1891 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
371 
K 
/ 
TIMELY TOPICS. 
The Lottery Infamy’s Triumph.—A t 
the last session of the Louisiana Legisla¬ 
ture, John A. Morris and his associate 
gamblers applied for a renewal of the 
Louisiana Lottery charter for 25 years, 
offering to the State a bribe of over $1,000,- 
000 a year for the iniquitous concession or 
privilege. A bill embodying the requi¬ 
site amendment to the constitution, 
known as the lottery amendment, was 
adopted by a two-thirds vote of the legisla¬ 
ture, and by courtesy a copy of the act was 
sent to Governor Nichols, who vetoed it, 
although the friends of the measure argued 
that he had no right to do so under the con¬ 
stitution. The Secretary of State having 
refused to promulgate the act, Morris & 
Co. applied for a mandamus compelling 
him to promulgate the proposed constitu¬ 
tional amendment, to be voted on by the 
people at the next general election. The 
Supreme Court of Louisiana Monday ren¬ 
dered a decision in favor of the lottery com¬ 
pany by a vote of three of the five judges. 
The proposition is to be submitted to the 
people at the next election, and so 
thoroughly has the giant evil corrupted the 
mongrel people of the Pelican State that, 
from present appearances, it is likely to be 
adopted, in spite of the vigorous opposition 
of a large minority of emphatically the 
“ best ” people. The last Congress passed a 
law excluding from the United States’ 
mails all newspapers containing lottery 
advertisements or announcements as well 
as all drafts, circulars, letters or other 
forms of money orders or communications 
connected in any way with lottery busi¬ 
ness. The Louisiana Lottery sharks 
straightway, through a Mobile paper 
which had been excluded for the above 
reason, brought an action before the United 
States Supreme Court to test the constitu¬ 
tionality of the act; but owing to the ill¬ 
ness of Justice Bradley the case has been 
deferred until next October. It is claimed 
that the case of the people, as submitted by 
the Attorney-General, is very weak. If so, 
the Administration should be held to ac¬ 
count. The Anti-Lottery Bill passed by 
Congress was an Administration measure, 
heartily supported by the President and 
Postmaster-General, and was formulated 
under the advice and sanction of the At¬ 
torney-General, who, with his colleagues 
should be held responsible for any flaw in it. 
Abortive Sugar Trust Investigation. 
—Though trusts have been declared unlaw¬ 
ful by Congress and many of the State 
legislatures, yet they flourish apace. In¬ 
deed one of the master spirits of the Sugar 
Trust has declared that neither courts nor 
legislatures could check or contravene the 
tendency to combination of capital which 
had led to the formation of so many huge 
commercial monopolies. During almost 
the entire session of the New York Legis¬ 
lature, a Senate Committee has been vainly 
endeavoring to fathom the mystery of the 
Sugar Trust. This combination, declared 
to be unlawful by the highest court in the 
State, has steadily acted in contemptuous 
defiance of the law; or rather has ignored 
it entirely. Inspection of its books has 
been refused on one pretext or another, and 
the investigating committee has been kept 
in the dark as to the methods by which 
properties having an original valuation of 
$7,000,000 had been capitalized and placed 
upon the stock market in the form of 
$50,000,000 of trust certificates, in which 
speculation by the managers of the trust 
has been easy, without risk, and immense¬ 
ly profitable. To avert or minimize the 
evils threatened by this gigantic and un¬ 
scrupulous monopoly the investigating 
committee can recommend only that trusts 
be restrained and discouraged by legisla¬ 
tion and by special taxes, and that the 
books of all such combinations doing busi¬ 
ness in the State shall be kept in the State, 
subject to examination by agents of the 
Attorney-General. But these precautions, 
while they might make the tasks of con¬ 
spirators against individual enterprise and 
legitimate trade more difficult, would 
scarcely render them impossible; and this, 
after all, is the end to be kept in view if 
anything more than a mere pretense of 
regulation is to be attempted. 
Presidential Election.— One of the 
most prominent planks in the platforms of 
the various agricultural and industrial or¬ 
ganizations provides for the election of the 
President and Vice-president by the direct 
votes of the people, instead of through the 
intervention of the antiquated Electoral 
College. Something a long way off in this 
direction has just been provided for in 
Michigan where the Democrats aided by 
the Patrons of Industry and other agricul 
tural and industrial associations were un¬ 
expectedly swept into power, the first time 
since the war, on the crest of the Anti-Re¬ 
publican “ tidal-wave” at the last election. 
The Legislature of the Wolverine State has 
just passed an act requiring the choice of 
Presidential electors in that State by single 
Congressional districts. As a result of this 
action the vote of the State will be divided 
between the parties, instead of being all 
cast for the electoral ticket having a major¬ 
ity. In States like New York, Indiana, 
Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Califor¬ 
nia and New Hampshire, where the two 
great parties are of nearly equal strength, 
a division of the electoral vote on the basis 
of Congressional districts would be a great 
improvement in the fairness of Presidential 
contests. Ii would not be unfair in States 
like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Missouri, Illi¬ 
nois and Vermont, which give decisive 
majorities, Republican and Democratic. 
But the advantage of the majority will not 
be surrendered in any of these States. The 
Michigan Democrats, having control of 
the legislature think it the part of pru¬ 
dence to divide the vote for electors with 
their opponents. The measure has been 
passed merely for partisan, not for pat¬ 
riotic motives. 
Ballot Reform —The progress of ballot 
reform is a marked feature of legislation 
throughout the North. Within the last 
few weeks Nebraska has enacted an Aus¬ 
tralian ballot law ; and Minnesota has ex¬ 
tended to the entire State the operation of 
the Act of 1889 which has hitherto been ap¬ 
plied to the cities only. Maine has adopted 
the reform, and New Hampshire is about 
to do so. In Pennsylvania the pressure for 
reform is so great on the legislature that it 
is almost certain to yield soon to the popu¬ 
lar demand, and the same is likely to be the 
case in Illinois. With the exception of 
Ohio, there is every reason to believe that 
every Northern State east of the Missis¬ 
sippi will have joined the reform ranks 
within the next few months. Beyond the 
Father of Waters, California, Colorado. 
Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Nevada and Wyom¬ 
ing are still laggards. Along the old 
“ border States,” Maryland, West Virginia, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Ar¬ 
kansas have adopted the Australian ballot 
system. Virginia and Delaware are now 
the only “ border States” that have failed 
to respond to the popular demand for ballot 
reform. In the “solid” South, from Vir¬ 
ginia to Texas, all along the coast there 
appears to be no inclination whatever to 
grant the freedom and independence of the 
individual voter secured by the secret bal¬ 
lot. In these nine States not only have 
the legislatures failed to consider the re¬ 
form, but the fossil-back oligarchies which 
control their affairs are bitterly opposed to 
it as likely to relax their hold on power. 
Always name The R. N.-Y. in writing to 
advertisers. 
P 
ETER C. KELLOGG & CO. Have Re¬ 
ceived Instructions from the Owner to 
Sell at AUCTION the ENTIRE 
EASTWOOD HERD 
OF 
JERSEY CATTLE, 
The Property of Mb. M. ERSK1NE MILLER, 
of Staunton, Va., 
TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1891, 
AT THE 
AMERICAN INSTITUTE BUILDING, 
Third Ave., between 6Sd & 64th Sts., New York. 
The Catalogue will contain every animal of value 
in the herd. Including many that closely Inherit the 
blood of the great cows Coomassle and Ona entwined 
with the best imported and American strains, always 
with an eye to combining the greatest excellence in 
udder performance with beauty of form, quality and 
finish. 
About 40 animals, mostly females, will be sold, 
among which are many cows from dams that have 
tested from 14 to 24 pounds of butter in seven days, 
and a few nulls of high repute. The list will be more 
definitely specified in future advertisements. 
Catalogues will be ready May loth. Address 
PETER C. KELLOGG & CO , Auctioneers, 
107 John Street. New York. 
SAVE YOUR HORSES AND MONEY 
by sending 81.00 for DeVals Veterinary Recipes 
for every disease of the horse. WILCOX & CO , 
3644 Vincennes Avenue, Chicago. 
W AN ILI»-A respectable, reliable, industrious, 
handy and strictly temperate single man. ac¬ 
customed to care of horse and cow, and general out¬ 
door work. No postal cards noticed. Andress 
JAMES HARGRAVES, 
Box 135, Kingston, Ulster Co., N. Y. 
F OJJ SALE.— 30 good Missouri or Illinof 
Barms, near St. Louis, with possession, Writi 
for descriptions to THOS BETTS, 523 Chestnut St 
St. Louis, Mo. Established i 860 . 
4 ! The Girl 
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Mailed to any address from now g; 
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