Omaha daily bee., 1895-09-01
t was made by John Robinson of Balti-

1t was made by John Robinson of Balti-
| more.
| Whenever there is drawing, General w
| L. Cabell of Texas and Colonel c. ]. Villere
of Louisiana, who have taken the places OF
| the late General Beauregard and OF the late
| General Early, take their stand at different
| wheels, General Cabell at the large and
| Colonel Vilere at the one holding the prizes
| They open the doors which they had sealed
! up a month previous and into each wheel q
| little Indian girl puts her hand and draws
| out tube. The tube holding the ticket is
handed to General Cabell, and the one hold
| ing the prize won is given to Colonel Villere
and they read the numbers aloud and the
amount won six times, three times in Span
| ish and three times in English, on the prin-
| ciple probably Of the man in the play who
! had only one line, and who spoke that twice,
| $50 that the audience will know l am say
| ing it."
The two tickets are then handed to young
Barross, who fastens them together with a
rubber band and throws them into basket
for further reference. Three clerks with
duplicate books keep tally of the numbers
and of the prizes won. The drawing begins
generally at in the morning and lasts
until 10, and then, everybody having been
made rich, the philanthropists and generals
and colonels and Indian girls-and, let us
hope, the men who turned the wheel-go
in to breakfast.
So far as l could see the drawings are
conducted with fairness. But with only 3,434
prizes and 900 tickets the chances are so
ininitesmal and the advantage to the com
pany so enormous that honesty in manipulate
ing the wheel ceases to be a virtue. and be-
comes the lotterys only advertisement
But what is most interesting about the
lottery at present is not whether 1t is or
is not conducted fairly, but that 1t should
exist at all; that its promoters should be
willing to drag out such an existence at
such price and in so fallen state. This
becomes all the more remarkable because
the men who control the lottery belong to a
class, which. as rule, cares for the good
opinion of it's fellows, and Is willing . to
sacrifice much to retain it.. But the lottery
people do not seem anxious for the good
opinion of any one, and they have made
such vast sums OF money in the past, and
they have made it so easily, that they cannot
release their hold on the geese that are
laying the golden eggs for them, even though
they find themselves exiled and excom-
municated by their own countrymen. II they
were thimble-riggers confidence men in
need Of money their persistence would not
appear so remarkable, but these gentlemen
of the lottery are men Of enormous wealth
their daughters are in what is called society
in New Orleans and in New York, their sons
are at the universities, and they themselves
belong to those clubs most difficult of access
One would think they had reached that
point when they could say: "We are rich
enough now, and we can afford to spend the
remainder Of our lives in making ourselves
respectable Becky Sharp Is authority for
the fact that 1t is easy to be respectable on
as little as $500 year, but these gentlemen,
having many hundreds of thousands of
pounds, are not even willing to make the
effort Two years ago, when, according to
their own account, they were losing $4,000
a month, and which, after all, is only what
they once cleared in a day, and when they
were being driven out of one country after
another, like the cholera or any other disease,
1t seems strange that 1t never occurred to
them to stop fighting and to get into a better
business while there was yet time.
Even the keeper of roulette wheel has
too much self-respect to continue turning
when there is only one man playing against
the table, and in comparison with him the
scramble of the lottery company after the
Honduranian tin dollar, and the scant savings
of servant girls and Of brakesmen and negro
BARRIERS in the United States, is to me the
most curious feature Of this once great en-
terprise.
What a contrast II makes with those other
days, when the Charles theater was filled
from boxes TO gallery with the flower of
southern chivalry and beauty" when the band
played, and the major generals proclaimed
the result of the drawings. II is hard to take
the lottery seriously for the day when 1t was
worthy of abuse has passed away. And In
deed. there are few men or measures SO i'm
portant as to deserve abuse, while there is
no measure If IL ls for good so insignificant
that 1t is not deserving the exertion OF a good
word or a line Of praise and gratitude.
And the only emotion one can feel for the