LOUISIANA. 



507 



To punish persons who shall engage in, seek, or 

 agree to engage in, or in any way aid, abet, or patron- 

 ize any prize fight either within or without the State. 

 Making it a crime for any person to shoot, frtab, 

 cut, strike, or thrust another with a dangerous weap- 

 on, with intent to kill, the penalty being imprison- 

 ment for not more than three years. 



Making it a misdemeanor 'for any person to sell, 

 give, or lease to any minor, any pistol, bowie knife, 

 dirk, or anything intended to be carried or used as a 

 concealed weapon. 



Permitting the incorporation of trades unions, 

 Knights of Labor assemblies or lodges, Farmers' Al- 

 liances, and similar organizations. 



Making it unlawful for horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, 

 or other live stock to go on the levee or the space be- 

 tween the base of the levees and the draining ditch, 

 from and during the time that the water is against 

 the levees. 



Appropriating $7,657 to pay the expenses of the 

 State troops in the field in the parishes of Iberia, 

 St. Mary, and Lafourche during the labor strikes in 

 November, 1887. 



Granting to persons who sell agricultural products 

 of the United States in chartered cities and towns of 

 the State, a special lien on such products for five days 

 after the delivery of the same to the purchaser. 

 Within that time the vender may seize the property 

 sold, in whatever hands or place it may be found. 



Kearranging the judicial districts of the State. 



To create a new levee district called the Red River, 

 Atchataylaya, and Bayou Boeuf Levee District. 



Organizing the parish of Orleans into a public levee 

 district, to tie called the Orleans Levee District. 



Creating a new levee district to be known as the 

 Pontchartrain Levee District. 



Appropriating $5,000 to improve the Bayou Pierre 

 river. 



To repeal the act creating the Fourth Levee Dis- 

 trict, and creating a new district to be known as the. 

 Atchafaylaya Levee District. 



Making Mardi Gras and the 4th of March legal 

 holidays in the parish of Orleans. 



To provide for placing habitual drunkards under 

 the care and custody of curators. 



Making it a crime maliciously to destroy, injure, or 

 damage, or to attempt to destroy, injure, or damage 

 any sugar mill, cotton gin, rice mill, or other factory 

 in the State, or any machinery or apparatus forming 

 part of an v such factory. 



To prohibit the sale or giving of alcoholic or intoxi- 

 cating drink to inebriates or habitual drunkards. 



To prohibit all dance houses, free-and-easy gambling 

 dens, barrel houses, shandangoes, and like places. 



Authorizing the State Board of Health to make 

 regulations to protect the health of employe's in man- 

 ufactories, laboratories, and other places in which 

 substances are used, prepared, or handled which are 

 poisonous or detrimental to health. 



Authorizing the sale at auction by common carriers 

 of all freight unclaimed, and directing that the pro- 

 ceeds, after the payment of charges, shall be paid into 

 the State Treasury to the credit of the geceral school 

 fund. 



To protect and advance agriculture by regulating 

 the sale and purity of Paris green used as an'insecti- 

 cide. 



To punish the abduction of women for prostitution. 



To punish any person who, without consent of the 

 owner, cuts, pulls down, burns, destroys, kills or 

 deadens, carries or floats away, any tree, wood, or tim- 

 ber growing or lying on the land of another, or lying 

 in the water on land of another, or causes this to be 

 done. 



To punish any person who willfully violates a con- 

 tract on the faith of which money or goods have been 

 advanced, without tendering to the person who ad- 

 vanced the money or goods the amount or price there- 

 of, or who shairwillrully interfere or entice away or 

 induce any laborer or renter, before the expiration of 

 his contract, to leave his employer or the place rented. 



Requiring every foreign corporation doing busi- 

 ness in the State, except mercantile corporations, to 

 file with the Secretary of State a statement show- 

 ing its domicile, and the name of its agent in the 

 State. 



Providing for the sale of school-indemnity lands. 



The State Lottery. By the terms of its 

 charter, the license of the Louisiana State Lot- 

 tery Company would expire on Jan. 1, 1894. It 

 had been understood in the State for some time 

 that the Legislature of 1890 would be asked to 

 renew the license, and on this subject of its re- 

 newal a considerable difference of opinion pre- 

 vailed. A large and influential class of citizens, 

 believing that lotteries were objectionable on 

 moral grounds and that the State was incurring 

 the odium of the world by supporting them, was 

 radically opposed to further legislation in their 

 favor. There was another class who believed 

 that the only escape from the financial difficul- 

 ties and burdens besetting the State was by ac- 

 " cepting the large revenue that a lottery company 

 would pay. Early in the year the anti-lottery 

 people, knowing the great influence wielded by 

 the Lottery Company by reason of its wealth, be- 

 gan a vigorous and persistent advocacy of their 

 cause. On Feb. 28 they met in convention at 

 New Orleans and organized an Anti- Lottery- 

 League for the purpose of conducting a system- 

 atic canvass. Numerous public meetings were 

 held at New Orleans and other places under the 

 auspices of the league, whose activity through- 

 out the contest was very great. On April 17, 

 John A. Morris, acting in behalf of the Lottery 

 Company, issued a circular letter offering the 

 State $500,000 per annum for a renewal of the 

 lottery license for twenty-five years. On May 

 13 this offer was increased to $1.000,000 a year. 

 A few days later, in his biennial message to the 

 Legislature., Gov. Nicholls boldly announced his 

 strong opposition to lotteries of every descrip- 

 tion and his determination to veto any legislation 

 that wotild involve a continued recognition of 

 them by the State. This announcement did not 

 deter Mr. Morris from presenting his offer to the 

 Legislature. The first debate on the subject oc- 

 curred in the Senate on May 21, and from that 

 time until the close of the session prolonged and 

 heated discussions were frequently held. On 

 May 22 a member of the Senate introduced a 

 resolution making charges of bribery or at- 

 tempted bribery of members by agents of the 

 Lottery Company and demanding that an inves- 

 tigation be undertaken. Similar resolutions 

 were presented to the House a few days later, 

 but action on them in that body was indefinitely 

 postponed. In the Senate the "resolutions, after 

 being referred to a special committee, were re- 

 ported back without action and were finally 

 smothered. The anti-lottery people, finding that 

 the Legislature was disposed to disregard their 

 charges, went so far as to cause the arrest of 

 one of the members of the House on a charge 

 of receiving a bribe ; but he was soon released, 

 the prosecution apparently having no case. The 

 fact was well known, however, that a large and 

 influential lobby paid by the Lottery Company 

 was in attendance on the sessions of the Legisla- 

 ture. Before the lottery discussion was far ad- 

 vanced, efforts were made by the friends of the 

 lottery to arrive at some compromise or agree- 

 ment 'with its opponents, and numerous confer- 



