Munsey's Magazine, October 1926

This October 1926 Munsey's Magazine issue features "Gamblers All," a complete novelette by Charles K. Harris. The story traces Marion Winthrop, daughter of the wealthy banker Hugh Winthrop and his wife Evelyn, from birth through young adulthood. Evelyn, a Southern belle with aristocratic roots, struggles with a gambling habit at the races despite her husband's moral objections; a dramatic incident at Marion's age seventeen nearly ruptures their marriage when Evelyn gambles away bond money, until Marion reconciles them. At eighteen, Marion rejects her debutante obligations to pursue settlement house work on the East Side, studying psychology and psychoanalysis. She befriends Jean Tolliver, whose background is revealed through extended flashback: Jean grew up in a New Mexico oil boomtown where her Irish father gambled away money at poker while her formidable Scottish mother ran a hotel and bar. Jean's story establishes the novella's thematic preoccupation with gambling as a destructive force across social classes. The narrative concludes by introducing Jean's mother at her Broadway tea shop.