The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1895-07-27


one year the dividend declared amounted
to 10 per cent. And all this time a SUI
plus fund was accommodating with which to
make fight for new charter when the
year of expiration came. The surplus fund
amounted to So, 500, 900, and every dollar
of it was wiped out in an endeavor to get
new lease of life. Estimating the popula-
ton of Louisiana at l, 200, 600, this was
So so for every man. woman and child in
the State. Yet John A. Morris grasped
ashes when he reached forth for solids, and
of all hesh-died in the State which ad
given it birth. A fitful effort was made to
transfer the business to Honduras, but
within the past few months Congress passed
a new law preventing the importation OF
tickets from Honduras, and Florida, whe e
the company had its American habitat,
adopted a law which made fugitives of the
company's empl Eyes. And all is now dead
the master mind, the lottery and all.
The wreck and ruin is complete. That
which was once master of Louisiana is no.,
but memory-the civilized world said
it should go, and, when it started down
hill, gave the lottery an accelerating kick.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
SERIES OF DISASTERS.
Those who believe in the avenging wrath
of a just God have much to confirm their
belief in the history of the Louisiana Lot
terry Company in the past half dozen wears,
ranks. Howard, its cal manager, was
killed, as already related, by being thrown
from horse; Dauphin, who had charge Of
the internal management of the lottery's
office, and who was technically the ''prcsi-
dent after years of utter helplcssness
from paralysis, died in 1890; Conrad hi
ago; Gems G. T. Beauregard and J A.
Early, the distinguished Confed crate gen.
erals, who superintendent the drawings
have crossed the river within the past tw"
or three years: James d. Houston, wh'
had charge of the company's political in
terests in Louisiana, after lingering i'll
now John A. Morris, whose brain was
back of every movement, whose keen eye
discerned every danger, whose resource
met every onset of the enemy, has gone t"
jim his colleagues. The wreck is ut'er
and complete. There are none left to
whom reverence can be paid-no, not one
That which the civilized fought has died,
and with its death its promoters have gone
to face that which all may guess at, but
none can know
John A. Morris, at the mention of who's
name every well-informed Louisianiau in.
voluntarily drops into Renaissance, wa
no ordinary man. Born within a stone
throw of the city of New York, his life his,
tory embraced two continents. In England
he was as well known as here. There he
had a stock farm, bought or leased from
Lady Brooke. the Prince of Wales favoritr
! known as the Grabbing Brooke" In
Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France,
/ Egypt and Palestine he had travelled, till
even the guides to the Matterhorn knew
him by name, and welcomed his coming.
He had seen all of life too much of it to
be happy.
This lottery king had no vices. lie
/ 4. i
ing he eschewed as deadly poison: gam,
bling was not part of his personal creed
! Though he had large stable of horses lie
never wagered dc liar on the turf. In his
domestic life he was singularly free from
any tendency to flash and display. His
mind was of a philosophic turn. Those
who knew him intimately and who had an
insight into his true nature saw years ago
that melancholy had marked him for her
own. In the midst of the gay throng,
while his face did not betray it, his words
showed the spirit of the blase; he had worn
out life's pleasures by having known and
enjoyed them all.
His charities were simply limitless. He
knew how to do good and good only. A
score of young men he educated each year
"A legion of relatives shared his bounty
Every poverty stricken wretch that reached
him came from him the richer. His life
was one continual round of goodness to his
fellows. Yet he was never happy-the
shadow of the lottery was upon him al
says, and it was show that never dis
solved. Suns might come aud suns might
90, but the shadow went on forever. And
he beyond all other men, saw it, knew it
and felt it.
The career of John A. Morris was strik-
ingly dramatic from every point of view
but it was not strkingly happy from any
point of view.-St. Louis GlobeDemocrat.