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- Теодор Драйзер
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- Стр. 48/332
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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
do
n't
,
"
said
Addison
;
"
but
I
can
get
you
a
letter
.
Why
?
"
"
Do
n'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
.
