The Monticellonian., 1895-10-18
POSTAL AFFAIRS.

Report of Assistant Attorney General
 Thomas on the Operations of His office for the Last Fiscal Year-Lottery Busi-
 ness Radly Crippled Drafts of Bills Gov
 ering Needed Legislation.
 WASHINGTON Oct. 14-Judge John L. Thomas, assistant attorney general for the post office department, has sub mitted to the postmaster general re- port of the operations of his office for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1895.
 During the year 213 fraud orders were issued, 5 of which were against lottery companies operated by so- called "bond investment" companies; 12 against avowed lottery companies, and 2i against miscellaneous games of chance. The remainder were various schemes to defraud.
 Judge Thomas says that the bond in- vestment schemes have been a6an- doned by all the companies except a very few.
 In reviewing the lottery question, he says it may be confidently asserted that the death-knell of the avowed lotteries in this country has been sounded and their business has been vastly crippled, if not ruined; but he is sorry t0 note the fact that many business men think they must, In order to succeed, resort to schemes to appeal to the gambling spirit of their people and they accordingly sugar-coat their legitimate enterprises with lottery att tachments and thus create desire for other and more pernIeious modes of obtaining something for nothing by hazard or chance.
 The number of claims allowed for losses by burglary, fire, etc. during the year was l, 306. aggfegatiug Sf3s.- 6s6. This amount does not represent the actual monetary loss to the gov ernment, as about S23.917 worth of stamps and other material was de- stroyed by fire At the end of the year there were 6s0 claims not dis posed of.
 Judge Thomas renews his recon mendation for the passage of a law making postmasters and their sureties liable for the defalcations and acts of their subordinates, and submits that "the failure of the government to take security from subordinates in post offices, who number thousands, and handle millions of dollars of public money annually, or to hold the post masters liable for the acts of their subordinates is not only anomalous in practice but dangerous to the public interest" In this connection he has prepared a bill to be introduced in the f,,. 1 l,;. .l f. the law.
 Judge Thomas says that his atten- ton has several times during the year been called to dangerous and in furious matter deposited in the mails, and upon investigation it was dis covered that there is now no penalty prescribed for depositing such matter in the mails, and indeed, there is no statute forbidding it's being mailed He has accordingly drawn up bill which covers two classes of articles:
 First-Those which are dangerous to life, health, comfort and body of the empioye or addresse, such as poisons live animals, reptils or insects, ex- plosives, etc; and,
 Seeond-Those articles which, though liable to injufe employees or damage other mail matter when loose In the mails, when properly packed may be safely handled, such as oils, liquids not poisonous or explosive; sharp instruments, dyestuffs and the like, which may be mailed if properly packed
 No one is by this bill permitted to mail the articles of the tirst-class nn- der penalty of Imprisonment or fine or both at the discretion of the court, nor to mail the articles of the second class if not packed according to the regulations prescribed by the postmas- ter-general.