Three high partitions divided the bar into four compartments; and, as is usual, there were separate doors to each, so that the crowds of customers could not see each other, though the noise of their converse and disputes produced a war of words, and rendered quiet conversation difficult. One would have thought that the private or "bottle department" would have been the easiest to visit, as its name seemed to invite the respectable order of drinkers. To some extent this was the case, but a jury of bar-men would certainly agree in the opinion that this sly part of the house, into which so many well-dressed persons slip for their drams, is the most lucrative and usually the most crowded. Only a few weeks before, the visitor was standing with a young man in a similar compartment, when seven women, wives of working men, entered, and called for a quart of gin with ale glasses. They were laughing heartily at what they considered a happy thought of one of their companions,--the clubbing together for the purpose of ordering so large a quantity of spirits: they were much disconcerted at the withering rebuke they met with. Upon the evening of our visit, eight or ten men and women were present. One of these, a respectable tradesman, rejected a tract with the remark, "I don't want your religious nonsense, as I do the thing that's right between man and man; and if I didn't I would not be interfered with by other people in religious matters, as I know what is right, and could do it." "The clock there is going wrong," replied the visitor, looking towards that very ornamental object, "and because it's out of repair, it does not answer the purpose for which it was made, as it is hours too slow. Now the landlord will not attempt to repair it himself, neither will he give it to a grocer or a bricklayer for that purpose: he will no doubt send it to the man who made it,--to a clockmaker who understands its mechanism; he will clean and repair it, and then the hands will go right. Well, it's just so with us men: when we do wrong it proves that we are unclean inside, and out of repair, and it is no good trying to set ourselves right, for we can't do it; or to get other people to tinker at us, as they are sure to make us worse. Our proper course of action is to approach our Almighty Maker, with the prayer, 'Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.' When this is done, we go right, and glorify God in our bodies and our spirits, which are His." After a few words about the Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, the speaker passed out, leaving the people with their eyes fixed upon the clock, and their thoughts upon the Saviour.