Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-10-01
SLOT MACHINE TO
REDUCE LIVING COST.

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front of us all the time, on both sides
Of us, and, if we turn around, we
find them behind US.
And the price is always marked
In plain figures.
The suggestion to save money is
not much advertised. 1t Is a matter
of reason rather than of temptation
and most OF us are less given to en-
Pertaining our Reason (Which is sup
posed to be of divine origin) than we
are to keeping company With those
unnecessary things that put up the
cost of living.
American schools are a great insti-
tuition. You get an education in them
that is a good investment. Well, with
the education you have received fig
ure out this problem:
Here are four metal machines, all
deaf. dumb. and blind. The central
point of each machine is a slot where
you can push your WI money out or
sight and reach.
No : belches out a piece of choc-
olate.
No. 2 a stick of gum.
No. 3 perfumes your handkerchief
plays a little tune Goodbye my
penny, good-bye) and tells you how
much you weigh.
No. 4 pushes out a printed slip
which gives you credit at the Way
farer's Savings Bank for n cent,
and advises you and that when you
get 10 such tickets you may come in
and get a book with a total credit
of one dime.
Problem:
Which machine will catch the
fewest pennies?
No savings bank president in ex-
istence ever had the idea enter his
head that SOME pennies could be
caught in this way. But he may wake
up some day and try to make saving
as great a temptation as spending.
A good many savings banks will
give a depositor a small metal bank
with slots in it. This is to be kept at
horne and filled by domestic economy.
The banker keeps the key, and when
the machine is full you take 1t in
and get credit for the amount it con-
tains.
This is a good scheme. But it has
one fault-perhaps more than one.
/. 1t is not advertised enough.
2. Hence the machines are not
common. enough.
3. Most people when they get
home at night are too tired to a Y
money.
The time to catch them is dur
ing the day when they feel rich and
the pennies are running through
their fingers, yelling push me into
something.
Then is the moment when the Way
farer's Saving Bank slot machine viii
catch its harvest. Better have three
slots in you machine-one for ZEN
MES, one for nickels and one for
dimes. You get credit at the bank for
the printed slip.
You can afford to put up a nice
machine-one constructed to squirt
fine perfume on the depositor, or to
play tunes.
Any device that checks the chan
nels Of waste particularly little
wastes, reduces the cost of living by
cutting out the cost of Unnecessary
things. This does not exculpate the
Trusts for running up the price OF
meat. but 1t helps a man momentar-
ily by preserving his
Few men are so foolish as to car
~ their money in a pocket with a
hole IN II. But let some other man
make the hole, surround 1T with
printed directions and there is
scarcely anyone too poor not to be
tickled to death to try how 1t works
All Of which means this: /.
Money should not make US thought
less hut thoughtful.
Money is the equivalent OF labor.
and it deserves the same respect.
Money that is wasted today would
provide an old age pension in years
to come.
Money can be spent to make divi-
dends for you or for the other man.
Take your choice.
The cost OF living is high, but the
cos OF foolishness is higher.
An education ought to teach a man
10 guard his own earningsand to pro-
tect himself and his family in the flu
ture. The cost OF all our school books
Is less than 50, 200. 600 per year. but
the cost OF wines. liquors. tobacco and