The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-01

not phase General Cahell, for he con tinued to supervise the Honduras draw ings until the last turn of the wheels in January 1907. Occasionally his place was taken by New Orleans banker, by Honduranian general, or some other friend. As to advancing age, let 1t be known that General Ca- bell Is hale and hearty today, and on January 1st last, he was just 80 years old. He graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1850, and one of his sons did the same few years ago and is now on active duty with the United States army. Another son has been Mayor and sheriff of Dallas, Tex.
 The Honduras company had neces- sarily to conduct its enterprise sub rosa. and that this was done success fully has been evident by many facts. Its issue of tickets in recent years was for 100000 numbers at g per ticket, with 3.43f prizes amounting to $159,276, and the company claimed several years ago, over its Presidents signature, that the average of sales was maintained every month near that amount, and that its outgo was about S5 per cent of it's income. Quite a tidy profit, was 1t not?
 Agents for the sales of tickets were had in thousands of cities throughout shS NOuhtiy anu tnc 6c Citlto, SuSi as New York. Chicago, Boston, Wash ington. Baltimore. Atlanta. Savannah. New Orleans. and many others, bought freely. San Francisco, before the fire, was leader in patronizing the com pany and advertisements of the com pany could be seen in many cigar-store windows and in restaurants, and else- whore even in the daily papers. Busi- ness was also good in the Southwest. a md rntf fats he, nr ha Dne leading daily newspaper of Houston. Tex, printed advertisements of the lottery. There was little business dono by mail and the company always warn- ed its patrons against using the mails But the express companies proved an excellent substitute, and express em ployes were active in handling tick cts.
 Everything was systematized Gen. eral agents in large cities were given districts to control; man in one large city of some States would have the control of sales in his State; and so on. Excellent management prevailed throughout.
 After leaving New Orleans. the print ing was mostly done in Port Tampa City, Fla, and New Orleans, in the Graham printery, which had the com panys business for years. Florida af-
 
 movai from there. and Mobile was chosen next, Mobile people knew it, even some officials, but it was none of their business unless someone made a specific complaint, and no one did this. Other cities were used to some extent. One of the agencies the company had was in the National Capital.
 One of the facts of interest is that the patrons of the lottery were not confined to any parftcuIar walE in life ,Laborers, professional men, clerks, business men and city, State and Gov ernment officials took their chance on the turning of the wheels. In the com- pany's published lists of prize winners it was evident that the largest patron- age came from that class of Americans who came from European countries or whose parents did. This was seen in the foreign names many of them bore. One of the bits of literature the com pany has been issuing in recent years was neat little booklet explaining the company's scheme justifying the lot tery as financial plan, and presenting copies of affidavits given by the win ners of the larger prizes A winer of thousand dollars or more was always asked to give affidavit that he bought and held his ticket in good faith and received his money promptly. A win ner had only to notify the agent from whom he purchased when the com pany's nearest financial representative would be communicated with and the money would be paid upon surrender ing the ticket and giving the affidavit.
 Small prizes would be paid by the ticket seller. Occasionally a winner would stroll into the New Orleans Ma tiona1 Bank, meet MT. Demarest, who would pay the prize and the winner would go on his way rejoicing. Banks throughout the country have also from time to time in recent years received the tickets for collection.
 Drawings Were Fair.
 That the old Louisiana Company and It's successor, the Honduas Company, was entirely fair in conducting the scheme no one actually acquainted with the plan and reputation of both had any doubt. The only charge any one could ever find was that not all the tickets were issued and that the com pany always retained some for It's own chance. But what did that matter to the player Each man simply had his chance on his one ticket. What did 1t matter to him whose ticket won if his did not? It was manifestly not possi- ble for the company to sell each month the entire and exact issue. Sometimes some would be unsold. At others there would be larger demand than the issue could supply
 The company has not issued It's booklet showing 190 prize winners It was preparing them for distribu tion when the Government officers popped into the Mobile printing office, That interfered with the sending out of the lists for January, but although the numbers were a little late in reaching the ticket holders. neverthe- less they came along in a week or so Numerous interesting cases to do with the lottery arose during its existence and they would make interesting read ings, as would also On account of it's rival, the big Mexican company which the United States government drove from the field about two years ago. One was that in March, 1906, case was attempted against E. J. Demar- tery prize to A Mississippi steamboat captain. Mir. Demarest, through his lawyers. did not deny the charge, but he charged that the New Orleans city premium bond drawings were lottery drawings and the outcome was that the case against him was dropped be- cause the municipal officials saw their own financial plan imperiled. This case has been revived as a part of the governments evidence for the Mobile trials.
 Another fact is that the Honduras officials were always on the alert to detect counterfeiters of their tiHkets and these spring into existence every once In a while. The company was even known to employ detectives to track down the counterfeiters and give officers a tip against them. It