LOTTERY BY ANOTHER NAME.
By S.
“Some of the newspapers have adopted a scheme for increasing circulation which has all the earmarks of the old Louisiana lottery. These papers announce enormous prizes to be given as a reward to those who guess nearest to the population of a city or state, or the vote to be cast at some future date. As there is no possible means of determining either the population or the vote, the game is as purely one of chance as a guess on a wheel of fortune or on the drawing of a lottery. Only those are allowed to guess who send the subscription price of the paper with the guess, and sometimes the subscribers are encouraged to guess a large number of times. The whole system is demoralizing; it encourages the get-something-for-nothing idea which lies at the foundation of all gambling, whether at the card table or on the stock exchange. A lottery can not run unless it takes in more than it pays out, therefore the chances are always against the man who patronizes it. If he keeps investing, the probability is that he will put in more than he takes out; and if he wins a prize early, he is apt to waste the money, because it came to him so easily. “It is not probable that the post-office department will long tolerate these guessing contests; but while they are permitted, they will exert a baleful influence upon the morals of the country.”—The Commoner. We have seen from time to time, and in multitudes of ways, unmistakable indications of the increase of the gambling spirit among men and women. Deplorable as the fact is, it is a fact, nevertheless, which must be admitted by all who read. The people are filled with the spirit of getting rich quick, with less and less regard as to how the riches are gathered up; and unscrupulous men are multiplying methods by which to pander to this propensity and in the doing of it gather wealth for themselves. Fast and furious is the pace set by the great deceiver in these days, and he is strewing his path with victims on the right hand and on the left. The Christian can not afford to tamper with the deadfalls of the enemy, even tho he find them built up in the church in the form of grabbags, raffles, and other games of chance. We are in the most serious period of this earth’s history, and the Master’s business does not lie along any of these lines.