Lucky "9's"

Twelve million dollars in prizes was poured out at Madrid last week when the national lottery for 1926 was drawn. The Government had pocketed $5,000,000 of the $17,000,000 paid in; and the one supremely lucky ticket would win $2,500,000. Pandemonium reigned and hope held carnival with chance within the great treasury building, where the lots were drawn.

Traditionally a bright-eyed orphan boy turned the two latticed metal globes upon which all depended. First he spun the great ticket globe, from which, as it stopped, a single lucky ticket fell. Then the smaller prize globe spun, revealed which of the 2,596 prizes had been won by the individual lucky ticket just drawn.

When ticket No. 17,229 fell from the ticket globe no stir was occasioned; but an instant later, amid a deadly hush, the $2,500,000 Grand Prize disc was seen to have rattled down.

It went to no one man, maid, wife or widow but to the students, professors and employes of the Academic des Beaux Arts of Madrid who had clubbed together to purchase one of the 60,000 lottery tickets for $285.

As the grand prize number ended in "9," all lucky tickets ending in "9" received a prize. Since the lottery tickets were divided into 20 parts salable at $14 each, the winnings on a given ticket were often split still further by private clubs whose members held each a still smaller fractional share.