The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1886-04-15
MATT O'BRIEN IN NEW OR
LEANS.

MATT O'BRIEN IN NEW Or
LEANS.
The Well Known Irish PhflOsO-
pher and Poet Describes a
Monthly Drawing.
From Z the Atlanta. sca' Constitution, March
NEW ORLEANS, La, March IT,
I Special Correspondence. II have
visited New Orleans for 10 these
many years, and at every visit re
solved that / would witness the
drawing Of the far.famed Louisiana
State Lottery, and invariably missed
it for other and greater attractions,
Yesterday, however, was dreary and
drizzly, and having nowhere else TO
60, l strolled into the Academy Of
Music and at last saw the modus
operandi.
Knowing there are thousands Of
your readers whe would like to see
it, /, in the absence OF their ability
to be present, concluded that an &C
count Of it, as seen BY me, would be
interesting reading. Let the reader
enter with me the Academy Of Mu
sic, large theatre on st. Charles
street. Either it or the ST. Charles
Theatre is used at the drawing. The
admission Is Of course "free" on this
occasion. The parquett. is already
crowded, SO we'll go up IN the dress
circle. Here we find it pretty crowd
ed by the fairer sex and their es
corts.
On the stage we see, to the rlgh.
of the audience, a large wheel about
five feet in diamater; the sides are
plate glass, and as clean and clear as
only plate glass can be gotten. They
are just emptying in great bags, out
Of which roll little tin boxes or balls !;
in these are the numbers; they near
ly half fil the immense wheel. All
this is watched by commission.
General Jubal A. Early, with stoop
ing shoulders and long white beard,
has this wheel in charge, and watch
es everything and everybody on The
stage closely.
On the left of the audience near
the footlights is smaller wheel,
with glass sides. Into this they are
emptylng large bags filed With tin
tubes about the thickness Of large
lead pencil, and half as long. / saw
these palmer, as / was on that side
Of the house. General Beauregarf
superintends this wheel, and watche'
it as closely as "Old Jube" does
wheel No. l.. for in each OF these tin
tubes is card bearing the amount
OF the prize. Everything being nov
in readiness, the door Of each wheel
is shut, two negroes take bold Of the
cranks on wheel No l, and turn it
around two or three times and then
reverse the roll; meanwhile General
Beauregard himself turns the small
er wheel back and forth. The tick
cts and prizes being now we'll mixed
ed, two boys are blindfolded by Gen
erals Early and Beauregard. Gen
erals Early and Beauregard then
unlock the door, the boy takes po-
sition near it-General Early next
to one and General Beauregard next
10 the other, but at opposite sides OF
the stage, and the different gentle
men of the committee, clerks, ETC.,
take their places, and all is ready.
Now they are about to begin. So
lead pencils and memorandum cards
are gotten out by the interested, who
cannot wait for publication Of eve
ming papers. Some of them have
their tickets in their hands, and as
each number is called. refer to them
TO "see II IT'S my number" Now
for the procedure
Boy puts his hand in wheel No. |
and pulls out a small tin case; hands
1t to General Early. No. 2, who
opens it, drops the casing into box
at his feet, and calls out In weak
voice the number-we'il say "07,
554." He then hands 1t to No. 3.
He calls It out in very loud voice.
While this is being done, boy at
wheel No. 2 hands small tin tube
to General Beauregard. The gener-
al opens it, drops tube 10 a box at
his feet, calls out the prize--say
zone hundred dollars then hands
it to No. 3, who again calls II loudly.
BY This time No. 8 right and No. 3
lett oi chair in centre Of stage lin
which No. 4 is seated) hand the
ticket and the p,ize to No. 4, who
rolls the two tog, ther 10 tin tube
and throws them INTO box at bis
feet Tuis continues TO the close,
the only variation being IN numbers
and amount Of prizes, $l00, 5000,
$500, $500. and 81 900, are coolly call
ed out with an Indifference worthy
OF hotel clerk when he tells you
"Your bill is $21.s0 for day and q
half" SO it goes; then mixed in
with these amounts are $4,000, $40,
900, $4,000, $4,000, $4,000, and
we wonder when the capital prize
will come--the pile In the prize
wheel is diminishing--two or thrs
fortunes have been gwen away.
watch General Beanregard's face ss
he mentally scans the numbers, q
see IL i can tell when he first see I
tha s>.f~a. :. k..f k{c fure IL 0a paeaix .