Suicides caused by the lottery--Story of a footman--Anecdote
told by Theodore Hook--Description of a lottery from its
commencement to its end.
Another sad phase connected with the lottery was the number of suicides
which were the outcome of it. We need scarcely contemplate the serious
side of this melancholy question, if we can find the slightest
amusement therein; and to my mind there is some in the following
anecdote.
Early in the reign of George II. the footman of a lady of quality,
under the absurd infatuation of a dream, disposed of the savings of the
last twenty years of his life in purchasing two lottery tickets, which,
proving blanks, so preyed upon his mind that, after a few days, he put
an end to his existence. In his box was found the following plan of the
manner in which he would spend the £5000 prize he surely expected to
win.
“As soon as I have received the money, I will marry Grace Towers; but,
as she has been cross and coy, I will use her as a servant. Every
morning she shall get me a mug of strong beer, with a toast, nutmeg,
and sugar in it; then I will sleep till ten, after which I will have
a large sack posset. My dinner shall be on table by one, and never
without a good pudding. I will have a stock of wine and brandy laid in.
About five in the afternoon I will have tarts and jellies, and a gallon
bowl of punch; at ten, a hot supper of two dishes. If I am in a good
humour, and Grace _behaves herself_, she shall sit down with me. To bed
about twelve.”
Julian Young, in his journal, narrates the following, which was told,
in his presence, by Theodore Hook, at a dinner-party in 1831: “Not
long since, he went by stage-coach to Sudbourne, to stay with Lord
Hertford. Inside the coach he had but one companion, a brown-faced,
melancholy-looking man, with an expression of great querulousness,
quite in character with the tone of his conversation, which was
one of ceaseless complaining. 'Sir,’ said he, 'you may have known
unfortunate men, possibly, in your day; you may, for aught I know,
be an unfortunate man yourself; but I do not believe there is such
another unfortunate man as I am in the whole world. No man ever had
more brilliant prospects than I have had in my time, and every one of
them, on the very eve of fulfilment, has been blighted. ’Twas but the
other day that I thought I would buy a ticket in the lottery. I did
so, stupid ass that I was, and took a sixteenth. Sir, I had no sooner
bought it, than I repented of my folly; and, feeling convinced that
it would be a blank, I got rid of it to a friend, who, I knew, would
thank me for the favour, and, at the same time, save me from another
disappointment. By Jove! sir, would you believe it? I know you won’t;
but it is true,--it turned up £30,000.’ 'Heaven and earth!’ said Hook,
'it is incredible. If it had happened to me, I should certainly have
cut my throat.’ 'Well,’ said he, 'of course you would, and so did I;’
and, baring his neck, he exposed to Hook’s horror-stricken gaze, a
freshly-healed cicatrix from ear to ear.”
A description of the lottery wheels, and the drawing of the lottery as
practised in 1770, may be acceptable to the reader, especially as it is
very full in detail,[31] which ever after varied very slightly, if at
all.
[31] “The Lottery Display’d, &c.,” Lond., 1771.
“The first Step towards preparing the Tickets and Drawing is the
Appointment of Managers. These are appointed by the Commissioners of
the Treasury, and, after being sworn to execute faithfully their Trust,
meet occasionally at some public Office or Place, and cause Books to
be prepared, containing a sufficient Number of Leaves (in the present
Lottery 10,000), in which every Leaf is divided into three Columns,
which are all numbered 1, 2, 3, &c., to the last, or highest Ticket.
The Third Column, which is wider than the other two, has also the Form
of the Ticket of its respective Lottery printed on it, and, indeed, is
the real Ticket given out to the Subscribers, and negotiated among the
Public, which, for the present Lottery, is as follows--
LOTTERY
No. 39m894. for the year
M.DCC.LXXI.
_The Bearer_ of this Ticket will, in Pursuance
of an _Act_ made in the _Eleventh_
Year of _His present Majesty’s Reign_, be
intitled to such _beneficial Chance_ as shall
belong thereto, in the _Lottery_ to be drawn
by Virtue and under the Directions of
the said _Act_.
“This Form being signed by one of the Cashiers of the Bank, and cut out
of the Book, is what is properly called a Lottery Ticket. After these
Books are made, and properly number’d, the Managers carefully examine
them, and send them to the Cashiers of the Bank, taking Receipts for
the same, and these, as before observed, sign and cut out the Tickets,
and deliver them to the Subscribers, or Purchasers of the Receipts, on
their paying the remaining Payments due on them, and giving them up.
“The said Cashiers are likewise to permit any Subscriber or Purchaser,
who chuses it, to sign his Name on the Ticket of the middle Column,
these being the Tickets which go into the Wheel, which, in the Words of
the Act, I shall, for the future, call Box.
“About the Middle of _October_, the Cashiers return the Books to the
Managers, with what Tickets remain in them, which are sold, or disposed
of, by the Treasury.
“The Managers, on receiving the Books, cause the Tickets or Numbers of
the middle Column to be cut out, and fastened with Thread or Silk, and
put into a Box prepared for the Purpose, and which they are to cause
to be mark’d with the Letter A, (having first given public Notice in
the News-Papers, of the Time and Place of putting them in, that any
of the Purchasers may, if they chuse it, be there, to see that the
Counter-Part of their Tickets is certainly put into the said Box,)
which Box is immediately to be put into another strong Box, and to be
locked up with seven different Locks and Keys, sealed with seven of the
Managers’ seals, and by them taken care of during the Time of putting
in the Tickets, and till the Drawing; the Tickets of the innermost
Column remaining in the Books for discovering any Mistake or Fraud in
the Drawing or afterwards.
“The Numbers of the Lottery being thus made out and secured, the
Managers proceed to prepare other Books to contain also the whole
Number of the Tickets of the Lottery for the Prizes and Blanks.
“These Books are divided into two Columns, only one to be put into the
Wheel or Box, the other to remain in the Books for detecting mistakes,
&c.
“On as many of these Tickets as there are Prizes in the Lottery,
both on the inner and the outer Columns, are written the said Prizes
respectively according to the Scheme of the Lottery, which, for the
present Year, is as follows:--
THE SCHEME.
No. of Prizes. Value of each. Total Value.
2 of £20,000 is £40,000
3 ” 10,000 ” 30,000
5 ” 5,000 ” 25,000
10 ” 2,000 ” 20,000
15 ” 1,000 ” 15,000
30 ” 500 ” 15,000
100 ” 100 ” 10,000
250 ” 50 ” 12,500
16,275 ” 20 ” 325,500
------ -------
16,690 Prizes 493,000
First drawn for first }
Six Days £1000 } 6,000
each }
Last drawn 1,000
For use of Government }
and Expense } 150,000
of Drawing }
33,310 Blanks
------ -------
50,000 Tickets at £13 £650,000
“To this Scheme may be added, that 10 _per cent._ will be deducted from
the Prizes, so that for--
a £20,000 Government will pay only £18,000
10,000 ” ” 9,000
5,000 ” ” 4,500
2,000 ” ” 1,800
1,000 ” ” 900
500 ” ” 450
100 ” ” 90
50 ” ” 45
20 ” ” 18
“I have thus reduced the Prizes to their proper Value, as some
Adventurers may expect to receive them as they were paid in the last
Lottery, and cavil with the Officers about it.
* * * * *
“But to return to the Books which contain the Prizes and Blanks of the
Lottery, on which we are to observe that the Tickets of the outside
Column of these Books are cut out, and put into a Box marked B, and
that inclosed in another strong Box, in the same manner as the Box
A before mentioned, which contained the Numbers. This Part of the
Business is generally done at _Whitehall_, in _Westminster_, but a
Day or two before the Drawing. These Boxes, as they are called, are
carried from thence to _Guildhall_ in the City, where, on the Day
appointed in the Act, the Drawing begins, which is performed nearly in
the following Manner.
“But, in order to convey to the distant Reader, a clear Idea of the
Performance, it will be necessary to give a Description of the Lottery
Wheels, which, in Conformity to the Words of the Act, I have, hitherto,
been obliged to call Boxes. These are two Wheels, about Six Feet in
Diameter, and twelve or eighteen Inches thick, so that the Sides, being
thin, reserve a sufficient Cavity for containing the Tickets; they have
also convenient Openings in the Sides for putting in the Hand to draw
them, and are suspended on their Centers in a Manner very Convenient
for shaking, or mixing them. These, at the end of every Day’s Drawing,
are inclosed by two large Cases, which open in the Middle, each Part
sliding back towards the Circumference of the Wheel: These are what are
called in the Act, strong Boxes, though no more like a Box than a Ship.
But it is probable that, in the first Lotteries, Boxes were used, that
these Wheels and Cases are an Improvement on them, and that the present
Dissimilarity between the Theory and Practice of Lottery Drawing arises
from copying antiquated Acts of Parliament, as the old Schemes have
been lately transcribed in the Offices.
“Having given a Description of the Wheels, in which the Tickets are
deposited, we now proceed to the Manner of the Drawing.
“The Wheels, being placed at a convenient distance from one another, on
the Hustings, and seats prepared between them, previous to the Drawing,
for the Managers and Clerks, they are seated in their respective
Places. A Boy (generally taken from _Christ_ Church Hospital in
_London_) is stationed at each Wheel to draw the Tickets, and a Clerk
stands between each of them and the Managers, to receive and proclaim
the Numbers drawn; one Boy drawing a Ticket from the Wheel containing
the Numbers, and the other, the same Instant, one from that of the
Prizes and Blanks, and whatever Ticket of the latter, whether a Prize
or a Blank, comes up against the Ticket which contains the Number,
is filed with it, (but on two separate Files, the Blanks on one, and
the Prizes on another,) and recorded by the other Clerks, as the Fate
of that Number, in Books prepared for that Purpose, the Managers, in
the mean Time, receiving the Tickets from the Proclaimers, to see if
they had been rightly proclaimed, and to file them. Thus the Drawing
is continued, from Nine in the Morning till Two in the Afternoon,
(_Sunday_, _Christmas_, Fast and Thanksgiving Days excepted,) till
all the Prizes are drawn, and one of the Blanks, which Blank is to be
considered as last drawn Ticket, and entitled as such to the Prize in
the Scheme.
“As soon as the Drawing is finished, the Managers are, according to
the Act, to Cause all the fortunate Numbers, with their Prizes, to be
locked up in a Strong Box, and kept in their Custody till they shall
take them out, and settle and adjust the Property of them. The Managers
are also enjoin’d by the Act to print, as soon as possible, after the
Drawing is over, a List of all the Numbers of the fortunate Tickets,
with the Prizes drawn against them; and, if any Dispute arises about
the Property of a Prize, to determine to whom it is to belong: This
List is contained in a Book which is published a few weeks after the
Drawing is ended, by Mr. _Lee_, under the _Royal Exchange_, and is sold
for 5_s._ But, besides this, there is a half Sheet published every
Evening, during the Drawing, under the Authority of the Managers,
though not required by the Act, containing a List of the Prizes, which
is of great Service to the Brokers and Lottery Offices, and the Public
in general, and would be more so, did not an Error sometimes, though
but seldom, creep into it.
“Having related the Manner of the Drawing, we are next to take a View
of the Business of the Offices in consequence thereof, to see with what
Degree of Precision that Business is conducted, and in what Manner its
mis-management may affect the Adventurer.
“And first, whilst the Managers and their Assistants are performing
the Drawing, as before described, the Offices have Clerks to attend
it, who, having Seats prepared for them, as near as possible to the
Hustings, or Place of Drawing, sit and write down the Numbers as they
are proclaimed on the Hustings, with the Prizes of those that are
fortunate, on Sheets of Paper adapted to that Purpose by Columns or
Squares; these Sheets, called at the Offices 'Slips,’ are sent from the
Drawing to the Office, every Hour, by some Officer, (by others, who are
nearer, every half Hour,) in Order that the Clerks at these Offices,
who receive the Sheets, and post them into a Book ruled and numbered
on Purpose, may keep pace as near as possible, with the Drawing, and
that the Book may be ready to examine the Adventurer’s Numbers, as soon
after the Drawing, as possible, which is done _gratis_ if bought at
that Office, and for 1_d._ each if bought at any other.
“In this Book, which is called the Numerical Book, are also noted all
the Numbers which have been registered at that Office. Registering, as
it is generally performed, being nothing more than entering the Numbers
and Address of an Adventurer, in order to send him Intelligence as soon
as his Number is drawn, whether Prize or Blank. Now, as the Clerk at
the Office is posting the Slips, or Numbers received from the Drawing,
into the Numerical Book, when he comes to post a Number thus noted, he
makes, or ought to make, a Memorandum of it on a Paper, or Book, which
he must have by him while posting; the latter is best, as it will be
found exceedingly useful to keep these Memorandums during the whole
Drawing, thereby to correct Mistakes, and from these Memorandums he
fills up his Letters of Intelligence, and sends them to the Adventurers.
“His next Business with the Numerical Book, is to compare and check the
Prizes drawn that Day on his Book, with the printed half Sheet before
mentioned, commonly called the Commissioners’, or Prize List; whilst
this Business is in Hand, the Clerks are frequently interrupted by
Adventurers in Examining their Numbers.
* * * * *
“It may not, however, be improper to observe, that whatever Information
the Adventurer may have had of his Numbers before, it will be necessary
for him to make his final Enquiry at one of the Offices, about a
Month after the Drawing is ended, about which Time the Commissioners’
Numerical List of Prizes is published, and to see that his Number be
examined by that, as well as the Office Book; for, by using both Books,
if the eye of the Examiner should fall on the wrong number in one Book,
which is sometimes the Case, the Error may be corrected by the other.
If the Adventurer resides in _London_, he will probably see in the
Papers an Advertisement from _Whitehall_, where Numbers are examined
at 6_d._ each; but, by the above Method he may have equal Certainty
at an Office for 1_d._, the above mention’d Numerical List being an
exact Copy of the _Whitehall_ Manuscript, and the Office, where the
Number was not bought, can have no Interest in deceiving, but he may
also examine at two Offices for 2_d._, and then the certainty will be
greater, as _Whitehall_ is not possessed of Infallibility.
* * * * *
“For Shares, the Offices have hitherto paid the full Money, since
it has been so paid by the Government, to those who would wait till
_March_, or _April_, the Time of Payment at the Bank; but from those
Shares they paid before that Time, they deducted 5 _per Cent._ In this
Lottery, 10 _per Cent._ will be deducted by Government, consequently
the same Sum must be deducted by the Offices, and, if paid as soon as
Drawn, 5 _per Cent._ more; whence a £20 Prize in the present Lottery,
will be paid in the following Manner:--
To those who receive their Money To those who wait
before paid by the Government. till Government
pays.
£ _s._ _d._ £ _s._ _d._
A Half 8 11 0 9 0 0
A Quarter 4 5 6 4 10 0
An Eighth 2 2 9 2 5 0
A Sixteenth 1 1 4½ 1 2 6
A Thirty Second 0 10 8¼ 0 11 3
A Sixty Fourth 0 5 4 0 5 7½
“At least, this is what they come to.”
[Illustration]