The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1919-12-27

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where from rs cents to $1.25 each. One
thousand punches, at 10 cents a punch,
means 500, for which the silly sports
receive less than $40 worth of little
doll babies. It does look as if a
sucker is born every minute.
Although punchboards are banned at
the Mckay hotel, the good old Lenox
cigar and newsstand does flourishing
business with them. 1.-TWO of them were
available for 10-cent sports the day
the Rip-saw inspector called. One board
had 1900 holes which would realize
5000 at 10 cents punch. Five or six
red cross doll babies were hanging up
and a few one-pound boxes Of candy.
Only a few numbers had been
punched, therefore no excuse can be
made that the small number Of prizes
was due to lucky winners having heav.
ily punched the board previously.
The inspector took a punch at cost
from hole No. 925. It was cocoanut
candy, hard, dry and very old. 1t prob
ably was the rejected stuff Of some
candy stock or factory, therefore buy
able at a very heavy discount.
The Rip-saw inspector showed a
strong inclination to shy off without
further punching, when the very clever
young woman behind the counter said
in a very enticing and seductive tone
of voice:
"The dolls are worth $3.50 EACH"
That punchboard, with 5000 possibil-
tiles for the house, actually did not
have to exceed 500 worth of prizes
displayed. But the travelling men seem
crazy to win doll babies, at 10 cents a
punch, especially if pulchritudinous
female clerk, with goo-goo eyes, stands
behind the junk counter.
Alec Zurovsky, a ruddy haired Son
of Israel, conducting cigar stand in
the Empress pool hall at No. 10 East
Superior street, seemingly proposes to
work off his stock of cigars, pipes and
tobaccos with the help of seductive
punchboards. Alexander had no punch.
board when the inspector first called.
"We will have one tomorrow" an
nounced Zurovsky with gracious
flourish of his hands.
On the tomorrow the inspector found
punchboard on the job. It had 1000
holes and punches cost 10 cents each.
Lucky ones secured pipes, tobacco or
candy. The prizes displayed could not
have exceeded $40 in value. The
chances on all the many punchboards
in the city run at least five to one in
favor of the house, ten to one in many
cases.
Of course the Rex hotel cigar and
newsstand at Twentieth avenue west
has gambling devices. You shake dice
there, leaving your name and score, the
lowest and highest scores winning
prizes. A shake costs 10 cents and if
the winners of 200 shakes never show
up to claim the prizes, the house is
just that much ahead. Two hundred
shakes at 10 cents a shake realize $40
for the house. The cigar prizes prob
ably do not exceed SIS in value.
Then the Rex stand has a pull board.
You pay 10 cents each for fifteen pulls.
The winning number secures a box of
cigars that retails for $1.25. The
house gets $3.50 for it and if the win
ner never shows up, the little box of
cigars is ratified again, the house being
ahead the cigars and $3.50 in punch
money.
In the good old McKercher days, the
Rex had some famous punchboards. In
those days, too, a local dealer in punch
boards was banned, firms in Minneap.
oils and Chicago having a monopoly on
their sale in Duluth. Many places were
barred from maintaining punchboards.
When policeman entered a punch.
board place he had to experience sud-
den blindness under penalty of being
exiled to some suburban beat. That
seems to be somewhat the case now. If
Madam Smith tells the truth, however,
so many of the policemen have been
drinking and playing poker in her West
hotel that they could not see punch
boards, no matter how many the num-
Der on display and doing business. The
Rip-saw feels impelled, however, to
take Madam Smith 3 tales with a grain
of salt until she corroberates them.
When the inspector dropped into a
pool room between Nineteenth and
Twentieth avenues west he found no
but seven men were play
ing poker over the counter for SO cents
a corner, there being about SO in the
rot when the inspector took a look.
That popular resort is not so many
h1ncka from ohsof Mu~uhr,. - 49,