The Columbus journal., 1883-05-30
Chinese Lottery.

CnanCe. NO SET values are gwen 70 the
drawings, for each prize depends
upon certain mathematical calcula-
tions, in some cases occupying nearly
an hour in computation. The player
seats himself at q table on which are
finely pointed bamboo brushes called
pens. dishes of black and red Chi.
nese ink and piles of square paper.
stamped in Chinese characters. The
lottery ticket is a piece of brown paper,
six inches square. The paper is divided
through the centre. by lateral line.
On the upper half of the paper are foul
lateral rows of characters, of ten each.
or forty in all, and the lowest half haa
. like number and arrangement, max
ing eighty characters in all. These
characters are hieroglyphics, represent
ing names of eighty Chinese ladies OF
historical renown-the Elizabeths, Cath
arines and Joan 6'Arcs of Chinese his
tory. These slips of paper are sant out
to the lottery agencies. The game con-
sists in hitting upon q certain combina-
ton or number, as the csse may be, o(
these numbers. The player il permit
ted. in consideration of $1.25 paid, to
purchase and mark a ticket. The
marking consists in spotting out with
the black ink ten of the characters in
whatever place or position the player
may choose, either on one line. in .
cluster, or scatteringly. Then tho
agent, with owl-like gravity, spots out
a duplicate ticket, marks your name
and the price you pay upon the side OF
the ticket in Chinese characters, and
invites the player to call around next
day and see what fortune may have ia
vored him with. Drawings take place
at midnight. In New York there arc
two grca. companies, each with .
capital of about $5O,OOO. They aro
called the Wing Hi and Hong Sing Com
panies. Wing Hi has the most patrons,
although many players play both
Wing Hi almost exclusively.
The midnight hour having arrived,
the agents congregate at the company's
Office with books containing fac-similes
of the days drawings. The bookseller
settles with the agents, paying them
their commissions. Then . gong rings,
and the agents, together with the presi-
dent and officers Of the company, repair
70 the place set apart for the drawing.
No one save the officers and agents ere
ever permitted to view the drawings.
The writer never met a white man, even
among the detectives in San
Francisco. who claimed to have
witnessed one of these drawings.
The process of drawing is prefaced with
mysterious religious exercises to propi-
tate the presiding gods. Then tho
President, blindfolded, inserts his hand
to the elbow in a large jar and draws
forth little stick, upon which is painted
one of the characters found upon the
tickets. The name is called out, and all
the agents write the characters upon
slips. There are eighty of these "Som
Toy" sticks, corresponding to the num-
ber and names of the characters upon
the tickets. Twenty in all are drawn
out by the President and recorded.
Then the sticks are thrown back
and shaken up for the next nights
drawings. The names drawn are then
spotted out in red ink upon tickets by
:he agents. The lottery officers eagerly
scan the tickets sod to ascertain If they
have met with heavy losses. If an unu-
sually heavy series of losses is discov-
cred, the company at once discards its
untrustworthy patron deity, and selects
another. If the losses are light or nomi-
nal, the President sets out baked meats
and comfits for the patrons edifica.ion,
and hangs up congratulstory prayers.
In the morning the players compare
their tickets. If they have caught five
out of the twenty spots they receive two
dollars; if six spots, they are paid
twenty dollars: if seven, $40. Eight
spots, which are very rarely caught,
reap a golden harvest for the lucky
gambler, for he collects 5000, and nine
and ten spots, which have on rare Occa-
sions been drawn, but never in New
York, pay 2,400 and $4,000. These
are what are called "white men S" tick
cts, because white men play them ex-
clusively. Players may buy half, quar-
ter and even One-tenth tickets. For the
latter fifteen cents is charged, and but
one-thirteenth part of the prize is paid
In this city hundreds of white men play
at Chinese faro. For the most part they
are the poor Italians who live in the
vicinity, but many men, and even wo-
men, who employ Chinese laundrymen,
deal in lottery; the Chinaman purchas-
ing the tickets and collecting the prizes.
In fact, many of the wash houses are
branch agencies.
The mania for playing at Chinese lot
tery is spreading, and there is no reason
why it should not get as firm a hold up
on white people here as in San Francis.
co. There thousands play at the game.
Three hundred lottery agencies are scat
tered over the town. They usually make
q show of selling cigars. Elegantly
dressed gentlemen may be seen to dodge
into the doorways where the agency Is
located. The Chinese house servant ID
an almost universal institution, and he
never misses his opportunity to intro.
duce to his mistress the mysteries of the
game. The lady will invest dime or
two bits in ticket, Just for the novelty,
and if she wins a small prize keep on
playing from day to day or week to
week, until she draws large prize. In
that event she looks for another servant,
for John has failed to come back with
the winning. One lottery agency near
the Palace Hotel does large business
with the ladies, many of the tickets go
ing direct into the hotel. The police
make constant efforts to break up the
games, but as fast as they raid one shop
another opens, and the law has been in
terpreted to exempt visitors at the dens.
As the main offices of the companies
move weekly and are located with great
secrecy, the chief culprits can not be
caught. The company always pays the
agents fine. There are seven great
companies in San Francisco, with an
aggregated capital of several millions.
The greatest is the Fook Ii Company.
In this city, as in San Francisco, the
Chinese themselves play at what they
call the "high-low" game, in which the
prize is not set figure, but varies with
the combinations. Many more spots are
marked out than in the white mans
game, and the player may pay as high
as 500 for one ticket Enormous prizes
are sometimes drawn at this sshigh- low''
lottery. Lucky combinations have been
known to break the bank. The largest
winning ever made in this city was
about one month ago, when Wing