honoured
attraction. The comparatively recent story of the
foreigner who had strayed inadvertently into the
charmed circle, and whose friend wrote to a contemporary
complaining of the violence he experienced, was an
exaggeration. His apprehensions of bodily violence being
quieted, the visitor may pluck up his spirit and look
about him. He is on the ground from which prices
go forth to influence the world, and his first lucid
itninession is that it is overcrowded. The beadles
in uniform, stationed at raised parts of the building,
and overlooking the mass of members, are the only
men who have elbow-room. Their function seems
to be to call out the names of men who are
wanted, and to be thus the media of communication
between the affiliated and the outside world. 'I Ex-
change itself is a lofty chamber, with desks and tables
dotted about it, and with cold white walls. Here are the
dealers in every kind of stock known to the world, all
busy, all talking, all ready to bid, or buy, or sell.
Some few are seated, but the majority are on
their legs, chatting in little coteries, and casting
curious eyes upon the only stranger present. Once
or twice the ominous words "fourteen hundred"
go from mouth t 3 mouth, as it seems in jest, but
suggesting infinite possibilities when you hear that
it is a mystic signal telling of your advent. But you are
clothed in an invisible coat, or are strong in the reputation
of your guide, and so wend your way innocuously through
the throng. A genteel betting-ring in which the bookmakers
don't murder the Queen's English ; or a play-ground
where the big boys have the best of it, but where
there's some little indecision as to what game to begin
next ; or a church in which the form of worship is
perambulatory—all come to mind as you are conducted
through. The great place is more sedate than Tat-
tersall's, but not nearly so handsomely fitted up.
The tesselated pavement, the club-room settees, the
ornatly decorated walls of the headquarters of the turf,
are none of them to be seen at the headquarters of share
dealing, and if it were not for the knowledge that you
are in a place from which the world generally is
excluded, you might find it a trifle, just a trifle, dull.
The prices of stocks are being shouted out, and bar-
gains are struck with methodic regularity. The
greater part of the business going on represents, we
are assured, the purchases and sales of the public,
and it is strange to think of the fortunes affected and the
lives altered by transactions taking place between these
four walls. Our visit is made on one of the fortnightly
settling-days, the first, or " Ticket-day "asit is called,
on which occasions tickets bearing thereon the names of
the persons who take up and pay for the shares or stocks
they have bought during " the account" are required to
be passed within a certain limit of time to the brokers of
the persons who transfer the securities. This system
has been in force for many years, and it is said
that under no other method could the vast business
of the public be transacted. As the afternoon progresses
the bustle and stir augment. The tables at one end of the
room are filled with clerks, who pore over their pocket
account books, shout out the name of the dealer or firm
they want, or cast nervous glances up at the clock. The
reason of this is explained when a rattle is sprung by a
distant beadle, and the hum subsides. This shews it to be
three o'clock, and that a critical period has passed, and it
is amusing to contrast the expressions of satisfaction and
disgust on the faces of the clerks who have either escaped
3r incurred the risk of " selling-out " for their employers.—
Daily News.

°ATI:TEM:AL or SYDNEY.—The Metropolitical
Cathedral of Sydney was consecrated on St. Andrew's
day, November 30. It is a very large and handsome
structure, lighted with gas. Six Australian bishops were
present at the ceremony.

THE THIMBLE.—The name of this little instru-
ment is eaid to have been derived from " thumbell," being
at first thumble, and afterwards thimble. It is of Dutch
invertion, and was brought to England about the year
1.605, by John Lofting, who commenced its manufacture at
Islington.

A curious custom prevails in Lincoln's inn. When
any member of that learned body is made a serjeant-at-
law, on taking the coif he has to present the Queen and
the Lord Chancellor with rings bearing the legend "Aliud
nohis agendum." At the same time he is presented by the
treasurer with a purse containing ten guineas, as a retain-
ing fee in case the society should require his services on
any future occasion.
The advanced Liberals of Halifax have fortrel
an
association for advocating the I allot, the placing of all reli-
gious bodies on an equality, the adoption of a comprehen-
sive national sysit in of national edreation, and the repeal
of the law of primogeniture. At Otley, sz association for
promoting the Liberal interest in that portion of the Eastern
Division of the Biding, and for securing a more liberal
county franchise, has also been established.
At the Royal Music Hall, Glasgow, while Madame
Leopold, a female acrobat, was going a night or two since
through some daring evolution on the trapeze, she somehow
missed her hold, and fell heavily on the stage from a height
of about lb feet. She was taken up unconscious, but some
two or three hours later, medical assistance haling been ob-
tained in the interim, she was reportad to have considerably
recovered from the effects of the shock.