hold, for in the lottery
nothing was dealt in but gambling tickets, whereas the stock or bond
certificate represents an ownership in the material things of the
country. This is the fallacy the "System" spends millions every year to
foster and disseminate. Between the two the difference is in favor of
the Louisiana Lottery, for both are gambles and the lottery game was
square. Those who ran it had for their trouble a fixed percentage of the
profits, an enormous percentage, it is true, but the general fund was
never encroached upon by the controllers. Who is to say what percentage
the votaries of the "System" take in their game? It depends on how much
their victims have to lose. The public have been persuaded, too, that in
purchasing stocks they do not gamble, but only invest, or, at the worst,
speculate, so they are deceived as well as plundered. A few millions
each year satisfied the lottery owners; the votaries of the "System,"
among whom the "swag" must be divided, demand millions upon millions
each. The tickets of the lottery had a definite value at all times until
the drawing took place. The stocks and bonds of the "System" have no
rigid or unalterable value when issued or at any other time, and do not
represent a fixed ownership in all the savings of the people which have
been paid for them.

Morally, legally, or ethically, the Louisiana Lottery, with all its
attendant curses, was a far better institution for the people to bump up
against every month than is the "System" against which the whole people
are now directly or indirectly dealing every working day of the year.
Startling this statement may be, but not more startling than the facts.
The records of the lottery company will show how many dollars it took in
from the public; how many were returned in prizes and expenses; and how
many went into the pockets of the owners. The records of the banks,
corporations, trusts, and stock-exchanges will exhibit how many dollars
were paid into the "System" by the people; how much they received back
in return therefor; how much the expense of conducting the business was;
and how much profit went to the votaries of the "System." Compare the
two and it will be found that there is annually taken by the "System"
from the people a hundred, yes, a thousand times more than the Louisiana
Lottery ever obtained in the same period.

This being the fact, for how long will the people allow such a monstrous
wrong to be done? How long wi