The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-01-26

that the chances are in favor of Mr.. A.
a. Lee, of Prarie Du Rocher, Randolph
county, Illinois. The committee ex-
amined the books, but declined to make
an official statement. The ticket was
sold in August last. Mr.. Lee is some
what well to do in the world, being
worth some two or three thousand dol
lars. He has been n miller, and more
recently retail merchant. He was
teleGraphed to last evening to inform
him of his good fortune, and requested
not to dispose of the ticket. - ...-...
Mr.. Crosby is reported to have drawn
the 'To Semitic Valley" Washington
Irving and his Friends," and seven
other paintings. Mr.. Kinsley drew
three prizes; he is believed to have
been large ticket holder, as he sold a
great many and took out all his COM
missions in tickets. Stephen II. Gale,
Esq, held two hundred tickets and
drew no prize. No. 150-"A Rocky
Coast"-was drawn by the Pork Pack
ers' Club-5OO members.
THE PROCESS. .-.-
A great many people expressed dis
satisfaction at the fact that the numbers
were not read off as they were put into
such thing would be simply impoS-
sible. After the first ten thousand, the
reading of the tickets could not be pro-
ceeded with faster than about twenty
per minute, or one in three seconds
each ticket having on it half a dozen
figures. This would require no less
than one hundred and seVenty-five
hours to go through the whole list, or
Seventeen and a half days at ten hours
per day. No one would wish to watch
that dreary process for three weeks,
and the public would have been unwill-
ing to wait that time before the draw
ing should begin
Fnna1ly tho In
mand that each wheel should contain
10000 tickets, the second having over
2O9,6OO blanks, and but three hundred
odd, prizes. Each of the tickets, with
its corresponding blank, would re-
quire, to draw and register, fully five
seconds each; with three or four secre-
taries, besides the drawers. Five times
100000 seconds would equal 292 hours,
or on the same terms ms before-thirty
working days, or five weeks. Suppos-
ing that the Opera House ticket were
among the last drawn, and that both
months would have elapsed ere the
public had been made aware of the
great fact, to ascertain which 81, ,O5O, 600
has been paid by the public.
The management very wisely decided
not to involve themselves in the dilem-
ma, incident to the carrying out ofthese
measures. Should it be thought neces-
sary, however, to verify the honesty of
the committee, committee might be
appointed with instructions to count
out and register the numbers of all the
tickets remaining in the big wheel after
the three hundred and two "lucISy"
ones have been selected. If they should
report ''all right,n the ticket-holders
would have right to be satisfied with
their engravings, and the knowledge of
the fact that they have stood "a fair
chance and helped to put the Opera
House and Mr.. Crosby on a sound
financial basis. We suggest, however,
that the investigation would be useless,
as no one has any doubt that the draw
ing was conducted fairly.
THE PLEASURES OF HOPE.
Whether from confidence in the
teachings ofa higher ~ power, or be-
lief in their own unfailing "luck," or
from any other cause, certain it is that
very many people had full faith that
they would draw the Opera House, and
nothing less. The number of persons
who had built elaborate air castles on
the eroof of that Opera House, towering
to the skies, cannot be told, nor the
number of those air castles which have
been toppled over so rudely by the un-
romantic fact of yesterdays drawing.
A good deal of gas has been expended,
many people talking about drawing the
Opera House certainly, for the sake OF
the fun; but the number was not small
of those who had thought on the sub
ject so much and so long that they had
succeeded in deluding themselves into
the pleasing but short-lived mono
mania. -