The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-30
LINED WITH POLICY SHOPS.
Thousands Of Dollars SquandeTed by
Victims Of the Game.

The Authorities Determined to Break
Up the Wheels-Policy Offices Scat
tered All Over the City and Writers
Paid High Wages to Bring Business
to the Proprietors-How the Game
Is Played-The Dream Book and It's
Scheme.
The indictment of the policy shop pro-
prietors by the city court grand jury and
their arrest and probable conviction, will
have a tendency to check, if it does not
put a stop, for awhile at least, to one of
the worst forms of gambling that is car
ried on in the city.
While there are but four policy
there are thirty or forty branch
offices which are feeders to the wheels.
Each of these branches is managed
by a writer, who writes tickets
for his wheel on commission, which
is usually Is per cent, so
that with the wheels and
branch offices, the city is pretty well sup
piled with the means for policy gambling.
The management of the business and
the way the gambling is carried on are
pretty well known. Its profits both to
the proprietors and the writers in the
branch Offices, however, are beyond what
most people believe The tickets sell
usually for cents and 10 cents, some at
25 cents. On these the writers
get 10 per cent. and frequently make S25
and $50 a week profit. Estimating the
number of writers at anywhere between
forty and fifty, some idea of the ex-
tent of policy gambling can be had. The
proprietors of the wheels pay the rent of
the branch Offices, besides the commissions
of the writers, and that with the rent of
the main Office, the cost of the outfit.
which is not large, the wages Of an Office
manager and assistant, and of
little girl or boy who
is paid $3.50 to 81. IS a week to draw the
| tickets from the wheel, is the total ex
pense, after which, practically everything
is profit, as the chances of the player for
hitting a prize are very small.
The drawings take place at 1880 O'Clock
and 5:30 O'Clock in the afternoon of every
week day except Saturdays and Mondays,
when there is an additional drawing at
$3.50 in the evening. There are no draw
ings ON Sunday.
One of the features of the policy shop is
the dream work Policy players go
largely U9 uT6dLlS, duu blc luOTb super
stitious the player the more his supers til
ton is taken advantage of by the writers,
and the greater the profits Of the proprie-
tor. Every time patron Of the game
has dream of almost any kind he con-
suits the dream book, which in
variably tells him to buy certain
tickets and certain numbers. The book
is an institution of the game and ii Is re-
lied upon with as implicit and undoubting
confidence as if it were invaluable to tell
the winning numbers.
The amount of the capital prize is
usually "a, 80 or SlS, or whereabouts, &C
cording to the class of the ticket As an
evidence of how frequently the capital
prize is drawn patron of the game, who
has been playing it for over thirty years,
said the other day that he had
never drawn even half head" which
| is 10 cents, or double the price of a scent
| ticket, in all that time. There are always
seventy-eight tickets in the wheel, num-
| bered from one to seventy-eight. Twelve
tickets are withdrawn at every drawing
Each ticket sold bears three numbers, as
4, II, A. In order to hit the CAPT
tai prize, the corresponding numbers
| in the same order must be
drawn from the wheel, so that
the chances for getting the prize are very
small for the player and very largely in
| favor of the wheel.
Policy playing is not altogether vice
of the colored people. At the drawings,
frequently one half of those present are
white. Old men, young men, and boys
of all ages mingle with the colored pat
rons of the game.