Now it must not be supposed that every person who receives these tickets is foolish enough to be caught. It would not be true, for there are many persons who had been bitten by former schemes, and they did not bite again, any more than a fish bites the second time, after he has been hooked, nearly landed, and then falls back into the water.

We give one of the tickets, and one of the agent's prize tickets, so that the reader may fully understand the scheme of these and similar scoundrels:

This Ticket entitles the bearer to such prize as may be drawn by its number, payable on presentation.

TIFFANY & READ, Agts.

DANIEL R. MCDONALD, Manager.

No. 7582

FIRST

GRAND PUBLIC CASH DISTRIBUTION.

AGENTS' PRIZE TICKET.

This Ticket entitles the holder to such prize as may be drawn by its number.

MARCH 15, 1877.

DANIEL R. McDONALD, Manager.

The circular, above referred to, proposes to secure "A fortune for a small outlay," and represents that there is to be a series of

three drawings, and the managers are particularly anxious that each ticket holder shall draw a prize in this first distribution, so as to recommend the scheme to others.

Now suppose they really desired, or intended to have a drawing. It will be seen at a glance, that it would be an impossibility to do so, from the fact that so many hundreds of thousands of tickets were out that no one would know at all who had paid for tickets or not. One thing, they did not demand the return of these tickets. No; what they were after was the money, or if there was a demand, it was to secure not so much the tickets, but remind the receiver that the money had not been sent. In other words, this demand was a gentle hint for them to send the money in payment. This they got, and Pattee took good care to have it placed where it was secure, and where no creditors could get their hands upon it.

But there is necessarily a considerable expense attending the starting of one of these schemes. There is the printing of the circulars and tickets, office rent and clerk hire of four to six persons to address envelopes, then the envelope and the letter postage on each.

About the only way to circumvent this villainy is to wait till the scheme is launched, and at that moment pounce upon them, before there are many returns through the mail.

You ask, how did you get these names? What became of these frauds?

Read, of this concern, was too sick to arrest, and having Pattee in hand, with various others of his clerks, for other matters, we were content in this instance to send back letters addressed to Tiffany & Read to the writer thereof, through the Dead Letter Office, where they were sent under the rule.

The 300,000 names were on the stubs of the tickets (for the tickets were printed like check books, with a stub where the name and address was entered) and were found at 5 Beekman street, N. Y. city, under rather peculiar circumstances.

10

CHAPTER VIII.

HAVANA AND NEW BRUNSWICK LOTTERIES.

READ & CO., NEW HAVEN, CONN.

The deputy postmaster of New Haven, Conn., one day came to my office and complained of a little short man who was receiving hundreds of letters daily through his office, addressed Read & Co., and it was further explained that each day this man sent a letter to some party at No. 5 Beekman street, New York. This little fellow was none other than a small specimen of a man—and the right bower of Pattee in his swindling schemes-N. Sherman Read.

They were trading on the known reputation of what was once considered a respectable lottery, but now strange rumors are afloat against the good faith of even the Royal Havana Lottery; and from my knowledge of its operations and of the known characters of its agents here, I say in most positive terms, I would not invest one dollar in it, even if I had more money than I knew what to do with and had no scruples as to this form of gambling.

The only redeeming quality about this fraud was that it served to check the Havana lottery, that pretended to be fair and honorable, and yet while so purporting swallowed up thousands of dollars of money belonging to poor people.

Many people cannot conceive it possible that persons can be so foolish as to invest money in lottery schemes, while others ignore all laws or morals and defend the practice. But if the reader will consider what is presented, under the head of "Lotteries," he will, I think, see good and sufficient reasons why these institutions should not exist.

The poor are infatuated with the promises held out in advertisements put forth in the newspaper and in their circulars. They struggle with poverty. They hear of some person who has drawn a prize. They are needy and destitute; their children are poorly

clothed and worse fed; their earnings are scarce enough to fill the mouths of their little ones with bread. Something must be done. They dream over what they would do if they should draw a prize. To them $500 would be a fortune. They dream over this till they are goaded on to risk a chance or two. So at last they decide to try just one ticket. The scanty store of food and fuel is cut down, the wail of the hungry child grows feebler, as for lack of food it grows weaker and weaker. The heart of the parent is deluded by the foolish anticipation that perchance he shall win a prize of some sort or other at the next drawing, and then he will make amends.

Thus with eyes blinded, conscience seared and affection smothered, by this will-o'-the-wisp in this vast forest of fraud, they are led on to their own ruin, their families beggared, and all to enrich a few men. Volumes might be written on this point. While a few men thus grow richer each year, hundreds and thousands grow poorer and poorer. The widow's mite goes to fill the coffers of these few men who keep elegant houses, dashing teams of horses, and squander magnificent wealth upon themselves and companions. There are laws in every State in the Union but one against this abominable traffic, yet this unlawful business is foisted upon us, and sworn officials continually violate their oath of office and allow it to exist.

But to return to the facts, after learning the story of the New Haven Deputy Postmaster, we visited immediately No. 5 Beekman street, and found located in a little back room up some three flights of winding stairs, the office of Read & Co., of New Haven, Conn.

This office was in charge of two young ladies, who were hired to answer letters and send tickets and circulars to customers.

Read was located at New Haven, where he, after receiving the mail each day, took the money out, and then sent a list of names, and the number of tickets to be sent to each party to these young ladies, and they mailed the tickets in reply. Each of these young ladies represented themselves as hired by Read and Pattee, and stated they received their pay from the latter. Pattee, it must be

considered, is the unknown factor in all his schemes. The only persons who ever know him, are those whom he hires to do his printing for him. He pays good prices, as do all these frauds, as they pay not only for the work done, but also for the man. The printer sells his manhood, when he, for the sake of the little he can make off these jobs, becomes party to the unlawful traffic, and encourages it by his silence.

Placing a police officer in charge of this office, we secured a warrant and seized the list of names and addresses already referred to as used in his "Grand Cash Distribution Co.," of Victoria Can., and also as follows: 15,000 old letters, mostly to the Grand Cash Dis. Co.; 10,000 circulars of this counterfeit lottery; 500 1-40 tickets; two reams of water-marked paper for printing these tickets; and full sets of dies, stamps, type, &c., for making tickets. The circulars sent out from New York all bore the address of Read & Co., New Haven, Conn., where the replies were to be sent.

These circulars were mailed from this office, these young ladies writing the addresses on about a thousand envelopes daily. The envelopes were received by them sealed, with the circulars all folded within, and they had nothing to do but address them and place a three-cent stamp on each, and then one of Pattee's clerks called in the evening and conveyed the same to the post office.

This scheme, as has already been stated, consisted in counterteiting Havana Lottery tickets. We give their circulars simply to show how infamous a story these men are capable of printing in order to deceive and defraud the public. [See page 149.]

IMPORTANT NOTICE.

NEXT DRAWINGS JUNE 15th AND JUNE 28th.

1st.-The Royal Havana Lottery is conducted by the SPANISH GOVERNMENT on the same honorable principles as our NATIONAL BONDS.

2d.-The fairness and strict integrity of the Drawings have never been doubted or questioned, and the scheme of this lottery and the honorable management make it a favorite investment with the Public, as the amount is but a trifle compared to the magnificent Prices to be drawn.