The Fruits of Daring
Next morning, over the breakfast cups at the Norrie Simmses' and
elsewhere, the import of the Cowperwoods' social efforts was discussed
and the problem of their eventual acceptance or non-acceptance
carefully weighed.
"The trouble with Mrs. Cowperwood," observed Mrs. Simms, "is that she
is too gauche. The whole thing was much too showy. The idea of her
portrait at one end of the gallery and that Gerome at the other! And
then this item in the Press this morning! Why, you'd really think they
were in society." Mrs. Simms was already a little angry at having let
herself be used, as she now fancied she had been, by Taylor Lord and
Kent McKibben, both friends of hers.
"What did you think of the crowd?" asked Norrie, buttering a roll.
"Why, it wasn't representative at all, of course. We were the most
important people they had there, and I'm sorry now that we went. Who
are the Israelses and the Hoecksemas, anyhow? That dreadful woman!"
(She was referring to Mrs. Hoecksema.) "I never listened to duller
remarks in my life."
"I was talking to Haguenin of the Press in the afternoon," observed
Norrie. "He says that Cowperwood failed in Philadelphia before he came
here, and that there were a lot of lawsuits. Did you ever hear that?"
"No. But she says she knows the Drakes and the Walkers there. I've
been intending to ask Nellie about that. I have often wondered why he
should leave Philadelphia if he was getting along so well. People don't
usually do that."
Simms was envious already of the financial showing Cowperwood was
making in Chicago. Besides, Cowperwood's manner bespoke supreme
intelligence and courage, and that is always resented by all save the
suppliants or the triumphant masters of other walks in life. Simms was
really interested at last to know something more about Cowperwood,
something definite.
Before this social situation had time to adjust itself one way or the
other, however, a matter arose which in its way was far more vital,
though Aileen might not have thought so. The feeling between the new
and old gas companies was becoming strained; the stockholders of the
older organization were getting uneasy. They were eager to find out
who was back of these new gas companies which were threatening to poach
on their exclusive preserves. Finally one of the lawyers who had been
employed by the North Chicago Gas Illuminating Company to fight the
machinations of De Soto Sippens and old General Van Sickle, finding
that the Lake View Council had finally granted the franchise to the new
company and that the Appellate Court was about to sustain it, hit upon
the idea of charging conspiracy and wholesale bribery of councilmen.
Considerable evidence had accumulated that Duniway, Jacob Gerecht, and
others on the North Side had been influenced by cash, and to bring
legal action would delay final approval of the franchises and give the
old company time to think what else to do. This North Side company
lawyer, a man by the name of Parsons, had been following up the
movements of Sippens and old General Van Sickle, and had finally
concluded that they were mere dummies and pawns, and that the real
instigator in all this excitement was Cowperwood, or, if not he, then
men whom he represented. Parsons visited Cowperwood's office one day
in order to see him; getting no satisfaction, he proceeded to look up
his record and connections. These various investigations and
counter-schemings came to a head in a court proceeding filed in the
United States Circuit Court late in November, charging Frank Algernon
Cowperwood, Henry De Soto Sippens, Judson P. Van Sickle, and others
with conspiracy; this again was followed almost immediately by suits
begun by the West and South Side companies charging the same thing. In
each case Cowperwood's name was mentioned as the secret power behind
the new companies, conspiring to force the old companies to buy him
out. His Philadelphia history was published, but only in part--a
highly modified account he had furnished the newspapers some time
before. Though conspiracy and bribery are ugly words, still lawyers'
charges prove nothing. But a penitentiary record, for whatever reason
served, coupled with previous failure, divorce, and scandal (though the
newspapers made only the most guarded reference to all this), served to
whet public interest and to fix Cowperwood and his wife in the public
eye.
Cowperwood himself was solicited for an interview, but his answer was
that he was merely a financial agent for the three new companies, not
an investor; and that the charges, in so far as he was concerned, were
untrue, mere legal fol-de-rol trumped up to make the situation as
annoying as possible. He threatened to sue for libel. Nevertheless,
although these suits eventually did come to nothing (for he had fixed
it so that he could not be traced save as a financial agent in each
case), yet the charges had been made, and he was now revealed as a
shrewd, manipulative factor, with a record that was certainly
spectacular.
"I see," said Anson Merrill to his wife, one morning at breakfast,
"that this man Cowperwood is beginning to get his name in the papers."
He had the Times on the table before him, and was looking at a headline
which, after the old-fashioned pyramids then in vogue, read:
"Conspiracy charged against various Chicago citizens. Frank Algernon
Cowperwood, Judson P. Van Sickle, Henry De Soto Sippens, and others
named in Circuit Court complaint." It went on to specify other facts.
"I supposed he was just a broker."
"I don't know much about them," replied his wife, "except what Bella
Simms tells me. What does it say?"
He handed her the paper.
"I have always thought they were merely climbers," continued Mrs.
Merrill. "From what I hear she is impossible. I never saw her."
"He begins well for a Philadelphian," smiled Merrill. "I've seen him
at the Calumet. He looks like a very shrewd man to me. He's going
about his work in a brisk spirit, anyhow."
Similarly Mr. Norman Schryhart, a man who up to this time had taken no
thought of Cowperwood, although he had noted his appearance about the
halls of the Calumet and Union League Clubs, began to ask seriously who
he was. Schryhart, a man of great physical and mental vigor, six feet
tall, hale and stolid as an ox, a very different type of man from Anson
Merrill, met Addison one day at the Calumet Club shortly after the
newspaper talk began. Sinking into a great leather divan beside him,
he observed:
"Who is this man Cowperwood whose name is in the papers these days,
Addison? You know: all these people. Didn't you introduce him to me
once?"
"I surely did," replied Addison, cheerfully, who, in spite of the
attacks on Cowperwood, was rather pleased than otherwise. It was quite
plain from the concurrent excitement that attended all this struggle,
that Cowperwood must be managing things rather adroitly, and, best of
all, he was keeping his backers' names from view. "He's a Philadelphian
by birth. He came out here several years ago, and went into the grain
and commission business. He's a banker now. A rather shrewd man, I
should say. He has a lot of money."
"Is it true, as the papers say, that he failed for a million in
Philadelphia in 1871?"
"In so far as I know, it is."
"Well, was he in the penitentiary down there?"
"I think so--yes. I believe it was for nothing really criminal,
though. There appears to have been some political-financial mix-up,
from all I can learn."
"And is he only forty, as the papers say?"
"About that, I should judge. Why?"
"Oh, this scheme of his looks rather pretentious to me--holding up the
old gas companies here. Do you suppose he'll manage to do it?"
"I don't know that. All I know is what I have read in the papers,"
replied Addison, cautiously. As a matter of fact, he did not care to
talk about this business at all. Cowperwood was busy at this very
time, through an agent, attempting to effect a compromise and union of
all interests concerned. It was not going very well.
"Humph!" commented Schryhart. He was wondering why men like himself,
Merrill, Arneel, and others had not worked into this field long ago or
bought out the old companies. He went away interested, and a day or
two later--even the next morning--had formulated a scheme. Not unlike
Cowperwood, he was a shrewd, hard, cold man. He believed in Chicago
implicitly and in all that related to its future. This gas situation,
now that Cowperwood had seen the point, was very clear to him. Even
yet it might not be impossible for a third party to step in and by
intricate manipulation secure the much coveted rewards. Perhaps
Cowperwood himself could be taken over--who could tell?
Mr. Schryhart, being a very dominating type of person, did not believe
in minor partnerships or investments. If he went into a thing of this
kind it was his preference to rule. He decided to invite Cowperwood to
visit the Schryhart office and talk matters over. Accordingly, he had
his secretary pen a note, which in rather lofty phrases invited
Cowperwood to call "on a matter of importance."
Now just at this time, it so chanced, Cowperwood was feeling rather
secure as to his place in the Chicago financial world, although he was
still smarting from the bitterness of the aspersions recently cast upon
him from various quarters. Under such circumstances it was his
temperament to evince a rugged contempt for humanity, rich and poor
alike. He was well aware that Schryhart, although introduced, had
never previously troubled to notice him.
"Mr. Cowperwood begs me to say," wrote Miss Antoinette Nowak, at his
dictation, "that he finds himself very much pressed for time at
present, but he would be glad to see Mr. Schryhart at his office at any
time."
This irritated the dominating, self-sufficient Schryhart a little, but
nevertheless he was satisfied that a conference could do no harm in
this instance--was advisable, in fact. So one Wednesday afternoon he
journeyed to the office of Cowperwood, and was most hospitably received.
"How do you do, Mr. Schryhart," observed Cowperwood, cordially,
extending his hand. "I'm glad to see you again. I believe we met once
before several years ago."
"I think so myself," replied Mr. Schryhart, who was broad-shouldered,
square-headed, black-eyed, and with a short black mustache gracing a
firm upper lip. He had hard, dark, piercing eyes. "I see by the
papers, if they can be trusted," he said, coming direct to the point,
"that you are interesting yourself in local gas. Is that true?"
"I'm afraid the papers cannot be generally relied on," replied
Cowperwood, quite blandly. "Would you mind telling me what makes you
interested to know whether I am or not?"
"Well, to tell the truth," replied Schryhart, staring at the financier,
"I am interested in this local gas situation myself. It offers a rather
profitable field for investment, and several members of the old
companies have come to me recently to ask me to help them combine."
(This was not true at all.) "I have been wondering what chance you
thought you had of winning along the lines you are now taking."
Cowperwood smiled. "I hardly care to discuss that," he said, "unless I
know much more of your motives and connections than I do at present.
Do I understand that you have really been appealed to by stockholders
of the old companies to come in and help adjust this matter?"
"Exactly," said Schryhart.
"And you think you can get them to combine? On what basis?"
"Oh, I should say it would be a simple matter to give each of them two
or three shares of a new company for one in each of the old. We could
then elect one set of officers, have one set of offices, stop all these
suits, and leave everybody happy."
He said this in an easy, patronizing way, as though Cowperwood had not
really thought it all out years before. It amazed the latter no little
to see his own scheme patronizingly brought back to him, and that, too,
by a very powerful man locally--one who thus far had chosen to overlook
him utterly.
"On what basis," asked Cowperwood, cautiously, "would you expect these
new companies to come in?"
"On the same basis as the others, if they are not too heavily
capitalized. I haven't thought out all the details. Two or three for
one, according to investment. Of course, the prejudices of these old
companies have to be considered."
Cowperwood meditated. Should or should he not entertain this offer?
Here was a chance to realize quickly by selling out to the old
companies. Only Schryhart, not himself, would be taking the big end in
this manipulative deal. Whereas if he waited--even if Schryhart
managed to combine the three old companies into one--he might be able
to force better terms. He was not sure. Finally he asked, "How much
stock of the new company would be left in your hands--or in the hands
of the organizing group--after each of the old and new companies had
been provided for on this basis?"
"Oh, possibly thirty-five or forty per cent. of the whole," replied
Schryhart, ingratiatingly. "The laborer is worthy of his hire."
"Quite so," replied Cowperwood, smiling, "but, seeing that I am the man
who has been cutting the pole to knock this persimmon it seems to me
that a pretty good share of that should come to me; don't you think so?"
"Just what do you mean?"
"Just what I have said. I personally have organized the new companies
which have made this proposed combination possible. The plan you
propose is nothing more than what I have been proposing for some time.
The officers and directors of the old companies are angry at me merely
because I am supposed to have invaded the fields that belong to them.
Now, if on account of that they are willing to operate through you
rather than through me, it seems to me that I should have a much larger
share in the surplus. My personal interest in these new companies is
not very large. I am really more of a fiscal agent than anything
else." (This was not true, but Cowperwood preferred to have his guest
think so.)
Schryhart smiled. "But, my dear sir," he explained, "you forget that I
will be supplying nearly all the capital to do this."
"You forget," retorted Cowperwood, "that I am not a novice. I will
guarantee to supply all the capital myself, and give you a good bonus
for your services, if you want that. The plants and franchises of the
old and new companies are worth something. You must remember that
Chicago is growing."
"I know that," replied Schryhart, evasively, "but I also know that you
have a long, expensive fight ahead of you. As things are now you
cannot, of yourself, expect to bring these old companies to terms.
They won't work with you, as I understand it. It will require an
outsider like myself--some one of influence, or perhaps, I had better
say, of old standing in Chicago, some one who knows these people--to
bring about this combination. Have you any one, do you think, who can
do it better than I?"
"It is not at all impossible that I will find some one," replied
Cowperwood, quite easily.
"I hardly think so; certainly not as things are now. The old companies
are not disposed to work through you, and they are through me. Don't
you think you had better accept my terms and allow me to go ahead and
close this matter up?"
"Not at all on that basis," replied Cowperwood, quite simply. "We have
invaded the enemies' country too far and done too much. Three for one
or four for one--whatever terms are given the stockholders of the old
companies--is the best I will do about the new shares, and I must have
one-half of whatever is left for myself. At that I will have to divide
with others." (This was not true either.)
"No," replied Schryhart, evasively and opposingly, shaking his square
head. "It can't be done. The risks are too great. I might allow you
one-fourth, possibly--I can't tell yet."
"One-half or nothing," said Cowperwood, definitely.
Schryhart got up. "That's the best you will do, is it?" he inquired.
"The very best."
"I'm afraid then," he said, "we can't come to terms. I'm sorry. You
may find this a rather long and expensive fight."
"I have fully anticipated that," replied the financier.