The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-03-16
LOTTERIES.
HOW THESE INSTITUTION ONCE
PLoUEIsHED IN GREAT BRITAIN.
4 Gambling Mania.
Cincinnati FDauirorI

| legislative action looking to repeal Of our
| lottery law may be Intellectual, yet there Is
nothing to hinder the passage Of such q law
In the sister State Of Kentucky. If the requisite
| inducements are held out. Ever since 1853
| when movement was started in Pennsvl-
vania hostile to lottery institutions, the lepis-
latures Of the various States have regarded
with disfavor anything that could be con
| Strued into the chartering Of lottery schemes
or gift enterprises. The New York Legisla-
/ ture went SO far as to prohibit art enterprises
and passed rigid law which drove oil the
| enterprising gift agents and chrome art
sthttu6ts 0vtr tn tt the Jersey eaftis. Il Il II
| hard to understand the reason Of this hos
| tiity through the Pennsylvania Society, if
| so-called phianthropists were so successful
| that they succeeded in Incorporating into the
| constitutions Of twenty-sfx States clauses
! prohibiting the establishment of these once
| popular institutions.
IN EARLY COLONIAL DAYS
matters went differently. Virginia reaped
rich rewards from d lottery grant that King
| james granted to some euterprising English
| men, and the other colonies were not slow to
follow suit; and when the Puritan fathers,
Dutch settlers OF the Hudson, or Maryland
| descendants of the proud Calvert, wanted to
build bridge, lay out a road, start q library,
found hospital or pay a preacher, they were
not slow TO get up q lottery. Some Of the
truly good people of Boston, however, pro-
| tested. and in 1G99 after lotteries had been
fairly in vogue for nearly seventy-five years,
and the usiness began to be paying one,
then some Boston preachers discovered the
devil Id the stump, and denounced lotteries
IS cheats and lottery agents as "pillagers Of
the people"
ORIGIN OF LOTTERIES.
Queen Elizabeth-Good Queen Bess-the
virgin Queen, she of Spanish Armada fame.
whose brilliant court was graced by the bril-
liant Sir Philip Sidney, the gallant Sir Wal
ter Raleigh, the unfortunate Sir Thomas
More, may justly lay claim to being the
mother Of lotteries. In 1867 her Most
Gracious Majesty set forth in her order 80
very rich lottery general Of money, plate and
certain sorts Of merchandise" The highest
prize was SZ5,000 OF which $4,000 was to be
paid in cash, $500 in plate, and the rest in
good tapestry, meet for haugiDgs and other
coyertures, and certain sorts Of good linen
cloth" The prizes were exposed for inspec-
tion at the house of Mr.. Dericke, the Queens
goldsmith, III CheapsiGe. There were 400, 900
chances, and the tickets must have sold pref
ty slowly, for the drawing did not take place
for two years. The old Virgin Queer, as She
is styled, however, whipped the people into
buying the shares with as much spirit
and determination as q drafting agent
raises recruits. She fairly threatened
the people into taking shares in
the gambling scheme. 1t is a most wonder
full fact in the history of lotteries that people
had to be well-nigh forced to take shares in
the first lottery IN England. The Queen sent
forth q second proclamation, In which she set
forth at length ali the advantages OF the new
scheme, so that any "scruple, suspicion
doubt, fault or mislikng" t1at might occur
specially Of those Inclined to be suspicious"
should be removed, and all PERSONS have
their reasonable condemnation and 5atisfac-
ton" Still the people did not rush In and
buy, as IL evident from n Proclamation OF the
Lord Mayor OF London, In which he says
Though the wiser sort may find cause to
satisfy themselves therein, yet to the salts
faction Of tie Scrupler sort he deigu5 to eX-
plain the scheme more deliberately still the
shares were not taken with sufficient speed to
suit her Majesty3 whim, and she sends a
frebfu! message 70 the Justices Of Kent, Sus-
sex, Surry and Hampshire, because, contrary
to her MaJestys expectation, there were
many lots untaken, either Of their negligence
or by some Sinister diswasions of some not
weIl-disposed persons" John johnson was
appointed to look after her MaieSty's inter
est5, so that there shall not one parish eS-
cape but they shall bring In some money into
the lots Such was the first lottery in Eng
land, and such the labor to persuade people
to take stock in It.
CHARLES
wished to convey water TO London, so he
devised q lottery to defray the expenses.
This was in 1880; and In CrpmwelPS time one
was held in Groeer5' Hall for some lands in
Ireland. Lotteries, however, may be said not
TO have really flOuriShed until after the restO-
ration OF the Stuarts. Then they were Popu-
lar, as all the poor and impoverished adher-
ent5 Of the crown took this method Of raising
the wind, and all the truly loyal INDECENT
officers received substantial support bV their
aid. Reckless Prince Rupert had one gotten
up for his benefit; but the Prince was on his
last legs and death soon claimed hin, so a III
the benefit he derived from it was funds
enough for grand funeral In these days
lotteries were drawn in the theatres, and from
the vast profit they yielded the crown deemed
it best to farm them out as monopolies.
BOOKSELLERS AND AUTHORS
About this period projected many lotteries
The former got rid Of their surplus and refuse
stock at enormous prices and the latter fas~
tened ON an indulgent public their worthless
productions. In 1899 d lottery was proposed,
with capital prize Of 5000, which sum was
open to all purchasers Of tickets for the sum
u one penny, for that w8s the price Of each
share and only one share to win. The age Of
speculation that W0Tshippcd such men as
Geo. Law, and invested its hard earnings in
the South Sea bubble and Louisiana scheme
was a most favorable one for lotteries Of eyery
kind and description. Then there were great
goes" in whole tickets and little goes" in
their Subdivisions FortQne-telIers were con
suited as to lucky numbers, and class Of
men sprang up who insured bets or chances in
the tickets. They were called
MOROCCO MEN,
from the fact that they entered all their
transactions on red morocco covered books.
At one time in 1888 there were upward Of 1900
Of these characters in London alone They
held magnificent Offices and hired scores Of
clerks The rage for gambling Of all sorts
then ran rampant; in fact, it was the gam
bling age. Dukes, lords, pot stewers and
serving girls, all gambied. Three hundred
thousand dollars was waged on the sex Of
Chevaiier d Eon. Then Charles james Fox
Numbered III the British House of Commons
the greatest gambler Of the age, who made
nothing OF losing $4,000 at one sitting, and
then Went t. his rooms and read Greek. He
1t was who said: The greatest pleasure Of
10 IL ria - -. +zt .