s man could not excite any urgent
feeling of sympathy in his behalf, and our two friends took no further
notice of him.

~32~~ Their Intelligencer, who in the meanwhile had gone forth for
information, now advancing,--"I thought," said he, "that I had seen
elsewhere this Johnny Newcome; he is a sharper, another precious
addition to our respectable community."{1}

"Respectable, indeed," exclaimed Tallyho, as he detected an urchin thief
in the act of picking his pocket of his handkerchief. This hopeful imp,
though young in years, was experienced in iniquity, had served an active
apprenticeship to the art of picking pockets with impunity,

1 The Sharper, who has generally had a genteel education, is
a person of good address and conversation, has more the
power of delusion at will than the unlettered cheat, devoid
of address and other requisites to complete the pretended
gentleman, and therefore should be more carefully avoided.
These villains, having run through their fortunes at an
early period of life by associating with professed gamblers
and sharpers, (who having eased them of their money, in
return complete them for the profession by which they have
been ruined) set up for themselves, throw aside honour and
conscience, and quote the lex talionis for deceiving others,
as they themselves have been deceived. These gentry are to
be met with at horse-races, cock-fights, the billiard and
hazard tables, and at all public places of diversion. On
your entering the coffee-house, tavern, or gaming-house, the
Sharper views you with attention, and is not long before he
becomes acquainted and very intimate with you; if you agree
to his proposal to play, if he cannot beat you by fair, he
will by foul means. Rather than lose, he will elude your
attention, and raise your passion sufficiently to put you
off your guard, while he plays his underhand game, and
cheats you before your face; and though you are sensible of
being cheated, yet you shall not be able to discover by what
means it is effected. The various methods sharpers have to
cheat and deceive are so many and unaccountable, that it
would exceed the limits of our publication to detail even
the tenth-part of them; their study is to supply their
exigencies by means within their power, however wicked or
villanous. If you associate with