THE LOTTERY DREAMER.

IN FOUR CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER II. THE JEWELLER, AND THE
JEWELLER'S DAUGHTER.

ON Tuscany, and on the dynasty of Lorraine,
must rest the disgrace of having first given to
Europe the evil example of a government exciting
and pandering to the most pernicious and anti-
social vices of its people, by making gambling a
national vice. The lottery, as a means of revenue,
was first introduced there in 1740, shortly after
the death of the last Medicean duke. Something
of the kind had previously existed in the republic
of Genoa. It was said to have arisen there from
a system of betting on the different candidates
for the various magistracies to be elected by
ballot; and it was in its early days known as
the "Genoa Lottery." But it was at Florence
that the lottery became a systematised means of
duping and plundering the people. From
Florence it passed to Vienna. France eagerly
seized on the new invention. England, as we
know, permitted state needs to override the
perfectly understood, but deliberately disregarded,
principles of state morality. To Frederick the
Great belongs the honour of having resisted the
temptation, and strictly forbidden the introduction
of the abomination into his states. In
proportion as the different countries have advanced
in moral civilisation, they have discountenanced
and abolished their lotteries. In Italy, as might
be expected, the system still continues in full
vigour. Rome, struck at first sight by the
immorality of the thing—but not at first sight
comprehending the profit to be drawn from it—began
by anathematising the lottery, but pocketed its
infallibility and adopted it, immediately on
perceiving its real object and value.

In Central Italy, the Grand-Duke of Tuscany
and the Father of the Faithful were partners in
keeping the public hell for their respective
subjects. And by this arrangement the lottery
drawing in the various Tuscan cities served the
Pope for continually "making the game" with
his "children;" while that at Rome assisted the
grand-duke in like manner. It is understood that
the immoral and disreputable keepers of the
gambling-tables at Baden-Baden, and Homburg,
have chances in the games played to the extent
of five per cent against the players, who are
perfectly well aware of that fact. But the amount
of "the pull" which his Highness the Duke and
his Holiness the Pope permitted themselves
against their subjects, was, as near as may be,
seventeen per cent.

The "game is made, gentlemen," in this wise:
The drawing takes place every week in one or
other of the different cities, more or less frequently
in each in proportion to their size and importance,
according to a regular fixed cycle. This change
in the locality of the drawing has no other object
or effect than to give each place in turn a share
of the amusement of seeing the ceremony. The
offices are always open in all the towns, and a
man at Rome may play on the drawing to take
place at Florence, or vice versâ, just as well as
if the drawing were to be performed in his own
city. The numbers put into the wheel are always
from one to ninety inclusively. From these,
five are drawn. The player, therefore, bets that
such or such a number will be drawn.

When the drawing is to take place, a scaffolding,
handsomely ornamented with upholstery, is
raised in one of the most conspicuous spots in
the city, and a band of music is provided. Three
magistrates attend in their robes of office; the
wheel is placed before them at the front of the
platform, and a boy stands beside it. The
numbers are called aloud by one of the
magistrates, held up to the sight of the people, then
passed from one of them to the other two successively,
and lastly to the boy, who drops them, one
by one, into the wheel. Two or three turns of
the machine mixes them well up together; and
the boy proceeds to take out one. It is handed
to the presiding magistrate, who calls it aloud,
shows it to the crowd, and then affixes it in large
figures to a board provided for the purpose.
Then comes a flourish of music; and so on, till
the five numbers have been drawn. They are
immediately put up conspicuously in all the
lottery offices; they are communicated as quickly
as possible to the other cities; and the fortunate
holders of them, if there be any such—for it will
be observed that by this system it by no means
follows that there will be any prizes to pay at
all—present their tickets for payment at any of
the offices.

It is difficult to give an adequate idea of the
degree to which the lottery occupies the thoughts