manner, and wrapping his body in a worn-out greatcoat, quitted
the place with the full purpose of committing self-murder. He

did not direct his steps homeward, however, but resolved to
accomplish the horrid deed by suspending himself from a lamp-post

in a dark lane near the place. While making the necessary
preparations he was observed by a constable, who at once took him

into custody, and on the following morning he was carried before
the magistrate, where all the circumstances of the affair came

out.
SUICIDE AT VERDUN.

During the great French War, among other means resorted to in
order to ease the English prisoners at Verdun of their loose

cash, a gaming table was set up for their sole accommodation,
and, as usual, led to scenes of great depravity and horror. For

instance, a young man was enticed into this sink of iniquity,
when he was tempted to throw on the table a five-franc piece; he

won, and repeated the experiment several times successfully,
until luck turned against him, and he lost everything he had.

The manager immediately offered a rouleau of a thousand francs,
which, in the heat of play, he thoughtlessly accepted, and also

lost. He then drew a bill on his agent, which his captain (he
was an officer in the English army) endorsed. The proceeds of

this went the way of the rouleau. He drew two more bills, and
lost again. The next morning he was found dead in his bed, with

his limbs much distorted and his fingers dug into his sides. On
his table was found an empty laudanum bottle, and some scraps of

paper on which he had been practising the signature of Captain
B----. On inquiry it was found that he had forged that officer's

name to the two last bills.
'IN AT THE DEATH.'

In 1819 an inquest was held on the body of a gentleman found
hanging from one of the trees in St James's Park. The evidence

established the melancholy fact that the deceased was in the
habit of frequenting gambling houses, and had sunk into a state

of dejection on account of his losses; and it seemed probable
that it was immediately after his departure from one of these

receptacles of rogues and their dupes that he committed suicide.
The son of the gate-keeper at St James's saw several persons

round the body at four o'clock in the morning, one of whom, a
noted gambler, said: 'Look at his face; why, have you forgotten

last night? Don't you recollect him now?' They were, no doubt,
all gamblers--in at the death.'

The three following stories, if not of actualsuicide, relate
crimes which bear a close resemblance to self-murder.

A GAMBLER PAWNING HIS EARS.
A clerk named Chambers, losing his monthly pay, which was his

all, at a gaming table, begged to borrow of the manager's; but
they knew his history too well to lend without security, and

therefore demanded something in pawn. 'I have nothing to give
but my ears,' he replied. 'Well,' said one of the witty demons,

'let us have them.' The youth immediately took a knife out of
his pocket and actually cut off all the fleshy part of one of his

cars and threw it on the table, to the astonishment of the
admiring gamesters. He received his two dollars, and gambled on.

A GAMBLER SUBMITTING TO BE HANGED.
The following incident is said to have occurred in London:--Two

fellows were observed by a patrol sitting at a lamp-post in the
New Road; and, on closely watching them, the latter discovered

that one was tying up the other, who offered no resistance, by
the neck. The patrol interfered to prevent such a strange kind

of murder, and was assailed by both, and very considerably beaten
for his good offices; the watchmen, however, poured in, and the

parties were secured. On examination next morning, it appeared
that the men had been gambling; that one had lost all his money

to the other, and had at last proposed to stake his clothes. The
winner demurred--observing that he could not strip his adversary

naked in the event of his losing. 'Oh,' replied the other, 'do
not give yourself any uneasiness about that; if I lose I shall be

unable to live, and you shall hang me, and take my clothes after
I am dead, for I shall then, you know, have no occasion for

them.' The proposed arrangement was assented to; and the fellow
having lost, was quietly submitting to the terms of the treaty

when he was interrupted by the patrol, whose impertinent
interference he so angrily resented.

TWO GAMBLERS TOSSING WHO SHOULD HANG THE OTHER.
In the year 1812 an extraordinaryinvestigation took place at Bow

Street. Croker, the officer, was passing along Hampstead Road;
he observed at a short distance before him two men on a wall, and

directly after saw the tallest of them, a stout man, about six
feet high, hanging by his neck from a lamp-post attached to the

wall, being that instant tied up and turned off by the short man.
This unexpected and extraordinary sight astonished the officer;

he made up to the spot with all speed, and just after he arrived
there the tall man, who had been hanged, fell to the ground, the

handkerchief with which he had been suspended having given way.
Croker produced his staff, said he was an officer, and demanded

to know of the other man the cause of such conduct; in the mean
time the man who had been hanged recovered, got up, and on

Croker's interfering, gave him a violent blow on his nose, which
nearly knocked him backward. The short man was endeavouring to

make off; however, the officer procured assistance, and both were
brought to the office, where the account they gave was that they

worked on canals. They had been together on Wednesday afternoon,
tossed for money, and afterwards for their CLOTHES; the tall man

who was hanged won the other's jacket, trousers, and shoes; they
then tossed up which should HANG THE OTHER, and the short one won

the toss. They got upon the wall, the one to submit, and the
other to hang him on the lamp-iron. They both agreed in this

statement. The tall one, who had been hanged, said if he had won
the toss he would have hanged the other. He said he then felt

the effects upon his neck of his hanging, and his eyes were so
much swelled that he saw DOUBLE.

The magistrates, continues the report in the 'Annual Register,'
expressed their horror and disgust; and ordered the man who had

been hanged to find bail for the violent and unjustifiable
assault upon the officer; and the short one, for hanging the

other--a very odd decision in the latter case--since the act was
murder 'to all intents and purposes' designed and intended. The

report says, however, that, not having bail, they were committed
to Bridewell for trial.[20] The result I have not discovered.

[20] Annual Register, 1812, vol. liv.
Innumerable duels have resulted from quarrels over the gaming

table, although nothing could be more Draconic than the law
especially directed against such duels. By the Act of Queen Anne

against gaming, all persons sending a challenge on account of
gaming disputes were liable to forfeit all their goods and to be

committed to prison for two years. No case of the kind, however,
was ever prosecuted on that clause of the Act, which was, in

other respects, very nearly inoperative.
GAMBLING DUELS IN THE YEAR 1818.

It so happened that almost every month of the year 1818 was
'distinguished' by a duel or two, resulting from quarrels at

gambling or in gambling houses.
January. 'A meeting took place yesterday at an early hour,

between Captain B--r--y and Lieutenant T--n--n, in consequence of
a dispute at play. Wimbledon Common was the ground, and the

parties fired twice, when the lieutenant was slightly wounded in
the pistol hand, the ball grazing the right side; and here the

affair ended.'