The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-12-31
NICKEL THE SLOT MACHINES.
Mayor Steinman's Proposition to Have
Them Licensed.
II People VIII Buck at Them, BE
Wants the City to Reap a Ben
eft Therefrom.

At last nights session of the City
Trustees Mayor Steinman submitted
the following ordinance for the purpose
of licensing the nickel-in-the-slot ma
chimes of various kinds that were re-
Gently closed down by his order. The
proposed ordinance is as follows:
IAN ordinance providing for licensing
weighing, Photographic, candy, choco-
late, postage stamp, cigar or cigarette
machines, and machines for ejecting
articles, and providing a penalty for
violation of the ordinance.
THE Board of Trustees of the city of
Sacramento ordain as follows:
Section 1. In addition to State and
county license each proprietor OF
weighing machine, Photographic ma
chine, candy machine, chocolate ma
chine, postage stamp machine, cigar
machine or cigarette machine, and
other machines for ejecting articles, in
which, on deposit of five-cent piece, or
any other piece of money or article rep
resenting money within or in connec-
ton with said machine person is
weighed thereon, or music played
therein, or candy, chocolate, postage
stamps, cigars, cigarettes or other ar
ticles are elected from said machine re-
spectively, shall pay license OF So per
quarter for each machine. Said license
to be dated from the first day of the
month in which said license is issued
Section 2 The Auditor shall, from
time to time furnish to the collector OF
licenses metal machine numbers which
shall be issued by the said collector to
the person or persons paying license,
and shall be affixed and fastened in or
to said machine so as to be plainly visi-
BILE The City Collector is hereby des-
ignated and directed to collect the Ii
cense or licenses in this ordinance pro-
Vided
Section 3. This license shall not be
construed to grant, or shall any license
ever be granted for any banking or per-
centage game played with cards, dice
or any device, for money, checks, credit
or other representative of value, or for
any game or device prohibited by law.
Section f. All ordinances and parts
of ordinances in conflict with this ordi-
nance are hereby repealed.
Section 5. Any person or persons
violating any of the provisions Of this
ordinance shall be deemed guilty Of a
misdemeanor, and shall, upon convlc-
ton, be fined not to exceed 500, or by
imprisonment in the City Prison not to
exceed fifty days, or by both such fine
and Imprisonment.
Section g. This ordinance shall take
effect Immediately from and after Its
passage
WANTS THE LAW ENFORCED.
The matter was taken up later in the
evening, and the following communica-
ton from the City Attorney was read:
To the Honorable Board Of Trustees
of the City of Gentlemen:
On June IA, 1894, Ordinance No. $40 Of
this city, entitled an ordinance ITO pro-
hibit gambling by means of automatic
quotation exhibitors, slot machines, or
any similar contrivance, or imitation
thereof, or by any other device or
scheme" was approved by Mayor
Steinman of this city, said ordinance
having Heretofore been passed by your
honorable body On December %, 1895,
Mayor Steinman sent a communication
to your honorable body stating that he
was informed that ordinances were in
effect in other cities of this State ncens-
ing such devices as are prohibited by
he advised your honorable body to pass
an ordinance, which he would send you
this evening, repeating said Ordinance
No. 345 and regulating and licensing
such devices as are now prohibited by
said ordinance.
The Mayor surely did not act ad
visedly in making this request Of you.
If there existed necessity for passing
said Ordinance No. 345 in June, 1894,
for suppressing an evil therein contem-
plated, there most assuredly has been
no such improvement in our moral
status as would render the evil more
endurable or less communicating in De-
cember, 1898. The fact that the ordi-
nance has not been enforced until with
in the past two weeks is no fault of the
people, in whose interest, presumably,
the ordinance was passed, but the fault
OF the authorities whose duty it is to
see that the laws and ordinances are
properly enforced. in which fault the
Mayor, as chief executive officer of the
city and as the head of the Police De-
partment, must share. The passiveness
and indifference of said authorities can
by no reasonable hypothesis be taken as
indicative of the popular sentiment I'M
doubtedly voiced in the ordinance as it
now stands.
Whether, as a matter of law, there
was any necessity for passing the ordi-
nance there can be no doubt. The Penal