________________________________________________
_ The impediments that can arise to baffle a great and swelling
career are strange and various. In some instances all the
cross-waves of life must be cut by the strong swimmer. With
other personalities there is a chance, or force, that happily
allies itself with them; or they quite unconsciously ally themselves
with it, and find that there is a tide that bears them on. Divine
will? Not necessarily. There is no understanding of it. Guardian
spirits? There are many who so believe, to their utter undoing.
(Witness Macbeth). An unconscious drift in the direction of right,
virtue, duty? These are banners of mortal manufacture. Nothing is
proved; all is permitted.
Not long after Cowperwood's accession to control on the West Side,
for instance, a contest took place between his corporation and a
citizen by the name of Redmond Purdy--real-estate investor,
property-trader, and money-lender--which set Chicago by the ears.
The La Salle and Washington Street tunnels were now in active
service, but because of the great north and south area of the West
Side, necessitating the cabling of Van Buren Street and Blue Island
Avenue, there was need of a third tunnel somewhere south of
Washington Street, preferably at Van Buren Street, because the
business heart was thus more directly reached. Cowperwood was
willing and anxious to build this tunnel, though he was puzzled
how to secure from the city a right of way under Van Buren Street,
where a bridge loaded with heavy traffic now swung. There were
all sorts of complications. In the first place, the consent of
the War Department at Washington had to be secured in order to
tunnel under the river at all. Secondly, the excavation, if
directly under the bridge, might prove an intolerable nuisance,
necessitating the closing or removal of the bridge. Owing to the
critical, not to say hostile, attitude of the newspapers which,
since the La Salle and Washington tunnel grants, were following
his every move with a searchlight, Cowperwood decided not to
petition the city for privileges in this case, but instead to buy
the property rights of sufficient land just north of the bridge,
where the digging of the tunnel could proceed without interference.
The piece of land most suitable for this purpose, a lot 150 x 150,
lying a little way from the river-bank, and occupied by a seven-story
loft-building, was owned by the previously mentioned Redmond Purdy,
a long, thin, angular, dirty person, who wore celluloid collars
and cuffs and spoke with a nasal intonation.
Cowperwood had the customary overtures made by seemingly disinterested
parties endeavoring to secure the land at a fair price. But Purdy,
who was as stingy as a miser and as incisive as a rat-trap, had
caught wind of the proposed tunnel scheme. He was all alive for
a fine profit. "No, no, no," he declared, over and over, when
approached by the representatives of Mr. Sylvester Toomey,
Cowperwood's ubiquitous land-agent. "I don't want to sell. Go
away."
Mr. Sylvester Toomey was finally at his wit's end, and complained
to Cowperwood, who at once sent for those noble beacons of dark
and stormy waters, General Van Sickle and the Hon. Kent Barrows
McKibben. The General was now becoming a little dolty, and
Cowperwood was thinking of pensioning him; but McKibben was in his
prime--smug, handsome, deadly, smooth. After talking it over with
Mr. Toomey they returned to Cowperwood's office with a promising
scheme. The Hon. Nahum Dickensheets, one of the judges of the
State Court of Appeals, and a man long since attached, by methods
which need not here be described, to Cowperwood's star, had been
persuaded to bring his extensive technical knowledge to bear on
the emergency. At his suggestion the work of digging the tunnel
was at once begun--first 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 defiant 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," be frequently observed to himself, for he
could not see how his exaction of a pound of flesh 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 profitable 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 fix this up now in some amicable way?"
He smiled while Purdy cast shrewd, wolfish 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, fixedly. "You've gone ahead and
dug your tunnel without consulting me, and now you expect me to
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-five thousand dollars
cash, and my check to-night."
"I wouldn't take five 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
injunctions) 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 first 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
finally settled out of court, for Mr. Purdy by this time was a
more sensible man. In the mean time, however, 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 first 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--first 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 heaven-sent 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, mistrustful, 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 fiscal 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 fix 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 flaw 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
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 influence 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 financial jugglery.
McKenty, Dowling, Cowperwood, and others were characterized as
unreasonable obstructionists and debasing influences. 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 offices, 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 fine linen they frequently conferred in the
offices of the Chicago Trust Company, the president's office 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 flagrantly 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. _
Read next: chapter XXXI - Untoward Disclosures
Read previous: chapter XXIX - A Family Quarrel
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