me wretched suicide. Daughters, delicately nurtured,
went out to seek their bread; sons were recalled from academies;
households were separated, homes were desecrated by the emissaries of
the law. There was a disruption of every social tie. The debtors'
jails were peopled with promoters; Whitecross Street was filled with
speculators; and the Queen's Bench was full to overflowing. Men, who
had lived comfortably and independently, found themselves suddenly
responsible for sums they had no means of paying. In some cases,
they yielded their all, and began the world anew; in others, they
left the country for the continent, laughed at their creditors, and
defied pursuit. One gentleman was served with four hundred writs; a
peer, when similarly pressed, when offered to be relieved from all
liabilities for 15,000 pounds, betook himself to his yacht, and
forgot, in the beauties of the Mediterranean, the difficulties which
had surrounded him. Another gentleman who, having nothing to lose,
surrendered himself to his creditors, was a director of more than
twenty lines. A third was Provisional Committeeman to fifteen. A
fourth, who commenced life as a printer, who became insolvent in 1832
and a bankrupt in 1837, who had negotiated partnerships, who had
arranged embarrassed affairs, who had collected debts, and turned his
attention to anything, did not disdain, also, to be a Railway
promoter, a Railway director, or to spell his name in a dozen
different ways."

The Sheriff's Officers had a busy time of it, and _Punch_, in "GOING OUT
ARRESTING," gives the following colloquy between two of the fraternity:

"'Vell, Aaron, my tear, have yer 'ad any sport?'

"'Pretty vell, I've bagged four Allottees, and two Provisionals!'"

[Picture: Picture of two men in carriages]

But a notice of the Railway Mania would be very incomplete without a
mention of George Hudson, the Railway King. He was born at Howsham, a
village near York, in March, 1800; was apprenticed to a draper in York;
and, subsequently, became principal in the business; thus, early in life,
becoming well off, besides having 30,000 pounds left him by a distant
relative. In 1837, he was Lord Mayor of York; and, the same year, was
made Chairman of the York and North Midland Railway, which was opened in
1839. In 1841, he was elected Chairman of the Great North o