woman who is a masterpiece of creation? There are many in Reno,--
masterpieces: not millionaire bankers--, and lonely too, sometimes!
Anyway it came to pass not so very long ago, that a New York banker of
great wealth and international reputation went out to Reno to secure a
divorce. After two months' stay the gentleman lost his heart to a very
attractive lady, who also was whiling away six months of her sweet
young life in order to shake off the matrimonial shackles. The banker
was about fifty, the lady twenty-seven and the wife of a well-known
New York actor. So lavish were the banker's attentions to this
charming lady that he gave a most extraordinary banquet in her honor
at the Riverside Hotel to which were invited about one hundred guests.
The dinner was under the management of one of the best of San
Francisco's caterers, and all the table decorations were brought from
San Francisco. The banquet, I am told, cost about $5,000--Hoover in
those days was not popular as yet.... But alas! poor little Cupid was
obliged to succumb to failure. Before the six months had passed, the
banker's wife "got wise" to his whereabouts and his doings, and he
disappeared from Reno very abruptly. About the same time the beautiful
lady's actor husband learned of the affair, and sued the banker for
fifty thousand dollars "heart balm" .... And so we find a fool face to
face with his folly....

"Altitude," did you say? I don't know .... Funny how a few fleeting
hours can change the face of the world! How the mind when free and
refreshed can see and admit mistakes, and how our fairy castles and
wondrous dreams vanish at the touch of reason and stern reality. It's
wonderful to have known paradise: to have walked in its flower-strewn
paths and to have tasted its delirious delights. But the awakening!
"How could I?"--"How could She?"--"What was the end of it all?" "Who
knows?"