‘And yet you got no shares,’ says Jim, ‘for all your boast’: ‘I would have wrote,’ says Jack, ‘but where was the penny to pay the post?’
‘I lost, for I couldn’t pay that first instalment up; but here’s ‘taters smoking hot—I say, Let’s stop, my boy, and sup.’
And, at this simple feast, the while they did regale, I drew each ragged capitalist, down on my left thumb nail.
Their talk did me perplex, All night I tumbled and tost; and thought of railroad specs, and how money was won and lost.
‘Bless railroads everywhere,’ I said, ‘and the world’s advance; Bless every railroad share in Italy, Ireland, France; for never a beggar need now despair, and every rogue has a chance.’”
But, should anyone wish to watch the progress of the Railway Mania, I would recommend a perusal of Punch, Vol. ix., in which appears, inter alia, Jeames’s Diary, by Thackeray, afterwards published as The Diary of C. Jeames De la Pluche, Esq. The idea was started on p. 59, under the heading of—
A LUCKY SPECULATOR.
Considerable sensation has been excited in the upper and lower circles in the West End, by a startling piece of good fortune which has befallen James Plush, Esq., lately footman in a respected family in Berkeley Square.
One day, last week, Mr James waited upon his master, who is a banker in the city; and, after a little blushing and hesitation, said he had saved a little money in service, and was anxious to retire, and to invest his savings to advantage.