The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-06-13
STILL A SLAVE TO UNCLE SAM.
Sad Lot of a Clerk Who Thought He
Had DraxYn Il CaDitnl Prize

1.-THE expiring struggles of the Louisiana
Lottery Company said Andrew Lawrence,
of Ft. Worth, at the Riggs House last
night, to the Washington Star, remind me
of incident that occurred here several
years ago, when the monster was in the
full fury of it's appetite and demanding such
heavy tribute from the department clerks
in this city. You know it was customary
for the clerks in the various departments
who came in daily contact with each other
to form clubs every month for the purpose
of buying lottery tickets A certain amount
of money would be subscribed and a bunch
of tickets be purchased, and in case any of
them secured prizes the receipts were
pooled and divided pro rata among the
members of the club. There We're many
clerks, however, who preferred to go it
alone, and of these, whom we may
call links, was employed in the navy de-
partment. Every month with the regular
ity of clock work, he would invest $40 in
lottery tickets and store them away in a
drawer of his desk, whic he usually kept
locked with jealous care. 1t used to be the
custom that on the day when the lottery
drawn in New Orleans the capital
prizes, or rather the numbers drawing the
large amounts, were telegraphed here and
the list taken around for the enlightenment
of ticket holders.
ut happened that in the same room with
Jnks an inveterate wag, and one
day, just before the lottery was to be
drawn, he discovered that the drawer con-
tanning links tickets was open. He imme-
diately looked at the tickets and copied
their numbers. The following week the
drawing took place. and usual, the list
Of the capital prizes telegraphed to
this city. The joker got a copy of it as
soon as it reached town, and, placing the
number of one of Jinks' tickets opposite
the capital prize, he sauntered back to
the department and casually remarked
that he had gotten the big prizes drawn
at the lottery while he was at the tele-
graph office He read them out and
when he announced that ticket numbered
so-and-so had drawn the capital prize of
$500, 900, there a wild Shrek from
.Jinks, who had the ticket bearing that
number laid away securely in his drawer
The old fellow opened the drawer, took
out the ticket and waved it around in the
air, kicked over his chair and proceeded
to curse the government. He harangued his
fellow clerks on the subject of the terrible
life he had led by being compelled to
labor as a government servant He said
he would resign forthwith, and that the
only department he would ever put his
foot in again would be the treasury de-
partment. which he would visit at regular
Intervals to get the interest on the bonds
he was going to buy. Then he jammed his
hat on his head and sailed out of the de-
partment to the express office in order to
send his supposed valuable ticket off for
collection When he discovered that he had
been hoaXed and that his ticket, like all
the rest he had ever bought, was worth
less he had a fit of Mysteries and was
sick in bed for a month. AS his explosion
in the department never reached the ears
yet, and l saw him on the street this