Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-01-12
THE LOUISVILLE sWINDLE.

Encouraged by their successes in previous
years, the managers Of the Louisville Library
Lottery have now in hand bigger swindling
scheme than either of the former drawings'
which 80 scandalized decent citizens. The very
bigness Of the new enterprise, however, is likely
To be fatal to it and there is reason to hope that
his unmitigated fraud is now about to receive
its quietus. Twice has the drawing been post
poned, with strenuous promises however, that
at early specified date 1t would surely come
of now it seems every..way likely that the date
At present announced will come and go and the
managers give no further sign. The fools who
have taken a short cut to fortune have already
lost their money. Perhaps there have not been
many of them; Judging from the numerous
postponements, they cannot be 30 plenty as in
other years but few or many they have been
irretrievably taken in and all that can be done is
to dissuade others who may be thinking Of TAX
ing the same foolish step. We have fully DEM
onstrated the absurdity of this manner of
making money, but one more fact may be dwelt
on to show the character of the Louisville inan-
cers and philanthropsts. The managers state
In their flaming advertisements that large pro.
portion OF the tickets have already been sold and
the proceeds deposited in the Farmers Drovers
Bank Of Louisville, to remain untouched until
the payment of prizes. The ''scheme" compre
hends 100000 tickets at $50 each amounting to
s5,OO00 0OO half of which they promise to s'dis-
tribute" What ''large proportion" Of this
amount may be is matter Of opinion, but to call
it one-fourth of the sum total is certainly to al
low very fair margin. But it appears from the
last monthly statement of the Farmers Drovers
Bank that the entire assets of the concern in,
Guiding capital, circulation and deposits of eve
ry kind, is barely million and quarter Of del
lars. II the lottery men speak the truth, and
even allowing that 30 small a rate as one. fourth
s Large proportion" they must be the only
depositors of the bank in question and must own
all ts capital and circulation! This comes rather
closely home, but another fact is even
more direct. The amount Of untouched deposits
according to the last statement OF the Bank is
but s13S,OO0. Surprising therefore the Bank
has no other deposits of this character, no other
funds of any sort, submitted to it for safe
keeping the lottery managers have but a19s,-
900 topay the s2,5oO, 900 which they::engage to
make over to ticket holders. Does the bare
faced character of the swindle require any plain
er showing? 1t may be said that sales may have
Increased this amount, but on the other hand
let it be remembered that the figure named is
the sum of all untouched deposits half of it
may not belong to the Library Gamblers 1t is
entirely fair to take the Bank statement as
gauge of the resources of the lottery, because
the managers constantly announce that the
Bank is their only receptacle of the funds. The
case is clear one and the only wonder is that
the sharpers did not cover their tracks better.
1t is transparent fraud and any one throwing
his money away upon it deserves no sympathy.