The Titan 15 страница

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" To be sure, " assented McKenty, gaily. " It's a fine house you

have here--beautiful. And your wife is as pretty a woman as I

ever saw, if you'll pardon the familiarity. "

" I have always thought she was rather attractive myself, " replied

Cowperwood, innocently.

Chapter XXII

Street-railways at Last

Among the directors of the North Chicago City company there was

one man, Edwin L. Kaffrath, who was young and of a forward-looking

temperament. His father, a former heavy stockholder of this

company, had recently died and left all his holdings and practically

his directorship to his only son. Young Kaffrath was by no means

a practical street-railway man, though he fancied he could do very

well at it if given a chance. He was the holder of nearly eight

hundred of the five thousand shares of stock; but the rest of it

was so divided that he could only exercise a minor influence.

Nevertheless, from the day of his entrance into the company--which

was months before Cowperwood began seriously to think over the

situation--he had been strong for improvements--extensions, more

franchises, better cars, better horses, stoves in the cars in

winter, and the like, all of which suggestions sounded to his

fellow-directors like mere manifestations of the reckless impetuosity

of youth, and were almost uniformly opposed.

" What's the matter with them cars? " asked Albert Thorsen, one of

the elder directors, at one of the meetings at which Kaffrath was

present and offering his usual protest. " I don't see anything the

matter with 'em. I ride in em. "

Thorsen was a heavy, dusty, tobacco-bestrewn individual of sixty-six,

who was a little dull but genial. He was in the paint business,

and always wore a very light steel-gray suit much crinkled in the

seat and arms.

" Perhaps that's what's the matter with them, Albert, " chirped up

Solon Kaempfaert, one of his cronies on the board.

The sally drew a laugh.

" Oh, I don't know. I see the rest of you on board often enough. "

" Why, I tell you what's the matter with them, " replied Kaffrath.

" They're dirty, and they're flimsy, and the windows rattle so you

can't hear yourself think. The track is no good, and the filthy

straw we keep in them in winter is enough to make a person sick.

We don't keep the track in good repair. I don't wonder people

complain. I'd complain myself. "

" Oh, I don't think things are as bad as all that, " put in Onias

C. Skinner, the president, who had a face which with its very

short side-whiskers was as bland as a Chinese god. He was sixty-eight

years of age. " They're not the best cars in the world, but they're

good cars. They need painting and varnishing pretty badly, some

of them, but outside of that there's many a good year's wear in

them yet. I'd be very glad if we could put in new rolling-stock,

but the item of expense will be considerable. It's these extensions

that we have to keep building and the long hauls for five cents

which eat up the profits. " The so-called " long hauls" were only

two or three miles at the outside, but they seemed long to Mr.

Skinner.

" Well, look at the South Side, " persisted Kaffrath. " I don't know

what you people are thinking of. Here's a cable system introduced

in Philadelphia. There's another in San Francisco. Some one has

invented a car, as I understand it, that's going to run by

electricity, and here we are running cars--barns, I call them--with

straw in them. Good Lord, I should think it was about time that

some of us took a tumble to ourselves! "

" Oh, I don't know, " commented Mr. Skinner. " It seems to me we

have done pretty well by the North Side. We have done a good

deal. "

Directors Solon Kaempfaert, Albert Thorsen, Isaac White, Anthony

Ewer, Arnold C. Benjamin, and Otto Matjes, being solemn gentlemen

all, merely sat and stared.

The vigorous Kaffrath was not to be so easily repressed, however.

He repeated his complaints on other occasions. The fact that

there was also considerable complaint in the newspapers from time

to time in regard to this same North Side service pleased him in

a way. Perhaps this would be the proverbial fire under the terrapin

which would cause it to move along.

By this time, owing to Cowperwood's understanding with McKenty,

all possibility of the North Side company's securing additional

franchises for unoccupied streets, or even the use of the La Salle

Street tunnel, had ended. Kaffrath did not know this. Neither

did the directors or officers of the company, but it was true.

In addition, McKenty, through the aldermen, who were at his beck

and call on the North Side, was beginning to stir up additional

murmurs and complaints in order to discredit the present management.

There was a great to-do in council over a motion on the part of

somebody to compel the North Side company to throw out its old

cars and lay better and heavier tracks. Curiously, this did not

apply so much to the West and South Sides, which were in the same

condition. The rank and file of the city, ignorant of the tricks

which were constantly being employed in politics to effect one end

or another, were greatly cheered by this so-called " public uprising. "

They little knew the pawns they were in the game, or how little

sincerity constituted the primal impulse.

Quite by accident, apparently, one day Addison, thinking of the

different men in the North Side company who might be of service

to Cowperwood, and having finally picked young Kaffrath as the

ideal agent, introduced himself to the latter at the Union League.

" That's a pretty heavy load of expense that's staring you North

and West Side street-railway people in the face, " he took occasion

to observe.

" How's that? " asked Kaffrath, curiously, anxious to hear anything

which concerned the development of the business.

" Well, unless I'm greatly mistaken, you, all of you, are going to

be put to the expense of doing over your lines completely in a

very little while--so I hear--introducing this new motor or cable

system that they are getting on the South Side. " Addison wanted

to convey the impression that the city council or public sentiment

or something was going to force the North Chicago company to indulge

in this great and expensive series of improvements.

Kaffrath pricked up his ears. What was the city Council going to

do? He wanted to know all about it. They discussed the whole

situation--the nature of the cable-conduits, the cost of the

power-houses, the need of new rails, and the necessity of heavier

bridges, or some other means of getting over or under the river.

Addison took very good care to point out that the Chicago City or

South Side Railway was in a much more fortunate position than

either of the other two by reason of its freedom from the

river-crossing problem. Then he again commiserated the North Side

company on its rather difficult position. " Your company will have

a very great deal to do, I fancy, " he reiterated.

Kaffrath was duly impressed and appropriately depressed, for his

eight hundred shares would be depressed in value by the necessity

of heavy expenditures for tunnels and other improvements.

Nevertheless, there was some consolation in the thought that such

betterment, as Addison now described, would in the long run make

the lines more profitable. But in the mean time there might be

rough sailing. The old directors ought to act soon now, he thought.

With the South Side company being done over, they would have to

follow suit. But would they? How could he get them to see that,

even though it were necessary to mortgage the lines for years to

come, it would pay in the long run? He was sick of old, conservative,

cautious methods.

After the lapse of a few weeks Addison, still acting for Cowperwood,

had a second and private conference with Kaffrath. He said, after

exacting a promise of secrecy for the present, that since their

previous conversation he had become aware of new developments.

In the interval he had been visited by several men of long connection

with street-railways in other localities. They had been visiting

various cities, looking for a convenient outlet for their capital,

and had finally picked on Chicago. They had looked over the various

lines here, and had decided that the North Chicago City Railway

was as good a field as any. He then elaborated with exceeding

care the idea which Cowperwood had outlined to him. Kaffrath,

dubious at first, was finally won over. He had too long chafed

under the dusty, poky attitude of the old regime. He did not

know who these new men were, but this scheme was in line with

his own ideas. It would require, as Addison pointed out, the

expenditure of several millions of dollars, and he did not see

how the money could be raised without outside assistance, unless

the lines were heavily mortgaged. If these new men were willing

to pay a high rate for fifty-one per cent. of this stock for

ninety-nine years and would guarantee a satisfactory rate of

interest on all the stock as it stood, besides inaugurating a

forward policy, why not let them? It would be just as good as

mortgaging the soul out of the old property, and the management

was of no value, anyhow. Kaffrath could not see how fortunes

were to be made for these new investors out of subsidiary

construction and equipment companies, in which Cowperwood would

be interested, how by issuing watered stock on the old and new

lines the latter need scarcely lay down a dollar once he had the

necessary opening capital (the " talking capital, " as he was fond

of calling it) guaranteed. Cowperwood and Addison had by now

agreed, if this went through, to organize the Chicago Trust Company

with millions back of it to manipulate all their deals. Kaffrath

only saw a better return on his stock, possibly a chance to get

in on the " ground plan, " as a new phrase expressed it, of the new

company.

" That's what I've been telling these fellows for the past three

years, " he finally exclaimed to Addison, flattered by the latter's

personal attention and awed by his great influence; " but they never

have been willing to listen to me. The way this North Side system

has been managed is a crime. Why, a child could do better than

we have done. They've saved on track and rolling-stock, and lost

on population. People are what we want up there, and there is

only one way that I know of to get them, and that is to give them

decent car service. I'll tell you frankly we've never done it. "

Not long after this Cowperwood had a short talk with Kaffrath, in

which he promised the latter not only six hundred dollars a share

for all the stock he possessed or would part with on lease, but a

bonus of new company stock for his influence. Kaffrath returned

to the North Side jubilant for himself and for his company. He

decided after due thought that a roundabout way would best serve

Cowperwood's ends, a line of subtle suggestion from some seemingly

disinterested party. Consequently he caused William Johnson, the

directing engineer, to approach Albert Thorsen, one of the most

vulnerable of the directors, declaring he had heard privately that

Isaac White, Arnold C. Benjamin, and Otto Matjes, three other

directors and the heaviest owners, had been offered a very remarkable

price for their stock, and that they were going to sell, leaving

the others out in the cold.

Thorsen was beside himself with grief. " When did you hear that? "

he asked.

Johnson told him, but for the time being kept the source of his

information secret. Thorsen at once hurried to his friend, Solon

Kaempfaert, who in turn went to Kaffrath for information.

" I have heard something to that effect, " was Kaffrath's only

comment, " but really I do not know. "

Thereupon Thorsen and Kaempfaert imagined that Kaffrath was in the

conspiracy to sell out and leave them with no particularly valuable

pickings. It was very sad.

Meanwhile, Cowperwood, on the advice of Kaffrath, was approaching

Isaac White, Arnold C. Benjamin, and Otto Matjes direct--talking

with them as if they were the only three he desired to deal with.

A little later Thorsen and Kaempfaert were visited in the same

spirit, and agreed in secret fear to sell out, or rather lease at

the very advantageous terms Cowperwood offered, providing he could

get the others to do likewise. This gave the latter a strong

backing of sentiment on the board. Finally Isaac White stated at

one of the meetings that he had been approached with an interesting

proposition, which he then and there outlined. He was not sure

what to think, he said, but the board might like to consider it.

At once Thorsen and Kaempfaert were convinced that all Johnson had

suggested was true. It was decided to have Cowperwood come and

explain to the full board just what his plan was, and this he did

in a long, bland, smiling talk. It was made plain that the road

would have to be put in shape in the near future, and that this

proposed plan relieved all of them of work, worry, and care.

Moreover, they were guaranteed more interest at once than they had

expected to earn in the next twenty or thirty years. Thereupon

it was agreed that Cowperwood and his plan should be given a trial.

Seeing that if he did not succeed in paying the proposed interest

promptly the property once more became theirs, so they thought,

and that he assumed all obligations--taxes, water rents, old claims,

a few pensions--it appeared in the light of a rather idyllic scheme.

" Well, boys, I think this is a pretty good day's work myself, "

observed Anthony Ewer, laying a friendly hand on the shoulder of

Mr. Albert Thorsen. " I'm sure we can all unite in wishing Mr.

Cowperwood luck with his adventure. " Mr. Ewer's seven hundred and

fifteen shares, worth seventy-one thousand five hundred dollars,

having risen to a valuation of four hundred and twenty-nine thousand

dollars, he was naturally jubilant.

" You're right, " replied Thorsen, who was parting with four hundred

and eighty shares out of a total of seven hundred and ninety, and

seeing them all bounce in value from two hundred to six hundred

dollars. " He's an interesting man. I hope he succeeds. "

Cowperwood, waking the next morning in Aileen's room--he had been

out late the night before with McKenty, Addison, Videra, and

others--turned and, patting her neck where she was dozing, said:

" Well, pet, yesterday afternoon I wound up that North Chicago

Street Railway deal. I'm president of the new North Side company

just as soon as I get my board of directors organized. We're going

to be of some real consequence in this village, after all, in a

year or two. "

He was hoping that this fact, among other things, would end in

mollifying Aileen toward him. She had been so gloomy, remote,

weary these many days--ever since the terrific assault on Rita.

" Yes? " she replied, with a half-hearted smile, rubbing her waking

eyes. She was clad in a foamy nightgown of white and pink. " That's

nice, isn't it? "

Cowperwood brought himself up on one elbow and looked at her,

smoothing her round, bare arms, which he always admired. The

luminous richness of her hair had never lost its charm completely.

" That means that I can do the same thing with the Chicago West

Division Company in a year or so, " he went on. " But there's going

to be a lot of talk about this, I'm afraid, and I don't want that

just now. It will work out all right. I can see Schryhart and

Merrill and some of these other people taking notice pretty soon.

They've missed out on two of the biggest things Chicago ever had

--gas and railways. "

" Oh yes, Frank, I'm glad for you, " commented Aileen, rather drearily,

who, in spite of her sorrow over his defection, was still glad

that he was going on and forward. " You'll always do all right. "

" I wish you wouldn't feel so badly, Aileen, " he said, with a kind

of affectional protest. " Aren't you going to try and be happy

with me? This is as much for you as for me. You will be able to

pay up old scores even better than I will. "

He smiled winningly.

" Yes, " she replied, reproachfully but tenderly at that, a little

sorrowfully, " a lot of good money does me. It was your love I

wanted. "

" But you have that, " he insisted. " I've told you that over and

over. I never ceased to care for you really. You know I didn't. "

" Yes, I know, " she replied, even as he gathered her close in his

arms. " I know how you care. " But that did not prevent her from

responding to him warmly, for back of all her fuming protest was

heartache, the wish to have his love intact, to restore that

pristine affection which she had once assumed would endure forever.

Chapter XXIII

The Power of the Press

The morning papers, in spite of the efforts of Cowperwood and his

friends to keep this transfer secret, shortly thereafter were full

of rumors of a change in " North Chicago. " Frank Algernon Cowperwood,

hitherto unmentioned in connection with Chicago street-railways,

was pointed to as the probable successor to Onias C. Skinner, and

Edwin L. Kaffrath, one of the old directors, as future vice-president.

The men back of the deal were referred to as " in all likelihood

Eastern capitalists. " Cowperwood, as he sat in Aileen's room

examining the various morning papers, saw that before the day was

over he would be sought out for an expression of opinion and further

details. He proposed to ask the newspaper men to wait a few days

until he could talk to the publishers of the papers themselves--win

their confidence--and then announce a general policy; it would be

something that would please the city, and the residents of the

North Side in particular. At the same time he did not care to

promise anything which he could not easily and profitably perform.

He wanted fame and reputation, but he wanted money even more; he

intended to get both.

To one who had been working thus long in the minor realms of

finance, as Cowperwood considered that he had so far been doing,

this sudden upward step into the more conspicuous regions of high

finance and control was an all-inspiring thing. So long had he

been stirring about in a lesser region, paving the way by hours

and hours of private thought and conference and scheming, that now

when he actually had achieved his end he could scarcely believe

for the time being that it was true. Chicago was such a splendid

city. It was growing so fast. Its opportunities were so wonderful.

These men who had thus foolishly parted with an indefinite lease

of their holdings had not really considered what they were doing.

This matter of Chicago street-railways, once he had them well in

hand, could be made to yield such splendid profits! He could

incorporate and overcapitalize. Many subsidiary lines, which

McKenty would secure for him for a song, would be worth millions

in the future, and they should be his entirely; he would not be

indebted to the directors of the old North Chicago company for

any interest on those. By degrees, year by year, as the city grew,

the lines which were still controlled by this old company, but

were practically his, would become a mere item, a central core,

in the so very much larger system of new lines which he would build

up about it. Then the West Side, and even the South Side sections

--but why dream? He might readily become the sole master of

street-railway traffic in Chicago! He might readily become the

most princely financial figure in the city--and one of the few

great financial magnates of the nation.

In any public enterprise of any kind, as he knew, where the suffrages

of the people or the privileges in their possessions are desired,

the newspapers must always be considered. As Cowperwood even now

was casting hungry eyes in the direction of the two tunnels--one

to be held in view of an eventual assumption of the Chicago West

Division Company, the other to be given to the North Chicago Street

Railway, which he had now organized, it was necessary to make

friends with the various publishers. How to go about it?

Recently, because of the influx of a heavy native and foreign-born

population (thousands and thousands of men of all sorts and

conditions looking for the work which the growth of the city seemed

to promise), and because of the dissemination of stirring ideas

through radical individuals of foreign groups concerning anarchism,

socialism, communism, and the like, the civic idea in Chicago had

become most acute. This very May, in which Cowperwood had been

going about attempting to adjust matters in his favor, there had

been a tremendous national flare-up, when in a great public place

on the West Side known as the Haymarket, at one of a number of

labor meetings, dubbed anarchistic because of the principles of

some of the speakers, a bomb had been hurled by some excited

fanatic, which had exploded and maimed or killed a number of

policemen, injuring slightly several others. This had brought to

the fore, once and for all, as by a flash of lightning, the whole

problem of mass against class, and had given it such an airing as

in view of the cheerful, optimistic, almost inconsequential American

mind had not previously been possible. It changed, quite as an

eruption might, the whole face of the commercial landscape. Man

thought thereafter somewhat more accurately of national and civic

things. What was anarchism? What socialism? What rights had the

rank and file, anyhow, in economic and governmental development?

Such were interesting questions, and following the bomb--which

acted as a great stone cast in the water--these ripple-rings of

thought were still widening and emanating until they took in such

supposedly remote and impregnable quarters as editorial offices,

banks and financial institutions generally, and the haunts of

political dignitaries and their jobs.

In the face of this, however, Cowperwood was not disturbed. He

did not believe in either the strength of the masses or their

ultimate rights, though he sympathized with the condition of

individuals, and did believe that men like himself were sent into

the world to better perfect its mechanism and habitable order.

Often now, in these preliminary days, he looked at the large

companies of men with their horses gathered in and about the several

carbarns of the company, and wondered at their state. So many of

them were so dull. They were rather like animals, patient,

inartistic, hopeless. He thought of their shabby homes, their

long hours, their poor pay, and then concluded that if anything

at all could be done for them it would be pay them decent living

wages, which he proposed to do--nothing more. They could not be

expected to understand his dreams or his visions, or to share in

the magnificence and social dominance which he craved. He finally

decided that it would be as well for him to personally visit the

various newspaper publishers and talk the situation over with them.

Addison, when consulted as to this project, was somewhat dubious.

He had small faith in the newspapers.

He had seen them play petty politics, follow up enmities and

personal grudges, and even sell out, in certain cases, for

pathetically small rewards.

" I tell you how it is, Frank, " remarked Addison, on one occasion.

" You will have to do all this business on cotton heels, practically.

You know that old gas crowd are still down on you, in spite of

the fact that you are one of their largest stockholders. Schryhart

isn't at all friendly, and he practically owns the Chronicle.

Ricketts will just about say what he wants him to say. Hyssop,

of the Mail and the Transcript, is an independent man, but he's a

Presbyterian and a cold, self-righteous moralist. Braxton's paper,

the Globe, practically belongs to Merrill, but Braxton's a nice

fellow, at that. Old General MacDonald, of the Inquirer, is old

General MacDonald. It's all according to how he feels when he

gets up in the morning. If he should chance to like your looks

he might support you forever and forever until you crossed his

conscience in some way. He's a fine old walrus. I like him.

Neither Schryhart nor Merrill nor any one else can get anything

out of him unless he wants to give it. He may not live so many

years, however, and I don't trust that son of his. Haguenin, of

the Press, is all right and friendly to you, as I understand.

Other things being equal, I think he'd naturally support you in

anything he thought was fair and reasonable. Well, there you have

them. Get them all on your side if you can. Don't ask for the

LaSalle Street tunnel right away. Let it come as an afterthought

--a great public need. The main thing will be to avoid having the

other companies stirring up a real fight against you. Depend on

it, Schryhart will be thinking pretty hard about this whole business

from now on. As for Merrill--well, if you can show him where he

can get something out of it for his store, I guess he'll be for

you.

It is one of the splendid yet sinister fascinations of life that

there is no tracing to their ultimate sources all the winds of

influence that play upon a given barque--all the breaths of chance

that fill or desert our bellied or our sagging sails. We plan and

plan, but who by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?

Who can overcome or even assist the Providence that shapes our

ends, rough hew them as we may. Cowperwood was now entering upon

a great public career, and the various editors and public personalities

of the city were watching him with interest. Augustus M. Haguenin,

a free agent with his organ, the Press, and yet not free, either,

because he was harnessed to the necessity of making his paper pay,

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