St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1891-03-07
WHY IS IT.
New Delta.

account Of a frultIeSs attempt on the
part of representative of the New
Delta to buy whole ticket in the lot
terry. 1t makes interesting reading for
those who indulge IN the evanescent
dream of drawing tbe. capital prize.
Tho New Delta had heard it rumored
that whole ticket was not for sale
and it determined to find out An
earnest search by representative of
this paper developed the fact that a
whole ticket could not be purchased in
New Orleans, not even at the main
office of the gambling concern on st.
Charles street. Every where, both in
branch and parent shop, the same an
swer is given. mo whole tickets, on
" quarters and coupons )" with this
additional information at the head
centre of the gambling industry, "can
sell you four-quarters of different
tickets amounts to the same thing. :"
Does it? Let us see. Suppose a
buyer could purchase whole ticket
and got ticket number !, paying there
for $40, and ticket number one drew
the capital prize, the purchaser would
get 100000. But suppose he did
what the lottery clerk told him was
'sthe same thing" and bought one
quarter each of tickets numbers /, 2,
3 and 1, paying therefor $40; when
ticket number l drew the capital prize
he would get $4,000, making quite
difference to him.
True it makes no difference to the
lottery company. 1t gets his forty
dollars, which, perhaps, is "the same
thing" the lottery clerk meant And
# the gentleman had accepted the lot
terry company's proposition, made
through the clerk, the largest possible
amount he could have drawn by any
possible chance would have been $780,
600 instead of 100000 according to
its advertised scheme. And, of course
it is the same thing all down the list
of "prizes." You could draw only one
quarter of any of them at the most.
The pretence formerly was that it
could not send or sell any particular
ticket, but now it declares that it cam
not sell any whole ticket al all.
The reason it assigns is such shall
low subterfuge that it would not de-
ceive a child.
The statement that all of the whole
tickets printed were sold within the
first few days of the advertisement is
palpable falsehood. There has been
no such rush for tickets; on the con-
trary its ticket sales have dwindled
enormously. And granting that it
was true, that all the whole tickets
Chat is tickets printed on one piece of
paper and not divided into coupons or
fractions) had been disposed of, why
could they not have sold the applicant
four-quarters or eight-eighths, or.
twenty-twentieths of the same ticket ?
Does the lottery pretend that it had
carefully picked out some of the coup
ons of all of its tickets and sent them
out?
Formerly, when the demand for
tickets was twice what it is now; be-
fore we had exposed the unfairness of
its scheme, and before the officers all
over the United States had commenced
to arrest its agents, and Wheh9 it had
complete use of the mails, you could
go into the main Office any time and
buy whole ticket, and as many of
them as you wanted. Is it not little
strange that now when its business is
cut down more than half, when it is
shut out from the use of the mail,
when its agents dare not show their
heads in other States for fear of arrest,
that its business suddenly becomes SO
enormous that all of its tickets are
snapped UP Immediately?
And is it not queer that the stock of
the company, which was quoted at
at $l4O0 share, seven months ago,
when this fight commenced, and when
you could buy whole ticket any time
you chose to ask for it, on Friday (the
last calling) was quoted at $40O, when,
according to the statements of the
agents, the demand for tickets was SO
great that the whole ones were all sold
out? This is the queerest financial
paradox we ever struck. This is the
only concern whose stock is "way up
when business is dull and falls like lead
when business is brisk. We suppose if
the concern would shut up shop alto
gether and sell no tickets at all, its
stock would jump out of sight.
But In our judgment the reason why
it cannot sell whole tickets is that very
few, if any, are printed. We believe that
forty coupons (one-fortfeth each) OF
each ticket for the December drawing
were never printed at all, but only a
portion of them. And if this be so,
then the lottery is scaling its
prizes and thereby increasing its
chances, or rather protecting itself
against having anybody draw the
whole of any prize. This shows that
the fight the antis are making
has told, and that this enormously
wealthy and purse-proud corporation
/ is being badly hurt by us.
The Democrats, who will come into
control of the next House OF Repre-
sentatives, cannot forget the lesson OF
the recent election, for it applies as
strongly to them as to the defeated
party. What is a rebuke to the Re-
/ publicans may also be construed as an
! admonition to the Democrats to stand
by fair play, uphold the freedom of de-
bates, recognize the rights of the mi
nority, and take no vengeance. Meder-
alton in dealing with opponents, even
though they have shamefully misused
YOU, is the manly course for all who
/ arn worthy of s,lccess. Sun.