The San Francisco call., 1896-08-09
Purchased in the Company's
Office, but Said to Be
Spurious.
SINGLE COUPONS ARE SOLD.
How the Public Is Duped Into Buy.
ing Chances" That Have
No Chance.

Ed Gressler's dream of wealth is Ger,
and all because the Little Louisiana Lot
terry Company failed to pay the prizes
won by three tickets sold for the last
monthly drawing.
Gressler is City salesman for NJ. A.
Gunst, the Kearny-street cigar-dealer and
Police Commissioner, and in the course of
his travels comes in contact with many
sporty cigar and liquor dealers who are
in the habit of buying tickets for the lot
terry drawings. He is often asked to take
an interest in patches of tickets and quite
as often is given the coin for a line of
tickets and asked to purchase them when
he finds dealer.
Just previous to the last drawing of the
lottery Gressler "went in" with a friend
and bought six 25-cent tickets, the bits of
papers called coupons being purchased at
the headquarters of the concern only
day before the numbers were announced.
The alleged winning mum bers in the Little
Louisiana are the same as those of the
Honduras National Lottery, the successor
of the Original Louisiana Lottery, and
prizes come about as often as those of the
big concern that was forced out of busi-
ness in the United States when the Louisi-
ana charter of the company expired.
when the result of the drawing at
Puerto Cortez was announced in the pa
pers that publish such matters Gressler
was overjoved. His tickets showed that
he had won the first second and third
prizes, amour ting to $500, and he imme-
diately prepared to carry out several fnan-
cial schemes that had been on his mind
for some time. He was in no hurry to
cash the precious tickets, preferrIng to
show them to friends as evidence of his
good fortune before they were transferred
to the keeping of the lottery managers in
exchange for $500 coin of the realm.
Finally, however, he presented himself
with friend at the office of the company
and demanded his coin.
"Just put it up in rolls of twenties," he
said, land / will put it in this satchel."
The clerk in attendance glanced at the
tickets he presented and took hurried
trip to the rear of the place where the
powers that control the lottery have their
abiding-place. In moment he returned
with the tickets, and, tossing them over
the counter to Gressler, said:
i'Those are no good. They are bogus.n
"But | bought them right over this
counter" said Gressler, his face paling as
the visions of gold faded from his eyes.
Cant help that" said the clerk, "those
are counterfeit tickets. We have already
paid the prizes to the holders of the
| genuine tickets"
Too dazed to expootulate further Gress-
ler left the place, sadder but wiser man,
| and now he invests none of his hard
earned money in lottery tickets. Since the
payment of the tickets was refused the
cigar drummer has been on a still hunt for
some explanation of the combination of
circumstances that cost him $500, as he
| figures it.
| He claims to have discovered that the
winning numbers in the Honduras draw
| ing are telegraphed to San Francisco sew
eral DAYS before the list is published, and
| that, in case the winning mum bers are not
| sold, the tickets are not sold but are held
| out and reported as not having been dis
| posed of.
If they are sold they are as often de-
clared spurious as paid. He believes that
the tickets he purchased were put on one
side to be held out ana were given him
by mistake. One of Gressler's fellow en-
ployes in the Gunst establishment went
with him to see why the tickets were not
honored, but got no more satisfaction than
was accorded the original purchaser.