Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1942-01-29
MONTGOMERY
Nl SIDELICHTS
By ELSIE WHITE HA1NEs

What did you think of Reno?
Aren't you going to write us your
impressions of Reno? Those
questions have been asked me
hundreds of times since / returned
to Montgomery County after sew
eral weeks in that much adver-
tised town.
For several years it has been
the custom of persons who have
access to the press, to write up"
Reno after they had stayed there
for a period. I had planned to be
different, and not write about
it-but you have asked for it!
Faith Baldwin, after a visit,
wrote a series of rather lurid
short stories-Max Miller's more
recent book entitled "Reno" was
better-though plainly written for
so-called popular reading" it
does have much truth in it, and
does show something of the many
sides of the town.
Unfortunately, most of you read
only the excerpts of Miller's book
which appeared in the Readers
Digest last fall-the unpleasant
and most sensational parts, shall
we say.
Because Reno has no other in
dustry they have advertised them
selves as the City of Divorce
until the words have become
synonymous. AS a matter of fact
divorce is just as easy and just
as cheap in any other county
seat in Navada, and so is mar
riage-for they have more mar
riages in Nevada than divorces
believe it or not!
We were terribly tired after
three days and nights on a train,
so upon our arrival we went to
the hotel with the highest rating
and "slept the clock around"-
then we began to look around.
After the drab midwest towns
Reno was pleasant surprise,
nestled in the center of wide,
green valley, the snow-topped
Sierras sheltering it from the
storms of the west. Trees, lawns
and parks made us forget The
Great Desert just to the east.
1t was about the third day that
we went to the library, got Mil
ler's Reno and read oil of it.
Gracious me. we had been stay
ing at the gayest, most wicked
hotel and had not known it-had
not seen or heard thing diff
ferent from a hotel of its kind
in any other city, except the
gambling devices, which are in
the open in Reno.
But it did not take Mr.. Miller
to tell us it was too expensive
for US, so we hied ourselves to
boarding house just opposite
facing the same street through
small park. For less than we
would pay in Washington or Bal
timore we had nice rooms, and
the food-excuse me while
swallow-just to mention Ida's
cooking makes my mouth water.
Of course we had already
walked through the gambling dis
trict and seen the Inferno with
its fiery front, indicating the
leaping flames of hell-and gazed
at the silver dollars imbedded in
the pavement showing the Bank
Club entrances ships bow
reaching out into the street is
the entrance to The Ship and
Bottle-chicken, dog and horse
tracks lead into The Barn.
We became intimate with a
girl from Texas-getting a di-
vorce because her husband had
thrown a typewriter at her and
broken her ribs-(don't waste any
pity on her for she admitted to
us that she could not cook, and
she apparently thought of moth
ing but her looks and her dress)
but she was a nice girl and lots
of fun, and we were so sur
prised to find that she was a
"shill"-you know, a come-on,
paid by the house to- encourage
people to gamble! But we
learned about gambling from her.
That was later, the first week
we used Miller for a guide and
went to all the places he men,
tioned-of course there were a
few we could not go into-but we
rode around them and took a
look, anyway. Then we returned
the book to the library and for
got it.