Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1893-10-21
LOTTERY PRIZES.
They Prove to Be Curses Rather
Than Blessings
a Recorded Instances Wherein the Drawers
Of Prizes Have Reaped Nothing
But Misery from Their Sup
posed Good Fortune.


But Misery from Their Sup
posed Good Fortune.
People in general regard the winning
of a prize in a lottery as piece OF
good fortune. In this they are mis-
taken. Money gained in this way is a
misfortune-an unlucky acquisition
not because there is any reason to sup
pose that anything is lucky or unlucky
in the world except as people make it
80, but because the sudden acquisition
of large sum of money, which has
not been earned by hard work, or re-
ceived as the result of sagacious in
vestment or foresight, finds the person
unprepared and untitled to take care
of it. 1t leads to acts and proceedings
which result in disaster.
In Russia, says Youths Companion,
where lotteries are tolerated by the
law and even employed by the gov
eminent as means of raising rev.
enue, careful inquiry has been made
into the personal history of the recipi-
ents Of first prizes in the lotteries for
q series of years. The record of
these people is a sad one. 1t brings
out in a striking way the fact that
1t may be anything but good luck to
win prize of hundred thousand
dollars.
The first winner of this great sum
two hundred thousand rubles-was a
paying teller in a bank-a quiet, in
dustrious young man. AS soon as he
had obtained his two hundred thou
sand rubles he gave up his place in the
bank, began to live on his money, soon
became dissipated, grew more and
more extravaganza in his habits, and in
two years was reduced to actual want.
He had, moreover, acquired certain
inflrmities which eventually took
him to the public hospital, where he
died.
The next first-prize winner was an
elderly man, and the father of fam
lily. He had very good business sit
nation and an excellent reputation
Soon after receiving his great lottery
prize he, too, began to lead an i'm
proper life, setting up an extravagant
establishment, in the life of which his
family had no part. His income did
not prove large enough for his reck-
less expenditures. He spent his prin-
cipal, borrowed money, became bank
rupt, and was imprisoned for debt
Meantime he had acquired intemper-
ate habits.
The third fortunate" mortal who
obtained the first lottery prize had no
inclination to intemperance or to per-
sonal extravaganza. He was a man.
people said, who would make profit
able use of his wealth. He was in a
good business, and already had store
of his own. He employed his lottery
winnings in extending his business.
His purpose was to become a prince of
commerce. But he was not adapted to
operations of a large nature, and his
investments showed poor judgment
and resulted badly. He became bank
rupt, and had to go to work as an en-
ploye in the very store of which he
had once been proprietor.
The fourth winner of a hundred
thousand dollars in the list was poor
widow. She at once became attractive
to suitors, and was induced to marry a
man who spent all her new fortune
for her in very ''short order" A sep
aration and divorce followed, leaving
the poor woman in much worse condi-
ton than in her former widowhood.
Still another prize winner, whose
name is given by the Russian journal
which publishes the results of these
Investigations, was a public singer
He had already saved a considerable
sum of money. Upon receiving the
lottery prize he left his occupation. set
up a fine establishment and undertook
to become a ''fnancier." He encoun-
tered much more skillful fnanciers
than he himself was, who used their
skill to his disadvantage, and lost not
only his two hundred thousand ru-
bles, but all his previous savings.
There are two more cases on the list.
One of them is that of a man who was
neither extrovagant nor incorporate;
but, poor before he received the prize,
he is doubly poor now. 1t stimulated
his avarice, and he has become a
miser, lending his money at
usurious rates, and living life of cor
roding worry lest some of his hoard
should be lost. The workingman's life
is heaven compared with his.
The last man of whom the record is
given is still in the possession of por
ton of his unearned wealth, but, like
the others, he is spending what he has
left at rate which must bring him to
poverty. and to the slavery of habits
that destroy both soul and body.
ALI history shows that the lottery is
q curse to the community at large, and
the facts here given do not differ from
the universal experience that it is also
3 curse to those who are supposed to
benefit by it.
Some Odd Bees.
H. "a