Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-05-16
A DEvLIsH TEMPTATION.

a DEVLlSH TEMPTATION.
If the people of Louisiana are not humi-
lated until their mouths are in the dust
by the offer of the Louisiana Lottery man,
then their souls are insensible to shame.
The brazen effrontery of the fellow passes
all other examples of cheek. He has the
assurance that is additionally supposed to
plate Tammany politician; he has the
meanness to laugh at the pitiable condition
of the people due to the recent floods, and
all the while to assume to be shedding
tears of sympathy for their woes.
The people of Louisiana, after suffering
twenty years of the contamination of the
lottery curse, resolved to put an end to the
lnfamy, and gave the managers notice that
at the expiration of the present charter no
new one would be granted For several
months the scheming lottery gamesters
have been doing all that money could aid
them in doing, but without success, to bride
the Legislatures of other States to give
them foothold on new territory. In the
meantime terrible flood visits the low
lands of Louisiana; the father of waters
bursts the bounds set for his way, and scat
tiers death and desolation in the path of
the torrents he pours from his broken sides.
Ruin marks thousands of homes for its
own, and the State goes into mourning for
II
the sorrows of its people. At this juncture
the devil in the guise of the lottery man
ager appears upon the scene, and offers the
unfortunate people all these things if they
will fall down and worship him:
Permit me to debauch the people under
cover of your sovereignty for another
twenty years, and | will pay you twenty
millions OF dollars, round million each
year. Nay, ] will in your present distress
pay some of the sum on the nail, spot
cash. See what good you can accomplish
with so much money. For your leyees
you shall have S35O,0O0; for your public
schools, S350,000 for your hospitals,
100000; for your insane, $4,000; for
your deaf, dumb and blind, $4,000; for
the drainage of your metropolis, 500, 900.
Thousands of homes have been swept
away, and | think / ought to do what
can to ameliorate the consequent distress.
Repairs to the levees will do this, as the
people can then rescue their plantations
and homes from the flood, and / think
that with my S350,000 year you can in
sure yourselves against floods. have long
thought that the public school term
should be made nine months of the year.
and that the standard of the course of
study should be advanced. | therefore
will grant you S350,O0o year, and if you
accept it, | advise that you get new corps
of teachers to supplement the lot you
now have, since they teach as if their
hearts were not in the work. New blood is
needed to inspire the whole department,
and my S350,00O will furnish it," And
thus the tempter concludes:
have long since recognized that the city of
New Orleans requires first-class drainage sys-
may be assured. have therefore prov ided in
my offer. specific. and trust a satisfactory
amount semi annually for this purpose. see
very clearly that something must be done, and
done at once, to restore the leyees which have
recently been destroyed. i will advance the
state sum for the purpose at once in order
that the people may not be overwhelmed be-
tween this date aud the expiration of the pres
ent lottery charter.
OF course, as an intelligent contemporary
remarks, a man who can make such offers
as these must have both hands in the
peoples pockets. More than that, he
must be robbing them to the backbone.
No wonder then that he offers such gilt
tering brides. No wonder that he can
tempt the people Of a gambling ridden
State as no other people we're tempted be-
fore. 1t is very likely that this $40, Oe0,-
600 bride will win for this modern Mephis-
TOPPLES 1t is almost too much to ek-
pect of the Louisianans that they will re-
sist the temptation of the rascally bride.
But if they have fair sense of pride left
that is superior to their woes, they will
rise in their wrath and command this new
Satan to get behind them. But if they
grovel before him, and consent to exist as
at his imperial will, they will be for the
next twenty years, they and their chill
dren, the most pitiable spectacles upon the
continent. Rather than that their accept
ance of this infamous bride to permit the
vilest of gaming thievery should be real
lied, the other States of the Union could
afford to raise the gamblers figures and
offer Louisiana So, 100000 to refuse. OF
course such an idea is visionary, but were
it possible of being made real, it would by
no means be the part of unwisdom, for il
is wise to fight the devil with FIRE.