The union Democrat., 1871-02-04


From Samuel Hazards work. entitled
Scuba with Pen aud Pencil. y we have the
following account of the HAVANA Lottery:
Lotteries may be said to be the curse of the
Cuhans; for every one, from the highest to
the lowest, from the small child hardly able
to walk who has its ticket purchased for IL
to the lettering old man or woman; the poor,
Ignorant. 6lthy negro, or the dainty, elegant
exquisite, the humble, handwriting washerwo-
man. and TIE elegant, incident. rich young
beanty-all, ali of them are equally interest
ed in the lottery, proportioned, not by the
price Of their tickets, hut by the extent Of
their hopes. according as they want the mon
ey to enable them to cease work, commit some
new piece of extravaganza, or dip into some
other excitment. 4it
There can be no doubt that the universal
indulgence in this practice has q fearful
amount TO do with the Indifference and indo-
lence of the people to any higher aisis than
just to live. The few dollars that are made
over and above the daily wants of the middle
and lower classes, ali 60 in this way, instead
OF being put away for some future need, or
some presentibcrease of industry. Thewhole
community is demoralized on this point, and
even strangers become infatuated with the
excitement on hearing that such person
drew prize, such new, large commercial
house got lift when they started of $4,000
or $780, 900 this is true) by a prize in the
lottery,
Here now, is Ramon" perhaps better
known than the Captain-General. a strange,
odd-looking dwarf, not much, if any. over
three feet high, broad shoulders. enough, and
head remarkably large; native, as he in
forms me, of Porto Rico, aged forty-five
who follows the vocation of lottery ticket ven
dor. His head is actually too large for his
body, and he is therefore compelled to sup
port the weight of it by carrying a stick up
over his shoulder. upon which to support this
vast weight of head if not brains, while his
thick, bushy beard gives him rather fierce
appearance. Take him altogether, he is quite
an object, aside from his being an illustra-
ton of the lottery ticket vendor.
But not only such persons as Ramon are
occupied in this business. Now and then, In
addition to plaintive women or loud-talking
men, you come across the "swell, who, in
elegant attire and courteous address, solicits
you to buy the ticket he offers you, politely
assuring you it is just the one to draw the
grand prize. Watch him now, as, being ask
ed for some impossible Number, he places his
eye-glass, anu begins to run over the mum.
bers he has, until suddenly it strikes him
that he has been 'ssold" himself, and turning
to you he calmly tells you that he hasn't that
number, and bows himself off to some more
speculative ''iot."
The lottery is Government institution,
and from it the excheqaer receives as much
as from any other source of rent, since it
takes one-fourth part of the sum put up as
capital. The treasury emits annually about
five hundred thousand tickets at seventeen
dollars per ticket, in nineteen series of tickets
each series of twenty-seven thousand tickets.
At each cf the drawings, which number about
twenty in year, three-fourths of proper
Tomato sum into which the capital is divided
and distributed among the players in abou:
the following proportion