Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-07-20
WANTS TO GO
TO PRISON
Supreme Court Refuses Request
of Alleged Lottery Agent and
et-RiCh-QuiCk Man.

NEW YORK, July 20.-After IN in
terview with Justice White of the
United States supreme court at Nara
gensett Pier, X. L., Louis A. G%ourdain,
the former alleged lottery agent who Is
trying to be readmitted to the Joliet
Ill.) p~enitentiary, from which he was
recently released by a pardon. deciding
that his effort to get his petition filed
with the supreme court of the United
States was useless, left Narragansett
Pier and has returned to New York.
Gourdain requested Judge White to
| order the clerk of the supreme court to
accept his petition for readmission to
the penitentiary, but the justice inform
ed him that the clerk was perfectly
right in his refusal to receive the petit
ton without a special order of the
court.
After a friendly talk of personal mat
tiers Gourdain introduced the subject
of his errand, saying that he had pre-
scented at the office of the clerk of the
supreme court in Washington a petition
asking for his return to the p%enitentiary
and the clerk had declined to receive it
on the ground that there must be an
order of the court.
In the petition, Gourdain explained,
he had set forth that during his trial he
had given his word that if convicted he
would not appeal from the sentence,
but in some mysterious way an attor-
ney had interviewed and had secured a
pardon for Gourdain, which the latter
at the earnest solicitation Of his wife
had accepted by signing the required
bond.
Afterward, Gourdain explained, he
repented Of his action, as he considered
his honor involved because of his prom
Use made in court prior to his convic-
ton, and he therefore desired to be
returned to the pe%nitentiary.
With voluntary Imprisonment in the
Joliet penitentiary as his one aim and
object in life. Gourdain was induced to
remain at liberty and to sit down to an
elaborate breakfast in his sumptuous
apartments at the Hotel Savoy.
AS ne helped himself to raspberries
re sighed ~dejectedly at the cruel fate
that denied him prison fare and ut
tered solemn vows that as Justice
court would not reinstate him as a
convict he would go back to Joliet and
at once begin the building Of a prison
of his own, where he could serve out
the sentence of four years and six
months imposed upon him by United
States Judge Lands of Chicago and of
which he was deprived through the
treachery of his lawyer.
Gourdain, who does not dislike being
considered a multlmillionaire, came
into prominence in 1890, when he or
ganized the Louisiana grand lottery as
a rival to the Louisiana state lottery.
His system was simplicity itself, Gour-
daln issuing tickets numbered exactly
like those issued by the state lottery
and paying the same nRmbers drawn
by the state lottery.
THE receipts" he explained com
%placently, "were anywhere Ssom $780,
900 to $1,000, 900 a month. As | paid
my agents 20 per cent commission IN
the state lottery only paid theirs 10
per cent, l naturally sold more tickets
than the state lottery did. | didn't
have to pay anything for advertising
the winning numbers, the state lottery
publishing theirs for me, and | also
saved the expense of the drawings.
When l first started / offered to pay
the state a bonus of $4,000 a year, Just
as the state lottery did, but the state
refused. 30 | spent the $4,000 for
lawyers and detectives and went on
doing business until 1894, when the lot
terry laws shut us both out.
During four years | was indicted
more frequently than any other man
in the world. The grand jury would
lndlct me every day in fact, but they
never dared to put me OF trial.
after the lottery business had been
declared Illegal | came to New York
and tried the Stock Exchange game