Chapter 6

by Upton Sinclair

　　Lucy's adventure had so taken up the attention of them both thatthey had forgotten all about the matter of the stock. Afterwards,however, Montague mentioned it, and Lucy exclaimed indignantly atthe smallness of the offer.

　　"That is only ten cents on the dollar!" she cried. "You surely wouldnot advise me to sell for that!"

　　"No, I should not," he answered. "I should reject the offer. Itmight be well, however, to set a price for them to consider."

　　They had talked this matter over before, and had agreed upon ahundred and eighty thousand dollars. "I think it will be best tostate that figure," he said, "and give them to understand that it isfinal. I imagine they would expect to bargain, but I am not much ofa hand at that, and would prefer to say what I mean and stick byit."

　　"Very well!" said Lucy, "you use your own judgment."

　　There was a pause; then Montague, seeing the look on Lucy's face,started to his feet. "It won't do you any good to think aboutto-day's mishap," he said. "Let's start over again, and not make anymore mistakes. Come with me this evening. I have some friends whohave been begging me to bring you around ever since you came."

　　"Who are they?" asked Lucy.

　　"General Prentice and his wife. Do you know of them?"

　　"I have heard Mr. Ryder speak of Prentice the banker. Is that theone you mean?"

　　"Yes," said Montague,--"the president of the Trust Company of theRepublic. He was an old comrade of my father's, and they were thefirst people I met here in New York. I have got to know them verywell since. I told them I would bring you up to dinner sometime, andI will telephone them, if you say so. I don't think it's a good ideafor you to sit here by yourself and think about Dan Waterman."

　　"Oh, I don't mind it now," said Lucy. "But I will go with you, ifyou like."

　　* * *

　　They went to the Prentices'. There were the General himself, andMrs. Prentice, and their two daughters, one of whom was a student incollege, and the other a violinist of considerable talent. GeneralPrentice was now over seventy, and his beard was snow-white, but hestill had the erect carriage and the commanding presence of asoldier. Mrs. Prentice Montague had first met one evening when hehad been their guest at the opera, and she had impressed him as alady with a great many diamonds, who talked to him about otherpeople while he was trying to listen to the music. But she was, asLucy phrased it afterwards, "a motherly soul, when one gotunderneath her war-paint." She was always inviting Montague to herhome and introducing him to people whom she thought would be ofassistance to him.

　　Also there came that evening young Harry Curtiss, the General'snephew. Montague had never met him before, but he knew him as ajunior partner in the firm of William E. Davenant, the famouscorporation lawyer--the man whom Montague had found opposed to himin his suit against the Fidelity Insurance Company. Harry Curtiss,whom Montague was to know quite well before long, was a handsomefellow, with frank and winning manners. He had met Alice Montague atan affair a week or so ago, and he sent word that he was coming tosee her.

　　After dinner they sat and smoked, and talked about the condition ofthe market. It was a time of great agitation in Wall Street. Therehad been a violent slump in stocks, and matters seemed to be goingfrom bad to worse.

　　"They say that Wyman has got caught," said Curtiss, repeating one ofthe wild tales of the "Street." "I was talking with one of hisbrokers yesterday."

　　"Wyman is not an easy man to catch," said the General. "His ownbrokers are often the last men to know his real situation. There isgood reason to believe that some of the big insiders are loaded up,for the public is very uneasy, as you know; but with the situationas it is just now in Wall Street, you can't tell anything. The menwho are really on the inside have matters so completely in their ownhands that they are practically omnipotent."

　　"You mean that you think this slump may be the result ofmanipulation?" asked Montague, wonderingly.

　　"Why not?" asked the General.

　　"It seems to be such a widespread movement," said Montague. "Itseems incredible that any one man could cause such an upset."

　　"It is not one man," said the General, "it is a group of men. Idon't say that it's true, mind you. I wouldn't be at liberty to sayit even if I knew it; but there are certain things that I have seen,and I have my suspicions of others. And you must realise that ahalf-dozen men now control about ninety per cent of the banks ofthis city."

　　"Things will get worse before they get any better, I believe," saidCurtiss, after a pause.

　　"Something has got to be done," replied the General. "The bankingsituation in this country at the present moment is simplyunendurable; the legitimate banker is practically driven from thefield by the speculator. A man finds himself in the position wherehe has either to submit to the dictation of such men, or else permithimself to be supplanted. It is a new element that has forced itselfin. Apparently all a man needs in order to start a bank is creditenough to put up a building with marble columns and bronze gates. Icould name you a man who at this moment owns eight banks, and whenhe started in, three years ago, I don't believe he owned a milliondollars."

　　"But how in the world could he manage it?" gasped Montague.

　　"Just as I stated," said the General. "You buy a piece of land, withas big a mortgage as you can get, and you put up a million-dollarbuilding and mortgage that. You start a trust company, and you getout imposing advertisements, and promise high rates of interest, andthe public comes in. Then you hypothecate your stock in companynumber one, and you have your dummy directors lend you more money,and you buy another trust company. They call that pyramiding--youhave heard the term, no doubt, with regard to stocks; it is afascinating game to play with banks, because the more of them youget, the more prominent you become in the newspapers, and the morethe public trusts you."

　　And the General went on to tell of some of the cases of which heknew. There was Stewart, the young Lochinvar out of the West. He hadtried to buy the Trust Company of the Republic long ago, and so theGeneral knew him and his methods. He had fought the Copper Trust toa standstill in Montana; the Trust had bought up the Legislature andboth political machines, but Cummings had appealed to the public ina series of sensational campaigns, and had got his judges intooffice, and in the end the Trust had been forced to buy him out. Andnow he had come to New York to play this new game of bank-gambling,which paid even quicker profits than buying courts.--And then therewas Holt, a sporting character, a vulgar man-about-town, who wasidentified with everything that was low and vile in the city; he,too, had turned his millions into banks.--And there was Cummings,the Ice King, who for years had financed the political machine inthe city, and, by securing a monopoly of the docking-privileges, hadforced all his rivals to the wall. He had set out to monopolise thecoastwise steamship trade of the country, and had bought line afterline of vessels by this same device of "pyramiding"; and now,finding that he needed still more money to buy out his rivals, hehad purchased or started a dozen or so of trust companies and banks.

　　"Anyone ought to realise that such things cannot go onindefinitely," said the General. "I know that the big men realiseit. I was at a directors' meeting the other day, and I heardWaterman remark that it would have to be ended very soon. Anyone whoknows Waterman would not expect to get a second hint."

　　"What could he do?" asked Montague.

　　"Waterman!" exclaimed young Curtiss.

　　"He would find a way," said the General, simply. "That is the onehope that I see in the situation--the power of a conservative manlike him."

　　"You trust him, then?" asked Montague.

　　"Yes," said the General, "I trust him.--One has to trust somebody."

　　"I heard a curious story," put in Harry Curtiss. "My uncle haddinner at the old man's house the other night, and asked him what hethought of the market. 'I can tell you in a sentence,' was theanswer. 'For the first time in my life I don't own a security.'"

　　The General gave an exclamation of surprise. "Did he really saythat?" he asked. "Then one can imagine that things will happenbefore long!"

　　"And one can imagine why the stock market is weak!" added the other,laughing.

　　At that moment the door of the dining-room was opened, and Mrs.Prentice appeared. "Are you men going to talk business all evening?"she asked. "If so, come into the drawing-room, and talk it to us."

　　They arose and followed her, and Montague seated himself upon a sofawith Mrs. Prentice and the younger man.

　　"What were you saying of Dan Waterman?" she asked of the latter.

　　"Oh, it's a long story," said Curtiss. "You ladies don't careanything about Waterman."

　　Montague had been watching Lucy out of the corner of his eye, and hecould not forbear a slight smile.

　　"What a wonderful man he is!" said Mrs. Prentice. "I admire him morethan any man I know of in Wall Street." Then she turned to Montague."Have you met him?"

　　"Yes," said he; and added with a mischievous smile, "I saw himto-day."

　　"I saw him last Sunday night," said Mrs. Prentice, guilelessly. "Itwas at the Church of the Holy Virgin, where he passes thecollection-plate. Isn't it admirable that a man who has as much onhis mind as Mr. Waterman has, should still save time for the affairsof his church?"

　　And Montague looked again at Lucy, and saw that she was biting herlip.