The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1891-01-16
The Lottery's Death Throes.
THE LOUISIANA CONCERN IS DYING
VERY HARD.


When the war upon the lotteries
was opened a year ago last fall the
lottery agents in Washington-which
has been the most profitable centre
for their work in the whole country
laughed the efforts of their advresaries
to scorn, saying that it was mere
revival of an old threat, and would
soon blow over as usual. They even
continued in this attitude up to the
time of the report of the anti-lottery
bill by the house postoffice committee.
Even after that they still maintained
that they could make a very good liv
ing by conhning their work to specific
localities and not taking risks by using
the mails at all, The passage of the
bill making the lottery business of
itself unlawful in the District of Col
umbia did not frighten them, because
the counsel for the Louisiana lottery
company assured them that, however
well the postmaster general might sue
ceed in shutting them out of the privi-
leges of the mail, no law forbidding a
private individual to carry on bust
ness in lottery tickets could stand the
test of constitutionalty in the supreme
court, being violation of the perso-
nal rights of citizens.
A surprise awaited them again,
when the prosecuting officers of the
District proceeded to arrest a dealer
in tickets, and proposed to give the
Louisiana company a chance to try
the constitutional question without
further delay The man was brought
into court and then pleaded guilty,
asserting that though he had sold four
tickets, as stated in the Indictment, he
had done so under advice of counsel,
but that these counsel had since re.
voked their opinion and come around
after all to the conclusion that con-
gress had right to enforce its prohi-
bition in the District. He was fined,
according to the letter Of the statute,
$50 for each offense and allowed to
go without further punishment in con-
sideration of his declaration that he
had given up his business for good.
Meanwhile the postoffice depart
ment is having new questions pre-
sented to it every day. The most
troublesome problems are those in
volved in class of advertising which
is disguised as news items and inter
views, and in circulars sent around the
country under seal by the lottery COM
company touting for agents. A num-
Der Of copies of these circulars have
been turned in to the department by
citizens who have received them.
One of the company's devices seems
to be to dispose of its tickets through
local agencies, leaving the agents indi-
vidually to grapple with the local law
i6 case they are called to account. A
good many men in every large city,
apparently, are willing to risk their
personal safety on the chance of max
ing fair livelihood out of the COM
mission on sales. In other cases
it seems that the local statutes are so
loosely drawn as to enable a man to
buy all the tickets he wants under the
fiction of being an agent merely and
deposting money with his employer as
security for an ''outht."
In the opinion Of Judge Tyner, the
assistant attorney general for the post
Office department, the Louisiana Lot
terry company has suffered an irrepar-
able loss in the death of its chief ex-
ecutive officer, M. A. Dauphn. He
was not only extremely shrewd in de-
vising schemes for evading the law,
but had been identified by name with
the fortunes of the company SO long
and so publicly that every one in the
country could read between the lines
of any publication containing a refer
ence to him.
So innocent little reading notice,
for instance, as "Any person having
business with M. A. Dauphin of New
Orleans, La, before the 18th Of Sep
tember, may address him under cover
to such and such bank remittances
exceeding IS may be sent by express
at his expense" would be understood
by the people interested as well as if
the company's whole title were blazon-
ed at the top of the column. This will
not be the case, Judge Tyner thinks,
with Mr.. Dauphin's successor, who is
practically unknown, and the business
of the company has received a blow
from which, under existing conditions,
It may never recover.