The Modern Slot Machine

The recognition given to the booalled "slot machine" in granting to an individual the privilege of using it tor supplying drinking water to pedeatri&ns In the streets of Chicago ia Ukely to give that appliance the promüienc it enjoyed centuries ago on the bank of the Ntle. When the slot marUM made lts appearance a few years ince It was descrlbed as a wonderful lavntion that was destined to do away with the newsboy, the bootblack and otter venderá of small articles. The adoptiqn of the device for funiishing drinking water at the World's Fair was regarde! as a wonderful applince to mt the necesslties or wants of the people. And yet the slot maohine was in common use thousands of years ago. In Hiero's "Splritalia," whlch was published in the seventt-eath cntury, a description is given of closed vessel in use in the temple of Egypt, in whJch the sacred water was kept. The machine had a slot in the top and when five drachmas were dropped In a valve opened and a smalt quantlty of the water flowed out Then the valve clcscd automa;ically, to await the arrival of the next worshiper. It is probable that the aaodrn machines may be more ornamental than those in use in the EgypUan temples so long ago, but It is not llkely that they do their work any better than those that caught the drachmas of worshiping followers of the sun god in day3 when cats were divine and dogs were believed to have aoula.