Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations: The Veil Lifted, and Light Thrown on Crime and its Causes, and Criminals and their Haunts. Facts and Disclosures.Howe, William F.
History
Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations: The Veil Lifted, and Light Thrown on Crime and its Causes, and Criminals and their Haunts. Facts and Disclosures.
Howe, William F.
Crime -- New York (State) -- New York; Criminals -- New York (State) -- New York; New York (N.Y.) -- Social conditions
"It was a standard joke in the old time," said an experienced operator
recently, "to find out what numbers a man had played, and then to
volunteer to stop at the City Hall and take a copy of the numbers drawn.
A false slip was invariably brought back, and when the player examined
it, seeing all the numbers he had bought, he generally dropped his work
and went to collect the winning. When the lottery was driven from New
York, interested persons used to cross over to New Jersey to witness the
drawing, and the numbers were taken from the wheel amid the greatest
noise and excitement. Some numbers were received with derisive hoots and
howls, and others applauded; and all through the drawing certain
favorites would be loudly and continually called for, and if they failed
to appear curses filled the air. After being driven out of New Jersey,
the lottery men found refuge in several other places, notably Delaware,
Maryland, and other Southern States. The principal drawings now take
place at Covington, Ky., opposite Cincinnati. The numbers from 1 to 78
inclusive are put into glass globes and placed in a wheel. This wheel is
turned until the numbers are well mixed, when a trap in the wheel is
opened and a boy, with his eyes tightly bandaged and arm bare, draws
forth one of the globes, which is unscrewed and the number in it called.
From ten to fourteen numbers are thus drawn, according to the size of
the lottery. The drawing is immediately telegraphed on to New York in
cipher, certain words standing for certain numbers. After the drawing is
translated the runners are furnished with a list of the numbers on a
'running slip,' as it is called, which they immediately take to the
various policy shops. No 'hits' are paid on the running slips, as some
of the numbers are invariably wrong. About an hour or so after the
drawings are received in New York, a printed slip is sent to every
office, and then all claims are promptly settled. The managers, being in
an unlawful business in this State, have the opportunity to swindle as
they please. The players have no redress. Ten thousand dollar 'hits'
have been made, according to tradition, and 'hits' of from $500 to
$1,500 are known of sometimes. Three-number lottery tickets are sold on
every drawing, and constitute a very lucrative branch of the business.
Prizes are supposed to range from $30,000 down, and any ticket with one
draw-number on it entitles the holder to the price originally paid for
it. The first three drawn numbers constitute the first prize, and that
ticket nobody ever gets."
The most of the money spent in policy is on "gigs" and "combinations." A
"gig" is composed of three numbers, and they must all come out of the
same lottery to entitle the player to win. Besides "gigs," there are
"saddles," "capitals," "horses," "cross-plays," and "station numbers."
In fact there are almost as many ways of playing policy as there are
numbers in the wheel. As an old gambler explained it:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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