airs I'll pitch you out of window."

Nicknames are of frequent occurrence on the Stock Exchange. "My son
Jack" we have just mentioned. Another was known as "The Lady's Broker,"
in consequence of being employed in an unfortunate speculation by a lady
who had ventured without the knowledge of her husband. The husband
refused to pay a farthing, and the broker, to save himself from the
black board, divulged the name of the lady who was unable to meet her
obligations.

It is a fact not generally known, says a writer on the subject, that by
one of the regulations of the Stock Exchange, any person purchasing
stock in the funds, or any of the public companies, has a right to
demand of the seller as many transfers as there are even thousand pounds
in the amount bought. Suppose, for instance, that any person were to
purchase L10,000 stock, then, instead of having the whole made over to
him by one ticket of transfer, he has a right to demand, if he so
pleases, ten separate transfers from the party or parties of whom he
purchased.

The descriptions of English stock which are least generally understood
are scrip and omnium. Scrip means the receipt for any instalment or
instalments which may have been paid on any given amount which has been
purchased on any Government loan. This receipt, or scrip, is marketable,
the party purchasing it, either at a premium or discount, as the case
chances to be, becoming of course bound to pay up the remainder of the
instalments, on pain of forfeiting the money he has given for it. Omnium
means the various kinds of stock in which a loan is absorbed, or, to
make the thing still more intelligible, a person purchasing a certain
quantity of omnium, purchases given proportions of the various
descriptions of Government securities.

Bargains made one day are always checked the following day, by the
parties themselves or their clerks. This is done by calling over their
respective books one against another. In most transactions what is
called an option is given, by mutual consent, to each party. This is
often of great importance to the speculator. It is said that the
business at the Stock Exchange is illegal, since an unrepealed Act of
Parliament exists which directs all buying and selling of Bank
securities shall take place in the Rotunda of the Bank.

There are about 1,700 members of the Stock Exchange, who pay twelve
guineas a year each. The election of members is always by ballot, and
every applican