The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1906-01-05

said It was gambling, and we ought not
to do it, but he also wanted to knYw
how we managed to win, and when we
told about Ct pa said IT was no sin to
beat a slot machine, cause it was an
inanimate thing, just machine, and
anybody who could beat nickel in the
slot machine at his own game was
equal to a Rockefeller.
So after everybody had got excited
about our nickels told them how to
beat the machine. told them didn't
get excited and go rushing in where
angels fear to tread, and feed the
slot machine on good hard earned
nickels of my own, but waited until the
countrymen and tenderfeet had fed 1t
on nickels until it was too full for ut
terance. When the machine swelled
out like it was blowed up, and it kind
of wheezed, like it was ready to cough
up, and was only waiting for an ex-
cuse, l put cough lozenger about the
size of nickel in the slot and turned
the diaphram. The machine shud-
dered minute and then had a regular
hemorrague, and coughed up tin cup
full of nickels into my hand, and the
machine seemed to rest easy, and take
nourishment again from the silly fell
lows, who thought they could beat it.
Well, sir, the whole crowd was so ex-
cited they could hardly wait to find a
slot machine, and finally they bought
nearly all my cough lozengers, and
went out into the night, and pa and I
went along, cause pa said he UNDER
stood all the slot machines were
owned by Rockefeller, and he made
more money on them than he did on
Standard oil, and the money that he
gave away to schools and churches
was from his rake-off on his slot ma
chimes. Pa said it would be a good
thing if someone could break up the
reprehensible practice by beating the
blasted machines to finish.
So pa he got bag to bring back the
nickels in, and a bunch Of us went to
a store where one whole side of the
place was filed with slot machines.
and the way the people were playing
the game was scandalous. Pa watched
a machine until the players had fed It
so 1t seemed as though it would die un-
less it got air, and ne stepped up and
put in a lozenger and turned the wheel,
and held the bag under the spout for
the coin, but it didn't come. Some
more fellows put in nickels, and the
machine gave little hacking coughs and
n0nOhnH n thron or fo1z h,,f
nothing that seemed at all in the
nature Of a financial hemmorague,
when pa took another lozenger and
put it in, and by ginger the machips
began to heave up nickels like it was
in the trough of The sea.
Pa was so excited he forgot to hold
the bag, and nickels went all over the
floor, and everybody made grab for
them, and pa was showed aside, and he
swore he would have the place pulled.
and just then a law officer took pa in
charge because he had put cough loz-
enger in the slot machine, and he
searched pa and found a lot more
bronchial trochees, and pa was in fer
it on a charge of malpractice, for CIV
ing cough medicine for the stomach
trouble of the slot machine, instead of
pepsin tablets.
They took pa in back room and
searched him some more, and found
his roll, and then a man who said he
was a lawyer offered to help pa, and
keep him out of the penitentiary. He
told pa the law Of Kentucky made the
crime of trif1ing with slot machine
the same as breach of promise, or ar
son, and that he would be lucky if he
got off with ten years in the pen, with
80 days solitary confinement in a
Turkish bath cell, with niggers for
companions.
Pa turned blue and asked the lawer
if there was no way out of it, and the
lawyer told him that for $40 in spot
cash he would let him go, and fight
the case after the show had got out
of the state. A hundred and twenty
five dollars was the amount they found
on pa, and he told them that inasmuch
as they already had it, they better
keep the money and let him go, and
he would be always living example
of the terrors of gambling.
So they let pa go. and all the way
to the train he told us he hoped this
experience would be lesson to us not
to covet the money of the rich. and as
far as he was concerned, John D.
Rockefeller could go plum to thunder
with his money after this.
Then we got to the car, and found
about a dozen of the circus men who
had been out to beat the slot machines,
broke fiat, and / had to divide my shot
bag of nickels with them, that l had
won before 1 let them into the game,
before they would let me go to bed.
Dad says this circus life is making
me pretty tough.
n A0l