The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1917-07-07
JUNGLE BOB'S" EYES
STRANGELY AFFECTED
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chief McKercher and mayor
Prince, the punch boards sold by
the Prince Candy Company, of
Milwaukee, Wis, were put be-
fore the small gamblers of the
city and kept going until after
the holidays. The employers of
Col. Frank Farrell and their GUS
toners made mint of money.
But, dear reader, local manu-
facturers of candy and local
dealers in punch boards, were as
effectively barred from all bene-
fits as if they were under the
ban of the Russian police. The
blasts by Chief McKercher and
Mayor Prince scared them stiff.
Not only did the Milwaukee
punch boards run riot here for
nearly month, but certain hotel
news stands have been operat-
ing punch boards ever since and
are today, unless word reached
them when the Rip-saw came
from the press.
Who is to blame for this
winking at the infraction of the
city ordinance, the Rip-saw does
not presume to say. 1t may be
chief McKercher and his neglect
in enforcement Of the local law
may be due to his failing eye
sight.
Commissioner Silberstein may
be the man who is violating his
oath to enforce the laws, winking
at this violation and unjustly dis
eliminating against a large num-
Der of good sports who yearn to
operate punch boards, but are
barred.
Permitting just three firms to
have this privilege over all other
dealers in Duluth may not be a
deep, wide, fatal infraction of the
law and oath of office but aside
from the rank discrimination,
many citizens feel this way, viz:
cit is sin
"To steal a PIN
Anyway, the Rip-saw "passes
the buck" as Professor Wright
would say, to chief McKercher
and commissioner Silberstein.
One constant and persistent
violator of the punchboard ordin-
ance is the news stand in the Hol-
land hotel. This stand operates
two punch boards. One board has
$500 holes and rather dinky
lot Of prizes. There are cigars,
candy, safety razors, vanity cases,
copper souvenirs of Duluth and
other clutter. But it costs 10
cents a punch and that means
$3.50 in the pocket of the news
stand every time $500 holes are
punched out. The Rip-saw's chief
inspector wound not give $50 for
the entire lot Of prizes that ac-
company a board. This board, by
the way, is supposed to come from
a Minneapolis firm.
Then there's a master punch
board, double affair, put up in
Chicago, with an aggregate of
5000 holes. 1t costs 10 cents a
punch to stick a single nail into
each of those holes. If real lucky,
you get Howard watch worth
$40 or, in lieu thereof, $25 in gold.
If you punch out a $25 clock and
care nothing about time, you can
take $40 in gold instead. There
are black silk watch fobs with
$40 gold pieces for watch charms.
Then there's a gold-mounted
comb, genuine Jerusalem over
taker," and a number of other
trinkets. One of these boards re-
turns $500 to the news stand
when fully punched out. The in
trinsic value of the prizes may,
by some wild flight of the imagin-
alton, aggregate $3.50 but no one
outside of the punchee really
knows. The odds are very long
for him and very short for the
puncher.
But, dear reader, this one news
stand can make anywhere from
$4,000 to $4,000 a. year from its
punch board business.
The Lenox hotel news stand also
runs punch boards. It had one
OF the $500 hole boards the past
week. But both this place and
the Holland stand are steady and
long-standing violators of the
anti-punch board ordinance.
The curio store in the corner
Of the Mckay hotel also has had