The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-17

pany has been worth not less than &50s000 year net for a third of q cen- tury., It has been one of the forms Of graft that attracted but little atten- ton because of there being but one drawing . month and the conserva- tive investments of the class of people who buy lottery tickets
 Strangely enough, Boston bought more Louisiana lottery tickets than any other city of. it's size in the coun- try, the monthly sales in that city be- ing about s50,000. New York bought about as heavily. All the other large cities were good markets for the lot tery' tickets and the local agents made large sums of money. It Is said that in the case of Moore, the Chicago agent, the hundreds of thousands of dollars he has made out of this agency have been spent trying to beat the races"
 There is but little question that the action of the government in su- pressing the old Louisiana company will result in the death not alone of that concern, but of the num- erous small companies that op- crate sporadically. The big gest remaining lottery in the world is the Spanish National Lottery, Of Madrid, an institution centuries old. B. perquisite of the King Is ticket No. 1; but 1t is not recorded whether the King ever drew any prizes On this complimentary ticket. In Saxony, Dem mark, Italy. Mexico, France, and many other countries lotteries are operated with government sanction. The Nat ional Lottery of Mexico supports the charitable institutions of the City Of Mexico. The Beneficencia Publica, an- | fkf A..s F. ~ An-f f.a- IA Hxx.m mer rival of the Louisiana, will see it's concession expire in one year, and Limantour, minister of finance. Is known to favor a policy of taxation which will suppress lottery on big scale throughout the republic.
 No Lotteries fin England.
 Tn England lottery died many years ago. The last effort to operate lot tery in Great Britain consisted of a scheme of lighting several candles in row and allowing the players to bet on which candle would burn donw to certain point first. When this game was stopped the lottery died.
 It Is doubtful if lottery would have been tolerated in the United States as long as it has been had 1t not been for the reputation for "squareness es- tablished by the Louisiana company. Regardless of what the theory of the OpsFAtlOu oI tne law may p6s II Te~ mains fact that in dealing with gamblers the authorities are disposed to treat the square" gambler with more tendency than they do a crooked gambler or sure-thing man. This rule has operated to the benefit and long life of the old Louisiana com pany. Thousands of government of- fictals bought the tickets monthly In one case a Texas judge announced that he did not consider square" lottery bad thing, and proceeded to draw from his vest pocket a ticket he had just bought. Before the gov ernment began it's fight on the Louis- lana company a winning ticket was known to be as good as a certified check, and express companies and many banks cashed them. It Is not likely, but almost certain that had the Louisiana company not debauched the State with policy it would have se- cured a twenty-five year extension of It's charter. But the policy game forced it Into fight in which 1t was compelled to buy Congressmen and government officials. The secret pay roll of this company would be a most interesting and sensational document