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two weeks ago, which he had a perfect right to do - and now he realized he was definitely holding the bag. He said he might ask me to go 50-50 with him later - he would let me know how he made out. I liked the way he explained it and I felt inclined to help him if he want me to.

Rudy told me today that he was in New York yesterday and Walter Hedley is definitely fired and looking for a new job. Of course, he is persona non grata with all his old customers because he has been in such desperate financial straits he has been passing bum checks etc. He is looking for work in Buffalo where his girl is located. He intimated to Rudy he was leaving his family too - had enough money accumulated to take care of them for a year and after that his uncle who happens to be his wife's father (he married his first cousin) will take care of them. He is wealthy being ex-president and chairman of the I.R.T. Rudy said Walter was not resentful - admitted he had been given a chance last June to straighten up and he hadn't. The reason for his being fired is his desperate financial state which has come to the surface in bad checks, excessive expense accounts, etc. and all this apparently has been caused by his reckless actions with women and the Buffalo girl in particular. Rudy predicts Walter will end in the gutter and I think probably he's correct. It is a tragic thing - I've always like Walt although I have known what he is doing and didn't approve. I think he is another wreck caused primarily by the World War I. He was in the army in France and I guess he was in the thick of things like Roy Goggin - developed a reckless, don't-give-a-damn attitude that carried him down with it.