The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

From the CONNOISSEUR; No. 93.

Of the LOTTERY.

History of several Adventurers, who got the 10,000 l.

Heu, Fortuna, quis et crudelior in nos
Te Deus! ut semper gaudes illudere rebus
Humanis!

HOR.

Why Fortune, serve us such a cruel prank,
To turn thy wheel, and give us Blank, Blank, Blank!

Cannot but admire the ingenious device
prefixed to the advertisements of Hazard's
Lottery-Office, in which Fortune is represented
as hovering over the heads of a great number of
people, and scattering down all kinds of prizes
among them. What Mr. Hazard, has here delineated,
every adventurer in the late Lottery had
pictured to himself: the Ten Thousand constantly
floated before his eyes, and each person had
already possessed it in imagination. But alas! all
our expectations are now at an end: the golden
dream is at length vanished; and those, whose
heads were kept giddy all the while that the
wheel of Fortune was turning round, have now
leisure soberly to reflect on their disappointment.
How many unhappy tradesmen must now trudge
on foot all their lives, who designed to loll in their
chariots! How many poor maidens, of good family
but no fortune, must languish all their days
without the comforts of a husband and a coach
and six! Every loser thinks himself ill used by
Fortune: and even Mrs. Betty, the possessor of a
single Sixteenth, flies to the Office, pays her penny,
and receives the tidings of her ill luck with
surprise; goes to another Office, pays her penny,
hears the same disagreeable information, and can
hardly, very hardly persuade herself, that Fortune
should have doomed her, till to wash the dishes,
and scrub down the stairs.

Thus the views of every adventurer are directed
to the same point, though their motives for
engaging in the Lottery may be different. One
man puts in, because he is willing to be in Fortune's
way; another, because he had good luck
in the last; and another, because he never got
any thing before: this indulges in the prospect of
making a fortune; and that comforts himself with
the pleasing hopes of retrieving his desperate circumstances.
Every one, however, thinks himself
as sure of the Ten Thousand, as if he had it
in his pocket; and his only concern is, how to
dispose of it. We may, therefore, consider every
adventurer, as having been in actual possession of
this treasure; and out of fifty thousand people,
who have been blest within this fortnight with
such ideal good fortune, I shall select the following
instances, which fell within my own notice.
Joseph Wilkins of Thames-Street, Esquire,
Common-Council-Man and Cheesemonger, got
the 10,000 l. He could not bear the foggy air
and dingy situation of the city: he, therefore,
resolved to take a house at the St. James's end of
the town, and to fit up a snug Box at Hampstead
in the Chinese taste, for his retirement on Sundays.
A Chariot was absolutely necessary, to carry him
to and from 'Change every morning: but he intended
to have it made according to the modern
fashion, that it might occasionally be converted
into a Post-Chaise, to wheel him on a Saturday
night to his country seat, and back again on the
Monday morning. He designed to be chose Alderman
the first vacancy; after that to be made
Sheriff, receive the honour of Knighthood, and
perhaps get into Parliament: and whenever he
passed by the Mansion-House. he could not but
look upon it with pleasure.as the future residence
of his Lordship. Nothing was now wanting but
a careful plodding partner, who should take upon
himself the whole drudgery br the shop; so that
the Squire might have no farther trouble, than to
receive his dividend of the profits. But while he
was considering on whom this important favour
should be conferred, his ticket was drawn-
BLANK; and Squire Wilkins is contented with
his greasy employment of cutting out penny-
worths of Cheshire cheese.

Jonathan Wildgoose of Cheapside, Silk-
Mercer, had too much taste to be confined to
dirty business, which he neglected for the more
agreeable pursuits of pleasure. Having therefore
met with great losses in trade, he was obliged to
embark the remains of his shattered fortune in
the Lottery, and by purchasing a number of tickets
secured to himself the 10,000 l. He had
determined to keep his success secret, bilk his
creditors by becoming bankrupt, turn the whole
into an annuity for his life, and live abroad like
a gentleman upon the income. But unluckily
creditors came upon him too quickly; and before
he could know. that he had Not got the Ten
Thousand, hurried him to jail, where he now
lies, lamenting that the Act of Insolvency had not
been postponed 'till after the Lottery,

John Jones of Ludlow in the County of Salop,
Esquire, Dealer and Chapman, got the 10,000 l.
This gentleman was fore-warned of his success by
several indisputable tokens. His lady had dreamed
of a particular Number four nights together: and
while the bells were ringing on his being chosen
Bailiff of the Corporation, they spoke in as plain
words; as ever Whittington heard. "6 Mr. John
Fones will get Ten Thousand Pound-- Mr. John
Fones will get Ten Thousand Pound. He and
his lady, therefore, came up to London; and not
being able to meet with the particular Number at
Hazard's or Wilson's or any other Office always
remarkable for selling the Ten Thousands, they
advertized it in the papers, and got the Great
Prize, only paying a guinea more for the ticket
than the market-price. As Mrs. Jones knew a
good deal of the world, having lived for some
years in quality of an upper-servant in a great
house,--she was determined, that Mr. Jones
should take the opportunity, now they were in
Town, of learning how to behave himself, as he
should do, when he came to his fortune. She,
therefore, introduced him to the best company in
all the house-keepers and stewards rooms in the
best families, where she was acquainted: and as
Mr. Jones was o deficient in politeness, as not
even to know how to make a bow in coming into
a room, he had private lessons from Mr. Aaron
Hart, who undertakes to teach Grown Gentlemen
to dance. Mrs. Jones herself was very busy in
consulting with the milliner and mantua-maker
about the newest fashions, when the long looked-
for Ten Thousand came up; and directly after
the Hey-Ge-Ho carried them down again to Salop,
with this only consolation, that their ticket was
within one of the fortunate Number.

SIR HUMPHRY OLDCASTLE, having greatly
dipped his estate by being chosen into Parliament
on the Tory interest, mortgaged all he had left, to
put himself in the way of the 10,000 l. for the
good of his country. This seasonable recruit
fixed him a staunch Patriot: and he declared, he
would stand another election against all opposition.
But, however it happened, the finishing of
the Lottery has induced him to change his sentiments;
and Sir Humphry in lieu of the 10,000 l.
has accepted a Place.

Jemmy Lister, an Attorney's Clerk, was
carried into the Lottery bv pure disinterested love.
He had conceived a violent passion for his master's
daughter; but the prudent old gentleman could
not be prevailed on to give her away to a handsome
young fellow without a penny. This enraged
him so much, that he immediately sold the
reversion of a small estate after the death of his
grandmother, and by laying out the purchase-
money, as far as it would go, in Shares and
Chances, got the 10,000 l. He was for some
time in doubt, whether he should bestow his
good fortune on the young lady, or employ it
more fashionably in keeping a girl. However,
his hopes soon sunk to one of the 200 l. prizes,
which he generously determined to settle upon
her together with his person. But in this too he
was unhappily disappointed: and at last, like a
true lover, contented himself with the thoughts of
maintaining ber very prettily (even though the
father should give her nothing) on the income
of one or other of the inferior prizes, which he
was sure would fall to his lot. Fortune alas! is
no less blind a Deity than love: they both con-
spired to disappoint him; and the unsuccessful
gallant, having received a positive refusal from
his mistress, out of mere spite directly married
the maid.

Captain Mac Mullen, a decayed Gameter,
made shift to purchase the CHANCE of a Sixteenth.
which (notwithstanding the great Odds against
him) was sure to come up 10,000 l. The first
thing to be done was to purchase a genteel suit of
cloaths with his part of the prize, hire an equipage,
pass himself off for a man of quality, and
snap up a rich dowager or heiress: after which it
was very easy for him to dupe all the raw game-
sters at Arthur's out of their estates, and to take
in all the Knowing-Ones on the Turf at New-
market. He accordingly bespoke his liveries, et-
tled the fashion of his chariot, and had already
pitched upon the lady, whose good luck it should
be to fall in love with him: but so uncertain is
the state of a gameter, that ince the drawing of
the lottery he has advertised for charitable contri-
butions to a Distressed Gentleman, who knows
the world, and has had the honour to be intimate
with mot of the Nobility and Gentry in the king-
dom.

I need not point out any particular instances
among the other sex, with respect to their disposal
of the Ten Thousand; which every lady had
secured by chusing the ticket herself, taking particular
care, that the number should be an odd one.
The married ladies have sufficient calls for even
double this sum, to supply them with the necesa-
ries of dress, and to answer the expences of fre-
quenting public diversions; and as to the un-
married ladies, they very well know the truth of
that maxim in the ballad. that " in ten thousand
pounds ten thousand charms are centered."

Some ancient maiden ladies, who could never be
brought to think of a husband, or to give into
the vanities of the world, were resolved to live re-
tired upon their Prize in the country, and leave
proofs of their good dispositions behind them, by
swelling out their Wills with a long list of Items
to this or that Charity or Hospital.

Before I conclude, I cannot but take notice
of the great generoity of my own Publisher
upon getting the 10,000 l. As his success was owing to his laying out in the Lottery all the profits, which had already risen from the publication of this Paper. he had determined to circulate my future numbers gratis ; and had even deigned to keep open house for the reception of poor authors. Unhappily for the public, as well as my brother-writers, Fortune has frustrated his disinterested scheme: Even I myself am admitted to eat his mutton but once a week.