The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-03-23
LADY LUCK PLAYS
PART SOMETIMES
Poor People Make Big
Winnings In Spanish
- Lottery

The Spanish national lottery has
lately been giving its biggest prizes to
people who really need the money,
writes G. Ward Price in the Cont
mental edition of the London Mail.
Even while l have been in Madrid
the servants at my hotel have come in
for a substantial windfall. Thirty-fve
Of the staff dubbed together to sub
scribe $50 for a lottery ticket, which,
three Saturdays ago, rewarded them
with a dividend of not less than $50, 900.
Directly this happened most of them
madelip their minds to leave hotel serv-
ice forever. By now the greater number
have decided to stay on after all, for
as soon as q man becomes independent
of his job he begins to like it.
The night the >drawing Of that ticket
was. announced there was wrinkled
old baggage porter to be seen sitting
apart in a corner with tears running
down his face. 1t was not that he was
out of it; he had won 81, 800. But
after all the trouble he had known in
life, such good luck just scared him.
The Biggest Stake
A bagatelle of $S5,000, however is
but a small scale demonstration for the
luck-bringing fairy of Madrid. Her
supreme achievement was few weeks
ago, and it must be a worlds record.
l was taken to see the place-a dingy,
narrow street, that was full of people,
peering into the tiny coffee shop where
the winning ticket had been held. They
were on pilgrimage to the scene of a
miraclerw0ne of the kind these gamble
3avine SPaniards long for most ~
The coffee shop stands inAthe "Ras-
tfo, an open-air Caledonian market of
Madrid Last autumn the man who
kept it bought National lottery ticket
for $500 and began to peddle off shares
to his customers at Is cents each.
r Nothing unusual in this-you can't
stop to light a cigarette in Madrid
without some street urchin trying to
sell you a fractional lottery ticket.
What is unusual, though, was the fact
that the coffee keepers ticket drew the
big annual prize of $2,250,00O.
T A Big Return
Every 10 cents invested by the down.
at-heei, mwashed, barbed-wire-chinn
customers of his brought its owner a
return of 81 ,225. So just now the Ras-
tro is full of capitalists who go on
lounging among the heaps of old iron
and castoff boots only because they
know of no other place in the world
to which to go.
Nevertheless, this open-handed god
dess OF the lottery has nasty strain
OF malice in her. Hear what happened
to the coffee house keeper on whom
she lavished the big prize. He had
always l0nged for a big motor car. 1t
was just one of those vain dreams we
all cherish in the dim, and dusty cor,
ners of our hearts until the lottery
wheel spun it suddenly into his grasp.
And on his first drive he had a col
lision and was killed.
There isIyet another story of luck in
the RastrO-though the case was
rather one of enterprise than good for
tune.
Twenty years ago a British dealer
appeared at the rubbishy furniture
stalls there offering small lump sums
for the whole stock of pictures they
had on sale among the rusty bedsteads,
flyblOwn vases and faded curtains.
Loaded with daubs of the most dread
full kind, he returned to England and
had the canvasses carefully examined
for pictures by famous artists painted
over in ignorance of their merit. A
Velasquez and several Murillos, worth
thousands, rewarded his outlay of a
few hundred dollars.
A Clerks Amazing Story
But the very oldest luck / have
heard of happened to the submanager
of bank in Madrid.
: "Look at that man over there, and
will tell you the straRgest true tale
about him you ever heard" said a
friend of mine as we lunehed in a
Madrid club. glanced across and saw
a young, dark, reserved looking Span
lard, whose story, as / discovered later,
is one of the most popular converse
tional topics in the country.
Two years ago that young man was
bank clerk, married, and living on a
small salary, out of which, however, he
used to give with unusual generosity to
charities One of his favorite ideas,
about which he often talked with his
wife, was to take a big house and open
it as home for orphans.
Such a plan was utterly beyond his
means, of course, but one day, by
sudden inspiration, he said to his wife
Il am going to play the lottery to get
the money" t
She, sensible woman, discouraged
him, but he persisted and bought a
ticket for $3.50. "A few weeks later
the precise GATE was december ",
1021-in the morning, his manager
called him in and told him that his
salary was to be considerably increased
the following week He bought the
evening paper and found that he had
won 1,125,OO0.
Directly he received the money he
gave $450,000 for the building and
Orphanage he had in mind when he
bought the ticket.
SO much is unimpeachable fact. Two
separate informants, however, told me
something even stranger, though they
were not absolutely sure of their YER
sion. They assert that to get the $3.50
TO buy the ticket in the big lottery
the lucky man first tried his luck in
smaller draw and won. Upon this,
they relate, he proceeded to spend his
winnings in buying the very same num-
Der in the big national. lottery, and