SKITTLE SHARPERS.
'I know a respectable tradesman,' says a writer in Cassell's
Magazine--'I know him now, for he lives in the house he occupied
at the time of my tale--who was sent for to see a French
gentleman at a tavern, on business connected with the removal of
this gentleman's property from one of the London docks. The
business, as explained by the messenger, promising to be
profitable, he of course promptly obeyed the summons, and during
his walk found that his conductor had once been in service in
France. This delighted Mr Chase--the name by which I signify the
tradesman--for he, too, had once so lived in France; and by the
time he reached the tavern he had talked himself into a very good
opinion of his new patron. The French gentleman was very urbane,
gave Mr Chase his instructions, let him understand expense was
not to be studied, and, as he was at lunch, would not be
satisfied unless the tradesman sat down with him. This was a
great honour for the latter, as he found his employer was a
baron. Well, the foreigner was disposed to praise everything
English; he was glad he had come to live in London--Paris was
nothing to it; they had nothing in France like the English beer,
with which, in the exuberance of his hospitality, he filled and
refilled Mr Chase's glass; but that which delighted him above all
that he had seen "vos de leetle game vid de ball--vot you call--
de--de--aha! de skittel.
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