t, we'll look in on you on our way back; but we don't
promise. With cattle scattered over two counties of buttes and canyons,
we feel in a hurry when we get started home, after an absence sure to
have been longer than we intended. Then, you know how I feel;--I wish
the old town well, but I don't enjoy _every_ incident of my visits
there.

"We expect to see the Cecil Barr-Smiths in New York. Cecil is the whole
thing now with their companies--a sort of professional president in
charge of the American properties; and Mrs. Cecil is as well known in
some mighty good circles in London as she used to be in Lynhurst Park.

"I am glad to know that things are going toward the good with you.
Personally, I never expect to be a seven-figure man again, and don't
care to be. I prefer to look after my few thousands of steers, laying on
four hundred pounds each per year, far from the madding crowd. You know
Riley's man who said that the little town of Tailholt was good enough
for him? Well, that expresses my view of the 'J-Up-and-Down' Ranch as a
hermitage. It'll do quite well. But these Eastern interests of Mrs. Jim
are just now menacing to life in any hermitage. She has specifically
stated on two or three occasions lately that this is no place to bring
up a family. Think of a rough-rider like me in the wilds of New York! I
can see plenty of ways of amusing myself down there, but not such
peaceful ways as putting on my six-shooters and going out after timber
wolves or mountain lions, or our local representative of the clan of the
Hon. Maverick Brander. The future lowers dark with the multitudinous
mouths of avenues of prosperity!"

This letter was a disappointment to Mr. Giddings. His special edition of
the _Herald_ commemorative of the opening of our Auditorium must now be
deprived of its James R. Elkins feature, so far as his being the guest
of honor goes. But there will be Jim's photograph on the first page, and
a half-tone reproduction of a picture of the wreck at the Elk Fork
trestle.

"It is a matter of the deepest regret," said the _Herald_ this morning,
"that Mr. Elkins cannot be with us on this auspicious occasion. He was
the head of that most remarkable group of men who laid the foundations
of Lattimore's greatness. Only one of them, Mr. Barslow, still lives in
Lattimore, where he has devoted his life, since the crash of many years
ago, to the reorganization of the failed concerns, and especially the
Grain Belt Trust Comp