Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1879-11-28


agents divide among themselves from
S35 600 to $40, 0U0 a month. thus deriv.
ing an income of nearly 100000 wear
apiece. No wonder they can pay encr.
nous rents for desk room or a window
in Broadway stores, wear diamonds and
bestow diamonds on fast women, live at
fashionable hotels, drive the fastest
teams on the road and indulge in every
form of extravaganza that will CRAFTY
and stimulate luxurious tastes.
Money so easily made Is spent with
lavish hand and with no thought of the
source whence it IS derived. And what
is that source? VINO are the buyers of
lottery tickets? People who, unlike the
sellers. are honest and mean no harm.
They are poor people. As a rule men
who have capital at command have
too much hard sense, tempered by con.
tact with the world in the process of
money.making, to indulge in the vain
hope of increasing their fortune by in
vesting in soap bubbles. II such men
wish to gamble they play game in
which the chances are now and then in
favor of the man who occasionally risks
his money as against the professional
gambling. A faro bank is broken now
and then; but lottery company never,
unless the managers run away with the
money, without even going through the
form of paying out prizes. All gamb-
ling il wrong, but there is gambling and
gambling, and of all forms of gambling
buying lottery tickets is the most unre-
munerative TO the average player. 1t
is estimated that in the case of lottery
selling one hundred thousand tickets,
and distributing, or protesting to distrib-
nte eighteen hundred and fifty prizes,
the chances are fifty-three to one against
a given ticket drawing any pre- at all,
and as to the prizes over ten dollars in
amount, laying aside the probability of
fraud, the same authority estimates
that man might purchase ticket or
ten tickets at every monthly drawing
for fifty years in succession without
ever getting one. Into such bottom
less pit are thrown the earnings of the
small storekeepers, clerks, statesmen,
saleswomen, dc nestle servants, men
and women with and without trades,
making in all Z vast aggregate which is
diverted from the legitimate channels
Of trade and III most cases resulting III
hardship to, if not impoverishment of
individuals and those dependent upon
them. Meanwhile, as we have seen,
the lottery kings ride in their coaches,
reckless of the wretchedncss Of their
victims.
OF the principle involved in the ques.
ion we say nothing at present. These
remarks are addressed to the pocket,
which is, after all-poor humanity
more sensitive than the conscience.
The war against lottery companies is
the war Of tine honest poor against the
dishonest rich; it is the cause of the
poor which Anthony Comstock has
espoused, and which an honest press
and an honest pulpit have been fighting
for years. 1t is also the cause of hon
est labor everywhere, for so long as
men may grow rich by swindling, hon
est labor is at an immense disadvant-
age in the race for the prizes which, in
the order of Providence, are the re-
wards of patience, industry and fru-
gality. Mr.. Comstock's offensive war
fare is justified, because the growth of
the evil shows that the day for mere
preaching on this subject has passed.
II swindlers will continue to defy the
law, they must be taught that the law
is not dead letter. Il the swinded
persist i'll paying tribute to organized
robbery, the law must step in and save
them from the consequences OF their
folly, not ia the SAME way, but on the
same principles which govern the lrmi-
tation of q lunatic's capacity for mis-
chief. or prevent an infant from squan-
dering his patrimony.-Phan. Times.