Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-10-01

From The Columbian Magazine.
THE LOTTERY K
BY T. S.

trade was rather small, and who daily saw
excellent opportunities for making money
pass unimproved for want of the means to
embrace them, sat convefsing about their fu-
ture prospects. Their names were Felix
Granger and Ellis Day.
"lf | could only raise five or six thousand
dollars somewhere" remarked the former, al
could double it in two ye.rs."
$50 could |, easily" returned Day. "But
that amount Of money is not to be picked IN
readily. One thing, ! an making a good IL
wing and slowly Improving my condition, and
| suppose ! ought to be contented. In the
end if all goes on as it has begun, | shall ac-
cuinulale, | hope, enough 10 live upon"
ats too slow work for me. | feel like a
man trying to run with clogs upon his feet.
The fact Is, ! must have more capital from
somewhere. I'll tell you what I've more
than half made up my mind to DO"
WHAT"
"Buy a ticket in the lottery and try my
luck. Prizes are drawn every day and why
may not | meet with some good fortune 2"
Day shook his head.
What's your objection Z" asked Gran
81 don't believe any good ever came of
meddling with lotteries."0
"Why1"
''In the first place the chances are all
against draw ing a prize. Not more than one
in a hundred is successful, and yet the nine
ty-nine who draw blanks are Just as full Of
hope for the prize as he who draws it; and
are Just as much diverted from rirht business
thoughts during the time that ~elapses between
the purchase Of the ticket and the drawing of
the lottery. The loss of the drawer of the
blank is not alone the loss of his money!
He loses in his business, often seriously,
from the diversion of thought that must ac-
company the suspense he is doomed for a
time TO feel. Instead of applying himself
diligently to the doing of what his hands
find to do in his daily employments, he is
thinking about the use he will make of his
money if he should be so fortunate as to draw
a prize. And in the second place if he should
succeed in getting a lucky number, he will
be almost certain to lose all he has gained,
and more beside, in trying for another and a
higher prize"
Trust me for that" returned GRANGER
"Let me once get my fingers upon five, ten,
or twenty thousand dollars, and you won't
find me meddling with lottery tickets.'
81 wouldn't trust any man. said Day.
"Not even yourSelf!"
mo, not even myself"
'Wouldn't you buy a ticket if you knew
you would draw a prize -
"As that is supposing what cannot be, |
will answer neither in the affirmative nor
negative. But my W impression is, that
money obtained by means of lotteries never
does any good"
"Why not :"
"For this reason: Money is a standard of
value, and passes in society as a representa-
tive Of some kind of property which is a
thing in itself useful 20 mankind-as houses,
lands, produce, manufactures, etc. When
we receive money in business, it represents
"A benefit we have conferred upon another
But when money comes through a lottery, it
does not correspond to any benefit conferred,
hut is actually the correspondent of injury
done to others for hundreds have lost that
one might gain. If a man in business accu-
mulates ten thousand dollars, that sum has
been received from perhaps more than a thou
sand different sources in return for wants
supplied but, II a man draws ten thousand
dollars In a lottery, he has received from a
large number of persons their one, or two, or
ten dollars without making them any return.
Nothing has been produced no want sup.
piled. Society has been in no way benefit
ted, but actually injured. The whole procee-
ding, from beginning to end, has been disor-
Derby and detrimental. And | cannot but be-
lleve that the money so obtained will prove
more a curse to any one than a blessing, and
this because | hold that all evils in society
react with pain against those who practice
them"
'Give me ten thousand dollars and | will
run all such risks" said Granger. ''Some-
body will get the prize, and | might Just as
well have it as any one. Come! Join me
in a ticket. | have been looking over a first
rate scheme, which is to be drawn day after
Tomorrow"
But Day shook his head and said '.No,"
firmly.
"Well, if you won't, l will try my luck
alone. The tickets are only five dollars"
That day Granger bought a ticket. A do.
zen times before the drawing of the lottery
did he call in to see his friend Day, and as
often did he mention what was uppermost in
his mind-the prize he hoped to draw.
''If | get ten thousand j will lend you two
or three thousand TO give you a start" he
said on the day before the drawing was to
take place. This was spoken in apparent
jest, but he really felt in earnest.
Day could not help smiling.
"Iou may laugh" returned the other, shut
when you see me with ten or fifteen thousand
dollars in hand you will moi think me quite
The fool you now do"
'lf you should be so lucky, / prophecy
that your ten or twenty thousand dollars will
do you no good in the end. That in ten or
twenty years you will be no better, but worse
of in consequence of your prize"
"Ill risk it,"
.No doubt you are perfectly willing to do
SOL
"And so would you be-"
81 shall keep out of temptation at least by
not buying a ticket" replied Day. ''IfI
could get more capital in my business in a
perfectly Legitimate way, | should be glad to
do so, for then | could make larger and more
profitable operations. But as ! see no appro-
we'd mode of obtaining this capiiah | must be
content to plod on as ! am now going. 1t
viii all cone out rinht In ihn nn1 LnnL,