The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-11-27
THE LOTT ERIES AND GAM
BLERs AND BRIGADIKRS.

The Phi!sdelphia T'imes says it Is
Dives who sells, aud Lsz.rus who
buys the lottery tickets. Dives we
imagine grows richer and Lszsrus
poor every daT, even ss the magnifi-
cent lottery dealers of New York who
speculate in the duration of hu-
man life, count their gains by millions,
and we our poverty by tens and hum
drds- We get crumbs from regal t4-
bles OF mighty corporations paying
salaries of $25, 900 each, while from
all this broad land sparkling streams
OF gold, from every village city and
hamlet, flow continuously into these
mighty Eastern receptacles OF popular
wealth. Anthony Comstock and Post
master General Key will be the greatest
OF public benefactors if they prevent the
robbery OF the poor by the rich, the lat
ter, sppealipg to the passion for gain,
stimulated often by exactions of harshess
poverty. Rich men sre not spt to stake
money on chances where all these are
against them. They prefer gambling
IN stocks or cotton or grain, where
there is an occasional probability, In
stead of the remotest possibility, of
winning, and only those made reckless
by misfortune and haggard want are
driven by sheer despair, and then by
habit and recklessness to speculate in
lottery tickets. A faro bauK Is now
and then ruined, aud the dealer ex-
changes places with the common
gambler. Life assurance corporations
when their managers begin to live most
cxtravagartly, are wrecked, as hap
pened with the lifeless institutions of
st. Louis and Memphis, but these lot
teries, employing countless sleek and
we'll fed agents and paying newspapers
countless thousands, never break. They
are always able to maintnin two or three
dozen brigadiers, and even major gen.
eralF. in regal splendor, and if fewer
tickets at any period, for any reason,
happen to be sold, the managers
only dole out smaller sums among mis-
cradle ticket buyers. The Times is
told by adopts il the lottery policy
business, that the chances are as fifty
three to one against the winning of
prize by any single ticket, and it fol-
lows that the purchaser of monthly
tickets must buy through fifty years
before the chance of winning is per-
feet, and thus, while the poor are con-
stantly plundered, the rich and gener-
GUS bankers owning the charter drink
delicious wines and air themselves In
splendid coaches, recking little of the
miseries of the poor begotten of their
fraudulent cupidlty. Postmaster Gen.
eral Key, in this instance, follows in the
footsteps of Andrew johnson, who first
recognized and asserted the worth and
ability Of this vigorous Cabinet fficer.
The war sgaipet the lottery companies
is surely the war of the poor against
the rich. Il is the cause which John
son expounded all his life, which the
pulpit has espoused for years past,
which the STATESMAN has dared to
adopt when it has advised the invest
ment of money in indestructible, in
alienable Texan Homestead, rather than
in 81. Louis "chips" bet upon the turn
man eh a iha AtfdY kHtt Tie qj qrek hA
of the newspapers the mighty iDflu-
ences of powerful corporations would
be disregarded and their depredations
upon the unthinkiug and unfortunate
and this transfer OF our wealth to dis
tant States and cities would be wholly
inh hibited.