Page:Manners and customs of ye Englyshe.djvu/86

MR. PIPS HIS DIARY. Expenſe to the Company; whereat more Uproar, in the midſt whereof he moved another Amendment; when the Noiſe greater than ever, with Groans and calling for Dividends; and ſeveral in the Meeting ſtrove to ſpeak, but could only wag their Jaws and make their Fiſts at the Chairman, and he imploring Quiet in Dumb Show. Howbeit, one old Gentleman got Attention for a Moment, and in great Wrath and Choler did declare that the Directors' Statement was all Humbug. Then Another with much ado to get a Hearing, did move a third Amendment: and after that, more Wrangling and Jangling, until the only Man of any Brains I had yet heard, up and mowed the folly of moving Amendment on Amendment. So the firſt and laſt Amendment withdrawn, and the ſecond put to the Vote, and loſt, and then the Chairman's Reſolution put and loft alſo, and the Shareholders hooting and hiſſing, and ſhouting "Shame!" and crying that they could not underſtand the Queſtion. So the Amendment and former Reſolution both put over again, and both again loſt; whereupon the Shareholders ſtark mad, and ruſhed in a Mob on the Platform, raving at the Chairman, who jumped up in his Chair, throwing his Arms abroad, and ſhrieking for Silence; till at laſt a Poll determined on to decide whether for Adjournment or not; and ſo the Meeting brought to an End in as great a Hurly-Burly as I ever heard, and a pretty Chairman methinks they have to keep Order, and brave Directors to cook their Accounts, and their Meetings do ſeem as confuſed as their Affairs; and thank my Stars, I have not ſunk my Money in a Railway.