El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-27
SLOT SAVINGS BANKS.

slot machines. Those which the peo
pie, through the HERALD, are fighting
in this city are mechanical robbine
machines, and should be suppressed
just as any other highwayman IL sup
pressed who snatches your pocketbooh
ON the street.
But let them alone for q moment
and consider another style of slot ma
chine, which is q positive benefit tG
those who play it. In England the
slot machine principle has been adapt
ed to purposes of q public savings
bank. In the Kansas City Journal we
find an explanation of the workings o.
the machine by its designer, A. J
Faulding. Says he:
You drop penny in the slot, pull q
Northumberland refuse to work 90
long as the bank is not yet full-and a
receipt for your penny is elected upon
q tray. You may. of course, deposit q
number Of pennies, receiving receipt
for each.
The coins fall fat into a.tube, with q
number opposite every deposit, and q
corresponding number appears upon
the receipt, SO that confusion or fraud
is impossible.
This receipt will also have printed
upon it the name of the collector, the
exact locality of the machine, and the
address of the head Office where pay
meuts are made and interest added.
Spurious coins will operate, 80 far as
securing the receipt is concerned. But
if fraud is perpetrated it will be in
s,antly detected when the receipts are
presented.
Suppose q bad penny is receipted
"No. 25O," the same number will be
opposite the place where the counter
seit coin lies in a receiving tube, "Only
said Mr.. Faulding. ''We should pin
him to q certainty.
SIN the contrary case, let q person
by mistake put two-shilling piece In
the slot; we shall prove truth of his
story in q moment and return the
change over the counter"
The company controlling the ma
chimes appears to be of the highest
standing financially. It IL promised
that the deposits shall bear interest at
the rate of two and one half per cent
or better, and that the money will be
invested in legitimate securities. Mr..
Faulding proposes to return state
ments weekly, after the practice of the
Bank of England, 80 as to assure the
public Of the stability and security of
the concern.
At the beginning of this year . thou
sand of these street savings bank
agencies we're set up in London, most
ly in the vicinity of railway stations,
large stores, etc. There are
about twenty thousand in Eng
land.
People in general are pr0verbially
careless of their small change. 1t has
been frequently calculated that many
q family could buy q home with tho
money that is wasted in the form of
small change, when larger amounts
would be carefully husbanded.
Compare this scheme with our Ell
Paso slot machine lotteries. On the
one hand we have a mechanical bank.
where deposits can be made at any
time, in any amount, down to q single
penny, where receipts will be given,
and where all deposits will draw inter-
est at q fair rate from the time they
are made. At any time the money
can be obtained with the accrued in
terest.
On the other hand we have q system
attic robbing device, in which every
cent deposited is made.to pay enormous
tribute to the machine, and in which,
even if a man should play it continu-
ously day in and day out, he could
never get back as much as he put into
it. The chances are heavily against
the player, and the fascination of the
game Is such that poor men, particu-
larly, are led to play and play in the
hope of winning back what they have
put in, while their wives and families
at home are suffering, perhaps, for the
very necessaries of life.
THE school board put themselves I'M
der cloud by their recent action in