Omaha daily bee., 1895-09-01

ross assented kindly and directed her sery-
ants 10 place q rocking chair in the shade.
ana requested me to be seated in IL. luncheon
she assured me, would be ready in a half.
hour and she hoped that the VOYAGE sontt
mad been pleasant one.
l had never visited hotel or a country
mouse as curious as the one presided over nv
MT Barross. 1t was entirely original in its
decoration, unique in its sources of entertain
ment and its business Office unlike most
business Jus onces, possessed peculiar fascina-
uon. The stationery for the use of the
patrons and on which l wrote to innocent
1rlends In the north, bore the letter head of
the Honduras Lottery company; the pictures
on the walls were framed groups of lottery
tickets purchased in the past by Mr. Barross
whlch mad not drawn prizes, and the safe
III winch the guest might place his valuables
contained large canvas bag sealed with red
wax, and holding in prizes for the next
drawing SIS, 1000.
Wherever you turned were evidences of
the peculiar business that was being carried
on under the roof that sheltered you and
outside in the garden stood another building.
containing the printing presses on which the
lists OF winning numbers were struck off be-
fore they were distributed broadcast about
the world. But of more interest than all
else was the long sunshiny empty room run
ming the full length of the house in which.
on platform at one end, were two immense
wheels, one of glass and brass and as trans
parent as bowl of goldfish, and the other
closely draped In heavy canvas hood laced
and strapped around it, and holding sealed
and locked within its great bowels 100 900
paper tickets in 100000 rubber tubes
had come to see the working of a great
gambling scheme and had anticipated that
there might be some difficulty put in the
way OF my doing so; but if the lottery plant
had been cider press in an orchard l could
not have been more welcome to examine and
to study 1t and to take 1t to pieces 1t was
not so much that they had nothing to con.
ceal, or that now, while they are fighting
for existence, they would rather risk being
abused than not mentioned at ALL For they
can fight abuse; they have had to do that
for long time. 1t is silence and oblivion
that they fear now the silence that means
they are forgotten, that their arrogant glory
has departed, that they are only a memory
They can fight those who fight them, but
they cannot fight with people who IL they
think of them at all. think of them as
already dead and buried. 1t was neither
or these reasons that gave me free admit
tance to the workings of the lottery; it was
simply that to Mr. and Mrs Barross the lot
terry was religion; Ii was the greatest
charitable organization Of the age, and the
purest philanthropist OF modern times could
not have more thoroughly believed in his
good works than did Mrs Barross believe
that noble and generous benefits were being
bestowed on mankind at every turn of the
great wheel In her back iparlor.
The room in which the drawings are held
is about forty feet long. well lighted by
many long, wide windows, and with the
stage upon which the wheels stand blocking
one end 1t is unfurhished, except for the
chairs and benches, upon which the natives
or any chance or intentional visitors are
welcome to sit and 20 watch the drawing
The larger wheel, which holds, when all
the tickets are sold 1.-the hopes of 100 900
people, is about six feet in diameter. with
al % uIa- ..r,I
wooden tire two feet wide. This tire or rim
hogshead and in II is a door a foot square
little rubber jackets and shoveled into the
wheel this door is locked with paddock and
strips of paper are pasted across It and
sealed at each end, and so 1t remains until
the next drawing. One hundred thousand
tickets In rubber tubes an inch long and a
quarter Of an inch wide take up a great
deal of space and make such an appreciable
difference in the weight OF the wheel that
It requires the efforts Of two men pulling on
the handles at either side to even bulge H.
Another man and myself were quite satisfied
when we put our shoulders to II and had
succeeded in turning 1t a foot or two. But
II was interesting to watch the little black
tubes with even that slow start go slipping
and sliding down over the others leaving
the greater mass undisturbed and packed to-
gether at the bottom as wave sweeps back
the upper layer OF pebbles on a beach. This
wheel was manufactured by Jackson e.
Sharp of Wilmington, Del. The other
wheel is much smaller and holds the prizes.