The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1890-05-17
The Alternative,

. the NO. States, written last week, de
liVes additional strength from the fact
that Mr.. Morris has since raised his of
D fer to ono million dollars wear.
1t Is not little amusing TO note the
, furious manner ia which Il number o.
our interior contemporaries denounce
the proposition to renew the charter o.
, the Louisiana State Lottery Company
! To listen to the incoherent rawlings O
some OF our country cousins, one might
, assume that it was 10 contemplation tc
turn the State over to the Lottery Com.
pany, body and boots. and that the
, honor, virtue and independence OF
every human being within our borders
were about to be bartered away by
those who regard Mr.. Morris PROPOSE
ton in a favorable light and Louisiana
converted into a monster cesspool oil
all descriptions Of vice and immortality
a great many people, who leave
their thinking to others and accept as
gospel truth all the mouthings of news
papers and 0ratorichl reformers, have
been led to believe that the question,
relative to the Lottery, to be submit
ted 10 the people is: Shall lotteries be
utterly extirpated in Louisiana or not ?
Now, this is the veriest twaddte of ILL
informed or distempered lmaginations,
and the cunning insinuation of design
ing and interested managers Of other
lottery schemes. No such question is
really under consideration there is no
such proposition for the Legislature to
determine.
: The real, practical, vital issue is this !:
Shall the charter Of the Louisiana State
Lottery Company be renewed after
January lst, 1895, for and in considera-
tion If the sum of $500, ,0Qaa.to be paid
annually to the State for the aid of our
levees, schools and charities; or, mark
the alternative, shall that company be
driven ont of the State and the lottery
business given over to corporations
Spain ami Austria, whic@ contribute
pot oDe C, ht to either our city or State
treasury ?S That is the real issue to be
determined, and its gravity, together
with the magnitude of the interests in
volved, suggests the further question
Will the Legislature venture to deny
the tax payers of this State the right
to say whether they will have the Lou
isiana State Lottery and twelve mil
lions, five hundred thousand dollars,
or permit the lottery business to be
carried on, free of all charge except the
black mailing fees to the police, by the
Mexican and Havana, and the skin
game lotteries that will spring up on
the Mexican border aud, for that matter,
10 our own midst, the day the Louisiana
company goes into liquidation, and
prohibition is substituted for high H.
cense under the benign influence of the
anti. lotteryites
Ofcourse, in the latter case we will
have a very high toned, moral and
pious law on our statute books; and,
if such law will make us more vir-
tuous. and honorable people than our
neh65ors. and will maintain our
schools and charities and build our le-
wees, then we say, God speed the law.
But there is not sensible, level head
ed, Informed man in this city who be-
lieves that any law or constitutional
provision that may be enacted will sup
press, Or even lessen, the lottery evil
or business, call it which pon will. 4
New Orleans was great lottery mT wa
loug before the Incorporation of h-
Louisiana Company was dreamed of
it has been lottery mart almost from
The day of it's foundation indeed, = is
not venpyiDg much to say that, before
the present company was chartered,
the business was carried on here, if not
to greater extent, at least in more
reckless aud irresponsible manner, in
direct violation of the laws, and hence
attended with more demoralized influ-
ence than it is to-day; and SO sure as
the sun shines, should the present con-
cern be driven out of the field, the
trade will continue to flourish in all
the unbridled and licentions bravery
that characterized it in former times,
be thesiaw what it may.
We repeat then, because we are de-
termined that the Legislature and the
people shall clearly aud distinctly un-
derstand what is before them, that the
choice is between the recharter of the
Louisiana State Lottery Company for
and in considdsaSsm>n of tIie sum of$l2,-
500, 900, foie n5 5avee4, schools and
charities, or fFSr -~fexicap, Havana and
skin game lotteries generally, for the
exclusive beuefit of foieigu States, cor
poratious and domestic slarpers.
And now having stripped tue issue
OF all the sham morality and spurious
sentimentality i'll which it has been so !,
induatriously enveloped. we desire to
ask those members of the Legislature |
who propose to assume the very grave !
responsibility of refasing.th people of
this State an opportunity to esstheir
sovereign will as to this proposition at
the ballot box, what steps, in case they
actually succeed in thus intrnding be-
tween the people and their legal right !
to determine this choice for themselves,
they thereafter propose to take for the
rebuilding and maintenance Of the /
ruined levees, and the support of the /
schools aud charities of Louisiana
It Is needless for us to go into re-
cital Of the wreck and ruin which pre- /
walls over half the State, due to the in !.
Of our levee system or Of
the disgracefai anadequacy of our pub
lie schools to the needs of an eniighten-
ed community or the shocking condi-
ton of our Insane Asylum and many of
our other charitable institutions. The
sad. the disgraceful, the disgusting
story, has been told by every paper in |
the State that has done IFS duty; by
every legislative committee in the past
twenty years, in the records OF every
conflict that has arisen between the
CITY Council without money, on the
one hand, and The school Board on the