14.  But there is still another case in which the body is more endangered than in the former.  All play-debts must be paid in specie, or by an equivalent.  The man that plays beyond his income pawns his estate; the woman must find out something else to mortgage when her pin-money is gone.  The husband has his lauds to dispose of, the wife her person.  Now when the female body is once dipped, if the creditor be very importunate, I leave my reader to consider the consequences.

15.  It is needless here to mention the ill consequences attending this passion among the men, who are often bubbled out of their money and estates by sharpers, and to make up their loss, have recourse to means productive of dire events, instances of which frequently occur; for strictly speaking, those who set their minds upon gaming, can hardly be honest; a man’s reflections, after losing, render him desperate, so as to commit violence either upon himself or some other person, and therefore gaming should be discouraged in all well regulated communities.

Whisperers.

SIR,

1.  As the ladies are naturally become the immediate objects of your care, will you permit a complaint to be inserted in your paper, which is founded upon matter of fact?  They will pardon me, if by laying before you a particular instance I was lately witness to of their improper behaviour, I endeavour to expose a reigning evil, which subjects them to many shameful imputations.

2.  I received last week a dinner card from a friend, with an intimation that I should meet some very agreeable ladies.  At my arrival, I found that the company consisted chiefly of females, who indeed did me the honour to rise, but quite disconcerted me in paying my respects, by their whispering each other, and appearing to stifle a laugh.  When I was seated, the ladies grouped themselves up in a corner, and entered into a private cabal, seemingly to discourse upon points of great secrecy and importance, but of equal merriment and diversion.

3.  The same conduct of keeping close to their ranks was observed at table, where the ladies seated themselves together.  Their conversation was here also confined wholly to themselves, and seemed like the mysteries of the Bonna Deo, in which men were forbidden to have any share.  It was a continued laugh and a whisper from the beginning to the end of dinner.  A whole sentence was scarce ever spoken aloud.

4.  Single words, indeed, now and then broke forth; such as odious, horrid, detestable, shocking, HUMBUG.  This last new-coined expression, which is only to be found in the nonsensical vocabulary, sounds absurd and disagreeable, whenever it is pronounced; but from the mouth of a lady it is, “shocking, detestable, horrible and odious.”

5.  My friend seemed to be in an uneasy situation at his own table; but I was far more miserable.  I was mute, and seldom dared to lift up my eyes from my plate, or turn my head to call for small beer, lest by some aukward posture I might draw upon me a whisper or a laugh. Sancho, when he was forbid to eat of a delicious banquet set before him, could scarce appear more melancholy.