- •In torpedo fashion; but his movements were apparently never He returned that night, and lo! the expected had happened.
- •It. He’s already offered me sixty-two for it. I can get it for
- •Ing when he came in.
- •It for the first year, but if you mind your p’s and q’s, they’ll cious and conservative investments and because of his cau-probably give you something as a gift at the end of that time.
- •It was fine to be getting on this way in the world and having such a good time.
- •In any woman. He was practical, methodic, orderly. His shoe At first, when Frank called, she did not have much to say.
- •I’m marrying you. We have independent means.”
- •In the whole thing. Butler could be made official garbage-And since then times had been exceedingly good with Ed-collector. The council could vote an annual appropriation ward Butler.
- •Vast advantage to him, and to devote all his attention to that.
- •Vague gray-blue; his hair a dusty light-brown and thin. His Cowperwood and thought how fortunate she was.
- •Impression, of course, that it was scattered freely in various
- •It was called—which interested him greatly. He rode on it occasionally when he was delayed or did not wish to trouble 109
- •It was Butler’s habit when he became involved in these
- •Intention all along of the two men to use these houses jointly.
- •In as tactful a manner as possible, that the dance afterward
- •Vain. My mother and father tell me I’m too vain as it is.” There was much jesting, some slappings of shoulders, some
- •Into her eyes, then left. Aileen’s bosom heaved. It was hard
- •I’m wild about you.”
- •It’s your business now, first, last, and all the time. You can’t not young, not vivid, not as unschooled in the commonplaces get your mind off of that.”
- •Its place. His large feet were incased in good, square-toed, well—
- •Ings for business purposes and residences in which Chicago
- •Voice. To his father he said a little later, “It’s panic, unless the majority of the banks and brokerage firms stand together.” commercial section since
- •In a position to help him were now as bad off as himself.
- •Voices could be heard faintly in the distance, far off to-
- •It was not time for love, and he felt it.
- •Ing about this, and it was puzzling him greatly.
- •Voted to the talents of Mollenhauer’s three ambitious daughters, a library and private office for himself, a boudoir and 174
- •If he were saved would he give the money back to Stener? If
- •Ing hourly worse since its inception the day before.
- •If we did anything which would look as though we were
- •Ing except loans, loans, loans, and the need of protecting
- •It.” He returned to his drawing-room and scanned both ac-He had never seen a map of Chicago before in just this clear, counts most carefully.
- •Ined. He hurried down the street to various bankers and bro-
- •It was in the face of this very altered situation that
- •Ing his father’s gloom. He was satisfied that there was scarcely When did you say he notified you not to buy city loan?” a coal of hope to be raked out of these ashes of despair, but
- •Indicated would trouble him or interrupt his great career.
- •Illegally, and he is very much wrought up about it. The mayor Stener will tell you that, if you ask him.” and the other city officials know of it now, and they may
- •It was decided to appoint a subcommittee “to investigate”
- •Impression that Cowperwood had desperately misused the City Treasurer.
- •It. We wouldn’t dare. We have men and women who have
- •Vest off, was listening to Aileen’s account of her troubles.
- •Vously.
- •Ing wits told her what to do.
- •Validity. It is more than likely that we owe this spectacle called He came out of the church after a time and returned home.
- •Ibly sad, despairing look.
- •It next. Ye’re young yet. Yer life is before you. I tremble for but Aileen did not see it at all.
- •I have yer best interests at heart. I love ye; but ye must. I’m
- •If you’ll let me. Will you speak to your mother, or shall I?”
- •Ings and communications for the time being, and even go Never! What could he mean by suggesting such a thing?
- •Ity known as hard common sense.
- •It appear that Stener was lying out of the whole cloth about 320
- •I can safely leave you.”
- •Investment into an accidental but none the less criminal mire of failure and exposure and public calumny and what not.
- •Very guarded references to his client, describes him as a nice,
- •Itable these few short years have been to him. Was George w. Stener worth any such sum up to the time he was re-He pointed to Cowperwood.
- •Incident like that? You know there wasn’t. He had never be-
- •Ishing the situation for the sheer sense of superiority it gave
- •If it wasn’t for the girl’s mother and her sister and her broth-
- •View of life, Mr. Butler, and I have another.”
- •I’m thinkin’. Why should ye want to be takin’ her away from
- •Ing was that the financier and the former city treasurer would
- •Ized that it would not be wise politically to stand out against what was wanted. Still, when he and Marvin learned that
- •It looks as if I have to go to jail or leave the country, and I’ve
- •It had been a terrific blow to her. Now to have this thing Steger is coming here in a little while to let me know. I had a suddenly broken to her in this offhand way, even though she 389
- •Ing judges in his favor, and that of the three agreed judges
- •It was that of the two housebreakers whom Cowperwood 405
- •Ing of extenuation in your case.” Judge Payderson paused
- •Into a street-car which ran to within a few blocks of the prison.
- •It, and something to read too. If you’re in business yet, I
- •If he did not get out before then she would be nearing twenty-The next day, however, she wrote him just the same, de-nine and he would be nearing forty. Would he want her then?
- •Insulting to her father, ignoring him on every occasion, refusing as often as possible to eat at the same table, and when 456
- •Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Daniel Drew, James Fish, and others and the Erie Canal, at a greatly reduced cost. It was a vision in the East, and Fair, Crocker, w. R. Hearst, and Collis p.
- •Vigor of body, was a solemn, conservative speculator as to
- •In the great wheat crops of the West, a quiet divorce was It was with this thought that he went to visit Aileen, and granted Mrs. Frank a. Cowperwood in Philadelphia, because to plan for the future.
- •Ics of that?
In the whole thing. Butler could be made official garbage-And since then times had been exceedingly good with Ed-collector. The council could vote an annual appropriation ward Butler.
for this service. Butler could employ more wagons than he He could neither read nor write at first; but now he knew did now—dozens of them, scores. Not only that, but no how, of course. He had learned from association with Mr.
other garbage-collector would be allowed. There were oth-Comiskey that there were other forms of contracting—sewers, but the official contract awarded him would also, offi-ers, water-mains, gas-mains, street-paving, and the like. Who cially, be the end of the life of any and every disturbing rival.
better than Edward Butler to do it? He knew the council-A certain amount of the profitable proceeds would have to men, many of them. Het met them in the back rooms of be set aside to assuage the feelings of those who were not saloons, on Sundays and Saturdays at political picnics, at contractors. Funds would have to be loaned at election time election councils and conferences, for as a beneficiary of the to certain individuals and organizations—but no matter. The city’s largess he was expected to contribute not only money, amount would be small. So Butler and Patrick Gavin but advice. Curiously he had developed a strange political Comiskey, the councilman (the latter silently) entered into wisdom. He knew a successful man or a coming man when 67
The Financier
he saw one. So many of his bookkeepers, superintendents, now fifty-five years of age, worth, say, five hundred thou-time-keepers had graduated into councilmen and state legis-sand dollars, had many political and financial friends. No lators. His nominees—suggested to political conferences—
longer a “rough neck,” but a solid, reddish-faced man, slightly were so often known to make good. First he came to have tanned, with broad shoulders and a solid chest, gray eyes, influence in his councilman’s ward, then in his legislative gray hair, a typically Irish face made wise and calm and un-district, then in the city councils of his party—Whig, of decipherable by much experience. His big hands and feet course—and then he was supposed to have an organization.
indicated a day when he had not worn the best English cloth Mysterious forces worked for him in council. He was suits and tanned leather, but his presence was not in any way awarded significant contracts, and he always bid. The gar-offensive—rather the other way about. Though still possessed bage business was now a thing of the past. His eldest boy, of a brogue, he was soft-spoken, winning, and persuasive.
Owen, was a member of the State legislature and a partner He had been one of the first to become interested in the in his business affairs. His second son, Callum, was a clerk development of the street-car system and had come to the in the city water department and an assistant to his father conclusion, as had Cowperwood and many others, that it also. Aileen, his eldest daughter, fifteen years of age, was still was going to be a great thing. The money returns on the in St. Agatha’s, a convent school in Germantown. Norah, stocks or shares he had been induced to buy had been ample his second daughter and youngest child, thirteen years old, evidence of that, He had dealt through one broker and an-was in attendance at a local private school conducted by a other, having failed to get in on the original corporate orga-Catholic sisterhood. The Butler family had moved away from nizations. He wanted to pick up such stock as he could in South Philadelphia into Girard Avenue, near the twelve hun-one organization and another, for he believed they all had a dreds, where a new and rather interesting social life was be-future, and most of all he wanted to get control of a line or ginning. They were not of it, but Edward Butler, contractor, two. In connection with this idea he was looking for some 68
Dreiser
reliable young man, honest and capable, who would work
“I’m not sure, sir. I’ll find out. He may have gone out.” under his direction and do what he said. Then he learned of In a little while he was asked to come upstairs, where he Cowperwood, and one day sent for him and asked him to found Butler in a somewhat commercial-looking room. It call at his house.
had a desk, an office chair, some leather furnishings, and a Cowperwood responded quickly, for he knew of Butler, bookcase, but no completeness or symmetry as either an of-his rise, his connections, his force. He called at the house as fice or a living room. There were several pictures on the wall—
directed, one cold, crisp February morning. He remembered an impossible oil painting, for one thing, dark and gloomy; the appearance of the street afterward—broad, brick-paved a canal and barge scene in pink and nile green for another; sidewalks, macadamized roadway, powdered over with a light some daguerreotypes of relatives and friends which were not snow and set with young, leafless, scrubby trees and lamp-half bad. Cowperwood noticed one of two girls, one with posts. Butler’s house was not new—he had bought and re-reddish-gold hair, another with what appeared to be silky paired it—but it was not an unsatisfactory specimen of the brown. The beautiful silver effect of the daguerreotype had architecture of the time. It was fifty feet wide, four stories been tinted. They were pretty girls, healthy, smiling, Celtic, tall, of graystone and with four wide, white stone steps lead-their heads close together, their eyes looking straight out at ing up to the door. The window arches, framed in white, you. He admired them casually, and fancied they must be had U-shaped keystones. There were curtains of lace and a Butler’s daughters.
glimpse of red plush through the windows, which gleamed
“Mr. Cowperwood?” inquired Butler, uttering the name warm against the cold and snow outside. A trim Irish maid fully with a peculiar accent on the vowels. (He was a slow-came to the door and he gave her his card and was invited moving man, solemn and deliberate.) Cowperwood noticed into the house.
that his body was hale and strong like seasoned hickory,
“Is Mr. Butler home?”
tanned by wind and rain. The flesh of his cheeks was pulled 69
The Financier
taut and there was nothing soft or flabby about him.
whom I can work. One thing leads to another, you know, in
“I’m that man.”
this world.” And he looked at his visitor non-committally,
“I have a little matter of stocks to talk over with you” (“mat-and yet with a genial show of interest.
ter” almost sounded like “mather”), “and I thought you’d
“Quite so,” replied Cowperwood, with a friendly gleam in better come here rather than that I should come down to return.
your office. We can be more private-like, and, besides, I’m
“Well,” Butler meditated, half to himself, half to not as young as I used to be.” Cowperwood, “there are a number of things that a bright He allowed a semi-twinkle to rest in his eye as he looked young man could do for me in the street if he were so minded.
his visitor over.
I have two bright boys of my own, but I don’t want them to Cowperwood smiled.
become stock-gamblers, and I don’t know that they would
“Well, I hope I can be of service to you,” he said, genially.
or could if I wanted them to. But this isn’t a matter of stock-
“I happen to be interested just at present in pickin’ up gambling. I’m pretty busy as it is, and, as I said awhile ago, certain street-railway stocks on ‘change. I’ll tell you about I’m getting along. I’m not as light on my toes as I once was.
them later. Won’t you have somethin’ to drink? It’s a cold But if I had the right sort of a young man—I’ve been look-morning.”
ing into your record, by the way, never fear—he might handle
“No, thanks; I never drink.”
a number of little things—investments and loans—which
“Never? That’s a hard word when it comes to whisky. Well, might bring us each a little somethin’. Sometimes the young no matter. It’s a good rule. My boys don’t touch anything, men around town ask advice of me in one way and another—
and I’m glad of it. As I say, I’m interested in pickin’ up a few they have a little somethin’ to invest, and so—” stocks on ‘change; but, to tell you the truth, I’m more inter-He paused and looked tantalizingly out of the window, ested in findin’ some clever young felly like yourself through knowing full well Cowperwood was greatly interested, and 70
Dreiser
that this talk of political influence and connections could extend their facilities they would have to see him or his sons, only whet his appetite. Butler wanted him to see clearly that who might be large minority stockholders in these very con-fidelity was the point in this case—fidelity, tact, subtlety, cerns. It was a far-sighted plan, and meant that the lines and concealment.
would eventually drop into his or his sons’ basket.
“Well, if you have been looking into my record,” observed
“I’ll be delighted to work with you, Mr. Butler, in any way Cowperwood, with his own elusive smile, leaving the thought that you may suggest,” observed Cowperwood. “I can’t say suspended.
that I have so much of a business as yet—merely prospects.
Butler felt the force of the temperament and the argument.
But my connections are good. I am now a member of the He liked the young man’s poise and balance. A number of New York and Philadelphia exchanges. Those who have dealt people had spoken of Cowperwood to him. (It was now with me seem to like the results I get.” Cowperwood & Co. The company was fiction purely.) He
“I know a little something about your work already,” reit-asked him something about the street; how the market was erated Butler, wisely.
running; what he knew about street-railways. Finally he out-
“Very well, then; whenever you have a commission you lined his plan of buying all he could of the stock of two can call at my office, or write, or I will call here. I will give given lines—the Ninth and Tenth and the Fifteenth and Six-you my secret operating code, so that anything you say will teenth—without attracting any attention, if possible. It was be strictly confidential.”
to be done slowly, part on ‘change, part from individual hold-
“Well, we’ll not say anything more now. In a few days I’ll ers. He did not tell him that there was a certain amount of have somethin’ for you. When I do, you can draw on my legislative pressure he hoped to bring to bear to get him fran-bank for what you need, up to a certain amount.” He got up chises for extensions in the regions beyond where the lines and looked out into the street, and Cowperwood also arose.
now ended, in order that when the time came for them to
“It’s a fine day now, isn’t it?” 71
The Financier
“It surely is.”
passing thought for the gay spirit of youth that had mani-
“Well, we’ll get to know each other better, I’m sure.” fested itself in this red-cheeked maiden. What a bright, He held out his hand.
healthy, bounding girl! Her voice had the subtle, vigorous
“I hope so.”
ring of fifteen or sixteen. She was all vitality. What a fine Cowperwood went out, Butler accompanying him to the catch for some young fellow some day, and her father would door. As he did so a young girl bounded in from the street, make him rich, no doubt, or help to.
red-cheeked, blue-eyed, wearing a scarlet cape with the peaked hood thrown over her red-gold hair.
“Oh, daddy, I almost knocked you down.” She gave her father, and incidentally Cowperwood, a gleam-ing, radiant, inclusive smile. Her teeth were bright and small, and her lips bud-red.
“You’re home early. I thought you were going to stay all day?”
“I was, but I changed my mind.” She passed on in, swinging her arms.
“Yes, well—” Butler continued, when she had gone. “Then well leave it for a day or two. Good day.”
“Good day.”
Cowperwood, warm with this enhancing of his financial prospects, went down the steps; but incidentally he spared a 72
Dreiser
Chapter XII
Cowperwood to make himself comfortable in one of the large leather chairs before the fire and then proceeded to listen to IT WAS TO EDWARD MALIA BUTLER that Cowperwood turned his recital of what he hoped to accomplish.
now, some nineteen months later when he was thinking of
“Well, now, that isn’t so easy,” he commented at the end.
the influence that might bring him an award of a portion of
“You ought to know more about that than I do. I’m not a the State issue of bonds. Butler could probably be interested financier, as you well know.” And he grinned apologetically.
to take some of them himself, or could help him place some.
“It’s a matter of influence,” went on Cowperwood. “And He had come to like Cowperwood very much and was now favoritism. That I know. Drexel & Company and Cooke & being carried on the latter’s books as a prospective purchaser Company have connections at Harrisburg. They have men of large blocks of stocks. And Cowperwood liked this great of their own looking after their interests. The attorney-gen-solid Irishman. He liked his history. He had met Mrs. But-eral and the State treasurer are hand in glove with them.
ler, a rather fat and phlegmatic Irish woman with a world of Even if I put in a bid, and can demonstrate that I can handle hard sense who cared nothing at all for show and who still the loan, it won’t help me to get it. Other people have done liked to go into the kitchen and superintend the cooking.
that. I have to have friends—influence. You know how it is.” He had met Owen and Callum Butler, the boys, and Aileen
“Them things,” Butler said, “is easy enough if you know and Norah, the girls. Aileen was the one who had bounded the right parties to approach. Now there’s Jimmy Oliver—
up the steps the first day he had called at the Butler house he ought to know something about that.” Jimmy Oliver was several seasons before.
the whilom district attorney serving at this time, and inci-There was a cozy grate-fire burning in Butler’s improvised dentally free adviser to Mr. Butler in many ways. He was private office when Cowperwood called. Spring was coming also, accidentally, a warm personal friend of the State treasuer.
on, but the evenings were cool. The older man invited
“How much of the loan do you want?” 73
The Financier
“Five million.”
ence of Butler, for it was at the latter’s home that the confer-
“Five million!” Butler sat up. “Man, what are you talking ence took place, “this banking crowd is very powerful. You about? That’s a good deal of money. Where are you going to know who they are. They don’t want any interference in this sell all that?”
bond issue business. I was talking to Terrence Relihan, who
“I want to bid for five million,” assuaged Cowperwood, represents them up there”—meaning Harrisburg, the State softly. “I only want one million but I want the prestige of capital—”and he says they won’t stand for it at all. You may putting in a bona fide bid for five million. It will do me good have trouble right here in Philadelphia after you get it—
on the street.”
they’re pretty powerful, you know. Are you sure just where Butler sank back somewhat relieved.
you can place it?”
“Five million! Prestige! You want one million. Well, now,
“Yes, I’m sure,” replied Cowperwood.
that’s different. That’s not such a bad idea. We ought to be
“Well, the best thing in my judgment is not to say any-able to get that.”
thing at all. Just put in your bid. Van Nostrand, with the He rubbed his chin some more and stared into the fire.
governor’s approval, will make the award. We can fix the And Cowperwood felt confident when he left the house governor, I think. After you get it they may talk to you per-that evening that Butler would not fail him but would set sonally, but that’s your business.” the wheels working. Therefore, he was not surprised, and Cowperwood smiled his inscrutable smile. There were so knew exactly what it meant, when a few days later he was many ins and outs to this financial life. It was an endless introduced to City Treasurer Julian Bode, who promised to network of underground holes, along which all sorts of in-introduce him to State Treasurer Van Nostrand and to see fluences were moving. A little wit, a little nimbleness, a little that his claims to consideration were put before the people.
luck-time and opportunity—these sometimes availed. Here
“Of course, you know,” he said to Cowperwood, in the pres-he was, through his ambition to get on, and nothing else, 74
Dreiser
coming into contact with the State treasurer and the gover-His own business, aside from this deal, would yield him ten nor. They were going to consider his case personally, because thousand dollars this year. His street-car investments, aggre-he demanded that it be considered—nothing more. Others gating fifty thousand, were paying six per cent. His wife’s more influential than himself had quite as much right to a property, represented by this house, some government bonds, share, but they didn’t take it. Nerve, ideas, aggressiveness, and some real estate in West Philadelphia amounted to forty how these counted when one had luck!
thousand more. Between them they were rich; but he ex-He went away thinking how surprised Drexel & Co. and pected to be much richer. All he needed now was to keep Cooke & Co. would be to see him appearing in the field as a cool. If he succeeded in this bond-issue matter, he could do competitor. In his home, in a little room on the second floor it again and on a larger scale. There would be more issues.
next his bedroom, which he had fixed up as an office with a He turned out the light after a while and went into his wife’s desk, a safe, and a leather chair, he consulted his resources.
boudoir, where she was sleeping. The nurse and the children There were so many things to think of. He went over again were in a room beyond.
the list of people whom he had seen and whom he could
“Well, Lillian,” he observed, when she awoke and turned count on to subscribe, and in so far as that was concerned—
over toward him, “I think I have that bond matter that I was the award of one million dollars—he was safe. He figured to telling you about arranged at last. I think I’ll get a million of make two per cent. on the total transaction, or twenty thou-it, anyhow. That’ll mean twenty thousand. If I do we’ll build sand dollars. If he did he was going to buy a house out on out on Girard Avenue. That’s going to be the street. The Girard Avenue beyond the Butlers’, or, better yet, buy a piece college is making that neighborhood.” of ground and erect one; mortgaging house and property so
“That’ll be fine, won’t it, Frank!” she observed, and rubbed to do. His father was prospering nicely. He might want to his arm as he sat on the side of the bed.
build a house next to him, and they could live side by side.
Her remark was vaguely speculative.
75
The Financier
“We’ll have to show the Butlers some attention from now dren had made some difference in her looks. She was no on. He’s been very nice to me and he’s going to be useful—
longer as softly pleasing, more angular. Her face was hollow-I can see that. He asked me to bring you over some time. We cheeked, like so many of Rossetti’s and Burne-Jones’s women.
must go. Be nice to his wife. He can do a lot for me if he Her health was really not as good as it had been—the care of wants to. He has two daughters, too. We’ll have to have them two children and a late undiagnosed tendency toward gastri-over here.”
tis having reduced her. In short she was a little run down
“I’ll have them to dinner sometime,” she agreed cheerfully nervously and suffered from fits of depression. Cowperwood and helpfully, “and I’ll stop and take Mrs. Butler driving if had noticed this. He tried to be gentle and considerate, but she’ll go, or she can take me.” he was too much of a utilitarian and practical-minded ob-She had already learned that the Butlers were rather server not to realize that he was likely to have a sickly wife on showy—the younger generation—that they were sensitive his hands later. Sympathy and affection were great things, as to their lineage, and that money in their estimation was but desire and charm must endure or one was compelled to supposed to make up for any deficiency in any other respect.
be sadly conscious of their loss. So often now he saw young
“Butler himself is a very presentable man,” Cowperwood had girls who were quite in his mood, and who were exceedingly once remarked to her, “but Mrs. Butler—well, she’s all right, robust and joyous. It was fine, advisable, practical, to adhere but she’s a little commonplace. She’s a fine woman, though, to the virtues as laid down in the current social lexicon, but I think, good-natured and good-hearted.” He cautioned her if you had a sickly wife— And anyhow, was a man entitled not to overlook Aileen and Norah, because the Butlers, to only one wife? Must he never look at another woman?
mother and father, were very proud of them.
Supposing he found some one? He pondered those things Mrs. Cowperwood at this time was thirty-two years old; between hours of labor, and concluded that it did not make Cowperwood twenty-seven. The birth and care of two chil-so much difference. If a man could, and not be exposed, it 76
Dreiser
was all right. He had to be careful, though. Tonight, as he sat cal ambitions, etc. The big men might constitute a close cor-on the side of his wife’s bed, he was thinking somewhat of poration, which in itself was unfair; but, after all, they were this, for he had seen Aileen Butler again, playing and singing the legitimate sponsors for big money loans of this kind.
at her piano as he passed the parlor door. She was like a The State had to keep on good terms with them, especially bright bird radiating health and enthusiasm—a reminder of in times like these. Seeing that Mr. Cowperwood was so well youth in general.
able to dispose of the million he expected to get, it would be
“It’s a strange world,” he thought; but his thoughts were perfectly all right to award it to him; but Van Nostrand had his own, and he didn’t propose to tell any one about them.
a counter-proposition to make. Would Cowperwood, if the The bond issue, when it came, was a curious compromise; financial crowd now handling the matter so desired, turn for, although it netted him his twenty thousand dollars and over his award to them for a consideration—a sum equal to more and served to introduce him to the financial notice of what he expected to make—in the event the award was made Philadelphia and the State of Pennsylvania, it did not permit to him? Certain financiers desired this. It was dangerous to him to manipulate the subscriptions as he had planned. The oppose them. They were perfectly willing he should put in a State treasurer was seen by him at the office of a local lawyer bid for five million and get the prestige of that; to have him of great repute, where he worked when in the city. He was awarded one million and get the prestige of that was well gracious to Cowperwood, because he had to be. He explained enough also, but they desired to handle the twenty-three to him just how things were regulated at Harrisburg. The million dollars in an unbroken lot. It looked better. He need big financiers were looked to for campaign funds. They were not be advertised as having withdrawn. They would be con-represented by henchmen in the State assembly and senate.
tent to have him achieve the glory of having done what he The governor and the treasurer were foot-free; but there were started out to do. Just the same the example was bad. Others other influences—prestige, friendship, social power, politi-might wish to imitate him. If it were known in the street 77
The Financier
privately that he had been coerced, for a consideration, into private negotiations in which he met the officers of Drexel giving up, others would be deterred from imitating him in
& Co., was paid his twenty thousand dollars and turned his the future. Besides, if he refused, they could cause him share of the award over to them. New faces showed up in his trouble. His loans might be called. Various banks might not office now from time to time—among them that of Van be so friendly in the future. His constituents might be warned Nostrand and one Terrence Relihan, a representative of some against him in one way or another.
other political forces at Harrisburg. He was introduced to Cowperwood saw the point. He acquiesced. It was some-the governor one day at lunch. His name was mentioned in thing to have brought so many high and mighties to their the papers, and his prestige grew rapidly.
knees. So they knew of him! They were quite well aware of Immediately he began working on plans with young him! Well and good. He would take the award and twenty Ellsworth for his new house. He was going to build some-thousand or thereabouts and withdraw. The State treasurer thing exceptional this time, he told Lillian. They were going was delighted. It solved a ticklish proposition for him.
to have to do some entertaining—entertaining on a larger
“I’m glad to have seen you,” he said. “I’m glad we’ve met.
scale than ever. North Front Street was becoming too tame.
I’ll drop in and talk with you some time when I’m down this He put the house up for sale, consulted with his father and way. We’ll have lunch together.” found that he also was willing to move. The son’s prosperity The State treasurer, for some odd reason, felt that Mr.
had redounded to the credit of the father. The directors of Cowperwood was a man who could make him some money.
the bank were becoming much more friendly to the old man.
His eye was so keen; his expression was so alert, and yet so Next year President Kugel was going to retire. Because of his subtle. He told the governor and some other of his associates son’s noted coup, as well as his long service, he was going to about him.
be made president. Frank was a large borrower from his So the award was finally made; Cowperwood, after some father’s bank. By the same token he was a large depositor.
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His connection with Edward Butler was significant. He sent money on a mortgage. He planned at the same time to re-his father’s bank certain accounts which it otherwise could move his office farther south on Third Street and occupy a not have secured. The city treasurer became interested in it, building of his own. He knew where an option was to be and the State treasurer. Cowperwood, Sr., stood to earn had on a twenty-five-foot building, which, though old, could twenty thousand a year as president, and he owed much of it be given a new brownstone front and made very significant.
to his son. The two families were now on the best of terms.
He saw in his mind’s eye a handsome building, fitted with Anna, now twenty-one, and Edward and Joseph frequently an immense plate-glass window; inside his hardwood fix-spent the night at Frank’s house. Lillian called almost daily tures visible; and over the door, or to one side of it, set in at his mother’s. There was much interchange of family gos-bronze letters, Cowperwood & Co. Vaguely but surely he sip, and it was thought well to build side by side. So began to see looming before him, like a fleecy tinted cloud Cowperwood, Sr., bought fifty feet of ground next to his on the horizon, his future fortune. He was to be rich, very, son’s thirty-five, and together they commenced the erection very rich.
of two charming, commodious homes, which were to be connected by a covered passageway, or pergola, which could be inclosed with glass in winter.
The most popular local stone, a green granite was chosen; but Mr. Ellsworth promised to present it in such a way that it would be especially pleasing. Cowperwood, Sr., decided that he could afford to spent seventy-five thousand dollars—
he was now worth two hundred and fifty thousand; and Frank decided that he could risk fifty, seeing that he could raise 79
The Financier
Chapter XIII
no means so wanting in patriotic emotion and sentiment but that he could feel that the Union, as it had now come to DURING ALL THE TIME that Cowperwood had been building be, spreading its great length from the Atlantic to the Pacific himself up thus steadily the great war of the rebellion had and from the snows of Canada to the Gulf, was worth while.
been fought almost to its close. It was now October, 1864.
Since his birth in 1837 he had seen the nation reach that The capture of Mobile and the Battle of the Wilderness were physical growth—barring Alaska—which it now possesses.
fresh memories. Grant was now before Petersburg, and the Not so much earlier than his youth Florida had been added great general of the South, Lee, was making that last bril-to the Union by purchase from Spain; Mexico, after the un-liant and hopeless display of his ability as a strategist and a just war of 1848, had ceded Texas and the territory to the soldier. There had been times—as, for instance, during the West. The boundary disputes between England and the long, dreary period in which the country was waiting for United States in the far Northwest had been finally adjusted.
Vicksburg to fall, for the Army of the Potomac to prove vicTo a man with great social and financial imagination, these torious, when Pennsylvania was invaded by Lee—when stocks facts could not help but be significant; and if they did noth-fell and commercial conditions were very bad generally. In ing more, they gave him a sense of the boundless commer-times like these Cowperwood’s own manipulative ability was cial possibilities which existed potentially in so vast a realm.
taxed to the utmost, and he had to watch every hour to see His was not the order of speculative financial enthusiasm that his fortune was not destroyed by some unexpected and which, in the type known as the “promoter,” sees endless destructive piece of news.
possibilities for gain in every unexplored rivulet and prairie His personal attitude toward the war, however, and aside reach; but the very vastness of the country suggested possi-from his patriotic feeling that the Union ought to be main-bilities which he hoped might remain undisturbed. A terri-tained, was that it was destructive and wasteful. He was by tory covering the length of a whole zone and between two 80
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seas, seemed to him to possess potentialities which it could prevent it. There was mental slavery, the slavery of the weak not retain if the States of the South were lost.
mind and the weak body. He followed the contentions of At the same time, the freedom of the negro was not a sig-such men as Sumner, Garrison, Phillips, and Beecher, with nificant point with him. He had observed that race from his considerable interest; but at no time could he see that the boyhood with considerable interest, and had been struck with problem was a vital one for him. He did not care to be a virtues and defects which seemed inherent and which plainly, soldier or an officer of soldiers; he had no gift for polemics; to him, conditioned their experiences.
his mind was not of the disputatious order—not even in the He was not at all sure, for instance, that the negroes could realm of finance. He was concerned only to see what was of be made into anything much more significant than they were.
