The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1859-03-31
LOTTERY GAMBLING,

new Hampshire, and their ability to find
bail to the amount of $780, 900, have attract
ed considerable attention, because the facts
show how profitable the business of the
swindlcrs must be, even in New England,
where it has no longer legal countenance.
Most of us can recolect when lottery gam
bling was as lawful rs common in our sec
ton, and was followed 10y many respecta-
bic men, who made fortunes by it, while
thousands of persons lived from it. 1t was
a regular industrial tree, with numerous
branches. Clerks, paper-makers, printers,
and many other members Of the working
classes, were fed, clothed, warmed, e,luca-
ted and buried from the proceeds Of salaries
AID wages paid by managers Of lotteries
and dealers in lottery tickets. Lotteries
were granted in aid of benevolent objects
3cloois, in an especial manner, were aid
cd 10y them. The printing of lottery tick
its was q very lucrative department of the
Typographical art, and the printer who
could get such jobs was deemed especially
fortunate. The person who superintcndcd
the drawings were selected from among the
best citizens Everything was done on the
square, ard the columns Of the newspapers
were filled with advertisements setting forth
the cllances,' and naming the truly lucky
Offices at which the prizes were sold, and
which left nothing but the blanks to their
competitors. At one time, half the gro
cery stores Of any given town had lottery
tickets on sale. Tho business, in brief as
respectable as that Of seliug flour, or cloth.
or lumber. Some few persons, perhaps
would, every now and then, point out that
it was nothing more nor less than gambling,
but their moralizng was not needed, and
they had their labor for their pains, as is
often the case with gentlemen who got a
little ahead Of their times, Ivy making too
good time.
But change came over public opinion.
A very strong feeling was excited against
lotteries, and finally they were put down, so
far as open dealing in them was concern
ed. The reform, however, was rather su-
pcrficial than solid. 1t was All external re-
form. Skin deep it was, and nothing
more. All beneath the skin was pretty
much til same as it had been before the
nominal change had been effected. The
Tickets were sold, if not as numerously as
in earlier days, yet i'll great numbers. In
the principal cities and towns ticket dealers
were AS we'll known rs legI mate dealers in
any other merchandise. Occasionally one
Of them was arrested, and even severely
punished; but it was found nearly as hard
to stop the sales of tickets issued by South
ern lottery managers as it would be for
Massachusetts, to stop the circulation with
in her borders of Rhode Island or New
Hampshire bank-bills During the last
two or three years we have heard much Of
lotteries got up in New England, those en-
gagged i'll them having all succeeded, we be
lievc not only a getting money, but in be-
coming rich. They differ greatly from the
old fashioned lotteries, and The difference is
entirely for the worse. The Legitimate lot
terics, bad as they were, under the regula-
ton of law, and their managers were gov
erned by opinion. If men then rushed
into lottery gambling, they did so with cer-
tain safeguards. The evil that then pre-
vailed was this the law sanctioned a great
wrong, and i'll various ways encouraged it,
:hus degrading both itself and tens of
thousands Of individuals,-for the practice
of buying tickets was very common, and
must have been in order to make the " bust
ness" so profitable as it was. As things
now are, and with every thing done in Sc
cret, there is little but swindlng on The
side of the dealers, who are almost iuyaria
bly, sharpers that.never. to afford their
victims the ghost Of chance to get back
their money. The wonder is, that under
such a state of things, men should be
found willing, and even eager, to send
their money to persons engaged in unlaw-
ful calings, in the expectation of getting
more by it when they could not collect prize
should the-s be one, and should Il be really
drawn from the Wheel" as used to be the
saying. We must attribute their conduct
to that love Of gambling which is so COM
mon, and which sends rich men to the
Rouge-etNoir tables Of Europe, or to race
courses. The foolish fellows who send
their dollar or two to some sharper in New
Hampshire, or elsewhere, are actuated by
precisely the same feelings that send the
Russian noble to the gaming tables of Ba-
den. Excitement and hope Of gain are too
much for sense and morality and SO the
cunning few are enabled to pillage7 the
foolish many, and to growric atthei, EEK.
pense. when will it be otherwise - Oliue