Old-time Lotteries.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 16 October 1914, Page 8

Old-time Lotteries.

"A thousand pounds for a penny!" So ran the advertisement of a lottery that was drawn at Dorset Gardens Theatre on 'October 9, IG9S ; hut who it was that received the thousand pounds remained a mystery. A story circulated at the time told how a boy, shortly before the drawing of ..the lottery, was walking along Brentford Highstreet, munching a crust -of bread, when he met an old woman. who looked with such wistful and hungry eyes at the bread that the boy, touched with compassion, thrust the crust into her hands and marched ofY. The old woman called him back, gave him a penny, and bade him go to such a place and buy a ticket in the lottery. This he did, and won the thousand pounds' prize. Whether witches have any right to interfere with the honest course of chance in these matters is a consideration that must he left to their own consciences;, but the following true story of a Christmas lot- | tery shows how a little white magic is sometimes profitable. It ' was an annual lottery managed by a publican for turkey and geese, and it was noticed that the promoter, who always took tickets himself, was always lucky in securing the best prizes. Yet the drawing ;vas conducted in the fairest possible way. A lot of pewter counters, each marked with a number correspondI ing to a ticket, were put in a bag, shaken up, and drawn by the smart little daughter of the publican, a counter at a time, till the prizes were exhausted. At the last drawing the girl fumbled in the bag till her father cied out, impatiently, "Look sharp, missie !" "O pa," cried the little maid, quite disconcerted, "I can't find the hot 'uns." The subscribers "made it hot" for that publican.