Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-12-01
PHYSIOGNOMIES AT PARIS.
BY AN AMATEUR.


s;rynomies Like Van Scalpel, rioted In wit
Messing the cuttings-up perpctrated in those
dens Of moral slaughter. am not invocation
aly cruel by any means, but the swift mula-
tions of the table, and the consequent MUTATIONS
of the purse furnished me with " food Tor pow,
der by calling up continual myrlads OF meh'a,
shirts 6endish and foul, from the 'vasty deep
Of that Proteus abyss-the human heart. What
exquisite variations of passion were onered 10
nv IA yorite study at every turn oil tne caIu anu
throw of the diei What delightful cholce oi
aoonies had to Gull from, during the PROCESS
of nv truly phianrophlc pursuit IN olsseCuns
the miseries of the few for the advantage OF the
many!
g Ths s,mes,er, care sits on his haggard brow,
And horrid thought; methnks see him now.
snsnense and frenzy rolling in his eye,
with trembling hand he throws the varlent ole;
WIFI. child, fame fortune, hang upon the cast
He loses: keen repentance comes at last,
Too late; its rending pangs he cannot pear;
He dles!-a self destroyer in despair"
From the gaming house to the morgue IL is
but a single stop. Alas poor L-g-y! IN Inc
wear 1918 he slept out Of three pair-o'-stalrs
window; I saw him lying dead at the Morgue,
extended on the damp cold stone where many
A similar victim Of the dcmon-vice had oeeh eS-
bibited before him. In less than live wears ne
had lost a fortune of twenty thousand pounos,
crushed the heart Of his young and falr wiie,
and StOODSQ 10 DOTTOW VI Ills 'NS"'S3
for the sake of indulging his incurable propen-
sity for play When he first came 10 faris ne
nossessed one of the nobest physiognomles,
had ever analysed; but months before MS SUI,
eide il was impossible to look upon his altered
traits without disgust, shuddering and lear
What a host of victims passed before my pro,
fessional eyes during the period l walked
those hospitals, or rather those malisions OF
madmen. and ncurables! | only recoect a sim
ole instance among my countrymen, at least
of one who had resolution enough to withdraw
himself at the eleventh hour" with the re-
manning fourth Of his fortune IN MS pocKeE
and he was a gallant officer with a WOODEN
lso He had entered the notorious Golgotha,
a nlace of skulls, ycelpt Frascati, with iull ana
fell determination to recover all or lose all. Ills
whole pecuniary resources were desperately
staked on a single chance; IN turning the caros
the odds were a hundred to one ainst MINI
till, at length the very last card oil the opposite
column produced an equal number, by which he
neither lost or won To snatch up his money
from the fatal table-to rush out oil the ma
NOUS demand from thence TO the retirement
of his own room, was but the aHalr OF mo
ment He there took a solemn oath never again
to display his physognomy in a maison dc Jem;
he kept his word and money too. There is still
negotiating here the shadow OF an Englishman,
who once was the pride of the Rue de la Paix,
and is now confined in sort Of madhouse near
Paris from the effects of rouge ct noir; under
stand that his only amusement is still pricklng
on paper ideal martingaes. "Whos ere oeen
at Paris but must needs' have heard oil s..
Within the last eighteen years he has paid
booty 10 all the tables To the amount OF hve nun
bred thousand pound sterling, ethical reader
and though they have played booty with MN 10
such prodigious amount, his propensical phy,
siognomy is seldom absent from the inverted
Waterloo Of his wealth-frasauc, lnsauao,e
whirlpool still sucks in pretty considerable
portionn of his little annuity OF fifteen hundred
francs or tenpennies per annum. II is painful to
see that tall venerable form, courbed almost
double, lessb age than by the deteriorating re-
suits OF PLAY.
might prolong the first to painful extent.
ID Is, the son Of baronet, the gentleman par
excellence, an officer of the King of Engand's
palace, with a fortune of forty thousand pounds
sterling, became punter at rouge ct noir, TO
which destructive infatuation he first lost his
property then surreptitiously sold the entire pc
cuniary resources of his aged mother and his
sister; afterwards committed forgery on
London banker, and only escaped from prison
and an ignomnious death by successful ana
EXPENSIVE stratagem, to further which his in]ur-
ed relations. stripped themselves pare OF every
thing He is now common porter IN Ameri-
ca, Hahn, the once rich and prosperous print
er. of u, who, prescribed as an outlaw
bankrupt, fed to Paris, with his amabe wife
and interesting family. HIS father-in-law,
the celebrated engraver, H, allowed inc eX.
lies sufficient income to live respectfully, but
such was the frenzy Of Hahn for the gaming
table that he was miserable, when on fesuval
DAYS the houses were shut up of the hours OF
play contracted. After having abused the con-
fiuence of the venerable Madame la Baronne
de R, for good round sum, and raising the
wind from petty tradesmen, and all WITHIN grippe,
he took French leave. and is still living, or ra'
Their starving in America. The reverend au-
thor of Lacon's eccentric and gaming habits
,re xyell known. and though he was lucky in
regard to winning, yet his impure gains led TO
ruin and suicide. shall only refer to his CON-
pertinent in Paris. Cotton arrived in this coun-
try from the United States, whittier he had Sc
cretly fed to "hide his diminished head" from
the pursuits of his creditors. His habits were OF
the most eccentrically irregular order; now ne
practised as a householder, then figured as
wine merchant; then, again, as icture.dealer
in which last commerce, he shipwrecked nearly
all his boarded gains. Gifted with wonderful
memory-always ready with an apt and ample
store of anecdotes-full of classical and poeti-
cal talent, his supreme delight was to shine king
of low company; avaricious, and distrustful Of
every body, he was often the dupe Of his thirst
nv loana m needv poreons