RAILWAY EPIGRAM.
In 1845, during the discussions on the Midland lines before the Committee of the House of Commons, Mr. Hill, the Counsel, was addressing the Committee, when Sir John Rae Reid, who was a member of it, handed the following lines to the chairman:—
“Ye railway men, who mountains lower,
Who level locks and valleys fill;
Who thro’ the hills vast tunnels bore;
Must now in turn be bored by Hill.”
SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCE.
A certain gentleman of large property, and who had figured, if he does not now figure, as a Railway Director, applied for shares in a certain projected railway. Fifty, it seems were allotted to him. Whether that was the number he applied for or not, deponent saith not; but by some means nothing (0) got added to the 50 and made it 500. The deposit for the said 500 was paid into the bankers’, the scrip obtained, and before the mistake could be detected and corrected—for no doubt it was only a mistake, or at most a lapsus pennæ—the shares were sold, and some £2000 profit by this very fortunate accident found its way into the pocket of the gentleman.
—Herepath’s Journal, 1845.