第88章

Then the earth rocked,huge economic structures tottered and fell,and much dust arose to obscure the vision of smaller creatures,who were bewildered and terrified.Such disturbances were called "panics,"and were blamed by the newspapers on the Democratic party,or on the reformers who had wantonly assailed established institutions.These dominant bankers had contrived to gain control of the savings of thousands and thousands of fellow-citizens who had deposited them in banks or paid them into insurance companies,and with the power thus accumulated had sallied forth to capture railroads and industries.The railroads were the strategic links.With these in hand,certain favoured industrial concerns could be fed,and others starved into submission.

Adolf Scherer might be said to represent a transitional type.For he was not only an iron-master who knew every detail of his business,who kept it ahead of the times;he was also a strategist,wise in his generation,making friends with the Railroad while there had yet been time,at length securing rebates and favours.And when that Railroad (which had been constructed through the enterprise and courage of such men as Nathaniel Durrett)had passed under the control of the banker-personality to whom Ihave referred,and had become part of a system,Adolf Scherer remained in alliance,and continued to receive favours....I can well remember the time when the ultimate authority of our Railroad was transferred,quietly,to Wall Street.Alexander Barbour,its president,had been a great man,but after that he bowed,in certain matters,to a greater one.

I have digressed....Mr.Scherer unfolded his scheme,talking about "units"as calmly as though they were checkers on a board instead of huge,fiery,reverberating mills where thousands and thousands of human beings toiled day and night--beings with families,and hopes and fears,whose destinies were to be dominated by the will of the man who sat opposite me.But--did not he in his own person represent the triumph of that American creed of opportunity?He,too,had been through the fire,had sweated beside the blasts,had handled the ingots of steel.He was one of the "fittest"who had survived,and looked it.Had he no memories of the terrors of that struggle?...Adolf Scherer had grown to be a giant.And yet without me,without my profession he was a helpless giant,at the mercy of those alert and vindictive lawmakers who sought to restrain and hamper him,to check his growth with their webs.How stimulating the idea of his dependence!How exhilarating too,the thought that that vision which had first possessed me as an undergraduate--on my visit to Jerry Kyme--was at last to be realized!Ihad now become the indispensable associate of the few who divided the spoils,I was to have a share in these myself.

"You're young,Paret,"Mr.Scherer concluded."But Watling has confidence in you,and you will consult him frequently.I believe in the young men,and I have alreadyseen something of you--so?"...

When I returned to the office I wrote Theodore Watling a letter expressing my gratitude for the position he had,so to speak,willed me,of confidential legal adviser to Adolf Scherer.Though the opportunity had thrust itself upon me suddenly,and sooner than I expected it,I was determined to prove myself worthy of it.I worked as I had never worked before,making trips to New York to consult leading members of this new branch of my profession there,trips to Washington to see my former chief.There were,too,numerous conferences with local personages,with Mr.Dickinson and Mr.Grierson,and Judah B.Tallant,--whose newspaper was most useful;there were consultations and negotiations of a delicate nature with the owners and lawyers of other companies to be "taken in."Nor was it all legal work,in the older and narrower sense.Men who are playing for principalities are making war.Some of our operations had all the excitement of war.There was information to be got,and it was got--somehow.Modern war involves a spy system,and a friendly telephone company is not to be despised.And all of this work from first to last had to be done with extreme caution.Moribund distinctions of right and wrong did not trouble me,for the modern man labours religiously when he knows that Evolution is on his side.

For all of these operations a corps of counsel had been employed,including the firm of Harrington and Bowes next to Theodore Watling,Joel Harrington was deemed the ablest lawyer in the city.We organized in due time the corporation known as the Boyne Iron Works,Limited;a trust agreement was drawn up that was a masterpiece of its kind,one that caused,first and last,meddling officials in the Department of Justice at Washington no little trouble and perplexity.I was proud of the fact that I had taken no small part in its composition....In short,in addition to certain emoluments and opportunities for investment,Iemerged from the affair firmly established in the good graces of Adolf Scherer,and with a reputation practically made.

A year or so after the Boyne Company,Ltd.,came into existence I chanced one morning to go down to the new Ashuela Hotel to meet a New Yorker of some prominence,and was awaiting him in the lobby,when I overheard a conversation between two commercial travellers who were sitting with their backs to me.

"Did you notice that fellow who went up to the desk a moment ago?"asked one.

"The young fellow in the grey suit?Sure.Who is he?He looks as if he was pretty well fixed.""I guess he is,"replied the first."That's Paret.He's Scherer's confidential counsel.He used to be Senator Watling's partner,but they say he's even got something on the old man."In spite of the feverish life I led,I was still undoubtedly young-looking,and in this I was true to the incoming type of successful man.