The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-08-25
PLAYING g POLICY. :"
A DREADFUL PASSION.
How 'sPOlscy' Destroys BsaiEy Ets Long
Lime of misunderstanding from
dsse VVbg KHfaa Suffered

| addressed to the New I Ork tribune. which,
after investigation, finds that it is ''trne in
every essential particular, and the horrible
| experience described is that OF thousands in
this city alone:" ..
! The policy offices are, most of them, open
as early as 6 O.. M, and close about 80 D. III.
| The books which contain the plays for the
| morning lotteries close about II Is, and those
| for the evening lotteries close about 515 p.
IN. The unsold combination tickets leave the
| vendors offices about II 80 q. III. and 30 y.
M, so as to be in the hands Of the managers
| before the drawing Is announced Should any
| OF the vendors be delayed five or ten minutes
| beyond the specified time. their books and
| tickets will not be received by the managers,
but they will have to run the risks them
evening lotteries reach the vendors offices
| abOnt 0 p. m, and p. m, respectively.
| All the books from the downtown offices
| are delivered to q Mr.. Gallery in Benjamin
Nhthan's Office, on Broadway, at the time
specified The books from the uptown offices
are delivered to Joseph Burr, at the Gotham.
and TO Mr.. Shipsey, both in the Bowery. be-
| fore p. III. You will see that the managers
have fully two hours In which to look over
the tickets, and about an hour TO look over
the books before they send out the numbers
or drawings. You may be sure that they do
not waste this time but uss it for their own
special benefit You will also see that every
arrangement as to the time Is made to entice
ii
day for O. living, and who has to be at his
workshop at a. M, to spend his few hard
earned cents.
! This nefarious traffic is carried on IN broad
| daylight and not secretly. II anybody will
take the trouble, by keeping watch for q
| single day, upon any one office, he can see
almost a constant stream of deluded men,
and even women, pass i'll and out, until the
office is closed, Each OF them leaves from
one cent to hundreds Of dollars. | have seen
! men spend over $500 drawing, for weeks in
| succession This game has been the ruin Of
hundreds, yes. OF thousands of young men,
and just about as many old ones. And it will
still be the ruin of many unless it is COM
pletely broken up.
When you begin to play policy, no matter
how smart you may be, it will take you at
| least three months to understand it thor
oughly. After having played q year, or even
something wrong, as you always put down
more money than you take UP, notWithstand-
ing prizes paid for "hits." You begin to COM
pute and see the overwhelming chances that
you have been complete dupe and fool, and
probably conclude not to play any more, and
consider the money you have thus far lost as
about equal to the amount of experience you
have gained. You may, stick to your resou-
tion for about three or four months, until you
have probably forgotten all about policy, or
until you have been missed by the vendor,
who will then be on the lookout for you. Be
| fore long he will espy you. and Immediately
accost you and ask kindly after your welfare.
| You tell him you have concluded not to play
any more. He then offers you cigar or asks
you to have drink, and you, too polite to re-
fuse, GO with him. He now tells you all about
a dream he had last night and which he, by
mean such and such numbers. He asks you
to take o. "piece" of them; that Is, to buy
them for a little something, and before you
know It he. has talked you into buying q
Il. 4
lars. but plus all excited imagination.
Of course you visit his office to see the
drawings, but you look in vain for your "sure
thing" In the Office you meet half a dozen
or more players, each of whom tells you about
his 'sure thing" and how he came by it. One
tells you how he saw row OF cars blockaded
on his way down, from which he got his num-
bers., Another saY pilot boat, while cross
spread out sail; another got his numbers
from coal cart OF charcoal wagon; another
relates a dream, the Interpretation of which
means such and such numbers. Thus you
get SO many sure things that, you do not
know what to play, and probably have not
money enough to play all Of them, so to facili-
tate your ideas you seize the vendors ruffiing
bottle or box, which contains seventy Eight
numbers, from which you draw as many
numbers as you wish to play, possibly you
toned by some OF the other players and then
you think you have q dead certainty, which
you immediately play, And thus again you
are led to, play regularly, until you have
once more become infatuated. You keep on
playing and playing, although you know that
all the chances are in favor of the managers,
always with the hope that some day you may
get a big chit" and thus retrieve all your
losses at once.
You have spent all the money which you
hadin the bank, upon which you used to pride
yourself, anti which father and
mother first started; you begin to get reck-
| less; you pawn your jeWelry, watch, rings,
etc. and the money that you get for these
you eSpend upon number or q combination
which you have been playing twice O day for
the past eight or ten months, and which you
think must surely come out soon. When this
money Is gone you begin to pilfer from your
employer and after this is once begun you
become thoroughly reckless and appropriate
everything Tor your own use which comes in
your way and spend it upon policy You do
not carry this on long, however, before your
employer finds you out and you are dis
charged. The first place you visit is a
policy office where you seek consolation in
buying your favorite ticket. When you have
spent all your ready money, you pawn or sell
say that / know players who have, on the
coldest days in winter, pawned their over
coats SO as to be able to get money to play a
number which they did not like to drop, be-
cause, just as surely as they do, it will come
five months on a stretch, and being unable to
play it at one drawing, it would Immediately
come out; this found to be another evidence
of the fraudulent way IN which the game is
carried on, for only the uns0id Numbers are
ever named except to entice players. -,
When this money is used up, you look
around at home for all the odds and ends,
such as old gold, silver, brass newspapers,
or, in fact, anything on which you are likel y
| to get few cents at the junk shop, all of
which goes for policy. You now find your
self at your wits ends to raise money, and it
occurs to you that you have not yet bor
| roWed from your friends. That which you would
not have thought of doing before, no matter
how great your needs, now that you have a
favorite gig to buy, you do not hesitate to
do. You begin to borrow Of everybody whom
you can possibly think of, even the poor ap-
ple-yendor from whom you used to purchase
when you were more prosperous, and all Of
this money goes with the rest. Though broke
nevertheeless you walk every day, rain or
shine. five or six miles to your favOrite
nOlipv offinp ipach MIA aJ7o,, has hic fa