waited on the railway officials and begged for
something to adorn his fabric withal : something
" European" the honest man wanted. They had
given him a few dollars, and a couple of those
enormous coloured lamps which at night are
fixed in front of locomotives. One of these, a
red one, another a green one, he had fixed on
either side of his altar ; and there they were
glaring out of the wigwam like two unearthly
eyes. Close to the church was a public gaming-
house, to justify Defoe's

Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there.

It was contemptuously tolerated by the French,
on condition that no soldier of their nation
should be suffered to play in it, and that if
any knives were used on the disputed question
of a turn-up card, the proprietor should
be liable to be hanged. But the Mexicans
are admirable gamesters, and very rarely stab
over their play. They prefer lying in wait for
you in the dark, and admonishing you, by
a puncture under the fifth rib, or a ball in the
occiput, that you had best not be so lucky
at cards next time. The gambling-house
had nothing of the conventional Frascati or
German Kursaal aspect about it. It was just a
long wigwam, open in front, and with some
rough planks on tressels running along its whole
length. It reminded me of a hastily improvised
refreshment booth at a cricket match. There
was no "Tapis vert," unless the sward on
which the tressels rested could pass muster as a
"green carpet." There were no pure Indians
present. Gambling, cheating and robbing are
the business of the Spanish half-castes. These
exemplary gentry lined the long table, erect,
statuesque in their striped blankets and great
coach-wheel hats, motionless, save when they
extended their their long skinny hands to plant,
their stakes, or to grasp their winnings. With
the exception of an occasional hoarse cry of
"Tecoloti" — referring to a chance in the game—
"Gaño todo," " I win all," or " Pierde el Soto,"
"the knave loses," there was silence. The game
was Monté, of which it is sufficient to say that
it bears a vague affinity to lansquenet and to
blind hookey, and is about one hundred times
more speculatively ruinous than vingt-un or
unlimited loo. At La Soledad the stakes were
dollars, halves, and quarters, and even copper
coins. I saw one man win about five pounds
on a turn-up. He lost all and more within
the next five minutes, and stalked away
apparently unconcerned: whether to bed, or to hang
himself, or to wait for a friend and murder
him, I had no means of ascertaining. Not
many days afterwards I had the honour of
being present at several entertainments, of
which Monté was the object, in the City of
Mexico. There we were quite conventional. We
gathered in full evening dress. We had wax
lights, powdered footmen, and cool beverages
handed round on silver salvers. In lieu of
the poor little silver and copper stakes of La
Soledad, the piles of gold ounces and half
doubloons rose to a monumental height; but
there was no difference in the good breeding
of the players. The blanketed rapscallions of
La Soledad were just as phlegmatic over their
Monté as the wealthiest dons in Mexico.

We watched this small inferno for some time;
and I was much amused to observe that one of the
most sedulous of the punters was a gaunt half-
caste boy who, in a ragged shirt and raggeder
drawers, had waited on us at dinner. The
young reprobate must have risked a year's
wages on every turn-up; but his employers
did not seem to think that there was anything
objectionable in his having adjourned from the
dining-room to the gambling-table.

About ten o'clock the establishment was
closed in a very summary manner by a French
patrol, who marched along the length of
the booth, sweeping out the noble sportsmen
before them as though with a broom that had
a bayonet in it. And life at La Soledad
being terminated, we went to bed. For my
part I sincerely wish I had walked about all
night, or had lain down in front of the great
fire by the French guard-house. I must needs
sleep in a wooden hut with a palm thatch,
and I was very nearly bitten to death. There
were mosquitoes; there were fleas; there were
cockroaches — unless they were scorpions—and,
finally, oh, unutterable horror! there were
black ants. I sometimes fancy that a few of
those abominable little insects are burrowing
beneath my skin, to this day.

FAREWELL SERIES OF READINGS.
BY
MR. CHARLES DICKENS.

MESSRS. CHAPPELL AND Co. beg to announce
that, knowing it to be the determination of MR.
DICKENS finally to retire from Public Reading soon
after his return from America, they (as having been
honoured with his confidence on previous occasions)
made proposals to him while he was still in the
United States achieving his recent brilliant successes
there, for a final FAREWELL SERIES OF READINGS in
this country. Their proposals were at once accepted by
MR. DICKENS, in a manner highly gratifying to them.

The Series will commence in the ensuing autumn,
and will comprehend, besides London, some of the
chief towns in England, Ireland, and Scotland.
It is scarcely necessary for MESSRS. CHAPPELL AND
Co. to add that any announcement made in connexion
with these FAREWELL READINGS will be strictly
adhered to, and considered final; and that on no
consideration whatever will MR. DICKENS be induced to
appoint an extra night in any place in which he shall
have been once announced to read for the last time.

All communications to be addressed to MESSRS.
CHAPPELL AND Co., 50, New Bond-street, London, W.

Just published, bound in cloth, price 5s. 6d.,
THE NINETEENTH YOLUME.