THE AFTER-YEARS
When Daniel Drake's affairs were wound up it was found that with the
sums derived from his life insurance there remained a deficit of a
little over $400,000. In this crisis the old loyal and generous spirit
of Doris returned for perhaps the last time. She wished to take upon
herself the total indebtedness, but Patsie would not listen to this. She
would have preferred perhaps in her devotion to the name of her father
to have shouldered all the responsibility with a certain fierce pride.
In the end the sum was divided. The younger sister left the house of her
mother and went to stay for a short while at Doris's.
It was given out officially that Mrs. Drake's health had been wrecked by
the family catastrophes. She left shortly for Paris, Rome and the
Italian Riviera, where her health speedily improved and she passed the
remainder of her life as an exile with a pronounced aversion to anything
American.
The panic which swept over the country, leveling the poor and rich
alike, gradually subsided into a long period of depression. Fred DeLancy
lost every cent he had and became dependent upon his wife's career. He
dropped completely out of society. A few of his friends saw him at rare
moments, but whenever he could he avoided such encounters, for they
recalled to him the expectations of his earlier days. Fate, which had
played him several rude turns, had however a compensation in store. With
the arrival of the dance craze several years later Mr. and Mrs. Fred
DeLancy, who were of the first to seize its possibilities, became
suddenly the rage of society, and in the letting down of barriers that
followed the frantic rush from boredom among our most conservative sets
the DeLancys regained curiously enough a certain social position.
Adversity had taught him the value of making money. Guided by the hands
of one of those remarkable and adroit personages that instigate and
expand popularity, the press agent, Fernando Wiskin, a genius of
diplomacy, the DeLancy craze overran the country. They had their own
restaurant, with dancing studios attached, and an after midnight dancing
club. They appeared in the movies, made trips to Europe. They set a
dozen fashions, they inspired sculptors, illustrators and caricaturists,
and raised up a host of imitators, some better and some worse. Properly
coached, they received fees for instruction a surgeon might envy, but as
once a gambler always a gambler, what they made miraculously they spent
hugely, and despite all warnings it would surprise no one if with the
turning of the fickle public from one fad to another the DeLancys, after
spending $50,000 a year, would end just as poor as they began.
Roscoe Marsh, hard hit by the panic, after steady reverses consequent
upon a rather visionary adventure into journalism, found himself
compelled to part with his newspaper to a syndicate organized by his
own city editor, a man who had come up from the ranks, who had long
bided his opportunity, a self-made American of the type that looks
complacently upon the arrival in the arena of the sons of great fortunes
with a belief that an equalizing Providence has sent them into the world
to be properly sheared. Marsh, despite these reverses, still retained a
considerable fortune, constantly augmented by a large family of uncles,
aunts and cousins whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to die at
opportune moments. He became interested in many radical movements,
rather from the need of dramatic excitement than love of publicity or
any deep conviction. At the bottom, however, he believed himself the
most sincere man in the world, and for a long time continued to believe
that he had a mission to perform.
George Granning became one of the solid men of the steel trade. Of the
four young men who had met that night on the Astor roof and prophesied
their futures he was the only one to fulfil his program to the minutest
detail. He married, rose to the managership of the Garnett foundries,
left them to become general manager of a subsidiary to the steel
corporation at a salary of which he had never dreamed. He became a close
student of industrial conditions and outside of his business career
found time to serve on many boards of arbitration and industrial
investigation. Though his intellectual growth had been slower than his
more gifted companions he had never relinquished a single fact acquired.
At thirty-five he was constantly broadening, constantly curious for new
interests. He went into politics and became more and more a power in
party councils, and though not aspiring to office himself was speedily
appointed to offices of social research and usefulness.
The panic extended its paralyzing influence over the histories of
industries of the nation. A month after the events recorded in the last
chapter Bojo was still deliberating on his course of action when he
learnt by accident the serious crisis confronting the Crocker Mills.
With the knowledge that his father needed him he hesitated no longer,
and taking the train by impulse one morning arrived as his father was
sitting down to breakfast with the announcement that he had come to
stay.
Before the year was over he had married Patsie, settled down in the
little mill town to face the arduous struggle for the survival of the
fabric which his father had so painfully erected. For three years he
worked without respite, more arduously than he believed it was possible
for any man to work. Due to this devotion the Crocker Mills weathered
the financial depression and emerged triumphantly with added strength as
a leader and model among factory communities of the world. Despite the
sacrifices and extraordinary demands made upon his knowledge and his
youth, he found these years the best in his life, with a realization
that his leadership had its significance in the welfare and growth of
thousands of employees. When, the battle won, he removed with his family
to New York and larger interests, there were times when he confided to
his wife that life seemed to be robbed of half its incentive. In
connection with Granning, to whom he had grown closer in bonds of
friendship, he devoted his time and money more and more to the problems
of Americanizing the great alien industrial populations of this country
with such enthusiasm that he in more than one quarter was suspected of
believing in the most radical socialistic ideas.
THE END