and raffles, which, if now
found only in association with church fairs, were then not merely
respectable, but even fashionable. In 1760 five pounds and ten shillings
were invested in one lottery. Five pounds purchased five tickets in
Strother's lottery in 1763. Three years later six pounds were risked in
the York lottery and produced prizes to the extent of sixteen pounds.
Fifty pounds were put into Colonel Byrd's lottery in 1769, and drew a
half-acre lot in the town of Manchester, but out of this Washington was
defrauded. In 1791 John Potts was paid four pounds and four shillings "in
part for 20 Lottery tickets in the Alexa. street Lottery at 6/ each, 14
Dollrs. the Bal. was discharged by 2.3 Lotr prizes." Twenty tickets of
Peregrine and Fitzhugh's lottery cost one hundred and eighty-eight dollars
in 1794. And these are but samples of innumerable instances. So, too, in
raffles, the entries are constant,--"for glasses 20/," "for a Necklace
L1.," "by profit & loss in two chances in raffling for Encyclopadia
Britannica, which I did not win L1.4," two tickets were taken in the
raffle of Mrs. Dawson's coach, as were chances for a pair of silver
buckles, for a watch, and for a gun; such and many others were smaller
ventures Washington took.

There were other sources of income or loss besides. Before the Revolution
he had a good sized holding of Bank of England stock, and an annuity in
the funds, besides considerable property on bond, the larger part of
which, as already noted, was liquidated in depreciated paper money. This
paper money was for the most part put into United States securities, and
eventually the "at least L10,000 Virginia money" proved to be worth six
thousand two hundred and forty-six dollars in government six per cents and
three per cents. A great believer in the Potomac Canal Company, Washington
invested twenty-four hundred pounds sterling in the stock, which produced
no income, and in time showed a heavy shrinkage. Another and smaller loss
was an investment in the James River Canal Company. Stock holdings in the
Bank of Columbia and in the Bank of Alexandria proved profitable
investments.

None the less Washington was a successful businessman. Though his property
rarely produced a net income, and though he served the public with
practically no profit (except as regards bounty lands), and thus was
compelled frequently to dip into his capital to pay current expenses, yet,
from being a surveyor only too gla