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Lottery Agents Arrested. Anthony Comstock's Raid Held For Unlawfully Using The Mails. Acting on complaints made by Anthony Comstock, agent of the Society for the Suppression of Vice and Special Agent of the Post Office Department, some 20 warrants were issued yesterday, by United States Commissioner Shields, for the arrest of dealers in lottery tickets. The warrants charged the dealers named in them with sending lottery tickets and circulars pertaining to lotteries through the mails, in violation of the United States statute on the subject. They were placed in the hands of United States Deputy Marshals Harney, Bernhard, Jones, Miller, and Edwin. Some of the Marshals wore accompanied by Mr. Comstock, and a simultaneous descent was made upon the various offices from Nassau-street to Broadway, at Thirty-first-street. The first dealer arrested was B. Nathan, of Nos. 179 and 830 Broadway, who at once gave bail before the Commissioner in the sum of $1,000 to await examination. Soon afterward John Duff, of No, 42 Nassau-street, and A. Orlando Jackson, of No. 82 Nassau-street, were arrested, and in like manner they gave bail for their future appearance. These captures were followed at intervals by the arrest of C. F. Lindauer, W. L. Crayton, E. W. Herriman, C. Defreese, J. Williamson, of Williamson & Co., and B. M. Potter, all Broadway dealers, and mostly from little nooks of offices between Twenty-fifth and Thirtieth streets. Theodore Zschoch, of No. 179 Park-place and No. 861 Broadway; J. Wachsman, of Wachsman & Co., No. 84 Nassau-street, and W. A. Martinez, of No. 10 Wall-street, were also arrested. In the cases where the prisoners had been under arrest previously for the same offense they were held in $1,000 bail, and from those who had not before been charged with the offense only $500 bail was required. Most of them, however, were old offenders, and had to give the higher amount. Several of them were employees, mere clerics — but no distinction was made in those cases. The young man Defreese was arrested in an office up two flights of stairs in a building by the side of Daly's Theatre. Mr. Comstock and Deputy Marshal Harney went into the building to look for another person who had an onto there, but who had closed it, probably having heard that a raid was being made. Defreese and another young man came out of the landing at the head of the stairs, and asked Mr. Comstock if he wanted to buy lottery tickets, saying that the firm across the way was closed up. Mr. Comstock bought a lottery ticket, and then arrested the young man who sold it to him. It is understood that Defreese represents a firm calling itself Bell & Co., but the firm names of these concerns are in many ways fictitious, and the names of most of those who were arrested are also fictitious. It frequently occurs that the same man runs two or three offices in different locations under as many firm names, not one of these names, including the true names, of any of the actual proprietors. The larger part of the men arrested yesterday were charged with the same offense about a year ago, and they then paid fines varying from $500 to $1,000 without standing trial. In one or two instances — and one was that of Jackson & Co. — they contested the case in the courts on legal questions as to the constitutional right of the Government to prohibit the sending of any written or printed matter, not obscene, through the mails, but they were defeated, and all then submitted to the penalty. It is said that other arrests are to be made today. Mr. Comstock brought before Justice Flammer, in the Jefferson Market Police Court, yesterday, Charles W. Hennion, who had been arrested for selling to Jacob Becker, of No. 219 West Thirtieth-street, a half ticket of the Louisiana State Lottery at the exchange office No. 1,227 Broadway. Ho was committed for trial in default of $1,000 bail.

People edit

• Anthony Comstock, anti-vice activist, United States Postal Inspector and secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice
• Charles Frederick Lindauer (1840-1921), lottery dealer
• Justice Charles Andrew Flammer (1845-1937)
• Theodore Zschoch (1854-1891), lottery dealer
• Charles Wesley Hennion

Licensing edit

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929. Public domain works must be out of copyright in both the United States and in the source country of the work in order to be hosted on the Commons. If the work is not a U.S. work, the file must have an additional copyright tag indicating the copyright status in the source country. Note: This tag should not be used for sound recordings.PD-1923Public domain in the United States//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lottery_Agents_Arrested_in_the_New_York_Times_on_November_11,_1879.png