Problem getting the value of an element

Problem getting the value of an element

Hi, I'm new as you can tell by my question. What is wrong with this code?

function bt(ans){
$(document).ready(function(){
if (ans==1) {
        if ($(".hidn1").val()=="") {
      alert(ans);
           $(".msg").text("\n\nWhachu gonna have?");
        });
    }
}

Here is the call:

<button id="bt1" style="background-color:green; color:yellow; height:20px; width:20px;" type="button" onclick="bt(1)"></button>

And here is where the elements are defined:

<textarea id="hidn1" cols="1" rows="1" style="display:none;"></textarea>
<textarea class="msg" style="background-color: black; color: lightgreen; padding-left: 20px;" rows="10" cols="40" readonly></textarea>

When I press the button, nothing happens. I'm new to jQuery and javascript so any help would be appreciated.