The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-16 00:00:00

AN ARTFUL DODGE.

By this time they had reached the railway station, and
Denzil Raikes at once procured his ticket for his j urney,
and all three walked on to the platform to await the arrival
of the train that was to convey them.
"You haven't got your ticket yet, have you ?" said
Denzil Raikes to Mr. Sparke.
"Oh yes, I have. Ail right I" resp)nded Mr. Sparke.
"By-the-bye," he continued, " will you let me look at
yours ?"

" Certainly I'' said Denzil Raikes, producing the bit of
pasteboard refereed to.

Mr. Sparke took it, looked at it, and taking a pencil from
his pocket made a note of its number, He then tore off a
corner—juA a small corner—of the ticket, and handed it
back to Denzil Itaikes.

" What is all that about P" inquired Denzil itaikes.
When the train arrived at the station where the tickets
were collected, and before it had actually stopped, Mr.
Sparke opened the door of the carriage, and stepped out on
the platform, and commenced walking up and down whist-
ling a popular air as the ticket collectors collected the tickets
from the different carriages. The collection having been
completed, the bell rang for the starting of the train.
"Are you going on, sir ?" said the ticket collector to Mr.
Sparke, and holding the door of the carriage open.

"Oh, yes, of course," replied Mr. Sparke, advancing to
the carriage to enter.

"Your ticket, if you please, sir," raid the ticket col-

lector.
"My ticket I" exclaimed Mr. Sparke, " I gave it
you."
" I beg your pardon, sir, you have not given your ticket
to me," said the railway official, decisively.
" But I tell you I did," remorstrated Mr. Sparke.
"I can assure you, you did not," said the ticket collec-
tor. " I must have your ticket, sir."
" Dear me, what a fortunate thing," cried Mr.Sparke, as
though a sudden thought had struck him, "as I came along
in the train I happened to tear off one of the corners of my
ticket, and if you look amongst those that you have got in
your pocket you will find it," said Mr. Sparke, in a tone of
offended virtue.
The ticket collector at once looked at his tickets, and of
course found the ticket with the corner torn off.
"Really, sir," apologized the almost dumbfoundered
official, " I offer you a thousand pardons, sir; I never made
such a mistake before."
In reference to these very " knowing" individuals,
Mr. Collins justly reminds us that the very men
who time the most pains to appear " knowing"
generally " know" very little ! Equally sagacious
is the remark of Mdlle. D'Arlincourt on the subject
of ancestry--" Why, if there were anything in
ancestry," cried that lady, gaily, " what a degraded
couple Adam and Eve must have been !" Oar next
extract gives a tolerably accurate glimpse of

issue those figures which make their winnings or their lease
solid facts. How often in years gone by have we, with that
wonder which the mysterious and unknown must ever
create in the mind, read the attractive "heading" which
appears in the morning papers, and introduces the transac-
tions which "the Corner" of the night before has produced
The entrance to Tattersall's is anything but imposing or
attractive. It resembles more than anything else the en-
trance to the mews of some aristocratic square. There is a
gateway of considerable space, which any stranger would
declare led to some coach houses and stables. And so it
does, iu truth, but then it leads to something else besides.
About midway down this entrance passage, on the left
hand side of the way, is a low square brick building, which
in its outward appearance resembles a lock-up house. It is
built somewhat after the fashion of a classic temple, without
the ornaments. It might be termed a rude Doric in its
character, if it be built upon any style of architecture at all,
which we doubt. It would just do as well for an enormous
sarcophagus as a subscription-room, although it serves the
latter purpose, and without complaint. Over the entrance
is an announcement in gilt letters, that the building is the
subscription-room. This room is illuminated by two or
three windows, which, prison-like, are protected by strong
iron bars, from which a stranger might be led to the infer-
ence that the outsiders are of such an impetuous tempera •
ment, that without such safeguard, they would occasionally
make unceremonious incursions into the interior by means
of the so-protected windows.
The two great days upon which to see Tattersall's are the
Sunday before the Derby and the Monday after that great
race. The subscription-room is closed on the Sunday, but
in its place, and to supply the convenience for which it was
erected, the habitues, or rather the subscribers, assemble
upon a circular piece of ground to the left of the subscrip-
tion-room, and which is designated " the Lawn." It is
really a lawn, and is perhaps about half an acre in extent,
being bounded on one side by the backs of the houses of the
north-western corner of Belgrave•square, and on the other
side by the subscription• room and the passage-way leading
to Tattersall's.

It is not necessary, and it is not our intention, to canvass
or describe the general character of those who visit Tatter-
sall's on the day before the Monday that precedes the
Derby. Perhaps there is no general charac-er to describe,
for there is scarcely one amongst the crowd we see there on
that particular occasion, that is in appearance like his neigh-
bour. Members of the two houses of the Legislature are
in profusion there, for staid ALP 's leave the study of their
blue books to per,,onally ascertain what are the latest doings
on the " blue ribbon of the turf." There can be no doubt
that the interest in the great race is all but universal, and
that the Derby sweeps all classes into its vortex,

The passages we have here given will abundantly
serve to illustrate Mr. Collins's smart style and
spirited descriptions. His book will certainly
amuse his readers, although we cannot bestow any
very high commendations upon the construction of
his plot or upon the catastrophe of his denouement.

Elements of the Anatomy and Diseases of the Teeth.
By H. T. K. Kempton, F.L.S. One vol., pp. 173.
Hardwicke.
Although an elementary treatise admirably well
adapted for the instru3tion of junior students in
dentistry, Mr. Kempton's very readable volume is
calculated also to secure to itself the attention of no
inconsiderable portion of the reading public gene-
raliy. Tho author has had the unprofessional
reader, in fact, distinctly in his view while writing
these pages—the stye of the little work being, for
the most part, as entertaining as the information it
conveys is eminently useful. The utility of the
book for the chance reader of it, we should add, is
simply this—that it serves distinctly to hold out
a warning against ignorant neglect, otherwise calcu-
lated to be very injurious indeed in its conse-
quences. The volume is embellished with several
clever explanatory illustrations showing the struc-
ture of the teeth and gums, as well as the nervous
system in connection with those delicate and
complicated portions of our anatomy. One omis-
sion observable in the treatise, we cannot
but regard as a mistake—although the rea-
son given by the writer to account for this
omission is comprehensible, we might even say Com-
raendabie, enough in itself. What we are referring
to, is the intentional avoidance here of any account
whatever of the various mechanical arrangements
nowadays employed in the structure and adjust-
ment of artificial teeth—a matter surely of the ut-
most interest to those (and, happily for us, we
speak not feelingly) who have reason for re-
garding the arguments here put forward with some
small amount of curiosity. Supposing this par-
ticular theme to have bean treated upon, however,
Mr. Kempton acknowledges that he dreaded lest the
details must needs have proved little better then
simply unintelligible to the general reader—while,
from the necessary compression of the subject in a
popular form, it would virtually have been useless,
or at the very least have run the risk of proving
useless, to the junior student in dentistry. Notwith-
standing this twofold reason for the omission, we
cannot but think that the author would do well, in
any subsequent edition of his little work, to extend
its scope, so far as might enable him to touch upon
the subject here referred to, no matter how britfly,
in the form of en appendix or addendum.

Culture and Self-culture. By Samuel Neil. Bvo.,
Pp. 90. Houleton and Wright.

As a motto affixed to the very cover of this sen-
sible little Guide to the Improvement of the Mind
and Life, the writer (already favourably known as
the author of " Composition and Elocution') has
selected that epigrammatic utterance of Cardinal
Wiseman's, on tne sixteenth of last month, down
at Southampton—
" Self•culture is the essence of all Education."

An axiom that ought, certainly, to be taken to heart
by every student, no matter how, far or how slightly,
advanced in his studies. A generation or two since
the guide-book in this direction was one,
even now occasionally, to be procured for
a few pence upon the old book-stalls a
work but little read, though well deserving a
Pt-
mom' we mean Watts' almost obsolete pages
"On the Improvement of the Mind." Another
Samuel than Samuel Neil—to wit that healthy,
manly, heartening, writer, Samuel Smiles, has illus-
trated the old theme of late years in a very remark-
able way through the medium of his delightful
chapters entitled " Self Help." He has there en-
forced by example, in fact. what was theoretically
and most eloquently maintained as a thesis the other
day by his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman, in the
Institute at Southampton. As a shilling handbook
to some of the wisest yet simplest schemes of
self-culture, Mr. Neil's little treatise is worthy
of winning for itself a wide circulation. It
will induct its readers pleasantly enough into a
rational appreciation of the Elements of Self-
Culture, the Means of Self-Culture, and the
Method of Self-Culture. The three central chapters
of the five into which the treatise is subdivided,
will be found of especial interest, relating as they
do respectively to reading, to conversation, and to
thought and the culture of thoughtfulness,