The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-11

PloAAollSQ private lOLIeT1eS ana all OIner
forms of gambling in Cuba. In country
where there were neither stock exchanges
| nor bookmakers, the only vent for the gam
! ing spirit, always strong in the Latin race,
| was the government lottery, which has done
! thriving business ever since it started.
1t IS difficult matter to ascertain the eX
| act amount of revenue that has been OBJ
tanned from the lottery because both its
| prizes and income have from time to time
been paid in gold or silver or paper cur
rency, as the price of the different kinds of
money was most advantageous for the gov
eminent. The accounts were last kept on a
sold basis in 1892. During that year the
amount of revenue paid into the treasury
from the lottery was $l,957l24. Since then.
according to the reports in the Treasury
Department, the earnings of the lottery,
paid sometimes in silver and sometimes in
paper, have been as follows:
1898. Sizes OBS go
1884. 1,5SS744 1897. /, 446 564
1895. ........... 21S,422
Drawings usually took place three times a
month. For each IL 900 tickets were offered
for sale at $40 each for the entire ticket or
80 cents each for any one of the twenty Sec
tons into which it was subdivided. Three
quarters of the receipts were distributed in
premiums and one-quarter was retained by
the government, which took also all prizes
drawn on unsold tickets. The first prize at
each drawing was $4,000. From that
amount they ranged down to 500 prizes of
$50 each.
PEDDLED IN THE STREETS.
BY a complicated system of agencies that
reached to every village of Cuba lottery
tickets were for sale everywhere. There
agents hired subagents to peddle tickets in
the streets and public places. One of the
favorite methods for reconcentrado chill
dren to earn few cents day was to sell
tickets for some subagent. Their shrill
voices crying Good numbers, sure to win
priest could be heard on every corner.
Lottery tickets were far more easy to OBJ
tain in Havana than postage stamps.
1t is scarcely an exaggeration to say that
every one more than fifteen years of age in
Cuba played in the lottery. In every posi-
tion of the mercantile, professional or So
cial life Of the island one found the same
green and purple tickets, with their big
black numbers. Some years ago reports be-
came current here of fraud and corruption
in the administration of the lottery. AS a
result an ingenious system of conducting
the drawing were devised that is said to be
the only one of it's kind in the world.
low, one-story shed in the court yard Of the
palace of the treasury. The shed is plain
enough on the outside, but is handsomely
furnished. A large, high tribune or plat
form, occupies about half the room. On the
rear wall hangs a life-siZe portrait of the
boy King of Spain. in the uniform of a
captain general of Cuba. Directly beneath
the picture is a long semi-circular table.
covered with crimson velvet. At the center
of the table sat Senior Ramon Espnosa and
the Condo de la Reunion who. as represent
ative of the treasurer, presided at the draw
ingS. Beside them, as assistants. were dele
gates from six of the municipal departments
of the government.
Although drawings invariably begin at 1880
O'Clock in the morning, crowd began TO
gather on the benches in front of the plat
form long before that hour and chatter over
the tickets which apparently each one had
brought with him.
Senior ESpinoSa touched a bell on the table
as signal that the drawing had begun. A
clerk unlocked a big wooden box and from it
took out six long strings of wooden marbles.
CTinTS announced
that the marbles were numbered and repre-
sented the tickets which had been issued.
If any one has any doubt as to the fair
ness of this distribution" they said, let him
come forward and examine the marbles if
not. let him complain of no unfairness. No
one accepted the invitation. Every one
seemed convinced that the drawing was the
model of fairness the criers proclaimed it
to be.
The marbles were taken off the strings and
deposited in a basket in front of the velvet
covered table. From another box several
smaller strings of marbles were taken. Each
one of them was marked with the amount of
one of the premiums. These smaller strings
were counted in the presence of the audience
by the supervisors of the drawing.
A negro took his place in front of a large,
odd-looking apparatus that was not unlike
an American spiral grain conveyor. The
ticket marbles were thrown into it, and the
negro began to turn a crank. The marbles
rose higher and higher, jangling and clash
ing as they Went, until they hhally cropped
into an enormous brass globe on one side
of the platform. The prize marbles went by
the same process into another globe on the
other side of the platform. The object of
this Mr. Espinosa explained to me, was to
thoroughly mix the marbles so that no one
would have the slightest idea of their posi-
ton in the globes. and thus preclude any
possibility of cheating.
WAITING FOR THE PRIZES.
Attendants took their places in front of
the two globes. BY means of valves attached
to each they allowed the marbles to fall out
one at a time.
From an ante-room at the rear of the
platform two boys from the Havana Or
phan Asylum We're led out and stationed
by the two globes.
The two attendants worked in concert.
Every time ticket marble fell on one side
of the room its corresponding prize marble
would fall on the other. The boys would, in
turn, shout out first the number of the mar
bic and then the amount that had been won
by the ticket ii represented. Depositing the
marbles on the desk of a clerk, who sat in
Every fifteen minutes the globes would be
turned over in order TO further mix their
contents. The cool of the morning had
nearly ali Havana days are. The men at the
valves perspired and famed. The boys
voices grew husky. The increasing crowd
listened nervously and anxiously for the
announcement of the number that had
drawn the first prize
Finally the marble that represented it fell
from the globe. A recess of ten minutes
was taken. The boys were led away, and
two more took their places. The drawing
was resumed until all Of the prize marbles
had been exhausted. THE last cried the
man at the smaller glbbe. Senior Espinosa
arose and said as he rang the bell for the
last time. THE days drawing of the gov
eminent lottery Of Havana i'll over. You
have seen that it was just and fair
The prizes are distributed 10 the winners
from the office of the secretary of the treas
ury on the day following the drawing. In
speaking of the lottery the Condo de Ia
Reunion told me to-day that the receipts
had fallen Off very materially since the
American occupation of eastern Cuba. SAM