Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1867-02-28
GIFT ENTERPRISES.

some people to swindle their fellow
creatures under such false pretences
as those yclept "gift enterprises" is
mania only equaled by that which
prompts whole communities to some
times "try heirluck" in such schemes
and thus by giving aid and comfort
to the schemers, sustain and encour-
age the latter in their villainous plots
Of imposture.
The demoralizing tendencies of
those gambling speculations 30 cum
ningly gilded over by some ostensible
moral, religious Or benevolent pre-
text, to serve selfish purpose, must
sooner or later bring forth their fruits
in kind upon the minds and hearts
Of the rising as we'll as older gen
erations.
Many of the Northern clergy,
Sailing as they have been for great
while, under false colors who are
always first in war, or, rather, first
in egging it on, first in securing COM
Portable places, and among the first
in religious and political sectarianlsm
and fanaticism, have shown them
selves also among the first to uphold
and encourage those enticing specu-
lations which have seized upon the
men, women and children of the land
like a moral distemper fast culminat-
ing into chronic stage. The late stu
penduous swindle of the Crosby OPP
era House lottery at Chicago, the
prospectus Of which paper, brought
the 100000 decoy scheme on paper
under the head of great moral ideas"
secured in high clerical places in
vestments on the sly. The Newport
Or. H. Mercury says that the min
listers in that city event into it, and
no doubt the example set by these
"blind leaders of the blind" induced
ever so many Of the lay brethren to
follow suit.
1t is to be feared from the passive
attitude assumed by the clerical fra.
ternity in the South with reference
to, and in full view Of, the leprous
faint which is seeking under so
many plausible guises to infect the
moral atmosphere everywhere, that
numbers of them, too, stand amena-
BILE to the censure of giving aid and
encouragement to those "gift enter
prises," so.called.
But we are glad to see that some
steps are about to be taken in GER
tain directions, for probing these
worse than humbug speculations.
The managers of some of the gift
enterprises and presentation schemes,
says an exchange, are likely to be
brought to account by some Of their
victims, without reference even to
the general statutes against lotteries
The Crosby lottery business is being
looked into. A citizen of Chicago,
who pronounces the whole affair a
swindle, and insists that money was
obtained from him under false pre-
fences, has sued Crosby ct ais. on
charges of this character, and if the
prosecution is carried through it will
at least, says a Chicago paper, ode.
velop the manner and modus oper.
andi of the Lee-Crosby transfer
about which so many people are
inquisitive."
In the New York State Senate
also, motion has been made to in.
quire into the late gift enterprise in
New York city for the benefit Of the
Soldiers and Sailors Orphan Home
The mover said he had received 6
letter from distinguished officer
representing that unless the Legisla
ture interfered the Orphans Home
would not receive a dollar of The
large amount collected by the man
ayers of the lottery. And so it goes
The true character of the most O