If in reality you did win (a very great "if" indeed), you would not be
paid in these instances more than 4, 25 and 3600 scudi. In fact, if ever
there was invented in this world a game, of which the old saying, "Heads
I win, and tails you lose" held true, it would be of the Papal Lottery.
If the numbers you back do not happen to turn up, you lose the whole of
your stake; if they do, you are docked of more than seventy-five per
cent. of your winnings. For my part, I would sooner play at thimble-rig
on Epsom Downs, or dominoes with Greek merchants, or at "three-cards"
with a casual and communicative fellow-passenger of sporting cast: I
should infallibly be legged, but I should hardly be plundered so
ruthlessly or remorselessly. Still the Vatican, like all gentlemen who
play with loaded dice or marked cards, may have a run of luck against it.
Spiritual infallibility itself cannot determine whether a halfpenny
tossed into the air will come down man or woman, and the law of chances
cannot be regulated by a _motu proprio_. It is possible, though not
probable, that on any one occasion the majority of the gamblers might
stake their money fortuitously on one series of numbers, and if that
series did happen to be drawn, then the loss to the Lottery, even with
all deductions, would be a heavy one, and the Roman exchequer is by no
means in a position to bear a heavy drain.
Pages:
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115