Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/428

 e20 FEDERAL REPORTER, �Counsel for the government have based their whole defence npon the applicability of this section to the case under con- sideration. Whether it was intended to apply only to mail matter posted in the interest of lottery companies, gift con- certs and other similar enterprises, by their managers or agents, for the purpoae of attracting custom, or eqnally to let- ters addressed to such companies, is the main question in this case. Its solution depends largely upon the construction to be put upon the word "ooncerning." It is obvious that this word was not intended to be used in its broadest sense, "per- taining to or relative to," as such construction would include every letter of which the enterprises mentioned in the section were vrhoUy or in part the subject, comprising not only let- ters written in the interest of these enterprises, but letters of inquiry, letters seeking legal advice, letters written for the purpose of suppressing their business, and even the corre- spondenee carried on between the defendant and the general post-ofBce in this case. This certainly was not the intention of congress. �The word "circular," we think, affords a clew to the mean- ing of this section. This word obviously refers to eii-oulars sent out by lottery companies for the purpose of advertising their schemes, and the word "letter" used in connection with it, under the rule of "ejusdem generis," imports letters of a similar character and mailed for a like purpose, �It was evidently the intention of congress to strike at the root of the lottery System by inhibiting to them the use of the mails for the propagation of their schemes, and to fix a pen- alty for such use ; but the imposition of such penalty upon the writers of letters addressed to the promoters of the enterprises mentioned in this section might resuit in great injustice, as many of these men purport to be engaged in a perfectly legit- imate business, "not depending upon chance, but upon accu- mulated capital, invested, under the advice of men of expe- rience, judgment and integrity, in the actual purchase of stocks in Wall street," and the letters might be written by persons wholly ignorant of the true nature of the enterprise, and with a perfectly innocent intent. The act is not only in ��� �