The Daily Dispatch: July 19, 1864., [Electronic resource]

A heavy wager.

If the Federal forces did not capture Richmond within thirty days from that date he was to give his opponent a single sound testable apple; if Richmond held out sixty, he was to give him two apples, and so on, doubling the number for each month until Richmond was taken to the end of time, if that event did not occur before Nine months have passed since the first apple was handed over, and the list of apples delivered at the end of the successive months is as follows; 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256--total, 5tl.

Thus far it is all a good joke, and the loser has paid forfeits regularly with a good grace; but yesterday it ruined a $10 piece to meet the demand (apples are 15 to 20 cents per pound, and it took a fifty-pound box.) Should Richmond be taken within the present month he would get back all the apples he has lost and one more, which, as the price will then he at the very highest notch would make him more than even; but should it hold out a year longer, and he continue to pay his losses, his last payment would cost him $40,960, and he would be $81,900 out. In three months more he would be out $686,340; and should the war last from this date as much longer as it has already lasted since the commencement, no nation on earth could begin to meet the terms of the wager, even allowing it to be reduced to a cash basis, and the payments to be made in greenbacks.