e assured me that the
Reno people deplored this as formerly the town was full of boarders and
lodgers "doing time." I confess I was somewhat shocked by such a sordid
point of view. I found myself looking quietly around the Riverside
dining room to see whether I could pick out in the well filled room any
candidates for divorce, and then I reflected that they were probably
looking at me with the same query in their minds.

[Illustration: 1. Crossing Mississippi at Clinton, Iowa. 2. Bridge near
Reno.]

At Reno we followed our rule of visiting university buildings. We had
seen the famous State University and the equally famous Stanford
University in California, and wished to continue our study of college
buildings and of the general atmosphere of Western institutions.
Unfortunately it was holiday time, but we were shown about most
courteously by a young instructor. The Nevada State University buildings
are modest and comparatively few in number, but in good taste. They have
a fine situation on a high plateau, wind-swept and mountain-surrounded,
at the edge of the town. Westerners call these lofty terraces, which
drop down one below another in step fashion at the foot of the great
mountains, benches.

We had seen the very noble School of Mines at the University of
California, erected by Mrs. Hearst to her husband's memory. We were
equally interested in the smaller but very pretty building erected by
Mr. Clarence Mackay for the University of Nevada School of Mines. A
striking statue of Mr. Mackay in his miner's dress and with his miner's
pick, stands in front of the building and looks down the green lengths
of the open campus.

Our guide told us that the attendance at the School of Mines varies
annually with the fluctuations of mining fortunes. In good years when
the mines are doing well, the University has between fifty and sixty
students of mining engineering. In poor mining years the attendance
drops off. He told us some interesting tales of the "good old days" when
miners wore two shirts sewed together at the bottom, thus making a sort
of bag, and helped themselves liberally to gold while in the diggings.
He said that a miner had been known to pay a mine foreman a thousand
dollars for the privilege of working in a rich corner of the mine, with
the result that he would be able to make up the price of his privilege
within two or three days. He explained that there was a general rule to
the effect that a miner should no