d on there by the _flat-catchers of the
money market_. In ordinary cases it would be a task of extreme peril for
a stranger to intrude into this _sanctum sanctorum_; but as our friend,
the broker, was highly respected, we were allowed to pass through
unmolested--a favour that will operate in suppressing our notice of
certain characters whom we recognized within. It will, however, hardly
be credited that in this place, where every man is by profession a
gambler, and sharping is the great qualification, so much of their time
is devoted to tricks and fancies that would disgrace a school-boy.
Among these the most prominent is hustling a stranger; an ungenerous and
unmanly practice, that is too often played off upon the unsuspecting,
who have been, perhaps, purposely invited into the den for the amusement
of the wolves. Another point of amusement is _flying a tile, or slating_
a man, as the phrases of the Stock Exchange describe it. An anecdote is
told of one of their own members which will best convey an idea of this
trick. One who was ever foremost in _slating_ his brothers, or kicking
about a new castor, had himself just sported a new hat, but, with
prudence which is proverbial among the craft, he would leave his new
_tile_ at the counting-house, ~136~~and proceed to the Stock Exchange
in an old one kept for the purpose: this becoming known to some of the
wags, members of the house, they despatched a note and obtained the new
hat, which no sooner made its appearance in the house than it was thrown
up for general sport; a joke in which none participated more freely than
the unsuspecting owner, whose chagrin may be very well conceived, when,
on his return to his counting-house from Capel-court, he discovered that
he had been assisting in kicking his own property to pieces. Another
trick of these wags is the screwing up a number of pieces of paper
longitudinally with a portion of black ink inside them, and lying on the
table before some person, whom they will endeavour to engage in serious
conversation upon the state of the market, when it is ten to one if he
does not roll some of these _twisters_ between his fingers, and from
agitation or deep thought on his approaching losses, or the risk of his
speculations, blacken his fingers and his face, to the horse-laughical
amusement of the by-standers. One of the best among the recent jokes
my friend Bob has depicted to the life. (See Plate.) The fame of Mr.
Wright's brown pony had