May 1, 1888.] 



KNO^WLEDGE ♦ 



159 



lines over which are meridians and declination-parallels 

 corresponding to those in our tracings, the central meridian 

 on each tracing being made to correspond successively with 

 0\ II'', IV'', &c., up to XXII'' ; or, if we care for more precise 

 information, we make twenty-four maps presenting the 

 stellar skies at hourly intervals for each night and at 

 bi monthly intervals round the year. 



A NEW LOTTERY SWINDLE. 



N all the United States, save one, lotteries ai-e 

 regarded as illegal. That one State, Louisiana, 

 professes to permit lotteries onh' for educational 

 or charitable purposes, which does not prevent 

 the State-supported lotteries of Louisiana from 

 being conducted on a system whose only claim 

 to fairness lies in the barefacedness of its unfair- 

 ness. It openly proclaims itself a swindle, so confident is its 

 trust in the folly of the majority, who will always pay ten 

 dollars for a five-dollars' chance of winning a gi-eat prize. 

 Unluckily the Louisiana Lottery leavens with its unwhole- 

 someuess the whole lump. In every State the advertising 

 of the Louisiana lottery swindle is pursued more or less 

 openly. The evil even reaches the old country, as I happen 

 to know from personal experience ; for having proclaimed 

 openly the iniquities of nearly all lottery schemes and the 

 folly of gambling generally, I am na tm-ally regarded by the 

 lottery scamps iis secretly hankering to try my chance. So 

 that from America and from the Continent, even from 

 Australia, invitations reach me to invest in lotteries openly 

 proclaimed in their own advertisements dishonest and 

 delusive. 



In passing, I may remai-k that if I believed in luck I 

 should certainly be tempted to venture in some of these 

 lotteries ; for twice, though not from desire for gambling 

 gains, I have tried my luck (as the foolish ones put it) in 

 lotteries, and each time I have won a goodlj' prize. One 

 trial occurred in ilelbourne, Victoria, where 1 had been 

 taken round the Chinese quarter, visiting opium dens, 

 Chinese lottery dives, and so forth. The method of mark- 

 ing the Chinese lottery papers was explained to me by a 

 practical example ; I paid, that is to s.^}', for the right, and 

 made marks at random with the vermilion brush as 

 instructed. The rest of the company did the same. I 

 certainly supposed I was paying a shilling away — without 

 any likelihood of seeing it again — for the opportunity of 

 learning how the Chinese lottery men managed their little 

 game. But next morning the sum of 29/. was handed over 

 to the leader of our party, my share being 4/. 2s. 10 J. The 

 other case occurred at a bazaar in Boston, held in October 

 1873 by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd for a most 

 excellent purpose. I bought tickets in a raffle for a gold 

 watch, regarding their price as my contribution to the 

 charity; but next morning a gentleman cjilled in at the 

 Parker House with the watch, which it seems I had won. 

 I kept the watch, but preferred to pay the cost price, not 

 caring to have my charity mixed up with anything so 

 degrading, in my estimation, as gambling. 



In England, lotteries at bazaars are still permitted, or 

 rather are still winked at, for, strictly speaking, the law 

 forbids them. Various magazines and journals also have 

 lotteries more or less disguised, prizes being offered to pur- 

 chasers of the serial who may make lucky guesses of various 

 sorts. The law can hardly touch these cases, since the right 

 to a guess is not ostensibly paid for, but thrown in, along 

 with the serial itself, in return for the shilling, sixpence, 

 twopence, or whatever the sum may be which the serial 



costs. But recently the law relating to lotteries has been 

 broken in a singularly daring manner. A form of lottery 

 which has long been in vogue on the continent of Europe 

 (sometimes known as the Geneva system) has been reproduced 

 in principle, or want of principle, though the details have 

 been craftily altered in such sort that the system has an 

 innocent, parlour-pastime aspect. 



In the Geneva Lottery System (considered fully in my 

 little book on " Chance and Luck ") there are ninety 

 numbers, and at a " drawing " five ai-e taken out in succes- 

 sion at random. The public, before the drawing, have been 

 entitled to buy a chance for any price, within certain limits, 

 which they may like to pay. Thus a purchaser may take 

 any one of the following chances : — (1) He names a single 

 number of the ninety, receiving f/teen times his stake if 

 his number is one aniong the five drawn; or (2) he names a 

 single number and the position it is to occupy among the 

 five di-awn, receiving seventy times his stake if his guess is 

 right ; or (3) he names two numbers of the ninety, receiving 

 two liundred and seventy times his stake if both appear 

 among the five drawn ; or (4) he names two numbers and 

 their position, receiving Awe tho^isand one huiulred times his 

 stake if his guess is correct ; or (.5) he names three numbers 

 of the ninety, receiving _/ttie thousand five hundred times his 

 stake if all three appear among the five drawn ; or (6) he 

 names four numbers of the ninety, receiving seventyfive 

 thousand times his stake if all four appear among the five 

 drawn. 



These ventures are called respectively, simple number, 

 determinate nvimber, simple ambe, determinate ambe, simple 

 terne, and simple quaterne. 



How much of rascality there is in the system will be 

 seen from the following little table, showing the prize 

 actually given and the prize which should have been given 

 in each case. If the chances were properly dealt with as in 

 a fail" wager between man and man : — 

 Table showing Prize actually given and Prize earned. 



Actnal Prize. 



Simple number . 

 Determinate number 

 Simple ambe 

 Determinate ambe 

 Simple terne 

 Simple quaterne . 



Proper Prize. 



18 times the stake 



90 „■ „ „ 



400i „ „ 



8,010 „ „ 



11,M8 „ „ 



611,033 „ „ 



As the lottery-loving public always prefer to try for large 

 prizes, not noticing how small the chances are of getting 

 them, the more risky ventures in the above list were those 

 chiefly taken, and it will be observed that these are the 

 ventures for which the prizes are most inadequate. Thus, 

 for simple terne, the tottxl amount paid in prizes would in 

 the long run be less than half (f yVW) of the amount paid 

 in ; while for simple quaterne the total amount paid out 

 would be less than ^^„ of the amount paid in. 



Of course the promoters of Continental lotteries on this 

 system carefully published every case in which a great prize 

 was won, knowing well that the general public would never 

 guess the real significance of these cases. Every venture 

 won on simple terne meant more than eleven thousand lost. 

 Every venture won on simple quaterne meant more than 

 five hundred thousand lost. 



The recently invented plan depends on letters instead of 

 numbers, but in principle is precisely the same as the 

 Geneva system, and is worked on the same crafty and 

 fraudulent lines. The promoters call themselves the 

 " National Prize Competition Society " — the guessers are 

 called " competitors," be it observed — and the scheme is 

 advertised as "a novel system of money-making," the public 

 fondly imagining that they are to make the money. The 



