St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1906-01-27
cited they could hardly VAT tolnnd 81

cited they could hardly wait to- nnd &
slot machine, and finally they bought
nearly all my cough lozengers, and
/ went out into the night, and Pc and !
went along, cause pa said he UNDER
stood all the slot machines were
owned by Rockefeller. and be 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-of ON his slot ma
chimes. Pa said it would be good
thing If someone could break up the
reprehensible practice by beating the
blasted machines to q finish.
So pa he got bag to bring back the
nickels in, and bunch Of us went to
a 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
a machine until the players had fed 1t
so 1t seemed as though 1t would die un-
less it got air, and ne stepped up and
put In q 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
coughed up three or four nickels, but
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 machine
began to heave up nickels like 1t was
In the trough Of che 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 los-
enger in the slot machine, and he
searched pa and found q lot more
bronchial trochees, and pa was In for
1t on 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 lawyer offered to help pa, and |
keep him out of the penitentiary. He |
told pa the law Of Kentucky made the |
crime of triding with a slot machine
the same as breach Of promise, or ar
son, and that he would be lucky II he |
got OF with ten years In the pen, with |
30 days solitary confinement in q
Turkish bath cell, with niggers for
Pa turned blue and asked the lawer
II there was no way out of It, and the
lawyer told him that for $12O in spot
cash he would let him 60, and fight
the case after the show had got out
IF. the state. A hundred and twenty
i've dollars was the amount they found
IN pa, and he told them that inasmuch
Is they already had it, they better
keep the money and let him 60, and
he would be always a living example
If the terrors Of gambling.
So they let pa go, and all the way
10 the train he told us he hoped this
experience would be a lesson to us not
% covet the money of the rich. and as
ar 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
lad been out to beat the slot machines.
oroke fiat, and had to divide my shot
gag of nickels with them, that ! had
Won before I let them into the game,
,efore they would let me go to bed.
Dad says this circus life is making
ne pretty tough.