Evening star., 1939-11-19
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star
The nickel-in-the-slot vending ma
chine is not an altnoetler ,nnur douino I.

was IN use more than
Slot Machines century ago in
Used Long Aqo England, as the fol-
lowing reprint from
the Kendall County (England) News in
The Star of November IL, 1889, indicates:
so far as the automatic machines are
yet in use among us they have done COM
paratively little to diminish human en-
ployment The sWeetmeats mechanically
dispensed al railway stations have been
probably consumed by way Of extras and
not in substitution for like goods which
would have been purchased at a confec-
toners. The same may be said of
cigarettes and splashes of scent. If con-
fectioners and tobacconists and perfum-
ers have lost, the loss has been so widely
distributed as to be inappreciable. With
regard to matches the case is perhaps
different. Matchboys and matchgirls
must find their revenues substantially
diminished and must anticipate that
their craft is in danger The automatic
y-your~weight' machines have driven
the old-fashioned apparatus, with boy
attendant, completely out of the market
and have annihilated a small but not
undeserving branch of industry. But if
it be true that American extentions of
the automatic principle are to be intro
duced into this country a much more
serious lnroad upon industries, both
small and great, is in store for u.s. We
are to have our penny newspapers as We
now obtain our penny chocolates, and
the newspaper boy will become as eX-
tlnct as the dodo. Shirts and razors are
to become purchasable in the same way,
to the probable diminution in the num-
ber of shop assistants, and even lunch
cons of considerable proportions and va
riety are to be generally procurable upon
the automatic method, to the great pref
udice of walters and barmaids.
"The air is full of talk just now about
labor and capital and in all seriousness
there is material for reflection in the
future of these ungainly automata, which
bid fair to swell the dividends of COM
pany capitalists while they take the
bread out of the mouths of some of the
humblest of our honest workers.
BY the way, it is a curious fact that
more than 60 years ago the principle
upon which the automatic machines are
manipulated was applied to open tobacco
boxes. In some parts of England these
square boxes survive in many an old
fashioned inn. By dropping halfpenny
into the slot the box, by means of a
spring, flew open and for the halfpenny
the operator was entitled to take pipe
OF tobacco In those good old-fashioned
times people were supposed to be honest
enough to take no more than a single
pipe and to close the box before passing
1t on to the next customer The late
King of Siam was purchaser of dozen
OF them, which are reported to have
greatly diverted his majesty, who pre-
sented them to some of the magnates
of his court"
Having apparently exhausted this
country In the search for novelties to
write about" says The
Nellie bly, to Star of November 16,
Circle Globe 1889, "the worlds COM
missioner in petticoats,
Miss Nellie BLY, has undertaken to make
the circuit of the civilized globe by the
usual modes of conveyance She will
hire no special cars or boats or stages,
but will test the question how fast an
ordinary traveller can make the twenty
odd thousand miles from home to home
again.
I'm the program which she has laid
out in advance, the period she has al
lowed herself is five days shorter than
that in which Jules Verne's hero per-
formed like feat. Her movements will
be watched with much curiosity. Here is
q form of racing against time which will
command the rational interest of people
who do not see anything to enjoy in the
speeding Of horses or the sailing of
yachts for the mere purpose of turning a
stake, or. in the pedestrian contests
which have made life burden for most
of the educated community during the
past 20 years. She will race not only
against time, but against representative
of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, who has
started westward on a round the world
trip, and, it is said, against representa-
tive Of the New York Herald"