The Olden Time Series Volume I Part 7

THE Managers of _Sudbury_ Lottery, No. Two, hereby notify the Public, That they shall commence Drawing said Lottery, on Friday the Thirtieth Day of May Instant, at the House of Mr.

_William Bryant_ Inholder in said _Sudbury._ --> A few Tickets are yet to be had of the Managers, and _Samuel Hardcastle_ and the Printers hereof.

_Boston Gazette,_ May, 1760.

Some remarks in reference to supplying Bibles in the eastern part of Ma.s.sachusetts by means of a lottery.

MR. RUSSELL,

A FRIEND to religion, and one who wishes the memorial of a certain respectable society may have a happy effect, but a zealous enemy to lotteries, asked a member of an important body, the other day, whether he thought the General Court would grant a Lottery for the purpose of supplying every person in the eastern part of the Commonwealth with a bible, who is unable to purchase one, and for the pay of a missionary.--Let not the serious reader frown, as that member did; for if there is nothing contained in that sacred book which can be thought opposed to this method of gambling, neither the one nor the other can give a substantial reason why, in the present rage for lotteries, the people should not be indulged in raising money in the way most agreeable to their humour.

PERSOLUS.

_Columbian Centinel,_ Feb. 26, 1791.

_MRS. CLARK AFLOAT._

In the s.h.i.+p Ann Maria arrived at New-Haven the following wax pa.s.sengers, viz. King George III, _Bonaparte,_ Was.h.i.+ngton, _Jefferson,_ Hamilton, _Burr,_ Hillhouse, _Madison,_ Pickering, _Giles_ and _Mrs. Mary Ann Clark._ The Custom-House officers made prisoners of all these pa.s.sengers for violating the Non-Importation Act, but being proved that they were of East-Haven manufacture and unconscious of crime, we are happy to hear they have been all liberated. King George III. was taken in such bad company as is a sufficient proof that he is _crazy._ Napoleon undoubtedly rejoiced when he beheld the faithful execution in our waters, of his continental system. Was.h.i.+ngton and Hamilton were glad that they were in their graves, before their country had been plunged so deeply in disgrace. Had not Pickering and Hillhouse been indeed made of _wax,_ they would have thrown Bonaparte and Jefferson overboard and given them the freedom of the Seas. If the custom-house officers had kept possession of Poor Madison, they could never have obtained much money for him, as he now is a sorry _figure,_ since he has been scalped and tomahawked by Smith. Burr, the democratic vice-president and traitor, who has now gone home to France, ought to be exhibited for the instruction of the People, in every village. Giles must have been liable to have been York-_sheared_ by Mrs. Clark, who, on a July day, when the weather was at blood heat, must have been in a _melting_ mood and susceptible of impressions. But he is an advocate of Non-Intercourse. The officers of the Revenue, notwithstanding they were in such a _taking_ fit, and had conceived such vain & high blown hope of the immense wealth they should receive as the ransom of their Captives, have not half so good a chance of a _prize_ as those adventurers who will call at Cus.h.i.+ng and Appleton's, one door west of central Building, and purchase a Ticket or quarter in Harvard College Lottery now drawing.

_Salem Gazette,_ July 12, 1811.

Mr. Pardon Sheldon, a respectable citizen of Providence, was the fortunate holder of the $20,000 prize in the North Carolina Lottery which was drawn some days since.

_Salem Observer,_ Dec. 17, 1825.

A Speedy Cure for a Broken Fortune.

TO all those who bitterly complain of the great dearth of "the root of all evil," and a want of confidence in these speculating times, and who, tremblingly antic.i.p.ate a long and doubtful conflict, in money operations the coming season, the following beautiful and brilliant schemes offer the means of a sure and an immediate relief.

The Grand State Lottery, Fourth Cla.s.s Extra, with a capital prize of $10,000, a prize of 500, and 5 prizes of 1000, will draw THIS DAY. Tickets $3 & parts in proportion.

The Rhode-Island Lottery, First Cla.s.s, New Series, highest prize 10,000, five prizes of 1,000, and a variety of smaller prizes, will draw on the 24th inst. Tickets $3 and parts in proportion. And last, though not least,

The New-York Literature Lottery, Cla.s.s No. 3, for 1825, with the truly splendid prizes of 100,000, 50,000, and 10,500 and smaller prizes to the amount of more than half a MILLION of DOLLARS, will draw on the 4th of January next. Tickets $50, and parts in proportion.

For PRIZES in the above Lotteries apply to

E.H. PAYSON,

At Dana & Fenno's Office, Central street.

Official Lists of the two first Lotteries will be received by E.H.P. on the evenings of the days of the drawings.

tf Dec 10.

_Salem Observer,_ 1825.

Fortune's Favourite Sons,

ARE informed that _Stonington Point Meeting-House Lottery_ will positively commence drawing the 19th of May--viz. this day four weeks. In this Lottery of only 6000 Tickets, are one of 3000 dollars--one of 1000--five of 500--two of 400--three of 300--ten of 200--twenty of 100, &c. Tickets for 3 Dollars, for sale, and prizes in the _Eastern Stage Road Lottery,_ taken in pay.--Also Cash paid for those sold by THOMAS HILDRUP.

N.B. Adventurers may know their fate from his List of Prizes.

Hartford, April 21, 1794.

_Connecticut Courant._

To show how largely men's minds--and perhaps women's too--were filled with the lottery mania, if we may so call it, in the days of which we are writing, we will introduce a Southern scheme from the "Petersburg Intelligencer" of 1816, copied in the "Salem Register," September 11 of that year. Some of our readers may think that it is not a bad idea.

_From the Petersburg Intelligencer._

MATRIMONIAL LOTTERY.

On the 21st day of December last, I was pa.s.sing through the state of South Carolina, and in the evening arrived in the suburbs of the town of ----, where I had an acquaintance, on whom I called. I was quickly informed that the family was invited to a wedding at a neighboring house, and on being requested, I changed my clothes and went with them. As soon as the young couple were married, the company was seated, and a profound silence ensued--(the man of the house was religious.) A young Lawyer then arose, and addressed the company very handsomely, and in finis.h.i.+ng his discourse begged leave to offer a new scheme of matrimony, which he believed and hoped would be beneficial. And obtaining leave he proposed:

That one man in the company should be selected as president; that this president should be duly sworn to keep entirely secret all the communications that should be forwarded to him in his official department that night: and each unmarried gentleman and lady should write his or her name on a piece of paper, and under it place the person's name whom they wished to marry; then hand it to the president for inspection, and if any gentleman and lady had reciprocally chosen each other, the president was to inform each of the result; and those who had not been reciprocal in their choices, should have their choice kept entirely secret.

After the appointment of the president, the communications were accordingly handed up to the chair, and it was found that twelve young gentlemen and ladies had made reciprocal choices; but whom they had chosen remained a secret to all but themselves and the president.--The conversation changed and the company respectively retired.

Now hear the conclusion. I was pa.s.sing through the same place on the 14th of March following, and was informed that eleven of the twelve matches had been solemnized, and that the young gentlemen of eight couples of the eleven had declared that their diffidence was so great that they certainly should not have addressed their respective wives, if the above scheme had not been introduced.----> Gentlemen under 20 and ladies under 15 were excluded as unmarriageable.

You will be pleased to let the public hear of this scheme, and I hope it will be productive of much good, by being practised in Virginia.

_A Married Man without Children._

The weak spot in this plan, we imagine, would be the difficulty in keeping the _blanks_ entirely secret.

We have not undertaken to give an account of all the lotteries of which we have seen advertis.e.m.e.nts, as our limits would not admit of it, even if it could be made interesting to those who like to read about such matters; New England alone would fill a large volume. We will name only a few of the more prominent lotteries,--the Land Bank, in 1759; the Pavement on Boston Neck, the same year. Then there was the Charlestown lottery, the Hatfield Bridge, Sudbury, the Amoskeag Ca.n.a.l, the South Hadley Ca.n.a.l, the Philanthropic, the Kennebec, the Dartmouth College, the Gloucester Road, the Plymouth Beach, etc. All these, of course, were public lotteries, and were managed by the first men in the community. In relation to private lotteries it would now be difficult to ascertain the facts. There must have been a great number of these; probably they were not always honestly conducted. We have heard that there were shops where the inexperienced were supplied with bogus tickets,--blanks of some drawn lottery. Bad men, unfortunately, are to be found in all kinds of business; but we know that in Salem all the men whose names we have mentioned were among the very best in the community.

Although laws are now in force in Ma.s.sachusetts and some other States against lotteries, there appears to be no essential difference, as far as the morality of the thing is concerned, between the old lottery and the modern raffle,--and indeed a certain species of stock gambling, it seems to us, is worse than either in its moral effects. After the year 1826, or thereabout, lotteries appear to have become unpopular, and laws were pa.s.sed prohibiting them. Their unprofitableness, moreover, seems then to have been more clearly seen. As we have already said, there had always been some who saw the evils which must result from such schemes.

Notably among prominent men who in Ma.s.sachusetts used their influence against them were John Hanc.o.c.k,[1] of Revolutionary fame, and afterwards governor of the Commonwealth, and Peter C. Brooks, a distinguished merchant of Boston, father-in-law of Edward Everett. The "Salem Gazette"

of Sept. 16, 1794, says: "Considering the acknowledged immoral tendency of _Lotteries,_ it is astonis.h.i.+ng how much is said in the Boston papers in favor of that which our Legislature has lately inst.i.tuted for Harvard College. Our late worthy Governor Hanc.o.c.k, in a public address to the General Court, gave his testimony against this species of gambling, so calculated to ensnare and injure those cla.s.ses of worthy citizens who are guiltless of that vice in its common form."

[Footnote 1: Although we have seen lottery tickets signed by Hanc.o.c.k earlier in life.]

In some foreign countries and in a few of the States of our Union lotteries are still lawful; yet we believe there is a growing feeling against them. But if stock gambling is destined to take the place of the lottery, we do not think much will be gained by the change. The losses by lotteries were generally in small sums, and could be better borne by the adventurers than the entire loss of property, health, and reputation which is now too apt to follow a large proportion of the speculative stock operations. In the lottery, too, the risks were generally so small that the ticket-buyer alone suffered; whereas now, whole families are often involved in financial ruin, if not in disgrace, by the operations of a father, brother, or near relative. But we will say no more on this point, as it is a consideration foreign to the object of this book.