SLOTH 



5408 



SLOVAKS 



jelly, preserves and dyes. Canes and tool han- 

 dles are made from the hardy branches of the 

 shrub. 



SLOTH, slawth, a group of animals belong- 

 ing to the order of Edentata (which see), which 

 includes mammals lacking in teeth or with only 

 rudimentary ones. The sloths, as may be seen 

 by the accompanying picture, have a most pe- 



THE SLOTH 



culiar method of locomotion. They move along 

 the branches of trees upside down, and in this 

 fashion they also sleep. In fact, they rarely 

 come down to the ground, nor do they need to, 

 for they feed on leaves, buds and young shoots. 

 As they sleep by day and always move with 

 great caution, the name sloth has been applied 

 from the mistaken idea that they are lazy and 

 sluggish. As a matter of fact they show consid- 

 erable agility in all of their movements. 



These queer animals are almost grotesque in 

 appearance, with their tailless bodies, earless 

 heads and blunt noses. The coarse hair is of 

 a grayish color, which renders them inconspicu- 

 ous. A sloth asleep looks very much like the 

 stump of a bough, especially when, as is often 

 the case, a peculiar growth of green alga is 

 found on the hair. There are two subfamilies, 

 one containing sloths with two toes on the 

 front feet, and the other including those with 

 three toes on these feet. All are natives of 

 tropical America. 



SLOT MACHINES, devices of various kinds, 

 some used for legitimate purposes of trade and 



others designed solely for gambling. All work 

 on the principle that a coin of certain named 

 value must -be deposited in a slot, and this sets 

 the mechanism in motion. Those which serve 

 a legitimate purpose release gum, candy, pea- 

 nuts, postage stamps, cigars and other small 

 articles, and thus a customer automatical!}' 

 serves himself. Automatic restaurants on this 

 principle came into vogue in 1916. Another 

 type of slot machine automatically delivers a 

 specified amount of gas, according to value of 

 the coin deposited, to the pipes and burners to 

 which the machine is attached. There is yet 

 another variety, which operated to show a 

 series of stereopticon pictures, but since the 

 advent of moving pictures it has lost its vogue. 

 A variation of this form included a phonograph 

 which produced songs when a coin started the 

 mechanism. The "nickel telephone," in which 

 a five-cent piece automatically sounds a warn- 

 ing to the operator, is possibly the most useful 

 development of the slot machine for business 

 purposes. The greater number of city tele- 

 phones are of this type. 



Other slot machines are gambling devices, 

 the most common of which consists of a wheel 

 which is set in motion by the dropping of a 

 coin. The gambler endeavors to win money by 

 selecting one of the many symbols on the 

 wheel; he wins if the pointer, after spinning, 

 stops above the selected symbol. The gam- 

 bling devices are many and various; in most 

 states and provinces they have been con- 

 demned as unlawful, but owing to lack of unity 

 of action they are still extensively used. The 

 pleasure boats that sail the Great Lakes and 

 from ocean ports for cruises along the shore, 

 although fitted with gambling devices, are com- 

 pelled by state law to allow no gambling within 

 three miles from shore, where local authority 

 ends and national j urisdiction begins. F.ST.A. 



SLO'VAKS, a Slav people living in the new 

 Czecho-Slovakia and in scattered settlements 

 in adjoining districts. They probably occu- 

 pied this territory as early as the fifth or 

 sixth century A. D. They are for the most part 

 peasant people who cultivate their farms in 

 the most primitive manner. Many of them 

 also wander about as laborers or tinkers. Be- 

 cause of oppression by the Magyars (which 

 see), who treat the Slovaks as inferiors, large 

 numbers of them have migrated to America. 

 They are lovers of music, and their songs are 

 popular among other peoples. Before the War 

 of the Nations there were about 2,500,000 Slo- 

 vaks in Europe. See CZECHO-SLOVAKIA. 



