REVELATIONS OF A GAMBLER ON THE POINT OF COMMITTING SELF-MURDER.
The following is 'A full and particular account of a person who
threw himself into the Thames, from Blackfriars Bridge, on
Wednesday, July 10, 1782; with the melancholy paper he left
behind him, accounting to his wife and children for so rash an
action.' It is said that several thousands of the papers were
dispersed through London, and it is to be hoped that some of them
might produce that good effect which seems to have been so
anxiously desired by the person who wished them to be
distributed.
'Midnight, July 10, 1782.
'Whoever thou art that readest this paper, listen to the voice of
one from the DEAD. While thine eyes peruse the lines their
writer may be suffering the most horrid punishments which an
incensed Creator can inflict upon the greatest sinner.
'Reader, art thou of my own sex? Art thou a man? Oh, in
whatever rank of life, whether high or low,--beware of gambling!
Beware of so much as approaching an E O table! Had I ever met
with such a dreadful warning as I now offer thee, I might perhaps
have been saved from death--have been snatched from damnation.
Reader, art thou a woman? Oh, whether rich or poor, whether
wife, mother, sister, or daughter,--if thou suspect that the late
hours, the feverish body, the disturbed mind, the ruffled temper,
the sudden extravagance of him whom thou lovest, are caused by
frequenting the gaming table, oh, fail not to discover thy
suspicions--fail not to remonstrate! Had but my dear wife
remonstrated with me, when she saw me, in consequence of my
winnings, indulge in expense, which she must have known I could
not honestly afford, she would not now, within the next hour, be
deprived of her husband--of the only support of herself and her
three poor children in this world,--and deprived of him in a
manner which effectually cuts off all hopes of our ever meeting
in the happiness of another.
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