The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1895-07-27
BY l9liseaaHes6c9
M8lttERARI}
THE LOTTERY KING.
Dramatic Career of John A. Morris, the
Louisiana Millionaire.


On Texas ranch, far from home and
kindred, John A. Morris, the Louisiana
Lottery King, died as he had wished to
die-from an apoplectic stroke. At Kerr
vile, in the territory tributary to Sar
Antonio, the stroke came in the early day.
light hours, on Friday, May "a, and soor
the man whose dramatic career embraced
two continents was wrapped in the uncon,
seriousness for which he had himself longed
when the messenger of death should come
to whisper in his ear.
John A. Morris was Il Harvard graduate.
The Louisiana story asserts that he stood
at the head of his class. Whatever mea-
sure of truth this story contains, it is quite
certain that the master mind of the Louis
lana State Lottery, the institution now
dead beyond the hope of resurrection, was
a man of broad and wide culture--l ripe
theologan a profound chemist, at hone
with the poets and the great minds of liter
ature. His English. when he chose to
write (and he wrote more than even his
intimates supposed was terse and epigram-
matte. He was critic of sound judgment
and fine attanmeitS. His Shakspearean
lore was at his finger tips, and it was lore
that came from below Il t surface of modern
superticiality. What he knew was woven
in his nature, for he assimilatcd all knowl
edge that came his way, and made it a part
of himself.
Far back in the 5Os John A. Morris
endeavored to ascend the throne of the lot
terry kingdom. 1t is known that in his
early life he went to Wilmington, Del,
and there established daily drawing of d
lottery. 1t is said that the city taxed him
S25, 900 a month for the privilege and gave
him an exclusive franchise. For time he
prospered, yet one bright day his own
agents devised scheme which wrecked
him. The process was so simple that it
was some months before the lottery mant-
ger Caught on In every lottery draw
ing the numbers are placed in rubber tubes
with roughened surface. \ small boy
blindfolded, draws one of these tubes ont
of the wheel in which they are placed, and
the number contained in the tube wins.
How simple it was for those in charge %
the lottery shops, the boy who drew out
the tubes, and few outside players, to
form a combination. This they did-a
piece of sand paper made smooth the
tubes in which were placed by the ''mar'
in the CASE the numbers bet on by the
combination that day: the boy, though
securely blndfolded, could feel the smoot,
ones and pull them out and the deed was
done. But even here John A. Morris luck
swindle him got under way the moral ele.
ment in the city enjoined him from operat.
ing. He bonded the injunction and wen,
on. The city was afraid to take his S25, O0C
per month in the face of public censure
So each month he rendered the sam,
S25 900, and his tender was refused. Fol
seven months this went on, until, finally,
S175 900 was due. And also about this
time the $25. 900 rendered was all that
John A. Morris had left after paying the
losses due to the successful operation of the
combination scheme At this stage of
Morris Wilmington career the courts dis
solved the I'M JUNCTION, the city claimed its
Sl75, 600, and the lottery scheme of course,
came to an end.
There was no money to pay the city, and
Wilmingtons daily lottery was thing of
the past In this connection it is interest
ing to know that the legal adviser of John
A. Morris in his Delaware experience was
none other than Thomas F. Bayard, after
ward Secretary of State, and now our En-
bassador to the court of st. James.
FOUNDING OF THE GREAT LOTTERY.
But John A, Morris was a good loser. !"
He did not yield to adversitys hard blows.
He sat about planning in other directions.
1t was not long before reconstruction DAYS
came in tho South. Society had not settled
to normal conditions, and Louisiana was
more unsettled than any Southern State.
Moreover, her population, largely recruited
from the South of Europe, did not look
upon the wheel of fortune with the eye of
the Puritan. There was no surplus NOR
ality in the State. Blue laws had no place
loose laws We're in vogue, and they unus-
ually loose with regard to games of chance
To Louisiana, therefore, came the future
king. Associating with himself kindred
spirits in the world of chance, among others
the nervous and nervy Charles r. Howard,
John \. Morris secured in 1868 from the
Legislature of Louisiana charter for the
Louisiana State Lottery Company. The
shares were $40 each, and members of the
Legislature were amply supplied with
them. To. the close of the Louisiana Lot
tery's career in 1894, when the State drove
the company out, some of the members of
the Legislature of 1-6- or their heirs held
stock. They knew good thing when they
saw it, and they held on to that which was
good.
The first scheme of the Louisiana Lot
terry was to give, each, month, capital
prize of $50, 600, with other financial "pos-
sibilites, aggregating SLIP, 800.
f,,f, nan