Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/445

UNITED STATES V. NOELKE. 437 �■with the witness, from entering the place. To this evidence the defendant objected, and moved to strike it out. The motion was denied, and defendant excepted. �The witness further testified, under defendant's objection and exception, that he found in the front office a place for the sale of lottery tickets, and in the back part a policy shop. It is now insisted that this testimony was wholly irrelevant and "utterly foreign to the charge." It seems to us, however, that it tended to trace to the defendant the possession prior to their mailing of the papers enclosed in the envelope, and his declarations as to his business, so soon after the mailing of this letter, were competent as bearing on the question, whether or not it was he who mailed the letter. It tended to show that he had motive and opportunity to commit the offence with which he was charged, and such circumstantial evidence is always competent. �9. After the district attomey had announced the testimony for the prosecution closed, the defendant moved for an ac- quittai on the ground that no evidence had been introduced tending to show the existence of a lottery of and conceming which the papers in question were written or mado. The district attomey then asked time to supply this proof, which was granted, under objection and exception on the defendant's part, and an adj ournment was had for this purpose. It is now insisted that this was error, but we are of opinion that it was within the discretion of the presiding judge to permit the case to be re-opened. �10. On the coming in of the court the district attomey offered in evidence pages 24, 25, 26, of a volume entitled "Laws of 1868 of the State of Louisiana," being an act to authorize the incorporation and establishment of the Louis- iana State Lottery Company, to be referred to. This was objected to on the ground that a private act cannot be proved by the introduction of a book containing it. The objection was overruled and the defendant excepted. The book from which this act was read has been before us. It beats the imprint, "published by authority," on the title page. The act in quotation is entitled "An act to increase the revenues ��� �