In Reno

A gambler's quarrel, hot words, a slap in the face and five revolver shots took Reno (whose Mayor boasts that in his town "everybody can do what they please") another step further back into the tradition of the Old West last week. Into the Haymarket Club, a recently licensed palace of chance on Douglas Alley, strode one W. H. McCracken, a gambling dealer. Night before, McCracken had wrangled with William Graham, one of the "Big Four" of Nevada's gaming fraternity, over money matters. Graham had finally knocked McCracken down.

The lookout at the Haymarket Club told Graham that his enemy was approaching. When McCracken passed the door he started firing. One bullet hit the bar, another went through Graham's sleeve. Then the gun jammed. Graham fired three times, killed McCracken instantly. True to the canons of Wild Bill Hickok and Kit Carson, next day a coroner's jury exonerated the surviving duelist as having killed in self-defense. On July 4, Gambler Graham will promote a prize fight with William Harrison ("Jack") Dempsey, who is in Reno for the sport and to get a divorce from his wife, Estelle Taylor.

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