The Olden Time Series Volume I Part 6

_Providence, November 17, 1797._

--> _TICKETS in the above Lottery to be sold at this Office, and at_ JOHN DUTCH'S AUCTION ROOM, _Ess.e.x-Street._

_Harvard College Lottery._

CLa.s.s FIRST, Not two Blanks to a Prize.

TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND TICKETS, at 5 Dollars each, are 125,000 Dollars, to be paid in the following Prizes, subject to a Deduction, of _twelve and an half per Cent._ for the purposes of the Lottery.

_Prizes_ _Dols._ _Dols._

1 of 10,000 is 10,000 2 5,000 10,000 3 2,000 6,000 6 1,000 6,000 10 500 5,000 20 200 4,000 60 100 6,000 90 50 4,500 100 40 4,000 120 30 3,600 161 20 3,220 200 10 2,000 7,585 8 60,680 ------ ------ 8,358 _Prizes,_ 125,000 16,642 _Blanks._ ------ 25,000

--> THE above Cla.s.s will _positively_ commence drawing in the REPRESENTATIVES' CHAMBER, in BOSTON, on THURSDAY, 13th November next, and will continue from day to day, and be _completed_ with all _possible dispatch._ A list of Prizes will be _immediately_ published, and the Prizes paid _on demand._

The Managers believe it enough, to induce the Public to become Adventurers, to inform them, that the object of this _Lottery_ is to erect a new Building, at the UNIVERSITY in Cambridge, for the further accommodation of the Students. The Friends of literature are to be found every where, and when its cause can be served, and a _good chance_ for personal emolument at the same time presents itself; this double inducement, it is conceived, _must_ operate in favor of the Lottery.

The Managers of this Lottery, had the conducting of the late State Lottery--the Public will do them the justice to say, that the _strictest punctuality_ as to the time fixed for Drawing, and in the payment of Prizes, was observed by them in that Lottery--they pledge themselves for the same punctuality in this.

BENJAMIN AUSTIN, jun. } GEORGE R. MINOT, } SAMUEL COOPER, } Managers.

HENRY WARREN, } JOHN KNEELAND, }

_Boston, July 14, 1794._

--> TICKETS are sold by J. JENKS, D. JENKS, J. HATHORNE, J.

DABNEY, and W. CARLTON, Salem.

Major Benjamin Russell, in the "Boston Columbian Centinel," March 26, 1791, says:

The _National_ and _State Legislatures_ being in recess, there is a "plentiful scarcity" of domestick occurrences, at this time.--This is locally remedied by the Lottery, which seems to arrest the attention of all ranks of citizens.--To describe the symptoms of the _disease_ is impossible--all are fascinated--all expect to be the favoured children of Fortune.--The rich court her smiles, as eagerly as the poor--and whilst, O! fickle G.o.ddess, the _Young_ pour forth their supplications for thy favours,

"_With falt'ring pace, and feeble knee, See_ Age _advance, in shameless haste; The palsied hand is stretch'd to thee, For_ Wealth, _it wants the pow'r to taste._"

The delusion is general--and general must the mortification be. But as attention must be paid to the infatuation--we have endeavoured, by a regular publication of the fortunate numbers, to alleviate its frenzy.

On March 29, 1814, Messrs. Bridge and Renouf, the well-known brokers, of 79 State Street, Boston, gave notice that a prize of $500--No.

3,394--"had" been "drawn in the Plymouth Beach Lottery." This number had been "sold by them to several young Gentlemen who purchased 30 Tickets;"

and they also announced that the drawing was "suspended until the next Tuesday, when the first drawn ticket will be the highest prize, _Twenty thousand Dollars;_" and besides this, that "there are remaining to be drawn four prizes of $1,000 each, and four prizes of $500 each."

It should be noticed that there was, even in its most flouris.h.i.+ng days, a difference of opinion among individuals in regard to the morality of the lottery, as men must differ on all subjects; so that it is perhaps only fair to cite a specimen or two of the communications which appeared in the papers in reference thereto. A writer in the "Salem Gazette,"

June 29, 1790, says:--

_OF LOTTERIES._

Lotteries have of late been a very productive source of revenue in this State.--The moral tendency of them has been supposed by some to be injurious to society; and government have been careful to grant them for such purposes only, as that the probable benefit should outweigh the evil. By this means we have seen the interests of literature supported--the arts encouraged--the wastes of war repaired--inundations prevented--the burthen of taxes lessened, &c. Manufactures might also in this way be established. Those which will not support themselves, it is true, will not benefit the community; but there are very important ones, which in their infancy require the nursing hand of government--to such the produce of lotteries might be beneficially applied. There exists a spirit of adventure in all societies, which will lead a number to throw themselves into the hands of Chance in one way or another, & which, under the direction of a wise Legislature, may be made to subserve their best interests.

The monies raised by lotteries cannot impoverish the community--as they are not sent abroad, but only taken out of one pocket and put into another.

There is also in the same paper, of Feb. 25, 1794, another communication, in which the writer apparently takes an entirely opposite view, and quotes a letter of Joel Barlow to the National Convention of France, in which will be found some rather strong language. When one considers the place where these views appear to have been adopted, and recollects the horrible scenes of the French Revolution, which were even then being enacted, one wonders whether the French authorities valued human life as much as they did property.

ON PUBLIC LOTTERIES.

MR. CUs.h.i.+NG,

AS our Legislature have lately had under consideration a bill, for granting a Lottery to Harvard College, I beg you will publish what our countryman, Mr. BARLOW, said on the subject of Public Lotteries, in his Letter to the National Convention of France. It is as follows:

"SINCE I am treating of morals, the great object of all political instructions, I cannot avoid bestowing some remarks on the subject of PUBLIC LOTTERIES. It is a shocking disgrace of modern governments, that they are driven to this pitiful piece of knavery, to draw money from the people. But no circ.u.mstance of this kind is so extraordinary as that this policy should be continued in France, since the revolution; and that a state lottery should still be reckoned among the permanent sources of revenue. It has its origin in deception; and depends for its support, on _raising and disappointing the hopes of individuals_--on perpetually agitating the mind with _unreasonable desires of gain_--on clouding the understanding with superst.i.tious ideas of _chance,_ _destiny_ and _fate_--on diverting the attention from regular industry, and promoting a _universal spirit of gambling,_ which carries all sorts of vices into all cla.s.ses of people. Whatever way we look into human affairs, we shall ever find that the bad organization of society is the cause of more disorders than could possibly arise from the natural temper of the heart.

And what shall we say of a government that avowedly steps forward, with the insolence of an open enemy, and creates a new vice, for the sake of loading it with a tax? What right has such a government to punish our follies? And who can look without disgust on the impious figure it makes, in holding the scourge in one hand, and the temptation in the other? You cannot hesitate to declare, in your const.i.tution, THAT ALL LOTTERIES SHALL BE FOREVER ABOLISHED."

In November last, the Convention, in conformity with the foregoing sentiments, pa.s.sed the following decree:

"Lotteries, of whatever nature they may be, or under whatever denomination they may exist, are suppressed."

In 1791 the Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature granted to the proprietors of the Cotton Manufactory in Beverly four hundred tickets in the lottery about to be drawn, and three hundred in the next Semi-annual State Lottery.

"Some people, out-doors," says the "Salem Gazette," March 8, 1791, "murmur at this as an ill-judged act of liberality; but perhaps they are not acquainted with the arguments which induced the grant. The disposition of Government to foster our infant manufactures is certainly laudable." This is unquestionably good reasoning; for, granted the premises that lotteries are ever beneficial, then there was no reason why aid should not in this way be extended to business enterprises which were to give employment to the people, as well as to schools and colleges. Employment must be provided as well as education.

The Beverly Cotton Manufactory, Stone, in his History of Beverly, claims to be the first manufactory of its kind established in America, that at Pawtucket having been the second; and he also states that it was visited by General Was.h.i.+ngton on his tour through the country in 1789. The leading proprietors in this enterprise were George and Andrew Cabot, Israel Thorndike and Henry Higginson, men of the highest reputation in New England for integrity and honor.

From the "Salem Gazette," Dec. 25, 1812:

_The Historical Dictionary,_

By EZRA SAMPSON, author of the Beauties of the Bible, is one of the most useful little works of this nature which we have seen. It contains _much in a small compa.s.s._ Its subjects are Natural and Civil History, Geography, Zoology, Botany and Mineralogy, arranged in alphabetical order, and explained in such a neat and intelligible manner, as to render it worthy of being (according to its design) a _Companion for Youth._ We select the following article as a specimen of the work.

LOTTERY,

A kind of public game at hazard, in order to raise money for the service of the state. A lottery consists of several numbers of blanks and prizes, which are drawn out of wheels, one of which contains the numbers of the tickets, and the other the corresponding blanks and prizes. Besides the consideration that this, as well as all other kinds of gambling for money, tends to corrupt the public morals, it is also to be considered that the purchasers of the tickets are never permitted to play the game on fair and equal ground.

The world neither ever saw, nor ever will see, a perfectly fair lottery; or one in which the whole gain compensated the whole loss; because the undertaker could make nothing by it.

In lotteries the tickets are really not worth the price which is paid by the original purchasers, and yet they often sell in the market at a considerable advance: the vain hope of gaining some of the great prizes is the cause of this demand.

In order to have a better chance for some of the large prizes, some people purchase several tickets, and others small shares in a still greater number. There is not, however, a more certain proposition in mathematics, than that the more tickets you adventure upon, the more likely you are to be a loser. Adventure upon all the tickets in the lottery and you lose for certain; and the greater the number of your tickets, the nearer you approach to this certainty.

The above is surely a just account of the nature and principles of a Lottery; yet it does not destroy the fact, that, distributed as the tickets always are among thousands, there must be some gainers, and that, in spite of mathematics, there is a lucky number, which must draw the capital prize in the Plymouth Beach Lottery (without any deduction) of 12000 dollars. Both the _Historical Dictionary_ and Lottery _Tickets_ may be had at Cus.h.i.+ng & Appleton's old stand, one door west of Central Building;--where BANK BILLS are exchanged.

Lottery at the celebrated "Wayside Inn" at Sudbury in 1760.