Uncle Peter Inspires His Grandson to Worthy Ambitions
On three successive days the old man held lengthy interviews with
Shepler in the latter's private office. At the close of the third day's
interview, Shepler sent for Relpin, of the brokerage firm of Relpin and
Hendricks. A few days after this Uncle Peter said to Percival one
morning:
"I want to have a talk with you, son."
"All right, Uncle Peter," was the cheerful answer. He suspected the old
man might at last be going to preach a bit, since for a week past he
had been rather less expansive. He resolved to listen with good grace
to any homilies that might issue. He took his suspicion to be confirmed
when Uncle Peter began:
"You folks been cuttin' a pretty wide swath here in New York."
"That's so, Uncle Peter,--wider than we could have cut in Montana
City."
"Been spendin' money purty free for a year."
"Yes; you need money here."
"I reckon you can't say about how much, now?"
"Oh, I shouldn't wonder," Percival answered, going over to the
escritoire, and taking out some folded sheets and several check-books.
"Of course, I haven't it all here, but I have the bulk of it. Let me
figure a little."
He began to work with a pencil on a sheet of paper. He was busy almost
half an hour, while Uncle Peter smoked in silence.
"It struck me the other night we might have been getting a little near
to the limit, so I figured a bit then, too, and I guess this will give
you some idea of it. Of course this isn't all mine; it includes ma's
and Psyche's. Sis has been a mark for every bridge-player between the
Battery and the Bronx, and the way ma has been plunging on her indigent
poor is a caution,--she certainly does hold the large golden medal for
amateur cross-country philanthropy. Now here's a rough expense
account--of course only approximate, except some of the items I
happened to have." Uncle Peter took the statement, and studied it
carefully.
Paid Hightower Hotel................ $ 42,983.75
Keep of horses, and extra horse and carriage
hire....................... 5,628.50
Chartering steam-yacht _Viluca_ three
months.............................. 24,000.00
Expenses running yacht.............. 46,850.28
W. U. Telegraph Company............. 32.65
Incidentals......................... 882,763.90
Total $1,002,259.08
His sharp old eyes ran up and down the column of figures. Something
among the items seemed to annoy him.
"Looking at those 'incidentals'? I took those from the check-books.
They are pretty heavy."
"It's an outrage!" exclaimed the old man, indignantly, "that there
$32.50 to the telegraph company. How's it come you didn't have a
Western Union frank this year? I s'posed you had one. They sent me
mine."
"Oh, well, they didn't send me one, and I didn't bother to ask for it,"
the young man answered in a tone of relief. "Of course the expenses
have been pretty heavy, coming here strangers as we did. Now, another
year--"
"Oh, that ain't anything. Of course you got to spend money. I see one
of them high-toned gents that died the other day said a gentleman
couldn't possibly get along on less'n two thousand dollars a day and
expenses. I'm glad to see you ain't cut under the limit none--you got
right into his class jest like you'd always lived here, didn't you?
But, now, I been kind of lookin' over the ground since I come here, and
it's struck me you ain't been gettin' enough for your money. You've
spent free, but the goods ain't been delivered. I'm talkin' about
yourself. Both your ma and Pishy has got more out of it than you have.
Why, your ma gets her name in the papers as a philanthropist along with
that--how do the papers call her?--'the well-known club woman'--that
Mrs. Helen Wyot Lamson that always has her name spelled out in full?
Your ma is getting public recognition fur her money, and look at Pishy.
What's she gone and done while you been laxin' about? Why, she's got
engaged to a lord, or just as good. Look at the prospects she's got!
She'll enter the aristocracy of England and have a title. But look at
you! Really, son, I'm ashamed of you. People over there'll be sayin'
'Lady What's-her-name? Oh, yes! She _has_ got a brother, but he don't
amount to shucks--he ain't much more'n a three-spot. He can't do
anything but play bank and drink like a fish. He's throwed away his
opportunities'--that's what them dukes and counts will be sayin' about
you behind your back."
"I understood you didn't think much of sis's choice."
"Well, of course, he wouldn't be much in Montana City, but he's all
right in his place, and he seems to be healthy. What knocks _me_ is how
he ever got all them freckles. He never come by 'em honestly, I bet. He
must 'a' got caught in an explosion of freckles sometime. But that
ain't neither here nor there. He has the goods and Pish'll get 'em
delivered. She's got something to show fur her dust. But what _you_ got
to show? Not a blamed thing but a lot of stubs in a check-book, and a
little fat. Now I ain't makin' any kick. I got no right to; but I do
hate to see you leadin' this life of idleness and dissipation when you
might be makin' something of yourself. Your pa was quite a man. He left
his mark out there in that Western country. Now you're here settled in
the East among big people, with a barrel of money and fine chances to
do something, and you're jest layin' down on the family name. You
wouldn't think near so much of your pa if he'd laid down before his
time; and your own children will always have to say 'Poor pa--he had a
good heart, but he never could amount to anything more'n a threespot;
he didn't have any stuff in him,' they'll be sayin'. Now, on the level,
you don't want to go through life bein' just known as a good thing and
easy money, do you?"
"Why, of course not, Uncle Peter; only I had to look around some at
first,--for a year or so."
"Well, if you need to look any more, then your eyes ain't right. That's
my say. I ain't askin' you to go West. I don't expect that!"
Percival brightened.
"But I am tryin' to nag you into doin' something here. People can say
what they want to about you," he continued, stubbornly, as one who
confesses the most arrant bigotry, "but I know you _have_ got some
brains, some ability--I really believe you got a whole lot--and you got
the means to take your place right at the top. You can head 'em all in
this country or any other. Now what you ought to do, you ought to take
your place in the world of finance--put your mind on it night and
day--swing out--get action--and set the ball to rolling. Your pa was a
big man in the West, and there ain't any reason as I can see of why you
can't be just as big a man in proportion here. People can talk all they
want to about your bein' just a dub--I won't believe 'em. And there's
London. You ain't been ambitious enough. Get a down-hill pull on New
York, and then branch out. Be a man of affairs like your pa, and like
that fellow Shepler. Let's _be_ somebody. If Montana City was too small
fur us, that's no reason why New York should be too big."
Percival had walked the floor in deep attention to the old man's words.
"You've got me right, Uncle Peter," he said at last. "And you're right
about what I ought to do. I've often thought I'd go into some of these
big operations here. But for one thing I was afraid of what you'd say.
And then, I didn't know the game very well. But I see I ought to do
something. You're dead right."
"And we need more money, too," urged the old man. "I was reading a
piece the other day about the big fortunes in New York. Why, we ain't
one, two, three, with the dinky little twelve or thirteen millions we
could swing. You don't want to be a piker, do you? If you go in the
game at all, play her open and high. Make 'em take the ceiling off. You
can just as well get into the hundred million class as not, and I know
it. They needn't talk to _me_--I know you _have_ got some brains. If
you was to go in now it would keep you straight and busy, and take you
out of this pin-head class that only spends their pa's money."
"You're all right, Uncle Peter! I certainly did need you to come along
right now and set me straight. You founded the fortune, pa trebled it,
and now I'll get to work and roll it up like a big snowball."
"That's the talk. Get into the hundred million class, and show these
wise folks you got something in you besides hot air, like the sayin'
is. _Then_ they won't always be askin' who your pa was--they'll be
wantin' to know who you are, by Gripes! Then you can have the biggest
steam yacht afloat, two or three of 'em, and the best house in New
York, and palaces over in England; and Pish'll be able to hold up her
head in company over there. You can finance _that_ proposition right up
to the nines."
"By Jove! but you're right. You're a wonder, Uncle Peter. And that
reminds me--"
He stopped in his walk.
"I gave it hardly any thought at the time, but now it looks bigger than
a mountain. I know just the things to start in on systematically. Now
don't breathe a word of this, but there's a big deal on in Consolidated
Copper. I happened on to the fact in a queer way the other night.
There's a broker I've known down-town--fellow by the name of Relpin.
Met him last summer. He does most of Shepler's business; he's supposed
to be closer to Shepler and know more about the inside of his deals
than any man in the Street. Well, I ran across Relpin down in the cafe
the other night and he was wearing one of those gents' nobby
three-button souses. Nothing would do but I should dine with him, so I
did. It was the night you and the folks went to the opera with the
Oldakers. Relpin was full of lovely talk and dark hints about a rise in
copper stock, and another rise in Western Trolley, and a bigger rise
than either of them in Union Cordage. How that fellow can do Shepler's
business and drink the stuff that makes you talk I don't see. Anyway he
said--and you can bet what he says goes--that the Consolidated is going
to control the world's supply of copper inside of three months, and the
stock is bound to kite, and so are these other two stocks; Shepler's
back of all three. The insiders are buying up now, slowly and
cautiously, so as not to start any boom prematurely. Consolidated is no
now, and it'll be up to 150 by April at the latest. The others may go
beyond that. I wasn't looking for the game at the time, so I didn't
give it any thought, but now, you see, there's our chance. We'll plunge
in those three lines before they start to rise, and be in on the ground
floor." "Now don't you be rash! That Shepler's old enough to suck eggs
and hide the shells. I heard a man say the other day copper was none
too good at no."
"Exactly. You can hear anything you're looking to hear, down there. But
I tell you this was straight. Don't you suppose Shepler knows what he's
about?--there's a boy that won't be peddling shoe-laces and gum-drops
off one of these neat little bosom-trays--not for eighty-five or
ninety-thousand years yet--and Relpin, even if he was drunk, knows
Shepler's deals like you know Skiplap. They'll bear the stocks all they
can while they're buying up. I wouldn't be surprised if the next
Consolidated dividend was reduced. That would send her down a few
points, and throw more stock on the market. Meantime, they're quietly
workin' to get control of the European mines--and as to Western Trolley
and Union Cordage--say, Relpin actually got to crying--they're so
good--he had one of those loving ones, the kind where you want to be
good to every one in the world. I'm surprised he didn't get into a
sandwich sign and patrol Broadway, giving those tips to everybody.".
"Course, we're on a proposition now that you know more about it than I
do; you certainly do take right hold at once--that was your pa's way,
too. Daniel J. could look farther ahead in a minute than most men could
in a year. I got to trust you wholly in these matters, and I know I can
do it, too. I got confidence in you, no matter _what_ other people say.
They don't know you like I do. And if there's any other things you know
about fur sure--"
"Well, there's Burman. He's plunging in corn now. His father has staked
him, and he swears he can't lose. He was after me to put aside a
million. Of course if he does win out it would be big money."
"Well, son, I can't advise you none--except I know you have got a head
on you, no matter how people talk. You know about this end of the game,
and I'll have to be led entirely by you. If you think Burman's got a
good proposition, why, there ain't anything like gettin' action all
along the layout, from ace down to seven-spot and back to the king
card."
"That's the talk. I'll see Relpin to-day or to-morrow. I'll bet he
tries to hedge on what he said. But I got him too straight--let a
drunken man alone for telling the truth when he's got it in him. We'll
start in buying at once."
"It does sound good. I must say you take hold of it considerable like
Dan'l J. would 'a' done--and use my money jest like your own. I do want
to see you takin' your place where you belong. This life of idleness
you been leadin'--one continual potlatch the whole time--it wa'n't
doin' you a bit of good."
"We'll get action, don't you worry. Now let's have lunch down-stairs,
and then go for a drive. It's too fine a day to stay in. I'll order the
cart around and show you that blue-ribbon cob I bought at the horse
show. I just want you to see his action. He's a beaut, all right. He's
been worked a half in 1.17, and he can go to his speed in ten lengths,
any time."
In the afternoon they fell into the procession of carriages streaming
toward the park. The day was pleasantly sharp, the clear sunshine
enlivening, and the cob was one with the spirit of the occasion,
alertly active, from his rubber-shod, varnished hoofs to the tips of
his sensitive ears.
"Central Park," said Uncle Peter, "always seems to me just like a tidy
little parlour, livin' around in them hills the way I have."
He watched the glinting of varnished spokes, and listened absently to
the rhythmic "click-clump" of trotting horses, with its accompanying
jingle of silver harness trappings.
"These people must have lots of money," he observed. "But you'll go in
and outdo 'em all."
"That's what! Uncle Peter."
Toward the upper end of the East Drive they passed a victoria in which
were Miss Milbrey and her mother with Rulon Shepler. The men raised
their hats. Miss Milbrey flashed the blue of her eyes to them and
pointed down her chin in the least bit of a bow. Mrs. Milbrey stared.
"Wa'n't that Shepler?"
"Yes, Shepler and the Milbreys. That woman certainly has the haughtiest
lorgnon ever built."
"She didn't speak to us. Is her eyes bad?"
"Yes, ever since that time at Newport. None of them has spoken to me
but the girl--she's engaged to Shepler."
"She's a right nice lookin' little lady. I thought you was kind of
taken there."
"She would have married me for my roll. I got far enough along to tell
that. But that was before Shepler proposed. I'd give long odds she
wouldn't consider me now. I haven't enough for her with him in the
game."
"Well, you go in and make her wish she'd waited for you."
"I'll do that; I'll make Shepler look like a well-to-do business man
from Pontiac, Michigan."
"Is that brother of hers you told me about still makin' up to that
party?"
"Can't say. I suppose he'll be a little more fastidious, as the
brother-in-law of Shepler. In fact I heard that the family had shut
down on any talk of his marrying her."
"Still, she ought to be able to do well here. Any man that would marry
a woman fur money wouldn't object to her. One of these fortune-hunting
Englishmen, now, would snap her up."
"She hasn't quite enough for that. Two millions isn't so much here, you
know, and she must have spent a lot of hers. I hear she has a very
expensive suite back there at the Arlingham, and lives high. I did
hear, too, that she takes a flyer in the Street now and then. She'll be
broke soon if she keeps that up."
"Too bad she ain't got a few more millions," said Uncle Peter,
ruminantly. "Take one of these titled Englishmen looking for an heiress
to keep 'em--she'd make just the kind of a wife he'd ought to get. She
certainly ought to have a few more millions. If she had, now, she might
cure some decent girl of her infatuation. Where'd you say she was
stoppin'?"
"Arlingham--that big private hotel I showed you back there."
Percival confessed to his mother that night that he had wronged Uncle
Peter.
"That old boy is all right yet," he said, with deep conviction. "Don't
make any mistake there. He has bigger ideas than I gave him credit for.
I suggested branching out here in a business way, to-day, and the old
fellow got right in line. If anybody tells you that old Petie Bines
hasn't got the leaves of his little calendar torn off right up to date
you just feel wise inside, and see what odds are posted on it!"