is 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 extraordinary investigation 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