St. Swithin's Lane, City, presented a suggestive sight on Wednesday.
The day had been fixed for the allotment of shares in Mr. Streeter's Company which is to work the ruby- mines of Burmah, and the street was choked with applicants. So terrible was the pressure, that Lord Rothschild could only be admitted into his own offices through a first-floor window, and persons were forced through the plate-glass windows opposite, and severely injured. So high rose the mania, that 21 shares were sold before allotment at 25, and Founders' Shares, with 20s. paid, at 2300. The idea is that Streeter's " holds a monopoly of rubies ; that there will be a great demand for the stones at three times the price, carat for carat, of diamonds ; and that, consequently, the mine may return some fabulous per-centage. Is not all that just a little dreamy A man possessed of a monopoly of diamonds might do anything, but no other stone has ever had the same permanent attraction for mankind. Moreover, where is the proof of monopoly ? At that price earth will be ransacked for rubies, and we may find them yet in quantities in Ceylon—where, as Sir E. Tennant pointed out, the mines have never been scientifically worked— in the Ural, and in Brazil. The grand danger of the share- holders will, however, be a change of taste.
