e almost forgot that there had been a
war. This lottery had been incorporated in 1868 for twenty-five years.
In 1890 it was estimated to receive a full third of the mail matter
coming to New Orleans, with a business of $30,000 a day in postal notes
and money orders. As the monster in 1890, approaching its charter-term,
bestirred itself for a new lease of life, it found itself barred from
the mails by Congress.

And this was, in effect, its banishment from the State and country. It
could still ply its business through the express companies, provided
Louisiana would abrogate the constitutional prohibition of lotteries it
had enacted to take effect in 1893. For a twenty-five year
re-enfranchisement the impoverished State was offered the princely sum
of a million and a quarter dollars a year. This tempting bait was
supplemented by influences brought to bear upon the venal section of the
press and of the legislature. A proposal for the necessary
constitutional change was vetoed by Governor Nicholls. Having pushed
their bill once more through the House, the lottery lobby contended that
a proposal for a constitutional amendment did not require the governor's
signature, but only to be submitted to the people, a position which was
affirmed by the State Supreme Court. A fierce battle followed in the
State, the "anti" Democrats of the country parishes, in fusion with
Farmers' Alliance men, fighting the "pro" Democrats of New Orleans. The
"Antis" and the Alliance triumphed. Effort for a constitutional
amendment was given up, and Governor Foster was permitted to sign an act
prohibiting, after December 31, 1893, all sale of lottery tickets and
all lottery drawings or schemes throughout the State of Louisiana. In
January, 1894, the Lottery Company betook itself to exile on the island
of Cuanaja, in the Bay of Honduras, a seat which the Honduras Government
had granted it, together with a monopoly of the lottery business for
fifty years.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
Francis T. Nicholls.

Matters in the West drew attention. The pressure of white population,
rude and resistless as a glacier, everywhere forcing the barriers of
Indian reservations, now concentrated upon the part of Indian territory
known as Oklahoma. This large tract the Seminole Indians had sold to the
Government, to be exclusively colonized by Indians and freedmen. In
1888-89, as it had become clearly impossible to shut out white settlers,
Congress appropriated $4,0