During the noon hour, or about closing or opening time, one of the men
would saunter into a composing room and put up a hard luck story. He
had an old silverine watch that he wanted to raffle off, if he could
sell twenty tickets at 25 cents each. He usually managed to sell the
tickets.
About the time the drawing was to take place the confederate entered
and cheerfully took a chance and won the watch without any difficulty.
Thus, they had the watch and the $5 also. They would split the money,
and on the first convenient occasion the raffle would be repeated at
another place, and by some trick known to themselves the drawing was
manipulated so that the confederate always won the watch.
A South Side woman recently had 500 raffle tickets printed, to be sold
at 10 cents each, the drawing to be on Thanksgiving day, for a "grand
parlor clock," the proceeds to be for the benefit of a "poor widow."
As the woman herself happens to be a grass widow, and as the place of
the drawing could not be learned, neither could there be obtained a
sight of the clock, it is not difficult to guess the final destination
of $50 for which the tickets were sold.