Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-12-28
LOTTERY RoMANcEs.
How Fortunes Have Been Won ana
Lost by Freaks Of Chance.

| by no means over ID pioNcu pS :" 90
gular story which has just come to US
from Brussels. For some time no
claimant appeared for the principal
prize in the Brussels Exhibition Lot
terry, of the value of $4,000; and as
weeks passed it became more ana
more doubtful whether the owner OF
the winning ticket would ever be
traced until a week or 50 ago he was
discovered in dramatic fashion.
| A few days before the result of the
lottery drawing was announced
young Belgian miner had been tragl-
cally killed by stone falling on his
head while at work: and, according TO
custom, he had been buried in his
best suit of clothes. The man had
been some time underground when his
relations recalled that he had pur-
chased a ticket for the great lottery
and that it had probably been buried
with him. A petition was made to the
| authorities for permission to exhume
the body: and in a waistcoat pocket
was found the missing ticket which,
had he lived would have made him a
rich man.
| The recent history of lotteries is full
1 ~
which are practically unknown to the
public at large. Rouge ct Noir,' for
instance, recalls how "a few years ago
I was at Frankfort on the eve of the
lottery being drawn. At hotel l met
several gentlemen, one of whom re-
GREETED having spent two forms on a
ticket, as he never had any luck
another gentleman offered him two
forms for it, which offer was accept
ed. On the following day the ticket
won 10000 fiorins.'
! He also tells another story of d
| tradesman who had bought four tick
cts, bearing consecutive numbers, in u
big lottery. Thinking it foolish to
have SO many tickets so close together,
he took one of them back to the office
and had it exchanged for another. His
disgust can be better imagined than
I described when the ticket thus eX-
| changed won prize of 100000.
| A more fortunate experience was
| that of a French widow, one Nine.
Hoser. who was passing rich" on a
! few francs a day earned as cantecn
maid to a regiment of dragons. One
day madame decided to invest her very
small savings in three tickets for a
forthcoming lottery. the chief prizes
in which were of dazzling richness
She was offered tickets numbered con-
secutive!y 2,17. 2,172 and 2.173 The
last Of the trio she pointblank refused
to accept. as it contained her ,lnlucky
number %" Ticket No. 2,174 was
willingly substituted, and it was this
| very ticket. so quixotically chosen
which won for her the first prize OF
100000.
"A few years ago, as the date for the
drawing of the annual Christmas lot
| terry at Madrid was approaching. a
| poor mechanic of Corunna was awak-
ened three consecutive nights by the
number 125.S69, apparently spoken in
his ear. So impressed was he by the
repetition of the incident that he wrote
! down the number and joeularly said
to his wife, THAT number will win the
first prize in the great lottery.
Then why don't you buy the ticket?
his wife answered, jokingly. as she
looked at the figures. "Why, see, if
you add them together they Just come
| to my age. l shall be 81 on Christmas
Day"
The ticket. after much trouble, was
found Git had been rejected a few
| minutes earlier by wealthy citizen
Of Corunna) and bought and before
many days had passed the mechanic
and his wife were made jubilant by
the news that the ticket had won the
first prize of 100000.
OF the same Spanish lottery another
remarkable story is told. A Madrid
crossing-sweeper was plying his brush
one morning when he saw an old lady
slip and fall on stepping off the pave
me1t. He rushed to her assistance
and raised ner to her feet, expecting
ut the most to receive a copper as the
reward of his gallantry. II have no
money with me-" said the old lady.
but here"-and she fumbled in her
handbag and produced crushed piece
OF paper-"take this, and may it bring
you luck. The piece of paper was a
tenth share ticket in the Christmas
lottery, which a few weeks later made
the crossing sweeper rich beyond the
organs of avarice," his share of tho
third prize amounting to $4,000.
Equally romantic was the experience
OF poor shopkeeper, a widow. in
Berlin suburb. One day a shabbilv-
dressed man entered her shop and
begging permission to light his nine