What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2609, 19 May 1877, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude of counsellors there is safety." - ; ;:; —Old Provbrb

Everybody is having a say about lie war: in Europe^the: tusslefljust ; commenced between the Eussiatt bear: arid the Turkish mussul—a very unequal contest everybody will!-, say—whicli, may involve the British lion and many of the other beasts arid birds; of the oreat Powers. If everybody had as many Moanatairis as there have been columns of matter written-in New Zealand during the last few weeks on this Eastern question, they would be able to make, a pretty good rise. At the Corner, when there is a flat market, this :war absorbs a large share of attention, and too, when there is a'little excitement the passage of the Danube, is'strangely intermixed with the price of Moanatairis in mixed assemblies at those places where people most-" do congregate. Even at \" joker," when the Great Mogul * turns up, he is anathematised, or . ; ,blessed, according tp.. : -. ; the sym.pathies ipf [ the players* many of whom do not care a Turkish fig which ; side, will lC wp.4n the great struggle commenced'so long as they have not to part with the necessary rex pecuniarum to pay for .the liquid refreshments on the game. The world is made up of trifled, every body»dmit«**nd itis-oftena more momentous question to" frequenters o f the _—-who: will hold the joker and both bowers than the fate of iOorisfohtv nople, or who; will'be able to hold that territory with ■ the: unpronounceable name Dobrudscha^ : /;; <i>i. r ; ,. ■ >.-:^'A--'l'

Everybody wants.;to= know ■ how thesharemarket ,is .- manipulated on the Thames. -If certain-men show their faces at the Corner, there are those who watch them as mice are supposed to be watched by members of the feline race. If these certain men should accidentally enter a broker's sanctum, forthwith the watchers will enter another broker's sanctum, just to enquire " what's doing." These are mere straws that show how the wind blows or the streams-flows, but there are other influences a| work* in which the 11 noble diggers," Sslff Seth Sam called them, play a prominent part, and with whom it would "be well for speculators to be on good terms. It is, as everybody says, a fact, that the Thames sharemarket is principally affected by the Auckland speculators dtiring the day, and by the-| working miner*. 4t -noble diggers during the evening from six to an indefinite period. Some of these noble diggers exercise more influence than they are aware of. They come down —or up—from their toils and they proceed to array themselres in broad-cloth and fine linen, and they do the Corner at night as " jobbers," and in their own way they can move the market as visibly as some of their employers— who may be directors —do during the day. There are some of the digger class who ar& perfect oracles in : their own circles, and everybody says that their tips are more to be relied" upon than the confidential information given by persons in authority, from the simple fact that they generally know more than those who are supposed to know everything first hand, and place their friends under an obligation by "putting them up" to some good thing. ■■■-■ : ■■'•v~—-.-- i%H, ; |-

There was once a mine manager on this field who was largely interested in the stock of a mine that he managed. He volunteered to give advice about his mine, and gave the advice in a confidential manner. It was to buy shares. He was a very'cute! individual, and had pretty well feathered his nest. Some of his confidents-were so confidingl that they were prepared to act upon his advice, and they went to a broker and bought shares in the mine of which this mine manager was boss ; but their confidence was somewhat shaken when jhey^found that the mine manager who had given the advice was the transferor of the shares, and they did not buy largely; In fact he had been a little incautious. He had advised too much: his information had been made too cheap. Those who held shares kept them,.and he was ,about ; the only seller at a certain price—the lowest in'the market. Everybody dislikes morals, but at the risk of offending, everybody says: Don't buy shares on the advice of a mine manager in a claim'in which he is interested. Mine managers of the present day will not take this to themselves, for they are, as everybody knows, unapproachable: they never -know anything, for it is notorious now-a-days that no mine manager ever makes a penny by trafficking-in scrip. .

Does everybody know that once upon a time there existed a law in Athens called Ostracism, under which uny man, woman or child whose name was inscribed on 600,000 separate shells, the same being duly cast into an urn provided for the purpose, was ban}shed from the state. The law, though not more silly than many of our own laws, had this in its favor that was intelligible, but alike unfortunately open to abuse, as was shown by the fact that one Aristideswas asked, one day to inscribe bis own name on\ a shell; r He wrote it, gave it to the man who gave it him but knew him not, and then asked why he wanted Aristides banished. The man replied he didn't know, but was tired of hearing him callied "the just." It seems that the habit of attaching one's signature to any document whatever—as long as it does not involve any expenditure—is as prevalent now as it was when Ostracism was in.fashion. Only the other day a gentleman. employed in getting signatures to a petition from everybody or anybody empowered to sign the same received for answer to his application that the person had already signed two on the

same subject, that he didn't know what was in tlsem, and that he was d d if he'd cign nny more. This is a case of move and counter move with a yen-

geance