The Book of Snobs Etc Author:William Makepeace Thackeray General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1903 Original Publisher: Dent Subjects: Snobs and snobbishness Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-... more »Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER LI CLUB SNOBS VIII Why -- why did I and Wagley ever do so cruel an action as to introduce young Sackville Maine into that odious 'Sarcophagus' ? Let our imprudence and his example be a warning to other gents ; let his fate and that of his poor wife be remembered by every British female. The consequences of his entering the Club were as follows : -- One of the first vices the unhappy wretch acquired in this abode of frivolity was that of smoking. Some of the dandies of the Club, such as the Marquis of Macabaw, Lord Doodeen, and fellows of that high order, are in the habit of indulging in this propensity upstairs in the billiard-rooms of the ' Sarcophagus' -- and, partly to make their acquaintance, partly from a natural aptitude for crime, Sackville Maine followed them, and became an adept in the odious custom. Where it is introduced into a family, I need not say how sad the consequences are, both to the furniture and the morals. Sackville smoked in his dining-room at home, and caused an agony to his wife and mother-in-law which I do not venture to describe. He then became a professed billiard-player wasting hours upon hours at that amusement; betting freely, playing tolerably, losing awfully to Captain Spot and Colonel Cannon. He played matches of a hundred games with these gentlemen, and would not only continue until four or five o'clock in the morning at this work, but would be found at the Club of a forenoon, indulging himself to the detriment of his business, the ruin of his health, and the neglect of his wife. From billiards...« less