_ 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. _