The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-01-24
LOTTERY MEN DESPERATE.
Monthly Drawings to he Abandoned
Prizes Scaled Down.

FRIES scaled DOWN..
New ORLEANS, Jan. 23.--The usual afi-
davits from stool pigeons Of the lottery
company stating that they held certain
tickets and won the larger prizes Of $780,
600, and 100000, will not appear this
month, as the prizes were scaled, and only
one-fourth OF each ticket was sold.
This is a new scheme Of the lottery COM
pany. The mails being closed to the COM
pany. the sale of tickets was comparatively
small, and SO the lottery sharks ''got even''
with the purchasers by putting only frac-
tions OF each ticket in the wheel.
1t is rumored that after thu Mardi-Gr as
festivities the monthly drawings will be
discontinued. There will be the usual
large crowd-a hundred thousand OF more
during the carnival, and the lottery sharks
invariably reap q rich harvest. The daily
drawings, which scoop up about $4,000 a
day. will be continued and further impov-
erish the poorer classes who invest twenty
five or fifty cents daily as regularly as they
go to market.
On the corners Of the streets leading to
the markets, and in the markets. outcrying
the fish and vegetable vendors, the lottery
ticket seller is found with a handful Of
tickets, appealing to everybody to "buy a
ticket and win a fortune" who would
work when they can win q fortune for 81?
Buy a ticket for twenty five cents and you
can take q trip to Europe"
The vegetable woman buys a ticket from
the proceeds Of her cabbage sales, and the
poor woman stints her purchases in order
to buy a coupon, with a vain hope of win
ming a prize, and her market basket is
carried home that much the lighter. It is
no wonder that the poor are ever poor and
Nannnk YQv THAR kQV0o tVorA tn ia Tuin$oP
climate as vigorous as it 10 in the northern
cities the restitution would be even greater
than it is. The lottery is about the only
cause of the sufferings OK the poorer classes
Of this city.
sharpers is to the effect that several years
ago the large prizes were won by the COM
pany IN this way: The tube containing the
figures Of the large prize, 100000, had
rough edges and was shaped differently
from the tubes containing the smaller
prizes, and in taking them out Of the prize
wheel the biindfolded boy could "see" or
rather feel the larger prizes. This capital
as a gambler does a pair Of aces, until the
blindfolded boy at the other wheel reached
q number known to be held by the lottery
company, and which had also been
'.'palmed" by the boy at the big wheel.
These boys received very large salaries.
many u 1uiob cAposuTo WAS UlHue. HuQ
then. to prevent further particulars from
coming to light, each of these very shrewd
boys retired from the lottery wheel and are
now living in style OF the interest of their
knowledge.
Later on the lottery adopted another
plan. The tubes containing the capital and
other large prizes were placed in a little
glass pocket just inside the opening or door
of the glass wheel from which the prizes
are drawn. This pocket is SO arranged that
the deception cannot be seen from the
front, as the glass aperture is arranged
something in the shape of a concave mirror,
and the spectator is under the delusion that
he ''sees clear through the glass Wheel"
Bnt he doesn't; nor through the drawing
either.
The usual price paid for afidayits from
persons that they held a certain ticket that
won 100000 or 100000 has also decreased,
The price paid formerly was $1,000 and
even ~ 1000, but now it is reduced to $500
and 91I0