nce craze several years later Mr. and Mrs. Fred
DeLancy, who were of the first to seize its possibilities, became
suddenly the rage of society, and in the letting down of barriers that
followed the frantic rush from boredom among our most conservative sets
the DeLancys regained curiously enough a certain social position.
Adversity had taught him the value of making money. Guided by the hands
of one of those remarkable and adroit personages that instigate and
expand popularity, the press agent, Fernando Wiskin, a genius of
diplomacy, the DeLancy craze overran the country. They had their own
restaurant, with dancing studios attached, and an after midnight dancing
club. They appeared in the movies, made trips to Europe. They set a
dozen fashions, they inspired sculptors, illustrators and caricaturists,
and raised up a host of imitators, some better and some worse. Properly
coached, they received fees for instruction a surgeon might envy, but as
once a gambler always a gambler, what they made miraculously they spent
hugely, and despite all warnings it would surprise no one if with the
turning of the fickle public from one fad to another the DeLancys, after
spending $50,000 a year, would end just as poor as they began.

Roscoe Marsh, hard hit by the panic, after steady reverses consequent
upon a rather visionary adventure into journalism, found himself
compelled to part with his newspaper to a syndicate organized by his
own city editor, a man who had come up from the ranks, who had long
bided his opportunity, a self-made American of the type that looks
complacently upon the arrival in the arena of the sons of great fortunes
with a belief that an equalizing Providence has sent them into the world
to be properly sheared. Marsh, despite these reverses, still retained a
considerable fortune, constantly augmented by a large family of uncles,
aunts and cousins whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to die at
opportune moments. He became interested in many radical movements,
rather from the need of dramatic excitement than love of publicity or
any deep conviction. At the bottom, however, he believed himself the
most sincere man in the world, and for a long time continued to believe
that he had a mission to perform.

George Granning became one of the solid men of the steel trade. Of the
four young men who had met that night on the Astor roof and prophesied
their futures he was the only one to fulfil his program to the minutest
det