The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-09-22
.FLAGMAN GOT AUTO
HAD LESS THAN TWENTY TICKETS
FROM MERCHANTS.
WHILE HIS TRAIN SPED ON.
HIS NAME WAS BEING CALLED AS
OWNER OF PRIZE AUTO.

Interesting Scene in Perry Lane, mt
r. A. BrysOn's Place, Where Auto
mobile, Given by Twenty-Five
Retail Merchants, Was Awarded.
In the NeighbOrhOOd of 100000
Tickets Emptied Upon Great Cam
vas sdunre-Reauired Combined
Efforts of Three Officers to Keep
the Crowd Back.
In the presence of about 800 inter-
ested men, women and children, black
and white, the automobile, offered by
twenty-five Savannah merchants, was
awarded at o'clock yesterday after
noon.
With a pitchfork and a shovel in
the neighborhood of 1000 tickets,
representing that number of purchases,
were stirred up and scattered on
large square of canvas that had been
spread on the vitrified brick pavement
in Perry lane, next to Mr.. T. A.
Bryson's place. Three officers, two in
uniform, kept the impatient and in
terested crowd several feet from the
high pile of tickets while the prelimi-
naries were in progress.
Several thousand people had an
interest in the automobile until the
award was made and expectancy was
at fever heat. Boxes and barrels.
filled to the brim with the tickets,
were emptied on the large piece Of
canvas that Mr.. Bryson had provided,
after which the pitchfork and shovel
were brought into play. A committee
of three had been selected by the
crowd and superintended and assisted
in the mixing. On this committee
was Dr. G. w. Rush, R. E. Hall and
| G. w. Beach. But the selection of
an owner for the automobile was not
left to the committee.
Little Girl at work.
One of the three-score or more, lit
| tie girls in the crowd was called upon
to do this. And she was chosen by lot.
| Little Mildred Bernhard got the little
piece of pasteboard upon which had
been written Il draw She was
! blindfolded and led into the heap. One
! by one five of the pieces of paper that
represented as many purchases from
one or more of the twenty-five mer
| chants, were taken from the heap by
the child. AS each ticket was taken
out it was handed to a member of
the committee and destroyed without
the name upon its face being made
| known.
Then the tickets were stirred and
scattered again and one by one five
| more were taken from the pile, and
destroyed in the same fashion. Once
more the heap was mixed and the lit
! tie miss continued her work. The ex-
| element was intense and the specta-
tors stood on tip-toe. Fourteen of the
| tickets had been removed from the
| pile and destroyed. The next would
! tell the story and as the little girl put
her hand into the heap the silence was
oppressive. Slowly she took the If
| teenth and final ticket from the several
hundred thousand on the canvas and
| handed it to a member of the COM
| mittee.
There were some who had several
thousand tickets in the heap, large
numbers who had several hundred,
many who had between fifty and a
| hundred, and a few with less than a
score. Rich and poor, black and white,
men, women and children, clubs and
associations, were all represented. AS
the name and address on the ticket
| were studied by the committee every
neck was craned forward. Would one
of those with the several thousand
| tickets be successful or would the au-
tomobile become the property of some
one who could ill afford to even buy
the gasoline to operate it with?
And the Winner.
The address, No. 424 Duffy street,
west, was plain enough, but there was
some difficulty in reading the name.
| The interest was at fever heat. G. w.
| Beach was finally made out and the
| crowd scattered The successful man
was not represented among the specta-
| tors although a member of the COM
mittee, strange to relate, had the same
name. One of the merchants interest
Ell drove to the address given and
| broke the news to Mrs. Beach, for her
husband was not at home. He is 2
fiagman on the Seaboard Air Line and
was or his regular run, little dreaming
that he was then the owner of an au-
tomobile Mrs. Beach said that she
had less than twenty tickets.
The scheme of giving away the au-
tomobile was a big success to the pro-
moters. They got twenty-five mer-
chants to put their money into it and
the plan was to have the merchants
give every cash purchaser, to the
amount of so cents, a ticket on the au-
tomobile. But this part of the plar
was not carried out and the 400, 00(
tickets in the lane did not represent
5000 000. Just what they did represen
will never be known. Some of the mer'
chants got careless and gave tickets
| to regular customers when they paiC
their bills. Then, too, tickets were
sometimes given when the purchas
amounted to only % cents. But still
the scheme was a great one and hug
| e., xxslan ~