Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-09-18

PROMINENT PEOHLE AXE 1NOC-
ULATED WITH THE HABIT.
That automatic robber known as the
slot machine, continues to daily gather
up hundreds of dollars in nickels
throughout this city, and it is probable
that more good money is blown in
against this device now than at any
previous time. New and improved
machines, of handsome construction
and intricate mechanism, have lately
been installed at all the prominent
places of male resort, and the total
amount of business transacted daily
must run into three figures.
A gentleman who has watched the
operations of this class of machinery
for some time past, with some care,
said yesterday:
Il understand there is a cast iron
city ordinance against the operations
! of these machines, but l don't under
| stand why it is not enforced by the
authorities. Everybody knows the ma
chimes are running, for pretty much
everybody goes against them, and
everybody who plays quits a. loser,
sooner or later. The number Of nickles
which pass into the Unsuitable maw of
| the average Slot machine every day
passes belief; but the play is especially
and particularly big on Saturdays and
Saturday nights. And the men VINO
play. You would imagine, no doubt,
that your average business man, OF
sound and disposing mind and a keen
nose for the nimble dollar, would be a
bit shy of slot machine, built on the
sure winner plan Is he? l fancy not.
l have seen the best of them not only
| go against the game, but day after day
eXpend one, two, three, and on up to
five or six dollars in trying to beat a
piece of machinery cunningly contrived
to never be beaten. The slot machine
| takes the stray nickles from the pock-
| cts of all classes and conditions or
men; and the quarters, half-dollars
and dollars as well. j suppose that
over a hundred times | have seen men
who could not afford the loss stick all
| their spare change into one of these
machines, and then start to buy nick
| les half a dollar or dollar at time.
And they invariably quite loser. Did
you ever see the man with the key
| come around and investigate the in
|
good house, with a view to extracting
the cash. Well, what he gets is a
plenty. Anywhere from ten to twenty
dollars out Of each machine, and often
they are visited twice day. Its just
like finding money for the people VINO
are on the inside. Of course, it is
claimed that man does not have to
play the machine; that the machine
does not reach out and grab him and
| take his money from him. That is
true in one sense, and in another that
| is exactly what the machine does. 1t
robs pretty nearly everybody who
comes within reach of it. 1t is a pit
| fall, a delusion and a snare, it is under
| the ban of the law, and it ought to
! go. 1t is worse than wheel OF Tor
tune, crap joint, a policy goose or a
poker room-for in any Of these games
| the player has some chance, while the
slot machine just calmly robs him OF
all he has Sometimes it gives up a
nickle or a. quarter, or half or dol
! lar, but that's only to lead you on. In
the end you quit broke. | could multi
| ply instances of the harm done by the
existence of these machines. Only the
other day | saw cOlored man, evident
| ly a hod-carrier, enter a saloon for a
glass Of beer, start playing the slot
machine, kept on, encouraged by the
barkeeper that white was nearly due
until he had emptied several dollars
into the diabolical contrivance-prob-
ably his entire weeks wages. l have
known another man-in business but
not earning a princely salary-to play
from three to five dollars day into
machine, buying nickles by the dol
lars worth. l have watched many
others, of all conditions of prosperity
and penury, drop their money into this
device. 1 think it is time to call a
halt"