________________________________________________
_ Cowperwood, who had rebuffed Schryhart so courteously but firmly,
was to learn that he who takes the sword may well perish by the
sword. His own watchful attorney, on guard at the state capitol,
where certificates of incorporation were issued in the city and
village councils, in the courts and so forth, was not long in
learning that a counter-movement of significance was under way.
Old General Van Sickle was the first to report that something was
in the wind in connection with the North Side company. He came
in late one afternoon, his dusty greatcoat thrown loosely about
his shoulders, his small, soft hat low over his shaggy eyes, and
in response to Cowperwood's "Evening, General, what can I do for
you?" seated himself portentously.
"I think you'll have to prepare for real rough weather in the
future, Captain," he remarked, addressing the financier with a
courtesy title that he had fallen in the habit of using.
"What's the trouble now?" asked Cowperwood.
"No real trouble as yet, but there may be. Some one--I don't
know who--is getting these three old companies together in one.
There's a certificate of incorporation been applied for at Springfield
for the United Gas and Fuel Company of Chicago, and there are some
directors' meetings now going on at the Douglas Trust Company. I
got this from Duniway, who seems to have friends somewhere that
know."
Cowperwood put the ends of his fingers together in his customary
way and began to tap them lightly and rhythmically.
"Let me see--the Douglas Trust Company. Mr. Simms is president
of that. He isn't shrewd enough to organize a thing of that kind.
Who are the incorporators?"
The General produced a list of four names, none of them officers
or directors of the old companies.
"Dummies, every one," said Cowperwood, succinctly. "I think I
know," he said, after a few moments' reflection, "who is behind
it, General; but don't let that worry you. They can't harm us if
they do unite. They're bound to sell out to us or buy us out
eventually."
Still it irritated him to think that Schryhart had succeeded in
persuading the old companies to combine on any basis; he had meant
to have Addison go shortly, posing as an outside party, and propose
this very thing. Schryhart, he was sure, had acted swiftly following
their interview. He hurried to Addison's office in the Lake
National.
"Have you heard the news?" exclaimed that individual, the moment
Cowperwood appeared. "They're planning to combine. It's Schryhart.
I was afraid of that. Simms of the Douglas Trust is going to act
as the fiscal agent. I had the information not ten minutes
ago."
"So did I," replied Cowperwood, calmly. "We should have acted a
little sooner. Still, it isn't our fault exactly. Do you know
the terms of agreement?"
"They're going to pool their stock on a basis of three to one,
with about thirty per cent. of the holding company left for
Schryhart to sell or keep, as he wants to. He guarantees the
interest. We did that for him--drove the game right into his bag."
"Nevertheless," replied Cowperwood, "he still has us to deal with.
I propose now that we go into the city council and ask for a
blanket franchise. It can be had. If we should get it, it will
bring them to their knees. We will really be in a better position
than they are with these smaller companies as feeders. We can
unite with ourselves."
"That will take considerable money, won't it?"
"Not so much. We may never need to lay a pipe or build a plant.
They will offer to sell out, buy, or combine before that. We can
fix the terms. Leave it to me. You don't happen to know by
any chance this Mr. McKenty, who has so much say in local affairs
here--John J. McKenty?"
Cowperwood was referring to a man who was at once gambler, rumored
owner or controller of a series of houses of prostitution, rumored
maker of mayors and aldermen, rumored financial backer of many
saloons and contracting companies--in short, the patron saint of
the political and social underworld of Chicago, and who was naturally
to be reckoned with in matters which related to the city and state
legislative programme.
"I don't," said Addison; "but I can get you a letter. Why?"
"Don't trouble to ask me that now. Get me as strong an introduction
as you can."
"I'll have one for you to-day some time," replied Addison,
efficiently. "I'll send it over to you."
Cowperwood went out while Addison speculated as to this newest
move. Trust Cowperwood to dig a pit into which the enemy might
fall. He marveled sometimes at the man's resourcefulness. He
never quarreled with the directness and incisiveness of Cowperwood's
action.
The man, McKenty, whom Cowperwood had in mind in this rather
disturbing hour, was as interesting and forceful an individual as
one would care to meet anywhere, a typical figure of Chicago and
the West at the time. He was a pleasant, smiling, bland, affable
person, not unlike Cowperwood in magnetism and subtlety, but
different by a degree of animal coarseness (not visible on the
surface) which Cowperwood would scarcely have understood, and in
a kind of temperamental pull drawing to him that vast pathetic
life of the underworld in which his soul found its solution. There
is a kind of nature, not artistic, not spiritual, in no way
emotional, nor yet unduly philosophical, that is nevertheless a
sphered content of life; not crystalline, perhaps, and yet not
utterly dark--an agate temperament, cloudy and strange. As a
three-year-old child McKenty had been brought from Ireland by his
emigrant parents during a period of famine. He had been raised
on the far South Side in a shanty which stood near a maze of
railroad-tracks, and as a naked baby he had crawled on its earthen
floor. His father had been promoted to a section boss after working
for years as a day-laborer on the adjoining railroad, and John,
junior, one of eight other children, had been sent out early to
do many things--to be an errand-boy in a store, a messenger-boy
for a telegraph company, an emergency sweep about a saloon, and
finally a bartender. This last was his true beginning, for he
was discovered by a keen-minded politician and encouraged to run
for the state legislature and to study law. Even as a stripling
what things had he not learned--robbery, ballot-box stuffing, the
sale of votes, the appointive power of leaders, graft, nepotism,
vice exploitation--all the things that go to make up (or did) the
American world of politics and financial and social strife. There
is a strong assumption in the upper walks of life that there is
nothing to be learned at the bottom. If you could have looked
into the capacious but balanced temperament of John J. McKenty you
would have seen a strange wisdom there and stranger memories--whole
worlds of brutalities, tendernesses, errors, immoralities suffered,
endured, even rejoiced in--the hardy, eager life of the animal
that has nothing but its perceptions, instincts, appetites to guide
it. Yet the man had the air and the poise of a gentleman.
To-day, at forty-eight, McKenty was an exceedingly important
personage. His roomy house on the West Side, at Harrison Street
and Ashland Avenue, was visited at sundry times by financiers,
business men, office-holders, priests, saloon-keepers--in short,
the whole range and gamut of active, subtle, political life. From
McKenty they could obtain that counsel, wisdom, surety, solution
which all of them on occasion were anxious to have, and which in
one deft way and another--often by no more than gratitude and an
acknowledgment of his leadership--they were willing to pay for.
To police captains and officers whose places he occasionally saved,
when they should justly have been discharged; to mothers whose
erring boys or girls he took out of prison and sent home again;
to keepers of bawdy houses whom he protected from a too harsh
invasion of the grafting propensities of the local police; to
politicians and saloon-keepers who were in danger of being destroyed
by public upheavals of one kind and another, he seemed, in hours
of stress, when his smooth, genial, almost artistic face beamed on
them, like a heaven-sent son of light, a kind of Western god,
all-powerful, all-merciful, perfect. On the other hand, there
were ingrates, uncompromising or pharasaical religionists and
reformers, plotting, scheming rivals, who found him deadly to
contend with. There were many henchmen--runners from an almost
imperial throne--to do his bidding. He was simple in dress and
taste, married and (apparently) very happy, a professing though
virtually non-practising Catholic, a suave, genial Buddha-like
man, powerful and enigmatic.
When Cowperwood and McKenty first met, it was on a spring evening
at the latter's home. The windows of the large house were pleasantly
open, though screened, and the curtains were blowing faintly in a
light air. Along with a sense of the new green life everywhere
came a breath of stock-yards.
On the presentation of Addison's letter and of another, secured
through Van Sickle from a well-known political judge, Cowperwood
had been invited to call. On his arrival he was offered a drink,
a cigar, introduced to Mrs. McKenty--who, lacking an organized
social life of any kind, was always pleased to meet these celebrities
of the upper world, if only for a moment--and shown eventually
into the library. Mrs. McKenty, as he might have observed if he
had had the eye for it, was plump and fifty, a sort of superannuated
Aileen, but still showing traces of a former hardy beauty, and
concealing pretty well the evidences that she had once been a
prostitute. It so happened that on this particular evening McKenty
was in a most genial frame of mind. There were no immediate
political troubles bothering him just now. It was early in May.
Outside the trees were budding, the sparrows and robins were voicing
their several moods. A delicious haze was in the air, and some
early mosquitoes were reconnoitering the screens which protected
the windows and doors. Cowperwood, in spite of his various troubles,
was in a complacent state of mind himself. He liked life--even
its very difficult complications--perhaps its complications best
of all. Nature was beautiful, tender at times, but difficulties,
plans, plots, schemes to unravel and make smooth--these things
were what made existence worth while.
"Well now, Mr. Cowperwood," McKenty began, when they finally entered
the cool, pleasant library, "what can I do for you?"
"Well, Mr. McKenty," said Cowperwood, choosing his words and
bringing the finest resources of his temperament into play, "it
isn't so much, and yet it is. I want a franchise from the Chicago
city council, and I want you to help me get it if you will. I
know you may say to me why not go to the councilmen direct. I
would do that, except that there are certain other elements
--individuals--who might come to you. It won't offend you, I know,
when I say that I have always understood that you are a sort of
clearing-house for political troubles in Chicago."
Mr. McKenty smiled. "That's flattering," he replied, dryly.
"Now, I am rather new myself to Chicago," went on Cowperwood,
softly. "I have been here only a year or two. I come from
Philadelphia. I have been interested as a fiscal agent and an
investor in several gas companies that have been organized in Lake
View, Hyde Park, and elsewhere outside the city limits, as you may
possibly have seen by the papers lately. I am not their owner,
in the sense that I have provided all or even a good part of the
money invested in them. I am not even their manager, except in a
very general way. I might better be called their promoter and
guardian; but I am that for other people and myself."
Mr. McKenty nodded.
"Now, Mr. McKenty, it was not very long after I started out to get
franchises to do business in Lake View and Hyde Park before I found
myself confronted by the interests which control the three old
city gas companies. They were very much opposed to our entering
the field in Cook County anywhere, as you may imagine, although
we were not really crowding in on their field. Since then they
have fought me with lawsuits, injunctions, and charges of bribery
and conspiracy."
"I know," put in Mr. McKenty. "I have heard something of it."
"Quite so," replied Cowperwood. "Because of their opposition I
made them an offer to combine these three companies and the three
new ones into one, take out a new charter, and give the city a
uniform gas service. They would not do that--largely because I
was an outsider, I think. Since then another person, Mr.
Schryhart"--McKenty nodded--"who has never had anything to do with
the gas business here, has stepped in and offered to combine them.
His plan is to do exactly what I wanted to do; only his further
proposition is, once he has the three old companies united, to
invade this new gas field of ours and hold us up, or force us to
sell by obtaining rival franchises in these outlying places. There
is talk of combining these suburbs with Chicago, as you know, which
would allow these three down-town franchises to become mutually
operative with our own. This makes it essential for us to do one
of several things, as you may see--either to sell out on the best
terms we can now, or to continue the fight at a rather heavy expense
without making any attempt to strike back, or to get into the city
council and ask for a franchise to do business in the down-town
section--a general blanket franchise to sell gas in Chicago alongside
of the old companies--with the sole intention of protecting ourselves,
as one of my officers is fond of saying," added Cowperwood, humorously.
McKenty smiled again. "I see," he said. "Isn't that a rather
large order, though, Mr. Cowperwood, seeking a new franchise? Do
you suppose the general public would agree that the city needs an
extra gas company? It's true the old companies haven't been any
too generous. My own gas isn't of the best." He smiled vaguely,
prepared to listen further.
"Now, Mr. McKenty, I know that you are a practical man," went on
Cowperwood, ignoring this interruption, "and so am I. I am not
coming to you with any vague story concerning my troubles and
expecting you to be interested as a matter of sympathy. I realize
that to go into the city council of Chicago with a legitimate
proposition is one thing. To get it passed and approved by the
city authorities is another. I need advice and assistance, and I
am not begging it. If I could get a general franchise, such as I
have described, it would be worth a very great deal of money to
me. It would help me to close up and realize on these new companies
which are entirely sound and needed. It would help me to prevent
the old companies from eating me up. As a matter of fact, I must
have such a franchise to protect my interests and give me a running
fighting chance. Now, I know that none of us are in politics or
finance for our health. If I could get such a franchise it would
be worth from one-fourth to one-half of all I personally would
make out of it, providing my plan of combining these new companies
with the old ones should go through--say, from three to four hundred
thousand dollars." (Here again Cowperwood was not quite frank, but
safe.) "It is needless to say to you that I can command ample
capital. This franchise would do that. Briefly, I want to know
if you won't give me your political support in this matter and join
in with me on the basis that I propose? I will make it perfectly
clear to you beforehand who my associates are. I will put all the
data and details on the table before you so that you can see for
yourself how things are. If you should find at any time that I
have misrepresented anything you are at full liberty, of course,
to withdraw. As I said before," he concluded, "I am not a beggar.
I am not coming here to conceal any facts or to hide anything which
might deceive you as to the worth of all this to us. I want you
to know the facts. I want you to give me your aid on such terms
as you think are fair and equitable. Really the only trouble with
me in this situation is that I am not a silk stocking. If I were
this gas war would have been adjusted long ago. These gentlemen
who are so willing to reorganize through Mr. Schryhart are largely
opposed to me because I am--comparatively--a stranger in Chicago
and not in their set. If I were"--he moved his hand slightly--"I
don't suppose I would be here this evening asking for your favor,
although that does not say that I am not glad to be here, or that
I would not be glad to work with you in any way that I might.
Circumstances simply have not thrown me across your path before."
As he talked his eye fixed McKenty steadily, almost innocently;
and the latter, following him clearly, felt all the while that he
was listening to a strange, able, dark, and very forceful man.
There was no beating about the bush here, no squeamishness of
spirit, and yet there was subtlety--the kind McKenty liked. While
he was amused by Cowperwood's casual reference to the silk stockings
who were keeping him out, it appealed to him. He caught the point
of view as well as the intention of it. Cowperwood represented a
new and rather pleasing type of financier to him. Evidently, he
was traveling in able company if one could believe the men who had
introduced him so warmly. McKenty, as Cowperwood was well aware,
had personally no interest in the old companies and also--though
this he did not say--no particular sympathy with them. They were
just remote financial corporations to him, paying political tribute
on demand, expecting political favors in return. Every few weeks
now they were in council, asking for one gas-main franchise after
another (special privileges in certain streets), asking for better
(more profitable) light-contracts, asking for dock privileges in
the river, a lower tax rate, and so forth and so on. McKenty did
not pay much attention to these things personally. He had a
subordinate in council, a very powerful henchman by the name of
Patrick Dowling, a meaty, vigorous Irishman and a true watch-dog
of graft for the machine, who worked with the mayor, the city
treasurer, the city tax receiver--in fact, all the officers of the
current administration--and saw that such minor matters were properly
equalized. Mr. McKenty had only met two or three of the officers
of the South Side Gas Company, and that quite casually. He did
not like them very well. The truth was that the old companies were
officered by men who considered politicians of the McKenty and
Dowling stripe as very evil men; if they paid them and did other
such wicked things it was because they were forced to do so.
"Well," McKenty replied, lingering his thin gold watch-chain in a
thoughtful manner, "that's an interesting scheme you have. Of
course the old companies wouldn't like your asking for a rival
franchise, but once you had it they couldn't object very well,
could they?" He smiled. Mr. McKenty spoke with no suggestion of
a brogue. "From one point of view it might be looked upon as bad
business, but not entirely. They would be sure to make a great
cry, though they haven't been any too kind to the public themselves.
But if you offered to combine with them I see no objection. It's
certain to be as good for them in the long run as it is for you.
This merely permits you to make a better bargain."
"Exactly," said Cowperwood.
"And you have the means, you tell me, to lay mains in every part
of the city, and fight with them for business if they won't give
in?"
"I have the means," said Cowperwood, "or if I haven't I can get
them."
Mr. McKenty looked at Mr. Cowperwood very solemnly. There was a
kind of mutual sympathy, understanding, and admiration between the
two men, but it was still heavily veiled by self-interest. To Mr.
McKenty Cowperwood was interesting because he was one of the few
business men he had met who were not ponderous, pharasaical, even
hypocritical when they were dealing with him.
"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do, Mr. Cowperwood," he said,
finally. "I'll take it all under consideration. Let me think it
over until Monday, anyhow. There is more of an excuse now for the
introduction of a general gas ordinance than there would be a
little later--I can see that. Why don't you draw up your proposed
franchise and let me see it? Then we might find out what some of
the other gentlemen of the city council think."
Cowperwood almost smiled at the word "gentlemen."
"I have already done that," he said. "Here it is."
McKenty took it, surprised and yet pleased at this evidence of
business proficiency. He liked a strong manipulator of this kind
--the more since he was not one himself, and most of those that
he did know were thin-blooded and squeamish.
"Let me take this," he said. "I'll see you next Monday again if
you wish. Come Monday."
Cowperwood got up. "I thought I'd come and talk to you direct,
Mr. McKenty," he said, "and now I'm glad that I did. You will
find, if you will take the trouble to look into this matter, that
it is just as I represent it. There is a very great deal of money
here in one way and another, though it will take some little time
to work it out."
Mr. McKenty saw the point. "Yes," he said, sweetly, "to be sure."
They looked into each other's eyes as they shook hands.
"I'm not sure but you haven't hit upon a very good idea here,"
concluded McKenty, sympathetically. "A very good idea, indeed.
Come and see me again next Monday, or about that time, and I'll
let you know what I think. Come any time you have anything else
you want of me. I'll always be glad to see you. It's a fine
night, isn't it?" he added, looking out as they neared the door.
"A nice moon that!" he added. A sickle moon was in the sky. "Good
night." _
Read next: chapter XIII - The Die is Cast
Read previous: chapter XI - The Fruits of Daring
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