CHAPTER VI.

CRACKPURSE-HOUSE.

-" Vos exemplaria Græca

Nocturnâ versate manu, versate diurnâ."

HORAT.

THERE are two ways of gaining knowledge, by precept or experience: there are also two motives for acquiring this knowledge; namely, either to imitate or reject, to accept or to avoid. If a man passed by Lord Allvainly, or the ex-king of the dandies, he would like to know the name of his tailor, because each is a well-dressed man; but if he sat next to a man in the pit of the Opera-house, or fol

lowed him down St. James's-street, with wrinkles all over the back of his tunic, and the cuffs so ill-cut as to display his wrists, he would like also to know the name of the awkward performer, in order to avoid him. Thus it is with greeks and greeking, gamesters and gaming-houses: they ought to be known, for the purpose of flying from their dangerous temptations; and as precept never does as much for us as practice or experience, it is not so unprofitable as may be imagined, to be an eyewitness to the ruin of the gaming-table, provided that the scholar does not pay too dear for the lesson! We are now at Crackpurse's -the period of this visit was previous to the coming down of the mansion, when the exterior was not remarkable for its style or elegance the new structure of this Greek temple will, doubtless, be very magnificent, as there is no lack of gold to finish it off in the first form. We are told that Mr. Crack purse, who is a step higher than vulgar, i. e. wulgar,

was much puzzled as to the order of his architecture. At first he was for the I. O. Nian-on account of the number of the I. O. U's which had gone towards its fabrication; but his dealer informed him that this would savour too much of the shop. The Doric was next suggested, and Mr. Crackpurse agreed to this, but merely for the pillars of the door, from which he supposed this order took its name; but Cerberus the porter, and Ambidexter the groom-porter, each put in a word, and overruled the proposal, when Crackpurse told them to put what posteses they liked, except the Gothic, that being too like himself. The Composite was at last agreed upon, and the order is very appropriate; the materials, or rather materiel, which compose it, are of divers substances, and from a variety of pockets: the gold of prodigality and folly; the soft paper of softer possessors; the bonds which have broken all the more binding ties and duties of humanity; together with the promissory notes

of some of the most promising youths of the country, now blighted in the hour of prosperity, and cut off from realising their brightest prospects!-there may be some stray-pieces wrung from speculative avarice, and others fallen from brutal intoxication: be that as it may, the amalgame will make a rare edifice, which will outstand the storming of those who have to raise the wind for the purpose of shaking its foundation. When the late Cooke, the able actor, left Liverpool, where he had been hissed for appearing in liquor on the stage, he put his head out of his post-chaise, and thus made his adieu: "Liverpool! I leave

you; and you,

* Whilst on the subject of intoxication, we cannot help remembering a scene in a minor hell, a few years ago. One of the punters was so drunk that he was troublesome to every body present. An Irish waiter reported this, and asked if the gentleman should not be turned out. "Faith, I do not know," said the hell-keeper: 66 his money is as good as any one's else; but, perhaps, you had better take the sense of the meeting!" "Troth," said Pat, "I should have very little to take that way; I think I had better take the man out myself."

ye pampered purse-proud traders, I leave ye too! there you are in your splendid mansions : and there is not a brick in your houses that has not been cemented by the blood of the blacks!" In like manner, perhaps, it may be said, that there is not a pillar or pediment, an architrave, or cornice, which has not been cemented by tears of regret, and by those who, giving credit to the gambler and dupe, have indirectly contributed to the pile now in its progress of erection. Having said thus for the temple or theatre of Chance, a few words on its dramatis personæ.

"Who is that original, sitting on the righthand of the dealer ?" inquired Herbert Greenlaw of one of his brother-officers, who was an habitué of the house.

"That is Lord Glenmuck, the son of a redheaded bog-trotter, who had the luck to step into a title and a fortune, which came to him from a sixteenth cousin, a Catholic, and a cidevant officer in the French army. The old