QUICK WAY TO RUIN

Hawera Star, Volume L, 25 August 1930, Page 7

QUICK WAY TO RUIN

BROKER’S WASTED MILLION. “THE PRINCE OF SPENDERS.’ - . New York was recently being regaled witli amazing stories of profligacy told of Harold Russell Ryder, known as “the Prince of Broadway Spenders. ’ He is a member of a brokers’ house, whose affairs are under investigation by a grand jury. When the firm failed its bank balance wa;s 'little more than £IOO. but the assets were given as up to £140,000, including: a Stock Exchange seat valued at £90,000. Rydfer is reported to have spent on Broadway in his short career nearly a million sterling and Texas Goman, the night club queen, describes him tersely as “the biggest sucker of them all.’’ Night club habitues assert that he used to give £2O apiece toi the members of any orchestra that played “How do you do, Mr Ryder? How do you do?” Cloakroom girls would receive £2 tips, £2OO disappearing in such largesse during u single night. Ryder owned a Rlolls-Royce car and Minerva-, “the finest saddle horse in the world,” valued at £2OOO. He also had a string of polo ponies worth £4OOO. Among his many gifts was £20,000 to his college- for the erection of a hall named after him. His wife is reported to have lost £200,000 in the crash.