"We have been so busy telling about the 'Good Old Times' that we overlook the good times of present day Las Vegas. Some real estate dealers complain that the demand for property is not now as great as when many tracts were under improvement and new homes being sold each day.

True enough, there was a let-up in real estate activity, but that is quite natural and easily understood - new hotels had been built on 'Other People's Money', only partially financed and without any working capital, and it was inevitable that there should be a breathing spell so that things could readjust themselves.

This does not mean that Las Vegas is dead, because some of our most elaborate casinos have been built within the past two years and other are contemplated. 'The Mint,' built by Milton Prell and Associates on Fremont Street is the most notable of these. It was started without fan-fare, completed, and began business so quietly that some of us hardly knew what was going on. This newest of our beautiful casinos and the way it crept into our consciousness recalls to my mind the unostentatious way Mr. Prell has carried on all of his Las Vegas enterprises.

Some years ago, about ten I think, a not quite completed building stood vacant, apparently unwanted and unneeded by Las Vegas. It was an eyesore and people wondered what it could be used for. Milton Prell came along, and with ambitious in his soul and money in his pocket, bought the unfinished structure and went to work on it. In a comparatively short time 'Club Bingo' was in operation. It had a pleasant, large room with seats for a couple of hundred bingo players, a restaurant where only the finest food was served and a bar. The new 'Club Bingo' was an immediate success and for two or three years was probably the most popular resort in town.

Then, what at the moment seemed like disaster to many of us, Mr. Prell announced that he would close 'Club Bingo' and build in its place one of the finest hotels in Las Vegas. I well remember the pangs of regret I felt when one day he told me that a year from that day he would open the new hotel.

Club Bingo went out like a candle and left Las Vegas rather gloomy. But true to his prediction The Hotel Sahara opened for business one year from the time Club Bingo had closed. It has obviously been an outstanding success and immediately took its place alongside Wilbur Clark's fabulous Desert Inn and the other successful hotel enterprises.

Since that time, Mr. Prell has engaged in other very successful enterprises, the most notable of which - prior to 'The Mint' - was the Lucky Strike Club on Fremont Street. That club is the most beautiful and complete place of its kind in the whole wide world. At least I have never seen another to compare with it.

Another notable venture is about to begin on the site of the old First State Bank Building which, with tears in my eyes, I recently saw being demolished, its fine Corinthian columns and capitals a mess of rubbish. I do not know what will take it place or who is at the head of it, but I am sure that if it is sufficiently financed and conducted with good judgment it will be a success.

Perhaps you wonder why I am so sure that Las Vegas will continue grow and prosper. Early in July, our grandson 'Bud' Doherty, loaded Delphine and me into his car at 5:20 in the morning and at 10:45 we were at his home in Fullerton, California.

As I remember it years ago, Fullerton was a silage in the center of a farming community and so far as we could see, it had no future. Now it is a prosperous incorporated city, with great industrial plants not far away that provide employment for its people. And it is the same story in every corner of Southern California, the population of which - south of Tehachipi - is nearing, and soon will pass the ten million mark!

The greatest problem just now, I think is to keep the thugs and crooks from the big cities of the East from getting a foothold in our casinos. Visitors should be shown that our games of chance are honestly conducted and that no cheating or crookedness is tolerated.

Whether the state board is exactly correct every time it refuses to license a casino, I do not know. but I am sure they are on the right rack. Las Vegas has some outstanding examples of success based on business integrity and a few dismal failures based on attempts to get something for nothing.

Recent examples of success are the Hacienda and Tropicana, both far out on the Strip and completed and opened for business only recently. The Tropicana, representing an investment of more than $15,000,000, was so elaborate that some pessimists predicted failure, but there has been only success. The truth is that each new resort brings an element of prosperous people to Las Vegas.

I cannot forget the examples of Wilbur Clark's Desert In. It opened for business in troublesome times, but it now had reached an astonishing pinnacle of success. In addition to many other improvements, it has a most attractive Golf Course, built on 160 acres of land, which, with the growth of the city, has reached a fabulous value. It is clear that sensible investment in a city still growing rapidly, cannot fail of success."