Of all the disreputable schemes for illicit money-making that ever flourished in this country, the Louisiana lottery is probably the most iniquitous and inexcusable. No agency of modern times has done more to send boys to the devil, to tempt unprotected women into squandering their subsistence, and to lure decent men from their daily duty by the temptation of illegitimate gain. At the best, every public lottery is a danger to the community; but of all public lotteries of modern times, the Louisiana lottery is easily the worst and most dangerous. At no time has it enjoyed the reputation of being even what is known as a square gambling game. An honest lottery--that is, a lottery honestly conducted--may be profitable to the people who get it up. But the Louisiana lottery has never earned the name of being honestly conducted in any respect. Its only claim to respectability--and it is the thinnest sort of a claim--has lain in its employment of two ex-confederate officers, General Jubal T. Early and General P. G. T. Beauregard as the overseers of its drawings. The fact that they were ex-officers of the confederate army alone gave these men a right to consideration. Personally, such adventurers could be bought by the pound, like a side of pork, for any purpose. This cartoon appeared at a time when the state of Louisiana was making a vigorous attempt to rid itself of this hideous disgrace. The attempt was but partially successful. Dauphin, the original agent of this infamous concern, is dead, but his successors’ advertisement is still to be found in certain public prints where everybody can see it, except the United States District Attorney. [Illustration] THE OPENING OF THE CONGRESSIONAL SESSION. _PUCK, December 7th, 1887._ There is a marvelous pregnancy of significance in this cartoon; as we can not but see when we think that, at the re-assembling of Congress in December, 1887, one of the first questions it had to confront was the question of the Surplus. The revenues of the government, especially those coming from customs duties, were so vast that an enormous, useless, cumbersome and dangerous surplus was steadily piling itself up in the United States Treasury. It was the expectation of the people that Congress would pass laws reducing the customs duties. But the only tariff legislation made by Congress between that date and the appearance of this book has tended to increase rather than to lower these duties. And yet, as these pages go to press, the latest report of the Secretary of the Treasury announces that this surplus is so nearly wiped out that, unless the new administration takes measures to the contrary, there will be a deficit within a year. This is a curious, definitive accounting of a four years’ test of a peculiar latter-day theory of political economy. It is not wonderful that a practical people insisted on the abandonment of the experiment. [Illustration] RESTLESS NIGHTS. _PUCK, March 16th, 1887._