The designs or suggestions which Eugene offered his prospective employer
for the advertising of the products of M. Sand et Cie and the American
Crystal Sugar Refining Company, were peculiar. As has been indicated,
Eugene had one of those large, effervescent intelligences which when he
was in good physical condition fairly bubbled ideas. His imaginings,
without any effort on his part, naturally took all forms and shapes. The
call of Mr. Summerfield was for street car cards, posters and newspaper
ads of various sizes, and what he wanted Eugene specifically to supply
was not so much the lettering or rather wording of the ads as it was
their artistic form and illustrative point: what one particular
suggestion in the form of a drawing or design could be made in each case
which would arrest public attention. Eugene went home and took the sugar
proposition under consideration first. He did not say anything of what
he was really doing to Angela, because he did not want to disappoint
her. He pretended that he was making sketches which he might offer to
some company for a little money and because it amused him. By the light
of his green shaded working lamp at home he sketched designs of hands
holding squares of sugar, either in the fingers or by silver and gold
sugar tongs, urns piled high with crystalline concoctions, a blue and
gold after-dinner cup with one lump of the new form on the side against
a section of snow white table cloth, and things of that character. He
worked rapidly and with ease until he had some thirty-five suggestions
on this one proposition alone, and then he turned his attention to the
matter of the perfumery.
His first thought was that he did not know all the designs of the
company's bottles, but he originated peculiar and delightful shapes of
his own, some of which were afterwards adopted by the company. He
designed boxes and labels to amuse himself and then made various
still-life compositions such as a box, a bottle, a dainty handkerchief
and a small white hand all showing in a row. His mind slipped to the
manufacture of perfume, the growing of flowers, the gathering of
blossoms, the type of girls and men that might possibly be employed, and
then he hurried to the great public library the next day to see if he
could find a book or magazine article which would tell him something
about it. He found this and several articles on sugar growing and
refining which gave him new ideas in that direction. He decided that in
each case he would put a beautifully designed bottle of perfume or a
handsome package of sugar, say, in the upper right or lower left-hand
corner of the design, and then for the rest show some scene in the
process of its manufacture. He began to think of men who could carry out
his ideas brilliantly if they were not already on his staff, letterers,
character artists, men with a keen sense of color combination whom he
might possibly hire cheaply. He thought of Jerry Mathews of the old
Chicago _Globe_ days--where was he now?--and Philip Shotmeyer, who would
be almost ideal to work under his direction, for he was a splendid
letterer, and Henry Hare, still of the _World_, with whom he had
frequently talked on the subject of ads and posters. Then there was
young Morgenbau, who was a most excellent character man, looking to him
for some opportunity, and eight or ten men whose work he had admired in
the magazines--the best known ones. He decided first to see what could
be done with the staff that he had, and then to eliminate and fill in as
rapidly as possible until he had a capable working group. He had already
caught by contact with Summerfield some of that eager personage's
ruthlessness and began to manifest it in his own attitude. He was most
impressionable to things advantageous to himself, and this chance to
rise to a higher level out of the slough of poverty in which he had so
greatly suffered nerved him to the utmost effort. In two days he had a
most impressive mass of material to show his prospective employer, and
he returned to his presence with considerable confidence. The latter
looked over his ideas carefully and then began to warm to his attitude
of mind.
"I should say!" he said generously, "there's some life to this stuff. I
can see you getting the five thousand a year all right if you keep on.
You're a little new, but you've caught the drift." And he sat down to
show him where some improvements from a practical point of view could be
made.
"Now, professor," he said finally when he was satisfied that Eugene was
the man he wanted, "you and I might as well call this a deal. It's
pretty plain to me that you've got something that I want. Some of these
things are fine. I don't know how you're going to make out as a master
of men, but you might as well take that desk out there and we'll begin
right now. I wish you luck. I really do. You're a live wire, I think."
Eugene thrilled with satisfaction. This was the result he wanted. No
half-hearted commendation, but enthusiastic praise. He must have it. He
always felt that he could command it. People naturally ran after him. He
was getting used to it by now--taking it as a matter of course. If he
hadn't broken down, curse the luck, think where he could have been
today. He had lost five years and he was not quite well yet, but thank
God he was getting steadily better, and he would try and hold himself in
check from now on. The world demanded it.
He went out with Summerfield into the art room and was there introduced
by him to the various men employed. "Mr. Davis, Mr. Witla; Mr. Hart,
Mr. Witla; Mr. Clemens, Mr. Witla," so it went, and the staff was soon
aware of who he was. Summerfield then took him into the next room and
introduced him to the various heads of departments, the business manager
who fixed his and his artists' salaries, the cashier who paid him, the
manager of the ad writing department, the manager of the trade aid
department, and the head of the stenographic department, a woman. Eugene
was a little disgusted with what he considered the crassness of these
people. After the quality of the art atmosphere in which he had moved
these people seemed to him somewhat raw and voracious, like fish. They
had no refinement. Their looks and manners were unduly aggressive. He
resented particularly the fact that one canvasser with whom he shook
hands wore a bright red tie and had on yellow shoes. The insistence on
department store models for suits and floor-walker manners pained him.
"To hell with such cattle," he thought, but on the surface he smiled and
shook hands and said how glad he would be to work with them. Finally
when all the introductions were over he went back to his own department,
to take up the work which rushed through here like a living stream,
pellmell. His own staff was, of course, much more agreeable to him.
These artists who worked for him interested him, for they were as he
suspected men very much like himself, in poor health probably, or down
on their luck and compelled to do this. He called for his assistant,
Mr. Davis, whom Summerfield had introduced to him as such, and asked him
to let him see how the work stood.
"Have you a schedule of the work in hand?" he asked easily.
"Yes, sir," said his new attendant.
"Let me see it."
The latter brought what he called his order book and showed him just how
things worked. Each particular piece of work, or order as it was called,
was given a number when it came in, the time of its entry marked on the
slip, the name of the artist to whom it was assigned, the time taken to
execute it, and so forth. If one artist only put two hours on it and
another took it and put four, this was noted. If the first drawing was a
failure and a second begun, the records would show all, the slips and
errors of the office as well as its speed and capacity. Eugene perceived
that he must see to it that his men did not make many mistakes.
After this order book had been carefully inspected by him, he rose and
strolled about among the men to see how they were getting on. He wanted
to familiarize himself at once with the styles and methods of his men.
Some were working on clothing ads, some on designs illustrative of the
beef industry, some on a railroad travel series for the street cars, and
so forth. Eugene bent over each one graciously, for he wanted to make
friends with these people and win their confidence. He knew from
experience how sensitive artists were--how they could be bound by
feelings of good fellowship. He had a soft, easy, smiling manner which
he hoped would smooth his way for him. He leaned over this man's
shoulder and that asking what the point was, how long a piece of work of
that character ought to take, suggesting where a man appeared to be in
doubt what he thought would be advisable. He was not at all certain of
himself--this line of work being so new--but he was hopeful and eager.
It was a fine sensation, this being a boss, if one could only triumph at
it. He hoped to help these men to help themselves; to make them make
good in ways which would bring them and him more money. He wanted more
money--that five thousand, no less.
"I think you have the right idea there," he said to one pale, anaemic
worker who looked as though he might have a lot of talent.
The man, whose name was Dillon, responded to the soothing, caressing
tone of his voice. He liked Eugene's appearance, though he was not at
all disposed to pass favorable judgment as yet. It was already rumored
that he had had an exceptional career as an artist. Summerfield had
attended to that. He looked up and smiled and said, "Do you think so?"
"I certainly do," said Eugene cheerfully. "Try a touch of yellow next to
that blue. See if you don't like that."
The artist did as requested and squinted at it narrowly. "It helps it a
lot, don't it," he observed, as though it were his own.
"It certainly does," said Eugene, "that's a good idea," and somehow
Dillon felt as though he had thought of it. Inside of twenty minutes the
whole staff was agreeing with itself that he was a nice man to all
outward appearances and that he might make good. He appeared to be so
sure. They little knew how perturbed he was inwardly, how anxious he was
to get all the threads of this in his hand and to see that everything
came to an ideal fruition. He dreaded the hour when he might have
something to contend with which was not quite right.
Days passed at this new work and then weeks, and by degrees he grew
moderately sure of himself and comparatively easy in his seat, though he
realized that he had not stepped into a bed of roses. He found this a
most tempestuous office to work in, for Summerfield was, as he expressed
it, "on the job" early and late, and tireless in his insistence and
enthusiasm. He came down from his residence in the upper portion of the
city at eight-fifty in the morning and remained almost invariably until
six-thirty and seven and not infrequently until eight and nine in the
evening. He had the inconsiderate habit of keeping such of his staff as
happened to be working upon the thing in which he was interested until
all hours of the night; sometimes transferring his deliberations to his
own home and that without dinner or the proffer of it to those whom he
made to work. He would talk advertising with one big merchant or another
until it was time to go home, and would then call in the weary members
of his staff before they had time to escape and begin a long and
important discussion of something he wanted done. At times, when
anything went wrong, he would fly into an insane fury, rave and curse
and finally, perhaps, discharge the one who was really not to blame.
There were no end of labored and irritating conferences in which hard
words and sarcastic references would fly about, for he had no respect
for the ability or personality of anyone who worked for him. They were
all more or less machines in his estimation and rather poorly
constructed ones at that. Their ideas were not good enough unless for
the time being they happened to be new, or as in Eugene's case
displaying pronounced talent.
He could not fathom Eugene so readily, for he had never met anyone of
his kind. He was looking closely in his case, as he was in that of all
the others, to see if he could not find some weakness in his ideas. He
had a gleaming, insistent, almost demoniac eye, a habit of chewing
incessantly and even violently the stub end of a cigar, the habit of
twitching, getting up and walking about, stirring things on his desk,
doing anything and everything to give his restless, generative energy a
chance to escape.
"Now, professor," he would say when Eugene came in and seated himself
quietly and unobtrusively in some corner, "we have a very difficult
thing here to solve today. I want to know what you think could be done
in such and such a case," describing a particular condition.
Eugene would brace himself up and begin to consider, but rumination was
not what Summerfield wanted from anyone.
"Well, professor! well! well!" he would exclaim.
Eugene would stir irritably. This was so embarrassing--in a way so
degrading to him.
"Come to life, professor," Summerfield would go on. He seemed to have
concluded long before that the gad was the most effective commercial
weapon.
Eugene would then make some polite suggestion, wishing instead that he
could tell him to go to the devil, but that was not the end of it.
Before all the old writers, canvassers, trade aid men--sometimes one or
two of his own artists who might be working upon the particular task in
question, he would exclaim: "Lord! what a poor suggestion!" or "can't
you do any better than that, professor?" or "good heavens, I have three
or four ideas better than that myself." The best he would ever say in
conference was, "Well, there may be something in that," though
privately, afterwards, he might possibly express great pleasure. Past
achievements counted for nothing; that was so plain. One might bring in
gold and silver all day long; the next day there must be more gold and
silver and in larger quantities. There was no end to the man's appetite.
There was no limit to the speed at which he wished to drive his men.
There was no limit to the venomous commercial idea as an idea.
Summerfield set an example of nagging and irritating insistence, and he
urged all his employees to the same policy. The result was a
bear-garden, a den of prize-fighters, liars, cutthroats and thieves in
which every man was for himself openly and avowedly and the devil take
the hindmost.