Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-17


lN kSl buying the tickets of the
i'd geeXl Panama lottery. Under the
lEA Vg1sl laws in force in the Canal
lE-zssEES1 zone no tickets can be sold
within that territory, but as
soon as the canal employe crosses the
line between Ancon and Panama City,
or between Cristobal and Colon he
meets the ticket sellers everywhere. 1t
is known that many of the canal en-
ployes are wasting their money on the
lottery, but as vet there has been no
way to protect them. 1t is likely that
action may yet be taken which will
prohibit the buyers of tickets from
carrying them into the canal zone, but
even this would scarcely overcome the
evil. The lottery has eight more years
to run under charter given it by the
government of Colombia.
The Panama lottery has its home in
the bishops palace and is within a
stones throw of the cathedral itself
In fact, one can stand in front of the
counter at the Panama lottery and look
into the sacred precincts of the cathe-
dral when its doors are opened. Some
of the best patrons of the lottery are
priests. While many of the padres Of
Panama are as clean physically and
have as high ideals as the best church
men in more northern countries, there
are some who see no harm in buying q
lottery ticket or making a wager on a
cock fight. OF course it is nothing more
than a difference in the moral view
The Spanish-speaking countries are
simply 100 years behind the times
George Washington, that paragon Of
patriotic devotion to the public well
fare, in his day thought nothing of
buying a lottery ticket or of presid ng
at a drawing. One may read in his
private diary where he paid $50 ster-
ling for his share of 100 tickets in one
lottery, and where at another time he
presided at Coll Moore's drawing. When
Westover, Col. William Byrd's famous
estate on the James river, was about
to be sold for debt, a lottery was con-
ceived, and the finances of the Byrd
heirs were put into a healty condition
as a result of the experiment. Wash
ington took d number of chances on
Westover.
In a single session of the Virginia
legislature, 1923, there were twelve
new lotteries authorized. In Connecti-
cut one was authorized for the building
of an insane asylum. In Massaehu-
setts famous Plymouth Beach was re-
paired by funds raised from lottery,
and even the descendants of the Puri-
tans did not look askance at it. Ir
Missouri one of the first acts OF the
legislature was the authorization of a
lottery to raise money for hospital.
Churches were built everywhere with
money raised in this way.
tho pitU Of WASHINGTON itself
owes some of it's beauties to a lottery.
In 1898 one was authorized to recruit
the depleted funds for the erection of
public buildings. The grand prize was
advertised as "a superb hotel, with
baths. outhouses, etc, valued at
$500O0." 1t would take that amount
today to equip the kitchen of one of
Washingtons most modern hotels, but
at that time $4,000 hotel was con-
sidered palatial There were to be two
drawings, but for some reason the sec
ond was never held.
From this it was evident that the
morality of the lottery is merely a
question of progress. The Panamanians
are simply behind the times when they
permit one to be operated. Their lot
terry is a legacy of the French regime
on the isthmus, it having been char
tered at the time when De Lesseps was
Ilere. OpeculdliOIl anu 5diiDllHS WSIS
everywhere in evidence then, and 1t
had a prosperity that rivaled the old
Louisiana lottery in its palmiest days.
Even now, when the United. States is
doing everything in its power to keep
the taint of the establishment from
coming even indirectly into the canal
zone, it has a splendid prosperity, for,
after paying all prizes, all expenses OF
operation and all tributes to the state
and church, there is nearly 100000 in
annual profits to be divided among the
stockholders.
Each ordinary drawing brings into
the Golfers of the lottery $4,000, 81 each
for the 10000 tickets sold. These tick
cts in turn are cut up into five coupons
and each coupon calls for 20 cents. If
the ticket wins and one man holds all
its parts he gets the whole prize for
which it calls, or If he holds only part
of the coupons he gets one-fifth of the
prize for each coupon he holds. Out
of the $4,000 received from the sale of
tickets $6420 is returned in prizes. In
addition to this the ticket-sellers get
s per cent and the government 8 per
cent on all sales of tickets, so that in
a oomDletely subscribed drawing the