A dream book of lottery numbers

I get a lot of requests from readers wanting to know where to buy a dream book and asking me to look up numbers for them. Please Google “dream book” to find an online store that sells the books. That way, you’ll have the numbers at our fingertips when you have that spectacular dream.

 

I was going through a box lot of items from Sunday’s auction when I came across an old softcover book tucked inside a clear plastic bag. Its front cover was missing and its back cover had been slid inside the book.

“The H.P. Dream Book. This Is Your Lucky Day. What Did You Dream? 469.” It had a copyright date of 1926 and 1927, and the author was Prof. Uriah Konje.

I didn’t recognize the book, but I knew its purpose. My sister uses a similar book to choose the daily numbers for her lottery tickets in Georgia. And she isn’t the only one: A cousin in Ohio relies on a numbers book, too.

I’m sure some of you have relatives who still believe that the right numbers in the right order will make them rich. Me, I only play the big lotteries – Mega Millions and Powerball when the payout reaches more than $50 mil. Anything below that is a time-waster.

With my auction dream book in hand, I decided to Google Prof. Uriah Konje. I found that he was a black man born in 1893, likely owned one of the major dream book publishing companies, G. Parris Company, and lived in upstate New York. Author Anthony Shafton mentioned him in his 2002 book “Dream-singers: The African American Way with Dreams.” There appears to be very little biographical information about the man.

I learned that his real name was Herbert Gladstone Parris. He published five or more books on dreams and policy – an early (and illegal) lottery in the black community – along with revised editions of some of the books. Several of the books could be purchased from a G. Parris at an address in White Plains, NY, along with tip cards of “well-selected numbers,” according to the H.P. Dream Book itself. He also wrote under the pseudonym Prof. De Herbert.

I called my sister, who had spent the early evening helping my mother move into a new house. After I described the book, she was very excited. Wanted to buy it from me. She’s thinking that those numbers may work better than the ones in her newer book. Could they have changed over the years? Does luck run out on some numbers after a given time? Who knows.

Then she wanted to know the numbers for moving. I looked up the word: 462. I’m sure she’ll play them.

The 96-page book consisted of page after page of words in alphabetical order with three numbers next to them – achievement: 310, horizon: 862, scissors: 186; alphabets: A: 145, T: 606, Z: 793, and holidays: Good Friday: 733. It also included ladies names (mine wasn’t in there) and gentlemen’s names, days of the week, parts of the body (there’s an actual line drawing of a bare man with a fig leaf covering his private parts), cities and states. The book is also a historical record of the time, based on some of the words: lynching: 215. Ku Klux Klan: 000. Kinky hair: 006. Colored wowen:726. Confederacy: 102.

There were no dream interpretations but a short list of things you might see or feel:

To see a race riot: 291
To see a black cat running across the street: 461
To see a train wreck: 514
When you stump your toe: 921
When your hands itch: 367

According to the website luckymojo, Parris was not the only one peddling dream books, which were linked to the African-inspired practice of hoodoo. The most popular and well-known book was “Aunt Sally’s Policy Players Dream Book,” which was first published by Wehman Bros. of New York in 1889. The cover featured a stereotypical image of a black woman with head scarf and apron, and the book contained much of the same information as Parris’ books but with more dream interpretations.

The numbers 4-11-44, which are on the front of the Aunt Sally book, were associated with the lottery game policy,  in which numbers ranging from 1 to 78 were drawn on a wheel. This popular bet became known as the washerwoman’s gig after it was featured on Aunt Sally’s cover.

Tucked inside my Prof. Konje auction book was a small pamphlet simply called “Dream Book” distributed by Quaker City Life Insurance Co. in Philadelphia. This pamphlet also answered the question “What’s In A Dream” with interpretations in alphabetical order by words.

Prof. Konje ended his book with a call-out “To The Colored People of the World”:

“I am appealing to you not in rhythm or Rhyme but in simple language. I beseech you to wake up, and teach your children trades and professions of all kinds.

… A nation’s success is measured by its educational and industrial attainment. It is time for the Colored People of the world to hold their industrial and educational pre-eminence.

… Another thing I want to ask you not to fight for social but political equality; and as soon as you shall have acquired political equality, there is nothing to prevent you from obtaining social equality.”

Yours truly,

Prof. Uriah Konje

Looking for a  copy of the Dream book? Here’s a blog post I wrote about how you can find a newer version.