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- Теодор Драйзер
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Did
you
ever
see
that
old
buzzard
flying
around
if
there
was
n't
something
dead
in
the
woods
?
"
"
He
's
a
slick
one
,
"
remarked
MacDonald
.
"
But
as
for
Cowperwood
,
he
ca
n't
get
away
with
this
sort
of
thing
very
long
.
He
's
going
too
fast
.
He
wants
too
much
.
"
Mr.
Du
Bois
smiled
quite
secretly
.
It
amused
him
to
see
how
Cowperwood
had
brushed
MacDonald
and
his
objections
aside
--
dispensed
for
the
time
being
with
the
services
of
the
Inquirer
.
Du
Bois
confidently
believed
that
if
the
old
General
had
been
at
home
he
would
have
supported
the
financier
.
Within
eight
months
after
seizing
the
La
Salle
Street
tunnel
and
gobbling
four
of
the
principal
down-town
streets
for
his
loop
,
Cowperwood
turned
his
eyes
toward
the
completion
of
the
second
part
of
the
programme
--
that
of
taking
over
the
Washington
Street
tunnel
and
the
Chicago
West
Division
Company
,
which
was
still
drifting
along
under
its
old
horse-car
regime
.
It
was
the
story
of
the
North
Side
company
all
over
again
.
Stockholders
of
a
certain
type
--
the
average
--
are
extremely
nervous
,
sensitive
,
fearsome
.
They
are
like
that
peculiar
bivalve
,
the
clam
,
which
at
the
slightest
sense
of
untoward
pressure
withdraws
into
its
shell
and
ceases
all
activity
.
The
city
tax
department
began
by
instituting
proceedings
against
the
West
Division
company
,
compelling
them
to
disgorge
various
unpaid
street-car
taxes
which
had
hitherto
been
conveniently
neglected
.
The
city
highway
department
was
constantly
jumping
on
them
for
neglect
of
street
repairs
.
The
city
water
department
,
by
some
hocus-pocus
,
made
it
its
business
to
discover
that
they
had
been
stealing
water
.
On
the
other
hand
were
the
smiling
representatives
of
Cowperwood
,
Kaifrath
,
Addison
,
Videra
,
and
others
,
approaching
one
director
or
stockholder
after
another
with
glistening
accounts
of
what
a
splendid
day
would
set
in
for
the
Chicago
West
Division
Company
if
only
it
would
lease
fifty-one
per
cent
.
of
its
holdings
--
fifty-one
per
cent
.
of
twelve
hundred
and
fifty
shares
,
par
value
two
hundred
dollars
--
for
the
fascinating
sum
of
six
hundred
dollars
per
share
,
and
thirty
per
cent
.
interest
on
all
stock
not
assumed
.
Who
could
resist
?
Starve
and
beat
a
dog
on
the
one
hand
;
wheedle
,
pet
,
and
hold
meat
in
front
of
it
on
the
other
,
and
it
can
soon
be
brought
to
perform
.
Cowperwood
knew
this
.
His
emissaries
for
good
and
evil
were
tireless
.
In
the
end
--
and
it
was
not
long
in
coming
--
the
directors
and
chief
stockholders
of
the
Chicago
West
Division
Company
succumbed
;
and
then
,
ho
!
the
sudden
leasing
by
the
Chicago
West
Division
Company
of
all
its
property
--
to
the
North
Chicago
Street
Railway
Company
,
lessee
in
turn
of
the
Chicago
City
Passenger
Railway
,
a
line
which
Cowperwood
had
organized
to
take
over
the
Washington
Street
tunnel
.
How
had
he
accomplished
it
?
The
question
was
on
the
tip
of
every
financial
tongue
.
Who
were
the
men
or
the
organization
providing
the
enormous
sums
necessary
to
pay
six
hundred
dollars
per
share
for
six
hundred
and
fifty
shares
of
the
twelve
hundred
and
fifty
belonging
to
the
old
West
Division
company
,
and
thirty
per
cent
.
per
year
on
all
the
remainder
?
Where
was
the
money
coming
from
to
cable
all
these
lines
?
It
was
simple
enough
if
they
had
only
thought
.
Cowperwood
was
merely
capitalizing
the
future
.
Before
the
newspapers
or
the
public
could
suitably
protest
,
crowds
of
men
were
at
work
day
and
night
in
the
business
heart
of
the
city
,
their
flaring
torches
and
resounding
hammers
making
a
fitful
bedlamic
world
of
that
region
;
they
were
laying
the
first
great
cable
loop
and
repairing
the
La
Salle
Street
tunnel
.
It
was
the
same
on
the
North
and
West
Sides
,
where
concrete
conduits
were
being
laid
,
new
grip
and
trailer
cars
built
,
new
car-barns
erected
,
and
large
,
shining
power-houses
put
up
.
The
city
,
so
long
used
to
the
old
bridge
delays
,
the
straw-strewn
,
stoveless
horse-cars
on
their
jumping
rails
,
was
agog
to
see
how
fine
this
new
service
would
be
.
The
La
Salle
Street
tunnel
was
soon
aglow
with
white
plaster
and
electric
lights
.
The
long
streets
and
avenues
of
the
North
Side
were
threaded
with
concrete-lined
conduits
and
heavy
street-rails
.
The
powerhouses
were
completed
and
the
system
was
started
,
even
while
the
contracts
for
the
changes
on
the
West
Side
were
being
let
.
Schryhart
and
his
associates
were
amazed
at
this
swiftness
of
action
,
this
dizzy
phantasmagoria
of
financial
operations
It
looked
very
much
to
the
conservative
traction
interests
of
Chicago
as
if
this
young
giant
out
of
the
East
had
it
in
mind
to
eat
up
the
whole
city
.
The
Chicago
Trust
Company
,
which
he
,
Addison
,
McKenty
,
and
others
had
organized
to
manipulate
the
principal
phases
of
the
local
bond
issues
,
and
of
which
he
was
rumored
to
be
in
control
,
was
in
a
flourishing
condition
.
Apparently
he
could
now
write
his
check
for
millions
,
and
yet
he
was
not
beholden
,
so
far
as
the
older
and
more
conservative
multimillionaires
of
Chicago
were
concerned
,
to
any
one
of
them
.
The
worst
of
it
was
that
this
Cowperwood
--
an
upstart
,
a
jail-bird
,
a
stranger
whom
they
had
done
their
best
to
suppress
financially
and
ostracize
socially
,
had
now
become
an
attractive
,
even
a
sparkling
figure
in
the
eyes
of
the
Chicago
public
.
His
views
and
opinions
on
almost
any
topic
were
freely
quoted
;
the
newspapers
,
even
the
most
antagonistic
,
did
not
dare
to
neglect
him
.
Their
owners
were
now
fully
alive
to
the
fact
that
a
new
financial
rival
had
appeared
who
was
worthy
of
their
steel
.
