Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-08-18
To be continued.
RAINING NlckELS ALL DAY LONG.
Gambling with the slot Masculine Gocs
Merriiy On in New York.

Wv W INV u "oS
Merriiy On in New York.
The example set by New York in
roofing out such nickel-in-the-slot boxes
as are used ~ gambling devices is being
followed ia several suburban towns.
The vicious implements have been scat
tered all over the country. and there is
now no State or Territory, aud scarce
ly a village, in which they have not
been set up and literally patronized. A
reporter, who has seen them in scores
OF cities and villages, ran across one in
a town in Michigan, where he saw to
what extreme the use of the gambling
machine could be carried. The slot box
IN this case was on the cigar-counter in
the principal hotel. 1t revealed three
metal runways for niekels. and when
ever n coin ran down the one on tao left
hand all the money Ia the box rolled
out upon the counter. The machine
vas never idle between 3 O'Clock in the
morning and i or z o'clock the next
morning. Visitors 70 the hotel were
obliged 10 wait at the desk while the
clerk stood at the cigar counter work
ing the machine. The proprietor was
literally the only man in the hotel who
was never seen 70 indulge in this weak
ness. As for the bartender, twice there
was complaint that the door to the bar.
room was locked. and it was found that
the bartender was trying his luck with
the slot.
The head waitress in the dining-room
slipped into the office when dinner was
over and had the good fortune win st.15
FOR q nickel. She went back { 0 her
quarters and quickly reappeared with six
6-cent pieces, which she said formed a
pool gotten up by all the waiter girls.
who had asked her TO play it for them.
In the afternoon the school boys some
Of whom were too small to reach the
slot, slipped into the Office ia couple.
and tri0s, and tried their fortunes.
There were at times as many as a dozen
boys, schooibooks in hand, sending the
coins rafting down the metal alleys.
They made no bones of what they were
doing; on the contrary they were noisy
and hilarious, and disturbed every one
else in the place. When the commercial
drummers and others who sat around
the stove, resting after many bouts with
the machine. had seen the last OF the
school boys they rose to their feet,
moved over to the counter with one ac-
cord. and asked the cigar nan TO change
their larger coins. and again tested
Dame Fortunes humor with 5-eent
pieces. So the play went on all day
and far into the night, just as it was 60
ing on at Monte Carlo on alarger scale.
At about ! o'clock in the morning the
reporter finished the book he had been
reading IN his bedroom and rang for ice
water. Again and again he rang, but
without result. SO he went down one
flight to the office. There the night
boys and the Waterman were working
the gambling machine.
Hello" said the Waterman to the re.
porter. "Iil bring your ice water in a
minute Tried your luck at this old
thing today
No"
Better hit it now. We've got about
\ dollar in there. an if you hit the right
tliey you'll get it, sure"
The reporter found a five-cent piece
in his pocket and decided to gamble just
nee.
You see, said the Waterman, there's
.hree alleys for the nickel TO run down.
This one on the right is for the house.
this middle one is for the company that
owns the boxes. and this on the left
$ what goes to the pot aud gives you
the money if you bit it right"
As is 50 often the ease with an uH.
sophisticated player the reporter won
the pot, I" which contained IS cents in
,tead of 81. Then he filled a pitcher
With ice water and carried 1t up TO his
Dom out OF consideration for the night
oy, who was gambling with such fer
;or that one would have thought the
lox was a ~punching-bag and he a pu-
5ilist in training. Whenever he drop
ped q coin in the slot he whscked the
box TO make the nickel 20 right. OF
,ourse it did not go right so he whack-
ID it again TO make it deliver up its
reasure without wanting 10. This it
lid not do, either.-N. Y. Sun.