The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1872-03-21
THE LOTTERY MANIA.
One Of the denominations OF Modern
society.

A new book has just been Issued call
ed "TheAbOmination OF Modern Soci-
ety." written by r. Dewitt Talmage.
In one Of his chapters-the one
devoted to gambllng-occurs the fol-
lowing striking passages In reference
to lotteries:
In modern days, In addition to the
other forms of gambling, have come
up thoroughly organized, and, In
some States, legalized, institutions OF
lotteries. There are hundreds of citi-
zens on the way to ruin through the
lottery system. Some Of the finest
establishments in town are, by this
process, being demolished, and the
whole land feels the exhaustion of
this accommodating evil. The wheel Of
fortune is the Juggernaut that Is
crushing out the life Of this nation.
The records Of the insOlvent court OF
one city show that, in five years, two
hundred thousand dollars were lostJby
dealing in lottery tickets. All the
officers Of the celebrated bank Of the
United States who failed were found
to have expended the money en-
bezzled for lottery tickets.
A man drew in a lottery $50, 600,
sold his ticket for $40, 900, and yet he
did not have enough to pay the charges
against him for lottery tickets. He
owed the brokers S45, 900.
An editor writes, "a man who, a
few years ago, was blessed with about
$40, 900 lottery money, yesterday ap-
piled to US for nine-pence to pay for a
nights lodging"
A highly respectable gentleman
drew $40, 600 in a lottery; bought more
tickets and drew again bought more
and drew more largely, then rushed
down heai-long till he was pronounced
by the selectmen OF the village 3
v%agabond, and his children were
picked up from the street half starved
and almost naked.
A Woodworking machinist draws a
thousand dollars thenceforth he il dis
gusted with work, opens a rum grocery,
il utterly debauched, andpeople 60 into
his store to find him dead close beside
his rum. cask.
1t would take a per plucked from
the wing of the destroying angel and
dipped in blood to describe this lot
terry business.
A man committed suicide in New
York and upon his person was found
a card Of address, giving a grOg.shop
as his clearinghouse, three blank
lottery tickets and q leaf from Seneca's
Morals, containing an apology for
self-murder.
One lottery in London was followed
by the suicide Of fifty persons, who
held unlucky numbers.
There are men now with lottery
ickets in their pockets which, il they
have not sense enough TO tear up or
throw into the fire, will be their ad.
mission ticket at the door of the
damned. AS the brazen gates swing
open they will show their tickets
and pass In and pass down. As the
wheel OF Fortune turns slowly around,
they will find that the doom of those
who have despised God and imperiled
their souls will be their awful prize.
God forbid that you, my reader,
should ever take to yourself the la
mentation of The Boston clerk, who in
eight months had embezzled $lS, 600
dollars from his employer, and ex-
pended 1t all in lottery tickets: 81
have for the last seven mohths gone
fast down the broad road. There was
a time, and that but a few months
since, when | was happy, because |
was free from debt and care. The
moment Of the first step in my down
fall was about the middle of last June,
when | took q share In q company
and bought lottery tickets, whereby
| was successful in obtaining a share OF
one half the capital prize, since which
time | haye gone from myself. / have
lived and dragged out a miserable ex-
istence for two or three months past.
Oh that the seven or eight months
past of my existence could be blOtted
out but | must go, and ere this paper
is read my spirit has gone to its maker,
to give an account OF my misdeeds
here, and to receive the eternal sen.
tence for self destruction and abused
confidence. Relatives and friends
I have, from whom l do not wish to
part under such circumstance; but
necessity cOmpels. Oh, wretch, lot
terry tickets have been thy ruin. But
| cannot add more"
There are multitudes of people who |
disapprOve of ordinary lotteries, yet
have been thoroughly deceived by in
under u more attractive nomen- |
clature. The lottery in which our
most highly respectable and Christian
invest some "art associa-
tom or some benevolent "gift en-
terprise," in which they fondly believe
there can he no harm in drawing
Bierstadt's Yosemite Valley or Crop
ser's American Autumn!
AT no time have lottery tickets been
sown so broadcast as to-day, notwith-
standing the law forbids the old style
A few years ago Our newspapers
famed with the advertisements Of the
Opera House scheme. A citi-
zen Of Chicago, finding on his hands
an Improbable building, calls upon
the whole country to help him out.
are opened In all great cities.
In rush, not the abandoned and the
reprobate, for they like the old styles
Of swindling better, but the educated
and the refined and polished,
until n host of people are in imminent
of having thrown upon their
hands a splendid opera house. Phila-
ielphia buys $4,000 worth of tickets.
The portenuOus day approaches.
The rail trains from many of the
prominent cities bring the dignifed
q committees" who come to see that
he great abOminatiOn Is conducted in
decent and christian manner. The
presses in. Hold fast your
tickets all you respectable New Workers,
'hiladelphians, and B~ostonians, for
he wheel begins to move. Hundreds
II thousands of people have made
narrow escape from being ruined by
udden affluence. Swift horses are
|ispatched that, fOam-lathered, dash up
o the house Of him who holds the sue. {
.uccessful ticket. The lightnings tell I
to the four winds Of heaven, and i
ur weekly pictOrials hasten forward i
he photographers to take . picture Of 8
no fo rnntIo man xph. 1,zA A. VI