254
CARL SMITH
applied to owners and frequenters of a "house, room, boat, vessel or any place on land or water" where gambling took place.
It left the open street in an indeterminate position. Tse-fa and pak-kop piu were easily carried on in the streets, particularly the former.
Dr. Ho Kai went into some detail describing the operations of the tse-fa scheme. The gambling societies employed a large number of agents, usually fortune tellers, pedlars and flower sellers, both men and women. Under cover of their trades they would call from house to house soliciting patronage.
With them they would have a card with the 36 characters of the lottery, one of which was to be chosen. They would also have copies of a doggerel poem in the form of a riddle.
The idea was that if the riddle was correctly interpreted it would indicate what the winning character would be. Actually it was of no assistance, but it served to arouse the interest of the better, particularly women who would get together to discuss for hours the meaning of the riddle.
Dr. Ho Kai remarked that "the doggerel is obscurely put together, and is about as ambiguous as a Delphian Oracle, that it might point to any of the 36 characters, so that it oftener misleads than assists the better."
After the agent had collected bets at the various places he stopped, he would make out a list of betters, characters chosen and amounts wagered. With this in hand he would go to some side street or lane where he would hand it to a collector, proceeding a little farther he would hand over the money he had received to another man.
The separation of the two actions was to protect the collectors from arrest. If the man with the money was apprehended there would be no document to associate the money he was carrying with gambling.
T
254
CARL SMITH
applied to owners and frequenters of a "house, room, boat, vessel or any place on land or water" where gambling took place.
It left the open street in an indeterminate position. Tse-fa and pak-kop piu were easily carried on in the streets, particularly the former.
Dr. Ho Kai went into some detail describing the operations of the tse-fa scheme. The gambling societies employed a large num- ber of agents, usually fortune tellers, pedlars and flower sellers, both men and women. Under cover of their trades they would call from house to house soliciting patronage.
With them they would have a card with the 36 characters of the lottery, one of which was to be chosen. They would also have copies of a doggerel poem in the form of a riddle.
The idea was that if the riddle was correctly interpreted it would indicate what the winning character would be. Actually it was of no assistance, but it served to arouse the interest of the better, particularly women who would get together to discuss for hours the meaning of the riddle.
Dr. Ho Kai remarked that "the doggerel is obscurely put togeth- er, and is about as ambiguous as a Delphian Oracle, that it might point to any of the 36 characters, so that it oftener misleads than assists the better."
After the agent had collected bets at the various places he stopped, he would make out a list of betters, characters chosen and amounts wagered. With this in hand he would go to some side street or lane where he would hand it to a collector, proceeding a little farther he would hand over the money he had received to another man.
The separation of the two actions was to protect the collectors from arrest. If the man with the money was apprehended there would be no document to associate the money he was carrying with gambling.
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