The Panama Canal.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3127, 12 February 1889, Page 3

The Panama Canal.

The Paris correspondent'of, the , .Daily News, thus desoribea theoxtra--K ordinary scenes■ (of,.which.;ypu will have thavbfficos of the Panama Company in December*: —"lwent this 'afternoon to theoffices of the Panama Company in order- to try and judcp'Kow the new loan was being taken up. The publio hall was : crowded with the subscribers, among , whom wero many ladies flushed and but willing to stake their '. last penny on'the hopo of retrieving their fortunes. They were like des- ''"'■ perate gamblers whose 'hopes, run highest.when their losses have been greatest.', One lady nearly'fainted on hearing from a man just from the Stock Exchange that dOOfr shares had fallen to 160fr, Shesaidshe hiid'invested 12,000fr, or nearly 1 all her savings in these shares. Boon the

crowd became so great that many had to scramble on the tops of tables. a' The greatest animation prevailed. I '• was riot long in preceiving that the *> K 1 persons present belonged probably without excepting to M. Do Lesseps's votoran public. In fact, thoy themselves did not seem to'indulge in the hope of new ro:ruits joining their ranks. They were the more determined therefore, to tako in hand their own rescue. Strangers met and mutually strengthened their faith with words of comfort. The story was told of an English engineer who was at Panama a couple of months who was impressed beyond description by what ho saw of .. . the workings. Then tho 'bear' speculators were, denounced as the cause of all the ovil, They, were f russians in the'pay of English and American capitilists who were planHing to wrest the canal from France, but their game was really too

transparent, Besides which the Bourse quotations were merely as was shown by the case of Tify man who, having bought a couple of shares, found the: utmost trouble in getting them delivered to him, Howover, this loan was sure to succeed,

and then, stock would go tip 50 or IJO per cent., and where would tbe gang 'bear' speculators bo then ? This conclusion, delivered in a tone of unbounded confidence, was received by ..... the listeners with a peal of laughter. A man who venture to express doubts as to the possibility of the canal fount! tko place too hot for him. After he had left, the lady declared that he was the first adversary of the canal she had ever seen,"