blished in the popular almanacs. The
"sympathetic number for instance for the month of March is 88," why or
wherefore I have never been able to discover. Let me assume now, that
having dreamt a dream, or heard of a death, or I care not what, you wish
to stake your money on the arithmetical signification of the occurrence.
You will have no difficulty in discovering a lottery-office; in well nigh
every street there are one or more "Prenditoria di Lotti." In fact,
begging and gambling are the only two trades that thrive in Rome, or are
pushed with enterprise or energy. When the drawing takes place in
Tuscany, the result is communicated at once by the electric telegraph, a
fact unparalleled in any other branch of Roman business. Over each
office are placed the Papal arms, the cross keys of St Peter and the
tiara. Outside their aspects differ, according to the quarter of the
city. In the well-to-do streets, if such an appellation applied to any
street here be not an absurdity, the exterior of the lottery-offices are
neat but not gaudy. A notice, printed in large black letters on a white
placard, that this week the lottery will be drawn for in Rome, or where-
ever it may be, and a simple glass frame over the door, in which are slid
the winning numbers of last week, form the whole outward adornment. In
the poor and populous parts the lotteries flaunt out in all kinds of
shabby finery: the walls about the door are pasted over with puffing
inscriptions; from stands in front of the shop flutter long stripes of
parti-coloured paper, inscribed with all sorts of cabalistic figures. If
you like you may try the "Terno della fortuna," which is certain,
morally, to turn up this week or next. If you are of a philosophical
disposition, you may stake your luck on the numbers 19 and 42, which have
not been drawn for ever so long a time, and must therefore be drawn
sooner--or later; or if you like to cast in your lot with others, you may
back that "ambo" which has "sold" marked against it; at any rate, you
will not be the only fool who stands to lose or win on that chance,
which, after all, is some slight consolation. If none of these
inducements are sufficient, you may fix on your choice by spinning round
the index on the painted dial-plate, and choosing the numbers opposite to
which the spin stops, thus making chance determine chance. Having, at
last, selected your combination somehow or other, you enter the office
with somethin