El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-31
Slot Machine Fever
Has Struck Ndrragansett Pier,
and All Classes, Men and
Women, Youths and Mai
denS, and Even the Babes,
Are Fascinated. and Pro-
coed To play At This New
Form Of Roulette.

coed 10 play Al ms NeW Il
Form Of Roulette.
1t was reported yesterday, Gays the
Providence Journal, that the cottagers
and hotel guests at Narragansett Pier
| had signed petition asking the coun-
Gil to take action regarding the pro.
minence of gambling and the use OF
slot machines at that resort. 1t was
also said that the petition would be
presented at the meeting OF the town
council which Vas held yesterday af-
ternoon. AS matter OF fact, the
meeting was held and nothing was
seen or heard of petition of the kind
discussed.
or all the odd crazes with which a
summer resort was ever seized the slot
machine fever, which is running riot
at NarraRansett, is the queerest. Com
paratively very few people here have
ever seen one OF these machines, and
their presence in this city wouldn't be
tolerated an hour. At the Pier, men.
women and children are passing nick
els into the contrivances at the rate OF
hundreds of dollars per day. II you
mentioned roulette to any OF these
folks they would 'assuredly be shocked.
Notwithstanding which they are mere
ly playing the ordinary roulette game,
with the exception that in roulette
you have a chance of beatir G the house.
You can't beat the slot machine. 1t Is
arranged mechanically to prevent such
q possibility.
It sounds pleasant to call them slot
machines, but If the game isn't rou-
lette, there never was roulette wheel.
And it can't be beaten. Every man,
woman and child who plays steadily is
loser.
"Don't touch it," said an old-time
gambler. Its a sure-thing game"
BY which he meant that the odds were
fixed immovably in favor of the own
ers of the machine.
The machine sta nds upright like all
slot machines, and there are five slots
in it. One pays a dollar for a nickel,
another SO cents, another 25 cents AMI
two 10 cents. You drop five cent
piece into one of the slots, seize pro-
jecting handle and bend it down. This
starts large wheel, which revolves In
plain view. It's face is divided into
parts, each painted different color
Yellow represents the dollar slot, white
the 5O-cent slot, green the 25-cent
place and red and black the Decent
apertures. There is a needle at the
top of the wheel, and when the revOlv-
ing ia ended it points to a space paint
ed one of these colors. If the color
corresponds to the slot played the five
cent pieces pour out of the machine
into q metal dish at the side. There
the player picks them up.
There isn't anything wonderful in it,
It is operated mechanically and it stops
at certain colors at certain times. Play
it for hours and you can't tell anything
about those certain times. Like all gam
bling it is fascinating. The wonder OF
the whole thing is the fact that hotels,
bar-rooms, cafes, boarding houses, res
taur ants, all have the slot machine and
in all these plraes they are persistently
played. There never was craze like
this.
1t reaches from high to low. Go
down along the BOwery, aud pick out
any dive you wish. There will be
slot machine in it. Go to any big no.
tel, or wander into the Casino If you
please. There are the slot machines
city man who stands up to one of these
affairs and drops in S35 trying to get
ahead of it. He knows il can't be done,
because he is an old lawyer. Still, the
fascination has caught him.
4 rather blase young mau was in one
of the hotels one evening last week and
strolled up to a machine. The famil-
isrity to roulette was apparent, and he
dropped q nickel into one OF the. slots.
L
group of children who had been watch
ing him came forward to explain that
the nickel must be pushed forward by
pressing small knob made for that
purpose. After that the handle could
be worked but the young man was
cynical enough to mentally comment
upon the experience OF having a girl
of nine years explain to him about the
workings of q new-fangled roulette
wheel.
The oldest part of it is that the peo-
pie don't see it that way. At another
hotel a matronly appearing woman of
refinement was discussing gleefully OF
her luck in dropping a nickel into the
yellow SLOT following which the wheel
stopped with the needle at the yellow
space and her children who were look
ing on lifted out the 20 nickels which
were her winnings. The machines are
played on days and nights. They are
operated Sunday as we'll as other days.
Good people and bad people play them
In good and bad places. They appear
to be the one leveler of distinction at
the Pier. 1t is certainly the oldest
craze that ever seized a community.
DIouad Onf