New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-05-20

Co. own "A that are old stock. OF the remain
der, all the shares have been acquired within
the last five days, and long after the great
" wrong" of which the memorialists complain,
had been commenced. Nugent s Co actually
purchased their shares after they had signed
the martyr memorial. In vulgar parlance,
these gentlemen bought ''a pig in poke
that is, they invested in stock of Company
which was about to be ruined-no doubt from
the lofty principle of sympathy-to participate
in the distresses and Affections of their fellow
citizens.
"Bill,' said an unfortunate, who had fallen
into ditch, s' lend fellow hand and help
him out of this quandary.''
my dear friend, scorn to do mere act of
common humanity will do more-I will obey
the promptings Of sincere friendship, and lay
down in the ditch with you.'
So, Nugent & Co., in their impetuous sympa-
thy, insist upon plunging into the terrible guam
Diary in which this memorial declares their
fellow stockholders Of the Pontchartrain Com
pany are fast sinking.
General Palfrey's impetuosity, however, is
not of this reckless character. The General
purchased his seven shares on the 18th May,
the day of the memorial, but, with the promp-
titude Of gallant soldier, he soon relieved him
self of the embarrassment Of this cumbrous
baggage, and actually disposed of his seven
shares on the same sixteenth day Of May! So
from his possession when his potent name was
enunciated so generously in the Council, as one
of the martyrs of the Pontchartrain Railroad
extension
of the other martyrs, we confess to some diff
Guilty in accounting for their names. Until the
problem of the fly in amber or the milk of the
cocoa nut is solved, we shall not undertake to
account for the precipitancy Of those venerable
and respected citizens, R. D. Shepperd and W
W. Montgomery, purchasing each two shares Of
railroad stock, in order to protest against the
extension of such road. The only attempt at q
solution is, that these gentlemen purchased this
large amount Of stock for the satisfaction Of
signing memorial against project that con-
| templated an increased taxation.
| There is not 80 much difficulty in explaining
| ex-Alderman Yancey's purchase. That enter
prising gentleman does not leave his purposes in
any concealment, but openly proclaims what
some people are skeptical and i'll -natured enough
to declare was the sole object of all these recent
purchases, to wit: to memorabilia against, and,
if possible, to defeat the application of the Pont
| chartrain Company Buff the presence of GER
tain names among these memorialists puzzles
our understanding, how shall we account for
the absence of one name, which ought to be the
| first and most conspicuous in the formidable
array
At the funeral of Julia, Tacitus says the alb
sence of the bust of Brutus produced greater
sensation among the people than the long line of
Emperors. Quite as lively and profound will be
the sensation on the minds of those who are
| cognizant Of the facts of this memorial, on ac-
count of the absence of his name, whose formid-
Able pen is divided, like Goldsmiths So chests of
drawers by day and bed by night" equally be-
| tween the drafting of Notarial Acts for the
| great Northern Railroad Company, and the
| composition of learned memorials and newspaper
communications, that aim at the nflictiou of an
"ineradicable paralyses' on the unfortunate
| Pontchartran Railroad Company. Surely this
multform and versatile gentleman could only
have been prevented by his modesty from sign
ing his name, as the owner of one share of stock
in the Pontchartrain Railroad Company to the
memorial which bears such ''ineradicable'' signs
of his lucid and comprehensive intellect and
luminous style.
So much for the signers of the martyr memo
rial. We intended in this article to notice the
positions Of the memorial, and endeayor to re-
concile these gentlemen to their unfortunate
position as stockholders, but we have not now
| space TO notice more than one of their assertions;
the rest we must reserve for another article
After an argument against the right of the
President and Directors to divert the road from
| its original purpose, as its extension is called
the memorialists proceed to deny that the act
of 1858, authorizing such extension, has ever
been accepted SO as to bind the Company
! That gentlemen who acquired their stock on
| the 18th of May last should commit this error,
is not surprising. They have not had time to
read the records of the Company as far back as
the 14th of June, 1858, when general meeting
of the stockholders of the Pontohartrain Rail-
road Company having been called, agreeably to
the provisions of the law, to vote upon g the
acceptance or non acceptance of the amended
charter, entitled An Act to authorize the Pont-
chartrain Railroad Company to construct
railroad to Mobile, approved 2sth May, 1885,"
when the following proceeding took place:
sat fifteen minutes after two o'clock, p M,
the votes recorded on said list were summed up,
when it appeared that the number of shares
whose owners were represented as having voted
in favor of accepting the aforesaid act, amount
ed to three thousand two hundred and three
votes; and there did not appear to hare been
cast a single vote for the rejection Of the said
| act"
As the ten days previous notice required by
the act of incorporation was given, and no one
voted against the acceptance Of the act, the pre-
sumption of law and reason is, that there was
no one of the stockholders opposed to the accep-
| lance So much for the argument that the
stockholders did not accept this act. In our
next we will notice the other objections of this
production of notarial skill and learning. At
present we must part with our martyred stock
holders, rendering them the profoundest sympa-
| thy and coincidence Of R1GoLETTEs