The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-10-22

a~Ns A NuAA-
Gus thing happened to one of
these bills which put a lot of fell
lows in a good sweat for a half
hour. After the second reading
of a bundle of them they were
passed to the desk of the assistant
secretary.
A LOST BILL.
"When the secretary got this
bundle again he read them, but
when he had finished his pile.
some one called out that one was
missing. In an instant there was
a hubbub. Some of the men,
bers felt that their toes had been
tramped on, for this missing bill
was the lottery scheme measure
which had been lurking SO quiet
ly out of sight all session, to be
rushed through the last day. A
threat of a deadlock was
made at once, and the president
of the council fairly banged
away on his desk, while he
ordered the secretary to produce
the bill. The secretary was a
scared man, as everybody could
see. lie went over his desk ner-
vously, looked in his chair, over
the floor, and around about hope
lessly. But the president battered
and Numbered away at his desk,
and the secretary grew desperate.
He suddenly moved over to the
assistant secretary's desk, brushed
the latter to one side, and DELHI
e%rately went through every drawer
in the desk. Away down in the
fourth drawer, slowed away
among miscellaneous papers, was
the missing document. Its dis
covery quoted down the excite
ment. The bill was passed by
the council, and the secretary was
ordered to take it into his custody
and deliver it safely to the house
of representatives. He took hold
of it and made a Decline into the
house, announced himself, and
got rid of it.
ON THE BACK OF LOTTERY TICKETS.
"That bill? Well, that statute,
as it now became, was printed
word for word on the back of Pat
tees lottery tickets. He founded
a grand scheme and worked it up
tremendously. He advertised
everywhere, from Nova Scotia to
Timbuctoo, and soon the dollars
came in. His engraved lottery
tickets, with the Wyoming stat
ute printed on the back of them,
were sold at the rate of a dollar
apiece. He had a score of clerks,
men and women, at work for him
III Laramie City. 1t is said that
as high as $4,000 a day came to
, him through the postofice. 1t
was well-known hat the big prizes
were never paid. The scheme
was a plain, straight steal. An
office for the sale of tickets ap-
peared in Cheyenne, but it never
ttourished. People got to know
the racket, and business was done
by the lottery men chiefly out of
the territory, with headquarters
at Laramie. Branch offices were
established at some places along
the railroad, though. Oh, it was
a beautiful scheme and a bold one,
a fraud on its face.
"You can go along a year or so
: now and reach the time when the
legislature had something moF
to do with the lottery business.
Mr.. Garbanati, president of the
Legislative council of 1879, lived
in Evanston, where q lottery Office
had been opened. He saw the
way it was corrupting the COM
munity, and he made up his mind
that no statute should disgrace the
laws of Wyoming which permit
ted such Il business, if his iniu-
ence could repeal it. The very
first day of the session-Novem-
Der 6, 1879, the LEADER has it,
and | have no doubt it is correct,
he introduced as the first bill of
} the session the one which now
stands as the law prohibiting lot
teries and repeating all former
laws on the subject. But he had
+ no easy task in passing his bill.
1t was fought at every step by
sideways methods. 1t was report
ed to one committee, then to au-
other, then amended, and SO on.
Members were cajoled into its
support, if possible. One able
but INSCRIPTIONS member engi-
neered it, and dinners were given
to the council, and all the little
social arts hat go so far in dis
arning hostility were brought
into play. But Garbanati and
other uprightmeu persevered and
brought the matter around at
length. 1t was the last OF the
, month when council bill No. l
was passed by the council. The
chairman of the committee which
, killed the scheme was NJ. L. Post.
"But there was a member of
} the council who was in favor of
letting the notorious lottery men
alone. He voted every time
against the bill that was to choke
them off, and he voted every time
for whatever move might favor
49,