WAITING FOR A FORTUNE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 302, 14 May 1913, Page 2

WAITING FOR A FORTUNE.

STRANGE SCENES AT A LOTTERYDRAWING IN ITALY. The drawing for the £OO,OOO prize in the exhibition lottery, which is probably the last lottery authorised by the Italian Government, took place in the Argentine Theatre in Rome lately. It was performed in the presence of the Mayor, the Minister of Finance, members of the municipality and the exhibition committee, and an enormous crowd, which included a thousand English and American visitors. A large proportion of the tourists visiting Italy during the past three years purchased tickets in this lottery; consequently the interest in the drawing assumed an international character. The lucky number was 2,594,83 G. While Senor Bobbio, the notary, was examining the urns which contained the tickets he fell down in a fit, and immediately the superstitious spectators cried, "Throw liini out!" They feared that he was possessed of the Evil Eye. An hour's delay ensued before order was restored in the theatre and the services of another notary obtained. Finally the extraction of the tickets from two urns began. This was done by two blindfolded orphan children, picked haphazard from the Municipal Orphanage. Orfeo Cirillo, one of the orphans, was greatly excited by his part in the proceedings. ' He cried pathetically, "If no one else remembers my name, the winner will not forget me!"

Several thousand tickets in this lottery were lost in the Titanic, having been purchased by Italians living in America.