Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/60

 *cumstance also occurred, the atrocity of which was somewhat tinged with the ludicrous. A clerk, named Chambers, losing his monthly pay, which was his all, at the gambling table, begged to borrow of the managers; but they knew his history too well to lend without security, and therefore demanded something in pawn;—"I have nothing to give," replied the youth, "but my ears,"—"Well," said one of the witty demons, "let us have them," the youth immediately took out of his pocket a knife, and actually cut off all the fleshy part of one of his ears, and threw it on the table, to the astonishment of the admiring gamesters; he received his two dollars, and gambled on. When this circumstance was reported to the senior officer, the hero was sent to Bitche. These were not the only instances of the pernicious effects of public gambling; some were led on from one vice to another, until totally ruined; while others, in despair, destroyed themselves by drinking, and other debaucheries. The town was not purified of its grand sources of