This Lottery consists
of 7500 Tickets, and is divided into four Classes, to be drawn at
four different Times. Each Ticket is divided into four Billets, one
for each Class. The Price of each Billet is, for the first Class
one Piece of Eight, for the second two Pieces of Eight, for the
third three Pieces of Eight, and for the fourth four Pieces of
Eight.
The yearly Expence of supporting the Academy,
and paying the necessary Salaries, being found to exceed
considerably the Income from the Scholars, the Trustees propose
this Lottery for these Purposes, viz. 1. To repair and glaize the
Hall, and fit it for the Accommodation of the Auditories at the
Time of publick Exercises, and Commencements, when the Students in
the College take their Degrees. 2. To purchase a compleat Apparatus
for Experimental Philosophy, with such Books in that Science as are
most necessary. 3. To purchase some Ground-rents, towards
establishing a perpetual Fund for the Payment of Salaries; and for
the Support of the two Charity Schools, in which 70 poor Boys, under a Master and
Assistant, are now taught to read, write, and cast Accounts; and 40
Girls, under a Mistress and Assistant, are taught to read, knit,
sew, &c. and likewise to write under the Charity Master. Most
of these Children, tho’ between 8 and 13 Years of Age when
admitted, had never been at any School, and it is thought must have
been brought up in entire Ignorance, if it had not been for this
Institution; which was begun, supported, and now greatly enlarged,
entirely at the Expence of private Persons, tho’ solely calculated
for the Benefit of the Publick, and the Honour of the Province.
As therefore this Lottery is proposed for the
most useful and charitable Purposes, it is hoped that it will meet
with due Encouragement; for even its Blanks may be deemed Prizes,
as the Satisfaction arising from a Consciousness of doing Good, is,
to benevolent Minds, far more valuable than Money.
A Lottery, in the
common Form, is subject to these Inconveniences. If the Price of
each Ticket be high, many, who would have been Purchasers, are
discouraged and excluded. If low, the Number of Tickets must be
great, and that occasions the Drawing to take up more Time, which
encreases the Expence, and is an Injury to many, who neglect other
Business to attend it. If the Capital of the Lottery is large, ’tis
an Inconveniency that so much Money as is necessary to fill it,
should be damm’d up, and restrained from being current in Trade,
till the whole is compleated, and all the Lottery drawn.
The present Scheme is calculated to remedy
these Inconveniences. It divides the Lottery into four distinct
Classes, to be drawn at four different Times, and is so contrived,
as that all the four Drawings will take but little more Time than
one Drawing would do in the common Way. The Price of a Ticket is
also divided into four gradual Payments, to be made, if the Buyer
pleases, at four different and distant Times. The first Entry is
low and easy, and if the Adventurer is successful in the first
Class, he is enabled as well as encouraged to go on. And a very
great Part of the Money is to return several Times into the Hands
of the People, before the Conclusion.
The four Billets into which each Ticket is
divided, are all of the same Number, but of different Prizes,
according to the several Classes to which they belong.
Every Adventurer in the first Class, receives a
Billet for each Piece of Eight he pays, entitling the Bearer to
such Prize in that Class as may be drawn against its Number,
subject to no Deduction, unless the Prize be Twenty Pieces of
Eight, or upwards. For a like Billet in the second Class he pays
Two Pieces of Eight. For a Billet in the third Class three Pieces
of Eight; and four for a Billet in the fourth Class: So that the
Price of a whole Ticket, to go through the Lottery, is Ten Pieces
of Eight.
Adventurers in the first Class have a Right to
go thro’ the subsequent Classes, but are not obliged to do it. If
any neglect or decline taking out, or paying the Price of their
Billets for a subsequent Class, till within three Days of the
Drawing of such Class, the common Stock is to have the Benefit of
it to the End; unless such Adventurers have left equivalent Prizes
for that Purpose in the Hands of the Managers, which is the same
Thing as paying: And the greatest Number of Prizes in the first,
second, and third Classes, are made just the Price of a Billet in
the Class next succeeding, that such Prizes may defray the Charge
of new Billets, without the Trouble of paying Money.
A sum equal to Twelve and a Half per Cent. on
the whole, is to be deducted from the fortunate Tickets for the Use
of the Academy and Charity School: But as it would occasion Trouble
in making Change, and be otherwise inconvenient, if such Deduction
was to be made from the smaller Prizes, (which indeed cannot so
well afford it) therefore nothing is deducted from any Prize that
is under Twenty Pieces of Eight. And the Prizes are so calculated
and order’d, that 15 per Cent. which is to be deducted from such as
are Twenty Pieces of Eight, and upwards, is equal to Twelve and a
Half per Cent. on the Whole, and no more. Thus this Lottery is Two
and a Half per Cent. more advantageous to Adventurers, than any
that have lately been made on this Continent. And there are yet
several other Advantages; for, in the first Place, the Adventurer’s
whole Ticket cannot be struck dead at a Blow, as in common
Lotteries. If he has a Blank in the first Class, ’tis a Blank only
of one Tenth of his Ticket, and he has still three good Chances
left for the remaining nine Tenths, every Chance better than the
preceding One, and the last best of all. Then he is under no
Necessity of paying the whole Ten Pieces of Eight for each Ticket
at once; and, if fortunate in the first Class, may have occasion to
advance no more than the first. In former Lotteries, the Price of a
Ticket was Thirty, and in some Forty
Shillings, the whole to be paid at once, and yet its best
Chance was to be doubled but 3 or 400 times: In this Lottery one
Piece of Eight may possibly gain several Thousands. And lastly, the
Number of Prizes is more than Half the Number of Tickets.
Publick Notice is to be given before each
Drawing, of the Time and Place when and where the Numbers and
Prizes are to be put into the Wheels, that such Adventurers as
think fit may be present if they please.
The Manner of Drawing is this: All the 7500
Numbers are to be put into one Wheel, and well mixed, the Wheel to
be frequently turn’d during the Drawing. In the other Wheel are put
the Prizes of the first Class, without any Blanks among them. Then
a Number is drawn out of one Wheel, and a Prize against it out ot
the other, till the Prizes are all drawn; so ends the Drawing of
the first Class, which may be finished in one Day.
The rest of the Numbers remain in their Wheel,
seal’d up, till the Drawing of the second Class.
The Prizes drawn in each Class may be demanded
within three Days after the Drawing of that Class is finished.
Six Weeks Time to be allowed between the
Drawings, to take out Billets for the succeeding Class, prepare for
drawing it, &c.
Before drawing the second Class, all the
Numbers drawn out in the first Class are again to be roll’d up and
tied, put into the Wheel to the rest, and well mixed among
them.
Then the Prizes of the second Class being put
into the other Wheel, without Blanks, the Drawing proceeds as in
the first Class.
In the same Manner is the third Class
managed.
In drawing the fourth and last Class, Blanks
are to mixed with the Prizes, so many as to draw out all the
Numbers in the Number Wheel, and complete the Whole.
The Drawing of the first Class is to begin on
Monday the 23d of June next, without postponing or Delay, or sooner
if sooner full; if any Tickets should then remain unsold, they are
to be drawn on Account of the Stock.
The following Persons are appointed Managers of
this Lottery, viz. Messieurs William Allen, John Inglis, William
Masters, Samuel M’Call, junior, Joseph Turner, Benjamin Franklin,
Thomas Leech, William Shippen, Philip Syng, Phineas Bond, Richard
Peters, Abraham Taylor, William Plumsted, Thomas Cadwallader, and
Alexander Stedman, who are to give Bond, and be on Oath for the
faithful Performance of their Trust.
Prizes not demanded within six Months after the
last Drawing, to be deemed as generously given to the common Stock,
for the same Use as the Twelve and a Half per Cent. and not to be
demanded afterwards, but applied accordingly.
The Tickets are sold by the Managers at their
respective Houses.