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

THE STOCK EXCHANGE

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 arid 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 hat, 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 Lim. He is on the ground from which prices
go forth to influence the world, and his first lucid
impression 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. The 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 to 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
ornately 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 fur 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 chews 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
or incurred the risk of " selling-out" for their employers.—
Daily News.

CATIIRDRAL OF 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.

Tun THIMBLE.—The name of this little instru-
aunt is said to have been derived from " tbumbell," being
at first thumble, and afterwards thimble. It is of Dutch
invention, and was brought to England about the year
1605, 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 formed an
association for advocating the ballot, the placing of all reli-
gious bodies on an equality, the adoption of a comprehen-
sive national system of national education, and the repeal
of tho law of primogeniture. At Otloy, an association for
rromot log the Liberal interest iu that portion of the Eastern
Division of the Riding, 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 15 feet. She was taken up unconscious, but some
two or three hours later, medical assistance haling been ob-
tained in the interim, she was teportad to have considerably
recovered rrcm the effects cf the Ehocl.-.