ain. 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 actual suicide, 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 h