OF AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION, IN History, Science, Literature, the Fine Arts, &c. MYSTERIOUS ACCOUNT OF A DEATH WARNING GIVEN BY AN APPARITION! A very great friendship existed between Thomas Ostrahan and Robert Straker, two youths of Barbadoes, which was contracted at school in England, and continued after their arrival. Ostrahan died lately, Straker attended his funeral, and expressed lively marks of sorrow at the death of his friend. On his return at night to rest, in his chamber, he there ruminated on Ostrahan's death, and consoled himself for his loss, in a hope that his friend would enjoy a degree of happiness in the invisible world, that be could not have expected here. Whilst he was thus employed, he on a sudden saw a glimmering light at a distance from him, which seemed to approach near him, and directly there appeared to his sight a form No. 86-N. S. that made every nerve in him tremble with fear; and so wrought on him, that he sunk speechless in his bed. After some little time he recovered from his swoon, and saw the same form sitting in a chair by the side. of his bed; and, notwithstanding the terri fic appearance of it, he soon recognized the features of his late departed friend, Ostrahan, who thus saluted him. Do not be terrified, my dear friend, at my appearance; be of good courage; do not be surprised. At these words he recollected his faultering spirits, and offered to take him by the hand. 'No, my dear Bob,' says the spirit, I am not to be touched by mortal hands-I am yet ignorant where I am to go, but at present have received a command from the Almighty to warn you of 2 an impending danger that hangs over your brother's head, which he is yet ignorant of. Tell your father that two intimate friends and companions of your brother, will shortly seduce him to the most abandoned wickedness; and, that unless he uses some precaution to prevent-it, your brother will inevitably be lost. I know you love him, and would not willingly see him undone, therefore fail not to acquaint your fatheryou yourself will shortly die, at what hour I know not; and another of our friends will shortly follow. In order to convince you that I am commissioned from above, I will tell you some of your father's thoughts: he designed to have married you at the age of nineteen to Miss W-t; this thought and design he has never communicated to any person living. As a further proof, on Sunday night you will be drawn to church, by a cause you yet know not of, and you will there hear the parson S-e use these particular words, (repeating them, &c.) Fail not to inform your father of your brother's danger." At this he departed from his sight. Straker was greatly surprised at what was told him, but feared to communicate it to the family. The Sunday night following, he attended the funeral of a neighbour to church, and there heard the minister Se, repeat the very sentences in his sermon, which the spirit informed him would be said. This made a deep impression on him, and he returned home very melancholy, which his mother took notice of, and asked him the reason. He told her he should shortly die. She asked him how he came to have such a thought; and in answer to her question, he related to her the appearance of his friend Ostrahan to him, which she laughed at, and told him it was a dream. Madam,' says he, (a little angry at her un At night he retired to rest with his brother, as usual, but being kept awake some time by uneasy reflections on what the spirit had told him respecting his brother, he on a sudden saw a very bright light illuminating the whole chamber, which was so beautiful and striking, that it both pleased and terrified him.At the same instant he jumped out of bed, in order to alarm the family. but hearing a fluttering kind of noise, he looked towards the place, and saw his friend arrayed in celestial glory standing before him.Never did his eyes behold a form so beautiful; he was dressed in a long white robe, that carried with it an air of inexpressible grandeur; his cheeks appeared adorned with a rosy coloured hue, that surpassed the beauty of the blooming rose.A glorious illumination sparkled around him. Straker beheld the sight with the most rapturous extacy, while he stood some' minutes silent to indulge the admiration of his earthly friend. At length this celestial inhabitant broke silence, and said, My dear friend, once more I am come to visit you; I am in a place of happiness, and sent by the most High to repeat the former command respecting that youth who now lies sleeping in the bed: why did you delay communicating it to your father? Straker replied, 'I designed to acquaint my father of it, but my mother ridiculing it as a dream, prevented me. Will you permit me to awake my brother? your warning him of his danger will have stronger weight,'No, it is not permitted, repeated the spirit; should you awake him he might see me, because I am at present visible to human eyes; but it would also oblige me to depart instantly. You will yourself bid adieu to this world in a few days! be resigned, and expect the stroke." I am not afraid of death,' replied Straker; I think I am prepared to obey the summons of the most High.' • Three hours before your death,' says the spirit, 'I shall appear to you-be mindful of the injunction laid on you.' He then walked very leisurely towards the open. window; Straker had resolution enough to follow, and trod upon the skirt of the white robe, but it did not seem to feel like a common substance. At this the shining seraph turned round, and most benignly smiled upon him; and then appeared to soar up to the heavens. The morning after this being Monday, he told the particulars of this visitation to his father, who was very much alarmed at the reci tal, and felt all the agonies of a parent, at the afflicting thought of losing his beloved child. My dear son,' says he, I am convinced of the truth of what you have told me, from the circumstance of your mar riage. I designed to marry you at the age of nineteen years. I must be content to lose you, my dear Bob, since it is the will of the Almighty-I hope you have made good use of your late hours.' 'Yes, sir,' says the son, I have endear sir,' says the son, I have endear voured to prepare myself by prayer and meditation for the awful sum-, mons.' Straker, a few hours after, pen ned every particular of this visitation, and directed it in a letter to his father. He was soon after seized with a puking, which turned in a short time to its opposite disorder. After being seated in a chair, he presently raised his drooping head, and cried, I come, I come, my dear friend, I will soon follow.' His friends around him being surprised, asked him the reason of his exclamation. I have just seen,' says he, my dear friend, Thomas FROM LIFE IN THE WEST.' "If a man could but see the hor rid deformity of these 'hells,' and would hesitate before he set a foot most of their visiters, surely he into them. But being there, from before him, he, by degrees, unperthe instances of vice and folly ever ceived by himself, becomes an imi. tator of the most revolting language and the worst of principles. from the first. In spite of his own A mania seizes and clings to him around him, the objects of misery, constant losses, the losses of all around him, the objects of misery; in consequence of theirs, ever presenting themselves to his view, he pursues the same headlong course The springs of social life get dried with a fanaticism beyond all belief. up within him; he no longer is happy in the bosom of his family; of a friend or of a virtuous woman. he can no longer enjoy the society In fine, he is never content away from the houses, and when he is, from the houses, and when he is, never ceases talking about them. If he has a pursuit in life-a profession, a trade, or calling-he cannot longer follow it, his mind is unhinged, and he can pay no farther His whole soul is engrossed, enattention to his studies or his duties. chanted, by these most foul and diabolical establishments, that he is too blind to observe that they must sooner or later encompass his ruin, and that when he falls and fall he will, a gambler falls unpitied and unrelieved. It is a curious feature in the career of a gambler at these hells, that he gets reconciled, apparently to his degradation and downfall: though now and then a thought of happier days, and of what he might have been, flashes across his mind, and penetrates his heart with a desolate misery. If a man's income be no more than a hundred a-year, it would be much better to be content with that, away from them, than make it, were it possible, a thousand a-year by visiting them. A player's mind is always upon the rack-the torture-ever under the influence of tumultuous passions that destroy all repose. At one moment in an excess of joy at an instance of good fortune; and the next yielding to the bitterest despair for its indurability. The sudden transitions from grief to joy, and joy to grief, which are ever occurring, and are the more intense by the difficulties a person may be in at the time, and from their repetition, have a dreadful effect upon his mind, which receives, at every fresh occurrence, a deeper wound. Men have been, by these vicissitudes so inwardly convulsed, that their limbs have trembled, and large drops of perspiration have rolled from their brow. When players are quite cleaned out, the hellites wish to be freed from their visits; and when their impudence has not the effect of keeping a ruined man away, they turn him out without the smallest compunction. Besides, a new comer might take the alarm by the "The refreshments at the high hells are-tea; coffee, fruit, confectionary, wine, supper, &c. at the low hells, tea, biscuits, and liquors. The games are, French hazard, rouge et noir, roulette, un deux cinque, and English hazard. When the bankers think fit, two or three other games are occasionally introduced, a manoeuvre often resorted to, should the bank, by any rare accident, have a run against it. Some of the hells are constantly varying their games. The hells, generally, are fitted up in a very splendid style, and their expenses are very great. Those of Fishmongers' Hall are not less than one thousand pounds a week. The next in eminence, one hundred and fifty pounds a week; and the minor ones of all (with the exception of those where English hazard is generally played, the expenses of which are trifling), vary from forty to eighty pounds. The inspectors or overlookers, are paid from six to eight pounds a week each; the 'croupiers,' or dealers, three to six pounds; the waiters and porters, two pounds; a lookerout after the police officers, to give warning of their approach, also two pounds; what may be given to the watchmen upon the beat of the different houses, besides liquor, &c. is not known; but they receive, no doubt, according to the services they are called upon occasionally to render. Then comes rent and incidental expenses, such as wine, &c. There is another disbursement not easily ascertained, but it must be very large, viz. the money annually given, in a certain quarter, to obtain timely intelligence of any information laid against a hell, at a public office, to prevent a sudden |