Statistical Thrills

For some months a lottery has been conducted, and thousands of tickets sold whose winnings are determined by the daily figures issued by the New York Clearing House relative to its exchanges and balances.

Ordinarily the statistics of the Clearing House appeared on the financial pages of the metropolitan papers along with other statistical information. They were of undoubted interest to bankers, brokers and financial specialists generally; but the rank and file of the public never exhibited any particular interest in them.

Then the lottery managers started. Soon they had a large clientele of truck drivers, elevator men, janitors, who became more interested in Clearing House statistics than anything else in the paper. The result was that the Clearing House officials were constantly telephoned regarding the likely outcome of their activities by people who could not possibly tell the difference between a clearing house and a dry cleaning establishment. In disgust, the Clearing House managers began to issue their statements only in "round figures" with ciphers below the million mark. But this has apparently only whetted the enthusiasm of the lottery ticket gamblers, who have taken to representing themselves as financial reporters in order to obtain the figures a little early.

Many folk had previously obtained something of a thrill by reading the prices of curb stocks, or the decline in German marks. But never had the Clearing House statements possessed this vivid interest to hoi polloi until the lottery managers began their operations.