Automatic Age

12
T
he
a u t o m a t ic
ette, Secretary of the Southwestern
Vending Machine Operators’ Associ­
ation, who has a flourishing vending
machine business there. Mr. Burn­
ette took me around the city in his
aiitbfriobile. It was a bright, sunny
southern winter day when you have
to carry your overcoat. Quite some
contrast from the three feet of snow
I left in Chicago. Austin is the beau­
tiful capitol city of the state and Mr.
Burnette is the leading operator. He
has a varied line of vending, and
amusement machines. Also on the
main highway leading past the cap­
itol and out to the State University
grounds he owns and operates a gar­
age, filling station and repair shop.
However, he says his machine route
is the back-bone of his business; it
is always good for bread and butter
and the garage business fluctuates,
sorrietimes making and sometimes
losing.
Burnette Is Up-to-Date
Mr. Burnette told me about some
Exhibit Supply machines he had that
took in $20 to $24 a week and had
even reached a peak of $35 to $43 a
week. He is now preparing to put
out some Watling Scales and, in
fact, is a real up-to-date operator,
game to take on new stuff and keep
the pennies rolling in.
San Antonio is a coin-machine bo­
nanza in a way. They have an open
12 months of out-door life, lots of
transients and a large Mexican pop­
ulation that are good machine play­
♦
ers.
Shortage of Pennies
I saw a large number of machines
there of all kinds. The only draw­
back is, the boys tell me, there are
not enough pennies in circulation.
The street car fare is a dime, the
newspapers get a nickel and the mer­
chants hardly ever split even money
for commodities. This tends to keep
© International A rcade M useum
A
ge
pennies scarce. W e recall that not
once did we get penny change whil®
three days there, while in Chicago we
would have had our pockets full.
There is a real opportunity for an
operator in those flourishing towns
of the Rio Grande Valley. I could
not locate an operator, though there
were a few machines to be seen. I
think most of them were owned <>r
serv\ed by the locations.
Beer?
No, Thanks
I went over to Matamoras, as all
tourists do. It was a drizzling wet
day, like a cold rain in May. The
natives said it was their worst of the
winter. Up in Texas it had been
really hot some $ays. However, what
I am trying to get at is, I did not
drink beer. I drank tequila. That is
Mexican cactus whiskey and a really
delectable potion.
There are 150
saloons in Matamoras, many cater­
ing to the Americans where the men
and women tourists come grinning
through, most of them stopping at
the bar for a drink.
No Chance Machines
R. W . Bloss, an American soldier
of fortune, is floor manager at the
Montezuma bar. He told me there
were no money machines nor gam­
bling of any kind in the town, and
that the Governor of the State had
been offered $100,000 for a conces­
sion, but nothing doing. I expressed
surprise after taking another tequila,
but Bloss said the average Mexican
was as honest as the average Ameri­
can!
.
I do not propose to tell here all
I saw and did down there, as much
as some of you fellows are holding
your breath to find out, because it
would most likely increase the circu­
lation of the magazine more than the
present advertising rate justifies. So,
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