The Titan | Page 8

highly as
shrewd, concentrated men. Another who interested him was Anson
Merrill, a small, polite, recherche soul, suggesting mansions and
footmen and remote luxury generally, who was pointed out by Addison
as the famous dry-goods prince of that name, quite the leading
merchant, in the retail and wholesale sense, in Chicago.
Still another was a Mr. Rambaud, pioneer railroad man, to whom
Addison, smiling jocosely, observed: "Mr. Cowperwood is on from
Philadelphia, Mr. Rambaud, trying to find out whether he wants to lose
any money out here. Can't you sell him some of that bad land you have
up in the Northwest?"
Rambaud--a spare, pale, black-bearded man of much force and
exactness, dressed, as Cowperwood observed, in much better taste than
some of the others--looked at Cowperwood shrewdly but in a
gentlemanly, retiring way, with a gracious, enigmatic smile. He caught
a glance in return which he could not possibly forget. The eyes of
Cowperwood said more than any words ever could. Instead of jesting
faintly Mr. Rambaud decided to explain some things about the
Northwest. Perhaps this Philadelphian might be interested.
To a man who has gone through a great life struggle in one metropolis
and tested all the phases of human duplicity, decency, sympathy, and
chicanery in the controlling group of men that one invariably finds in
every American city at least, the temperament and significance of
another group in another city is not so much, and yet it is. Long since

Cowperwood had parted company with the idea that humanity at any
angle or under any circumstances, climatic or otherwise, is in any way
different. To him the most noteworthy characteristic of the human race
was that it was strangely chemic, being anything or nothing, as the hour
and the condition afforded. In his leisure moments--those free from
practical calculation, which were not many--he often speculated as to
what life really was. If he had not been a great financier and, above all,
a marvelous organizer he might have become a highly individualistic
philosopher--a calling which, if he had thought anything about it at all
at this time, would have seemed rather trivial. His business as he saw it
was with the material facts of life, or, rather, with those third and fourth
degree theorems and syllogisms which control material things and so
represent wealth. He was here to deal with the great general needs of
the Middle West--to seize upon, if he might, certain well-springs of
wealth and power and rise to recognized authority. In his morning talks
he had learned of the extent and character of the stock-yards'
enterprises, of the great railroad and ship interests, of the tremendous
rising importance of real estate, grain speculation, the hotel business,
the hardware business. He had learned of universal manufacturing
companies--one that made cars, another elevators, another binders,
another windmills, another engines. Apparently, any new industry
seemed to do well in Chicago. In his talk with the one director of the
Board of Trade to whom he had a letter he had learned that few, if any,
local stocks were dealt in on 'change. Wheat, corn, and grains of all
kinds were principally speculated in. The big stocks of the East were
gambled in by way of leased wires on the New York Stock
Exchange--not otherwise.
As he looked at these men, all pleasantly civil, all general in their
remarks, each safely keeping his vast plans under his vest,
Cowperwood wondered how he would fare in this community. There
were such difficult things ahead of him to do. No one of these men, all
of whom were in their commercial-social way agreeable, knew that he
had only recently been in the penitentiary. How much difference would
that make in their attitude? No one of them knew that, although he was
married and had two children, he was planning to divorce his wife and
marry the girl who had appropriated to herself the role which his wife

had once played.
"Are you seriously contemplating looking into the Northwest?" asked
Mr. Rambaud, interestedly, toward the close of the luncheon.
"That is my present plan after I finish here. I thought I'd take a short
run up there."
"Let me put you in touch with an interesting party that is going as far as
Fargo and Duluth. There is a private car leaving Thursday, most of
them citizens of Chicago, but some Easterners. I would be glad to have
you join us. I am going as far as Minneapolis."
Cowperwood thanked him and accepted. A long conversation followed
about the Northwest, its timber, wheat, land sales, cattle, and possible
manufacturing plants.
What Fargo, Minneapolis, and Duluth were to be civically and
financially were the chief topics of conversation. Naturally, Mr.
Rambaud, having under his direction vast railroad lines which
penetrated this region,