to this destructive vice, as they gradually proceed
through the various stages of its seductive influence. The young and
thoughtless are delighted with the fascination of the scene: to the more
profligate sensualist it affords an opportunity of enjoying the choicest
_liqueurs_, coffee, and wines, ~335~~free of expense; and, although he
may have no money to lose himself, he can do the house a _good turn_, by
introducing some _pigeon_ who has _just come out_; and he is therefore
always a welcome visitor. At Crockford's, all games where the aid of
mechanism would be necessary are cautiously avoided, not from any moral
dislike to _Rouge et Noir or Roulette_, but from the apprehension of an
occasional visit from the police, and the danger attending the discovery
of such apparatus, which, from its bulk, cannot easily be concealed. In
the space of an hour Echo had lost all the money he possessed, and had
given his I O U for a very considerable sum; although frequently urged
to desist by Transit, who, with all his love of life and frolic, is yet
a decided enemy to gaming. One excess generally leads to another. From
Tattersall's we had passed to Crockford's; and on quitting the latter it
was proposed we should visit Tom Belcher's, the Castle Tavern, Holborn,
particularly as on this night there was a weekly musical muster of the
_fancy_, yclept the _Daffy Club_; a scene rich in promise for the
pencil of our friend Bob, of sporting information to Echo, and full of
characteristic subject for the observation of the English Spy--of
that eccentric being, of whom, I hope, I may continue to sing '_esto
perpetua_!'

Life is, with him, a golden dream,
A milky way, where all's serene.
Wit's treasured stores his humour wait,--
His volume, man in every state,--
From grave to gay, from rich to poor,
From gilded dome to rustic door.
Through all degrees life's varied page,
He shows the manners of the age.

The Daffy Club presents to the eye of a calm observer a fund of
entertainment; to the merry mad-wag who is fond of _life_, blowing his
_steamer_, and drinking _blue ruin_, until all is blue before him, a
~336~~source of infinite amusement; the convivial finds his antidote
to the rubs and jeers of this world in a rum chaunt; while the out
and outer may here open his mag-azine of tooth-powder, cause a grand
explosion, and never fear to meet a broadside in return