Book Description:
THE DINNER given by J. J. Bunyan at his New York residence 0n the night of September the tenth, 1929, was attended by eleven guests, most of them fat and all, except Mortimer Bayliss, millionaires. In the pre October days of the year 1929 you seldom met anyone in New York who was not a millionaire. He might be a little short of the mark when you ran into him on Monday morning, but by Friday afternoon he would have got the stuff all right and be looking around for more. Not one of those present but had made his hundred thousand dollars or so in the past few hours, and no doubt Keggs, Mr. Bunyans English butler, and the rest of the Park Avenue staff had added appreciably to their savings, as in all probability had the two chauffeurs, the ten gardeners, the five stablemen and the pastry cook down at Meadowhampton, Long Island, where Mr. Bunyan had his summer home. For the bull market was booming and the golden age had set in with a roll of drums and a fanfare of trumpets. About the only problem worrying people in those happy days was what to do with all the easy money which a benevolent Providence kept pouring so steadily out of its cornucopia all the time. It was to this subject that the company's attention had turned when dinner was over and Keggs had withdrawn his stately presence and left them to their cigars and coffee, and the debate was in full swing when Mortimer Bayliss intervened in it. For the last ten minutes he had been sitting hunched up in his chair, scowling silently and curling a scornful lip...
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