Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/438

 430 ÏEDEBAIi EEPOETEB. �prizes." This objection is based on an erroneous reading of the statute. The things prescribed are (1) "lotteries," (2) "so-called gift concerts," (3) "similar enterprises offering prizes," and (4) "schemas devised and intended to deceive and defraud the public for the purjDOse of obtaining money under false pretences." The words "offering prizes," qualify and limit the words "similar enterprises." They indicate the nature of the similarity to "lotteries" and "so-called gift con- certs," -which must oharacterize other "enterprises" than "lotteries" and "gift concerts," to bring them alao within the embrace of the statute. The words are wholly unnecessary, and would be tautological, as descriptive of "lotteries" and "gift concerts," for the offering of prizes is well understood to be an essential part of a "lottery" or a "gift concert." This, Tve think, is the obvions construction and meaning of the statute. �3. It is also objected to the first count that it omits aver- ments necessary to show the illegal quality of the writing set forth; that as setout the paper does not on its face, and with- out explanation, concern a lottery ; that the expression "La. tickets" is unintelligible until more than intrinsically appears is supplied by innwendo, and that there is no allegation of the existence of a lottery of and concerning which the paper was ■written. �It is undoubtedly an established rule of criminal pleading that in setting out a writing as an alleged violation of a stat- ute, where words constitate the gist of the offenee, if the paper itself, in its own terms, does not purport to be the thing pro- hibited.the indictment should by further averment or innuendo set forth that essential fact. The word "lottery" is not used in the paper set out in the first count. The expressions, "La. tickets," "ail prizes," and "officiai eopy of drawings," do not, perhaps, necessarily refer to a lottery, although it is difïïcult to imagine any other subjeot to which they could be rea- sonably attributed, but the paper is averred to be "a cer- taiii letter and ciroular concerning a lottery," and although this is an unartificial and informai mode of averring that the words "tickets," "prizes" and "drawings," used in the pa; er,. ��� �