hich he pronounced A--main.
The buck jumped up half asleep and roared out, 'I'll bet the caster 20
guineas!' The congregation was thrown into a titter, and the buck ran
out, overwhelmed with shame. A similar anecdote is told of another
'dissipated buck' in a church. The grand masquerade given on the opening
of the Union Club House, in Pall Mall, was not entirely over till a late
hour on the following Sunday. A young man nearly intoxicated--certainly
not knowing what he was about--reeled into St. James's church, in
his masquerade dress, with his hat on. The late Rev. Thomas Bracken,
attracted by the noise of his entrance, looked directly at him as he
chanced to deliver the following words:--'Friend! how camest thou in
hither, not having on a wedding garment?' It seemed so to strike the
culprit that he instantly took off his hat and withdrew in confusion.

At play, a winner redoubles his caution and sang-froid just in
proportion as his adversary gets bewildered by his losses, becoming
desperate; he takes advantage of the weakness of the latter, giving
him the law, and striving for greater success. When the luck changes,
however, the case is reversed, and the former loser becomes, in his
turn, ten times more pitiless--like that Roman prefect, mentioned by
Tacitus, who was the more inexorable because he had been harshly treated
in his youth, co immmitior quia toleraverat. The joy at winning back
his money only makes a gamester the more covetous of winning that of
his adversary. A wealthy man once lost 100,000 crowns, and begged to be
allowed to go and sell his property, which was worth double the amount
he had lost. 'Why sell it?' said his adversary; 'let us play for the
remainder.' They played; luck changed; and the late LOSER ruined the
other.

Sometimes avidity makes terrible mistakes; many, in order to win more,
have lost their all to persons who had not a shilling to lose. During
the depth of a severe winter, a gamester beheld with terror the bottom
of his purse. Unable to resolve on quitting the gaming table--for
players in that condition are always the most stubborn--he shouted to
his valet--'Go and fetch my great sack.' These words, uttered without
design, stimulated the cupidity of those who no longer cared to play
with him, and now they were eager for it. His luck changed, and he won
thrice as much as he had lost. Then his 'great sack' was brought to him:
it was a BEAR-SKIN SACK he used as a cloak!

In the madn