Page:Jstraitsrsa31-33.pdf/90

 ki sub-agencies did nearly as much business as the principal lotteries. The Chap-ji-ki sub-agencies were opened in all the chief districts in the town.

Unlike the principal or original Chap-ji-ki, the sub-agency, was open to the general public, and both male and female collectors were employed to collect stakes. After the manager of a sub-agency had got together a small staff of collectors he fixed an some house (usually a private one) which he kept open at all times as a Chap-ji-ki office. The house got known to the public and a number of women would go to the house in person and stake.

When the lottery was to be opened, the sub-manager would state that whatever winning card is declared to-day by so-and-so (one of the principal chap-ji-ki managers) that will be the winning card by which his own lottery will be decided. Directly the principal named had declared his winning card for the day, a messenger would be sent to the sub-agency to state what it was, and the sub-manager then announced it to the party of stakers who had already assembled in the meeting house. Very few precautions were taken in these sub-agencies and they were therefore easier to arrest. The amount staked, however, in the sub-agencies did not amount to more than a hundred dollars or so a day.

G. T. Hare.