The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1901-05-14
WHAT THE PASTOR SAW
REV. B. r. RoWLAND's SERMON
ON SLOT MACHINES.
The Reverend Gentleman Plays a
Thousand Nlckels With a
Return of S21 so.

Rev -. r. Rowland delivered his
fourth sermon on "Clty Problems" last
Sunday evening IN the Methodist
church. his topic being "The Nlckel-in-
the-slot Machines" His remarks on
the text 20. thou man " God there ls
death In the Dot." led up 10 his ad-
dress dealing With local conditions. He
said In part:
we are persuaded that the people Of
Astoria do not realize Just what the
nlckel-ln-the-slO machine In and what
II means 10 this city-the immoral ef-
feet II has on the young men. and the
Vice crime and lawlessness II will GER
talniy breed II It's use II continued.
There seems 10 be an opinion that II Is
an innocent affalr--nOt very bad at
worsf--a sort of harmless playthlng TO
amuse our young men and at the same
time Increase the sale Of cigars. max
ing for the dealer a small profit. ten or
fifteen per cent on the amount played.
Believing this 20 be an erroneous Opn-
lon we have tried 10 investigate the
matter With that motive In mind. and
no other. In company with young men
~ unqueatlOned character. last week We
visited. with fcw exceptions, all the sa-
places In the city and tonight. az the re-
suit OF our personal Investigation. we
are prepared 90 say that instead Of the
slot machine being the harmless thing
that some would have us believe. II Is
among the worst gambling devices In
our city because Of the conspicuous
place II occupies and the cloak Of re-
spcc'abIllty that Is thrown around Il.
We could not help noticing that
some OF the saloons occupy the best
business local. )ns. many Of them pala-
tally furnished and with two keep
tIons. the moment man enters he
n confronted with that kind ,rgarien
gambling device. ihe slot machine We
found ~ KalamaZ nos and more than
20 cigar machines. There seems 10 be
several different makes II the Kalama-
200 but all are on the sama principle.
played In the same wlv and played
exclusively for money. From four TO
seven persons may play at a time The
cigar machine IL a small concern as
compared with the Kalamazoo hut there
are some things about Il that make
it. II there De ary difference. greater
menace 10 the morals Of the rommu-
nifty.
That I might be enabled to speak
knowingly on the subject I ha In my
possession several days last week a
machine such az are on the cigar coun-
terra n this city tonight. One that was
an the counter when this agitation be
gan AMI will likely be on again II the
law Is not enforced And I want IN
give you the exact result Of a 1000
times play. As each play was made II
was carefully tabulated. Now be-
lieve that 1000 times Is fair test both
fer the machine and for the player
One thousand plays represent $50 In
that 1000 plays I won 245 cigars. These
cigars. redeemable at 10 cents apiece.
amount to s245O SO that by playing
$50 int, the machine I got back s2i.5O
and the machine got sos 80. This rec
ord proves that these machines are
gambling devices. pure and simple
1T Is here ;he young man takes his
first lessons In gambling. MANY
Young man has stopped at cigar store
Intending to take only n 25-cent risk
and get few cigars. He loses his %
cents and then he plays ami loses sew
erll lollars In an attempt to recover
the % cents lost. This process repeat-
Cd few times and gambler is made.
Every tree IL known bv its fruit. The
the-slot machine may he
known In The same way. Let me give
YOU n Few samples that have been
brought ~ my notice; one iniividull
declares ;he fascination for playing ihe
machine IS worse than the drink hah-
II; that there are persons In this city
who are spending $50 per month playing
the machine. I know Of one Young man.
whom I am told Is so fascnateI with
the machine that he spends al his
there. Another Young man
states hat IN six months he lost Si0O
on the machines. have been re'iablv
informed NJ a young man who had a
good position with excellent oppor.u-
nltv for advancement but through the
slot machine lost hs position: TODAY he
freduents other gambling places but de-
clares his first step was taken at the
cigar counter WITH a slot machine. An
othar not only lost q good position but
became n defaulter through this device |