SOME philosophers are very anxious to demonstrate that man is a mere
Automaton. A man, however, can at any rate be regulated, and, at need,
"run in," which it seems that the Automatic Cigarette and Sweetmeat
Machines now so much in vogue cannot. Naughty little boys are convicted
of beguiling them of Butter Scotch by means of discs of card and base
metal, instead of coins of the realm. On the other hand the Automata are
charged with absorbing the coppers of honest would-be purchasers without
rendering up the proper portion of Toffee or Tobacco. Machines which are
at once dishonest themselves and the cause of dishonesty in others can
hardly be looked upon as an improvement upon living vendors, who if they
have little conscience to appeal to, have at least persons to be
punished.
[Illustration: WANTED, A THESEUS;
OR, THE BETTING CENTAUR.]
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