p. 123 | Lottery Luck by Golden Censer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 30, 1873

Lottery Luck.

By Golden Censer

THE Louisville Commercial, speaking of a recent lottery drawing in Kentucky, says:—

“We wish the poor fellows no evil, but, if we were betting men, we would willingly bet two to one, that of the ten men who jointly won the big prize of seventy-five thousand dollars, five will be in the poor-house, in jail, or in a drunkard’s grave, within two years from this date. All experience points that way. Our older citizens recollect Mr.——, who stood—if not in a scientific way, at least in a pecuniary way—at the head of his profession, till in an evil hour, he drew thirty thousand dollars in a lottery establishment for some great philanthropic purpose. He soon lost practice, money, self-respect, and the respect of his fellow-citizens, and died a pauper. Even younger men may recollect Birdstick, the oyster man, who, in 1853, won seven thousand dollars, got rid of his little business and the prize money in four months, and fled to New York from his enraged creditors, without so much as a change of clothes and without money to pay his railroad fare. We might mention other names if we did not fear to wound the feelings of those left behind by the unfortunates, whom a prize in a ‘well-conducted lottery’ drove to an early and inglorious grave. Many of our readers may, from their own circle of acquaintances, draw additional illustrations.”

“He that maketh haste to be rich,” said the wise man, “shall not be innocent. . . . He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.” Prov. 28:20–22. As a general rule, a man is not fit to care for more money than he honestly earns, and a good many of them are not competent to do even that. And all these plans for sudden wealth are so many traps of the devil to catch the unwary. Nineteen out of twenty who invest in lotteries are swindled out of their money, and the good luck of the twentieth sends him to destruction and robs him of life and all its joys and hopes. Earn your money, and then you can save it, use, give, or enjoy, it.—Golden Censer.