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THE TITAN
digging the tunnel was at once begun — fi rst at the east or Franklin
Street end; then, after eight months’ digging, at the west or Canal
Street end. A shaft was actually sunk some thirty feet back of Mr.
Purdy’s building — between it and the river — while that gentleman watched with a quizzical gleam in his eye this defi ant procedure. He was sure that when it came to the necessity of annexing
his property the North and West Chicago Street Railways would be
obliged to pay through the nose.
«Well, I’ll be cussed», he frequently observed to himself, for he
could not see how his exaction of a pound of fl esh was to be evaded,
and yet he felt strangely restless at times. Finally, when it became
absolutely necessary for Cowperwood to secure without further delay this coveted strip, he sent for its occupant, who called in pleasant anticipation of a profi table conversation; this should be worth
a small fortune to him.
«Mr. Purdy», observed Cowperwood, glibly, «you have a piece of
land on the other side of the river that I need. Why don’t you sell it
to me? Can’t we fi x this up now in some amicable way?»
He smiled while Purdy cast shrewd, wolfi sh glances about
the place, wondering how much he could really hope to exact.
The building, with all its interior equipment, land, and all, was
worth in the neighborhood of two hundred thousand dollars.
«Why should I sell? The building is a good building. It’s as useful
to me as it would be to you. I’m making money out of it».
«Quite true», replied Cowperwood, «but I am willing to pay you
a fair price for it. A public utility is involved. This tunnel will be
a good thing for the West Side and any other land you may own
over there. With what I will pay you you can buy more land in
that neighborhood or elsewhere, and make a good thing out of it.
We need to put this tunnel just where it is, or I wouldn’t trouble to
argue with you».
«That’s just it», replied Purdy, fi xedly. «You’ve gone ahead and
dug your tunnel without consulting me, and now you expect me to
261
THEODORE DREISER
get out of the way. Well, I don’t see that I’m called on to get out of
there just to please you».
«But I’ll pay you a fair price».
«How much will you pay me?»
«How much do you want?»
Mr. Purdy scratched a fox-like ear. «One million dollars».
«One million dollars!» exclaimed Cowperwood. «Don’t you
think that’s a little steep, Mr. Purdy?»
«No», replied Purdy, sagely. «It’s not any more than it’s worth».
Cowperwood sighed.
«I’m sorry», he replied, meditatively, «but this is really too much.
Wouldn’t you take three hundred thousand dollars in cash now and
consider this thing closed?»
«One million», replied Purdy, looking sternly at the ceiling.
«Very well, Mr. Purdy», replied Cowperwood. «I’m very sorry. It’s
plain to me that we can’t do business as I had hoped. I’m willing to
pay you a reasonable sum; but what you ask is far too much — preposterous! Don’t you think you’d better reconsider? We might move
the tunnel even yet».
«One million dollars», said Purdy.
«It can’t be done, Mr. Purdy. It isn’t worth it. Why won’t you be
fair? Call it three hundred and twenty-fi ve thousand dollars cash,
and my check to-night».
«I wouldn’t take fi ve or six hundred thousand dollars if you
were to offer it to me, Mr. Cowperwood, to-night or any other time.
I know my rights».
«Very well, then», replied Cowperwood, «that’s all I can say. If you
won’t sell, you won’t sell. Perhaps you’ll change your mind later».
Mr. Purdy went out, and Cowperwood called in his lawyers and
his engineers. One Saturday afternoon, a week or two later, when
the building in question had been vacated for the day, a company of
three hundred laborers, with wagons, picks, shovels, and dynamite
sticks, arrived. By sundown of the next day (which, being Sunday,
was a legal holiday, with no courts open or sitting to issue injunc-
262
THE TITAN
tions) this comely structure, the private property of Mr. Redmond
Purdy, was completely razed and a large excavation substituted in
its stead. The gentleman of the celluloid cuffs and collars, when informed about nine o’clock of this same Sunday morning that his
building had been almost completely removed, was naturally greatly perturbed. A portion of the wall was still standing when he arrived, hot and excited, and the police were appealed to.
But, strange to say, this was of little avail, for they were shown
a writ of injunction issued by the court of highest jurisdiction, presided over by the Hon. Nahum Dickensheets, which restrained all
and sundry from interfering. (Subsequently on demand of another court this remarkable document was discovered to have disappeared; the contention was that it had never really existed or been
produced at all.)
The demolition and digging proceeded. Then began a scurrying of lawyers to the door of one friendly judge after another. There
were apoplectic cheeks, blazing eyes, and gasps for breath while
the enormity of the offense was being noised abroad. Law is law,
however. Procedure is procedure, and no writ of injunction was either issuable or returnable on a legal holiday, when no courts were
sitting. Nevertheless, by three o’clock in the afternoon an obliging
magistrate was found who consented to issue an injunction staying
this terrible crime. By this time, however, the building was gone,
the excavation complete. It remained merely for the West Chicago
Street Railway Company to secure an injunction vacating the fi rst
injunction, praying that its rights, privileges, liberties, etc., be not
interfered with, and so creating a contest which naturally threw
the matter into the State Court of Appeals, where it could safely
lie. For several years there were numberless injunctions, writs of errors, doubts, motions to reconsider, threats to carry the matter from
the state to the federal courts on a matter of constitutional privilege,
and the like. The affair was fi nally settled out of court, for Mr. Purdy by this time was a more sensible man. In the mean time, however,
263
THEODORE DREISER
the newspapers had been given full details of the transaction, and
a storm of words against Cowperwood ensued.
But more disturbing than the Redmond Purdy incident was
the rivalry of a new Chicago street-railway company. It appeared
fi rst as an idea in the brain of one James Furnivale Woolsen, a determined young Westerner from California, and developed by degrees
into consents and petitions from fully two-thirds of the residents of
various streets in the extreme southwest section of the city where it
was proposed the new line should be located. This same James Furnivale Woolsen, being an ambitious person, was not to be so easily
put down. Besides the consent and petitions, which Cowperwood
could not easily get away from him, he had a new form of traction
then being tried out in several minor cities — a form of electric propulsion by means of an overhead wire and a traveling pole, which
was said to be very economical, and to give a service better than
cables and cheaper even than horses.
Cowperwood had heard all about this new electric system some
time before, and had been studying it for several years with the greatest interest, since it promised to revolutionize the whole business of
street-railroading. However, having but so recently completed his
excellent cable system, he did not see that it was advisable to throw
it away. The trolley was as yet too much of a novelty; certainly it
was not advisable to have it introduced into Chicago until he was
ready to introduce it himself — fi rst on his outlying feeder lines, he
thought, then perhaps generally.
But before he could take suitable action against Woolsen, that
engaging young upstart, who was possessed of a high-power imagination and a gift of gab, had allied himself with such interested
investors as Truman Leslie MacDonald, who saw here a heavensent opportunity of mulcting Cowperwood, and Jordan Jules, once
the president of the North Chicago Gas Company, who had lost
money through Cowperwood in the gas war. Two better instruments for goading a man whom they considered an enemy could not
well be imagined — Truman Leslie with his dark, waspish, mistrust-
264
THE TITAN
ful, jealous eyes, and his slim, vital body; and Jordan Jules, short, rotund, sandy, a sickly crop of thin, oily, light hair growing down over
his coat-collar, his forehead and crown glisteningly bald, his eyes
a seeking, searching, revengeful blue. They in turn brought in Samuel Blackman, once president of the South Side Gas Company; Sunderland Sledd, of local railroad management and stock-investment
fame; and Norrie Simms, president of the Douglas Trust Company,
who, however, was little more than a fi scal agent. The general feeling was that Cowperwood’s defensive tactics — which consisted in
having the city council refuse to act — could be easily met.
«Well, I think we can soon fi x that», exclaimed young MacDonald, one morning at a meeting. «We ought to be able to smoke them
out. A little publicity will do it».
He appealed to his father, the editor of the Inquirer , but the latter refused to act for the time being, seeing that his son was interested. MacDonald, enraged at the do-nothing attitude of the council,
invaded that body and demanded of Alderman Dowling, still leader,
why this matter of the Chicago general ordinances was still lying
unconsidered. Mr. Dowling, a large, mushy, placid man with blue
eyes, an iron frame, and a beefy smile, vouchsafed the information
that, although he was chairman of the committee on streets and alleys, he knew nothing about it. «I haven’t been payin’ much attention to things lately», he replied.
Mr. MacDonald went to see the remaining members of this same
committee. They were non-committal. They would have to look into
the matter. Somebody claimed that there was a fl aw in the petitions.
Evidently there was crooked work here somewhere. Cowperwood was to blame, no doubt. MacDonald conferred with Blackman
and Jordan Jules, and it was determined that the council should be
harried into doing its duty. This was a legitimate enterprise. A new
and better system of traction was being kept out of the city. Schryhart, since he was offered an interest, and since there was considerable chance of his being able to dominate the new enterprise, agreed
265
THEODORE DREISER
that the ordinances ought to be acted upon. In consequence there
was a renewed hubbub in the newspapers.
It was pointed out through Schryhart’s Chronicle , through Hyssop’s and Merrill’s papers, and through the Inquirer that such a situation was intolerable. If the dominant party, at the behest of so sinister
an infl uence as Cowperwood, was to tie up all outside traction legislation, there could be but one thing left — an appeal to the voters of
the city to turn the rascals out. No party could survive such a record of
political trickery and fi nancial jugglery. McKenty, Dowling, Cowperwood, and others were characterized as unreasonable obstructionists and debasing infl uences. But Cowperwood merely smiled. These
were the caterwaulings of the enemy. Later, when young MacDonald
threatened to bring legal action to compel the council to do its duty,
Cowperwood and his associates were not so cheerful. A mandamus
proceeding, however futile, would give the newspapers great opportunity for chatter; moreover, a city election was drawing near. However, McKenty and Cowperwood were by no means helpless. They
had offi ces, jobs, funds, a well-organized party system, the saloons,
the dives, and those dark chambers where at late hours ballot-boxes
are incontinently stuffed.
Did Cowperwood share personally in all this? Not at all. Or
McKenty? No. In good tweed and fi ne linen they frequently conferred in the offi ces of the Chicago Trust Company, the president’s
offi ce of the North Chicago Street Railway System, and Mr. Cowperwood’s library. No dark scenes were ever enacted there. But just
the same, when the time came, the Schryhart-Simms-MacDonald editorial combination did not win. Mr. McKenty’s party had the votes.
A number of the most fl agrantly debauched aldermen, it is true,
were defeated; but what is an alderman here and there? The newly
elected ones, even in the face of pre-election promises and vows,
could be easily suborned or convinced. So the anti-Cowperwood element was just where it was before; but the feeling against him was
much stronger, and considerable sentiment generated in the public at large that there was something wrong with the Cowperwood
method of street-railway control.
CHAPTER XXXI
UNTOWARD DISCLOSURES
Coincident with these public disturbances and of subsequent
hearing upon them was the discovery by Editor Haguenin of Cowperwood’s relationship with Cecily. It came about not through Aileen, who was no longer willing to fi ght Cowperwood in this matter,
but through Haguenin’s lady society editor, who, hearing rumors in
the social world, springing from heaven knows where, and being
beholden to Haguenin for many favors, had carried the matter to
him in a very direct way. Haguenin, a man of insuffi cient worldliness in spite of his journalistic profession, scarcely believed it. Cowperwood was so suave, so commercial. He had heard many things
concerning him — his past — but Cowperwood’s present state in
Chicago was such, it seemed to him, as to preclude petty affairs of
this kind. Still, the name of his daughter being involved, he took
the matter up with Cecily, who under pressure confessed. She made
the usual plea that she was of age, and that she wished to live her
own life — logic which she had gathered largely from Cowperwood’s attitude. Haguenin did nothing about it at fi rst, thinking to
send Cecily off to an aunt in Nebraska; but, fi nding her intractable,
and fearing some counter-advice or reprisal on the part of Cowperwood, who, by the way, had indorsed paper to the extent of one hundred thousand dollars for him, he decided to discuss matters fi rst.
It meant a cessation of relations and some inconvenient fi nancial
readjustments; but it had to be. He was just on the point of calling on
Cowperwood when the latter, unaware as yet of the latest develop-
267
THEODORE DREISER
ment in regard to Cecily, and having some variation of his council
programme to discuss with Haguenin, asked him over the ’phone to
lunch. Haguenin was much surprised, but in a way relieved. «I am
busy», he said, very heavily, «but cannot you come to the offi ce some
time to-day? There is something I would like to see you about».
Cowperwood, imagining that there was some editorial or local
political development on foot which might be of interest to him,
made an appointment for shortly after four. He drove to the publisher’s offi ce in the Press Building, and was greeted by a grave and
almost despondent man.
«Mr. Cowperwood», began Haguenin, when the fi nancier entered, smart and trig, his usual air of genial suffi ciency written all
over him, «I have known you now for something like fourteen years,
and during this time I have shown you nothing but courtesy and
good will. It is true that quite recently you have done me various
fi nancial favors, but that was more due, I thought, to the sincere
friendship you bore me than to anything else. Quite accidentally
I have learned of the relationship that exists between you and my
daughter. I have recently spoken to her, and she admitted all that
I need to know. Common decency, it seems to me, might have suggested to you that you leave my child out of the list of women you
have degraded. Since it has not, I merely wish to say to you» — and
Mr. Haguenin’s face was very tense and white —»that the relationship between you and me is ended. The one hundred thousand
dollars you have indorsed for me will be arranged for otherwise as
soon as possible, and I hope you will return to me the stock of this
paper that you hold as collateral. Another type of man, Mr. Cowperwood, might attempt to make you suffer in another way. I presume
that you have no children of your own, or that if you have you lack
the parental instinct; otherwise you could not have injured me in
this fashion. I believe that you will live to see that this policy does
not pay in Chicago or anywhere else».
Haguenin turned slowly on his heel toward his desk. Cowperwood, who had listened very patiently and very fi xedly, without
268
THE TITAN
a tremor of an eyelash, merely said: «There seems to be no common intellectual ground, Mr. Haguenin, upon which you and I can
meet in this matter. You cannot understand my point of view.
I could not possibly adopt yours. However, as you wish it, the stock
will be returned to you upon receipt of my indorsements. I cannot
say more than that».
He turned and walked unconcernedly out, thinking that it was
too bad to lose the support of so respectable a man, but also that he
could do without it. It was silly the way parents insisted on their
daughters being something that they did not wish to be.
Haguenin stood by his desk after Cowperwood had gone, wondering where he should get one hundred thousand dollars quickly,
and also what he should do to make his daughter see the error of
her ways. It was an astonishing blow he had received, he thought, in
the house of a friend. It occurred to him that Walter Melville Hyssop, who was succeeding mightily with his two papers, might come
to his rescue, and that later he could repay him when the Press was
more prosperous. He went out to his house in a quandary concerning life and chance; while Cowperwood went to the Chicago Trust
Company to confer with Videra, and later out to his own home
to consider how he should equalize this loss. The state and fate of
Cecily Haguenin was not of so much importance as many other
things on his mind at this time.
Far more serious were his cogitations with regard to a liaison he
had recently ventured to establish with Mrs. Hosmer Hand, wife of
an eminent investor and fi nancier. Hand was a solid, phlegmatic,
heavy-thinking person who had some years before lost his fi rst wife,
to whom he had been eminently faithful. After that, for a period of
years he had been a lonely speculator, attending to his vast affairs;
but fi nally because of his enormous wealth, his rather presentable
appearance and social rank, he had been entrapped by much social
attention on the part of a Mrs. Jessie Drew Barrett into marrying her
daughter Caroline, a dashing skip of a girl who was clever, incisive,
calculating, and intensely gay. Since she was socially ambitious, and
269
THEODORE DREISER
without much heart, the thought of Hand’s millions, and how advantageous would be her situation in case he should die, had enabled her to overlook quite easily his heavy, unyouthful appearance
and to see him in the light of a lover. There was criticism, of course.
Hand was considered a victim, and Caroline and her mother designing minxes and cats; but since the wealthy fi nancier was truly ensnared it behooved friends and future satellites to be courteous, and
so they were. The wedding was very well attended. Mrs. Hand began
to give house-parties, teas, musicales, and receptions on a lavish scale.
Cowperwood never met either her or her husband until he was
well launched on his street-car programme. Needing two hundred
and fi fty thousand dollars in a hurry, and fi nding the Chicago Trust
Company, the Lake City Bank, and other institutions heavily loaded
with his securities, he turned in a moment of inspirational thought
to Hand. Cowperwood was always a great borrower. His paper was
out in large quantities. He introduced himself frequently to powerful men in this way, taking long or short loans at high or low
rates of interest, as the case might be, and sometimes fi nding some
one whom he could work with or use. In the case of Hand, though
the latter was ostensibly of the enemies’ camp — the SchryhartUnion-Gas-Douglas-Trust-Company crowd — nevertheless Cowperwood had no hesitation in going to him. He wished to overcome
or forestall any unfavorable impression. Though Hand, a solemn
man of shrewd but honest nature, had heard a number of unfavorable rumors, he was inclined to be fair and think the best. Perhaps
Cowperwood was merely the victim of envious rivals.
When the latter fi rst called on him at his offi ce in the Rookery
Building, he was most cordial. «Come in, Mr. Cowperwood», he said.
«I have heard a great deal about you from one person and another — mostly from the newspapers. What can I do for you?»
Cowperwood exhibited fi ve hundred thousand dollars’
worth of West Chicago Street Railway stock. «I want to know if
I can get two hundred and fi fty thousand dollars on those by tomorrow morning».
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