Automatic Age

February, 1931
A u to m a tic A ge
15
The air-bus stops. We are at the terminal. We leave the morn­
ing paper behind us as do hundreds of others on the same bus. The
porters will clear them away. And make a handsome profit from
their resale. We are again in an elevator. A t the office on the
200th floor. Rather cool here.
Our tobacco has run low. So we go out into the hall and drop
a coin in a machine there— presto— tobacco. So to work.
Dinner time. We again go into the hall. We manipulate the
various machines in the corridor, and with our tray on our arm
we enter the dining hall. Thousands of others are already there.
We have just changed a larger coin again. There are no paper
bills. What a queer thing that must have been.
I was taught in my history class that in the year 1931 A . D.,
when this country was very young, they used paper money. They
also had to walk on the ground like the other lower orders of life.
I wonder what it feels like to walk on earth? I haven’t been on
earth since we inspected the foundation of our new building. We
wore gas masks. The odors were terrible.
So back to work. Four o’clock. Time for somes weets. To the
nail again, another coin in a slot, and we have procured our
favorite.
Queer thoughts while eating. How could paper money have been
used in those crude machines they had in those days. Possibly they
had some sort of coins also. Wonder if they thought living would
ever be like this? I read that they even had such things as stores
and clerks. How inefficient. Wonder why they couldn’t see these
advantages ? I have even read that slot machines were condemned
y certain institutions. Where did they buy their food? Food
tores. Wonder what they looked like?
People are still old-fashioned. We say to bring all the machines
into every apartment. It will save walking time. They claim that
e servicing and the expenditure would be too great to warrant
e change. They also claim that the system they are using at
Present is not as yet perfected for the doors of apartments. Oh,
WeU, it takes a hundred years to change for the better.
I
wonder if that new machine our company has in mind will
really produce fried egg sandwiches as well as our competitors?
e have sold 4,000,000 already without the machine as yet com­
P eted. These operators are always in a hurry. Suggest that the
nrm again refer to the A u t o m a t i c A g e for statistics. Where is
he latest issue ? So to the hall and the slot machine again, and we
&et the latest issue.
© International Arcade Museum
http://www.arcade-museum.com/