The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1906-01-04

0Ss08 10y COUh0 04SOyy W84S - ~ q
sJot machine. and Anally they boaeht
1saEly al ny cough loseneers. ana
went out into the night, and p and I
went along. cause p said he under
Geood III the slot machines vsrs
owned ~ Rockefeller, ana he nade
more money on them than Ae did On
Standard oil, and the money that hs
gave away to schools ana churches
was from his rake-oR on his slot ma
chimes. Pa said u would b eood
thing Il. someone could break M he
feprehensible practice BY beating the
blasted machines to Q finish.
So % he got bag to bring back the
nickels In, and bunch Of as went to
. store where one whole side OF the
place was filled with slot machines.
and the way the people were PLAYING
the game was scandalous. Pa watched
. machine until the players had fed 4
% 1t seemed as though 1t would die nm.
less 1t got air, and ne stepped up and
put in lozenger and turned the wheel.
and held the bag under the spout for
the coin, but 1t didn't come. Some
more fellows put in nickels, and the
machine gave little hacking coughs and
coughed up three or four nickels. but
nothing that seemed at all In the
nature Of financial hemmoraxue.
when pa took another lozenger and
put it in, and by ginger the machine
began to heave up nickels like it was
in the trough Of :he sea.
Pa was SO excited he forgot to hold
the bag, and nickels went all over the
floor, and everybody made a grab for
them, and pa was showed aside, and he
swore he would have the place pulled,
and just then law officer took pa in
charge because he had put cough log
enger in the slot machine, and he
searched pa and found q lot more
bronchial trochees, and pa was in for
It on q charge Of malpractice, for CIV
ing cough. medicine for the stomach
trouble of the slot machine, instead of
pepsin tablets.
They took pa in a back room and
searched him some more, and found
his roll, and then a man who said he
was lawyer offered to help pa, and
keep him out of the penitentiary. He
told pa the law Of Kentucky made the
crime of trifling with Q slot machine
the same as breach Of promise, or ar
son, and that he would be lucky II hs
got OF with ten years in the pen, with
30 days solitary confinement In q
Turkish bath cell. with niggers fol
companions.
Pa turned blue and asked the lawel
II there was no way out of 1t, and the
lawyer told him that for 1920 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 60, and
he would be always a living example
of the terrors of gambling.
So they let pa go. and all the way
to the train he told us he hoped thi,
experience would be lesson to US MOI
20 covet the money of the rich. and al
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 dozen of the circus men who
had been out to beat the slot machines
broke fiat. and I had to divide my shot
bag of nickels with them. that had
won before I let them into the game
before they would let me 60 to bed.
Dad says this circus life is making
me pretty tough.