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improvements were made, bridges built, sewers and streets installed. A greater number of winter tourists came down each year. In fact. it was too good to last, so in 1921 there was another slump. The botton dropped out of real estate, and of course. there was bank failure. The Fidelity Bank and Trust Co., which had been organized about 1919. closed its doors. In 1921 the First National Bank had business to warrant bigger and better building, so we erected the present building, the first steel skyscraper in Miami. It is always the calmest just before storm, after few years of hard times following the 1921 collapse, were due for another boom, and the rest of this story is familiar to most readers. The real estate boom of 1925 is comparable to nothing less than the gold rush of 49. Bank failures follow in the wake of every boom, and of the bigger the boom the big ger the bank failure. By all the rules. what goes up must come down, and the higher you go the harder you fall From 40 years observation in Florida, could sense the problems that would almost inevitably arise from the collapse of 1926, and reminded me of the story of two hikers walking country road: complained to the other about the road and asked how it was further on. and the other replied, "well, it's like this for about miles more- then it gets worse. Florida never does anything by halves. We have the biggest booms. the biggest collapses, the strongest the brightest sunshine, Florida always will "give you something to remember her by." Ponce de Leon started it 400 years ago when he traveled half around the world to seek the fountain of youth. And it is here. A community that attracts the wealth and brains of a. nation. even for only part of the year. must have more than fictitious values. believe firmly that Miami's