Morning journal and courier., 1886-12-31
WHAT POLICY PLAYING IS.

of the game. but nearly all have heard at ln- l tervals of the great misery caused by the | game among the poorer class of people, many | of whom, as is known, have perfect mania for this most uncertain game, and risk their l last penny to stake on it. It is said by those l who know that the policy playing habit | among some poor men and women is some | thing similar to the habit of smoking opium. l They play few cents on the ''slips" at first. I and the policy manager seeing the prospect l of good customer encourages them on with I bright and glowing prospects of sudden I wealth. Often men have staked only few dollars and awoke to find themselves posses sors of hundreds. The poor players become
 enamored of the game and perhaps before long are lucky enough to win $20 for 10 cents. 1 Thls apparently sets them half crazy, and to ! play more becomes then their greatest desire,a perfect passion. All their wages go into the hanGs ot the policy manager, who laughing l ly tells them that they will be sure to win | some day. The practice of playing policy IS
 said by good authority to be on the increase and by some not such good authorities, who ! rather befriend the police, that it is being ! exterminated in our large cities. Be this as l it may, the game is annually causing untold
 suffering among poor people, and policy | managers have become wealthy from1t. ule- | gitimate wealth, it may be, but they ride in
 
 has been informed that in this city, where by t common consent of the police authorities 1 there is no policy playing; on the ap- pearance of the gig. 411-44 just before paid out in the neighborhood of $5,000 in clear spot cash, \ and it was not all paid from out one policy ! shop, but from out of no less than nine of ! them, and the address of each and every one | of them can be given. Some are located in II 1f Ina hut of ! them Tn the center of the city. In building ! on Chapel street there is handsomely fitted | up room where the game IS played. On Grown treet and Gregson alley are more shops; on State street others. Then there are hundreds
 of walking policy shops" By this we mean men who write policy slips and who carry makeup books' around with them. Many \ may want to know what makeup books. slips and other policy paraphernalia are I This is explained little later, az well as the game and how 1t IS \ played. These "walking policy shops'' ire generally young mechanics who get what \ is commonly called 'fstuck on the gamen and couldn't go back to their bench shops if they ' tried. They are too poor to set up shop \ for themselves and so they obtain makeup book and pay small sum to some policy \ manager for the results of the drawings each \ day. They have regular routes about the \ city which they go over twice a day, morning \ and afternoon. They have regular customers all over the city who do not get time from their work to visit shop and so patronlze the result of their drawings to their work benches. Sometimes this class of dealers are paid by saloon keepers to take in their ' places of business on their \ tours and sometimes other classes of ' business men dabble in policy just for 8 pastime and they have the walking shop" \ call on them after each day. And then \ again there are many ladies, some of pretty high standing in the cities, who play policy, either for the fun of the thing or because they hope to win and thus get enough money for ''that nice bonnet 1 saw the other day" \ They also patronize him.
 tsPolicy" is not defined by Webster in the term it is used here. But policy is game of chance, or more properly lottery. If there were no lotteries there would be no policy playing. It originates from lotteries \ It is a game of hazard the same as 8 lottery by which prizes are drawn by lot. It is, of \ course, got up for the sake of the profit 1t may yield to the proprietors of the game, for \ thes aggregate sum lost by them alwsys falls, short of the aggregate purchase money for dslips" Whatever be the actual form of policy, it is indisputably gambling tran- \ saction, the risks and losses of which are and always have been acknowledged to be ' deporalizing It is forbidden by law throughout the United States. It is a real lottery drawing that takes place every secu- W06k numbers which win at the lottery or lotteries that hundreds of thousands of men, women and children throughout the country risk their money. The two lotteries in which policy is now playedar located-the most laportaEs ana reliable one in the State of tK Kentucky and the other, and less reliable, in the State of Georgia. The lottery in Ken lucky is authorized under the State laws and \ IS run by regularly incorporated company. It has been in existence for many years and many thousands of tickets are sold daily by this concern. The Georgia, or, as 1t is sometimes known, the Frankfort lottery, is not incorporated under any law, and very few people are acquainted with the exact To- cation where drawings of this lottery take place. Sometimes they come over the wire from one town and thsn again from another place. The policy shops all over the country pay annually to these two lotteries certain stated sum to have their managers forward to them the lucky numbers, which are shown twice daily. In the morning in these towns where the lotteries are located thirteen num- 5ers are drawn out or dropped out of wheel. one after the other. The schedule of numbers in the wheel are from to IS. These thirteen numbers are the ones that draw the prizes and on which policy players stake their all. In the afternoon the same performance is gone through with. These numbers after each drawing are telegraphed to the policy shops throughout the country. To more clearly explain how the numbers are layed on, the writer will tell of visit to a shop:
 dandily attired clerk oficiated at the desk, and after being told by the reporter hat hA wished to stake ten cents on the game, at once wrote on 8 msIifold piece of paper about an inch wide and five inches long the numbers which the reporter told him he wished to play. The first copy was torn of and given the applicant, and the second filed away by the policy writer for reference at the time the drawings come iny which is shortly before noon and shortly be- ! fore o'clock in the evening. When the three numbers which drew in the two lotteries above mentioned are re- ceived by wire at the policy shop they are at once placed on large \ blackboard in one corner of the room. For instance: I purchased the gig (giving as my numbers) 3-1O-17. If anywhere in the thirteen numbers in whichever lottery I | played in there were the numbers B. 10-17, I would be winner and receive from the poll | icy man 200 cents for every cent had | played. Truly great temptation. Two hundred dollars for one dollar and so on. But there is only one chance in thousand that win. | If nay three numbers appear in the column | of thirteen it is called 'sgig-" If only two of my numbers appear it is called s'sad-
 dle." I get no money for a saddle" If play four numbers and have all
 of thirteen it is called a
 ''horsen and receive four times as much for
 a tthorse" as I do for "gig," or eight
 | hundred cents for one cent and eight hundred
 dollars for one dollar, etc. When play four
 numbers it is called in policy talk 'thorsing
 it.n You can play any sum at policy, many
 plays being made at five cents each. In \ making play the player states which of the
 lotteries he wishes to play in. Most players
 l play in both lotteries. It is not any more kiikely as far as the reporter can learn from
 good and reliable sources that person will
 Min at the holidays than at any other time
 during the year. It is, as has already been
 stsed, gambling game which men spend
 lyeaA trying to fathom and how to defeat
 the Alicy men and break the ssbank.n By
 the reAent appearance of the "gign 411-44,
 ! which Nxcited such great interest, 1t is known
 l that thA New York policy shops paid out
 $fO0,OO@ In this city there were many big
 hits. Nhapel street clerk placed five cents
 l on the gigK Emit" it and drew out $500. He
 once let tuati0n and Is IS now Ths having ,n1!ss