Jennie Gerhardt - Драйзер Теодор (книги бесплатно без онлайн .txt) 📗

The trouble with Lester was that he had reached the time where he was

not as keen for details as he had formerly been. All his work in recent

years—in fact, from the very beginning—had been with large

propositions, the purchasing of great quantities of supplies, the placing of large orders, the discussion of things which were wholesale and which

had very little to do with the minor details which make up the special

interests of the smaller traders of the world. In the factory his brother Robert had figured the pennies and nickels of labour-cost, had seen to it that all the little leaks were shut off. Lester had been left to deal with larger things, and he had consistently done so. When it came to this

particular proposition his interest was in the wholesale phases of it, not the petty details of selling. He could not help seeing that Chicago was a growing city, and that land values must rise. What was now far-out prairie property would soon, in the course of a few years, be well built-up

suburban residence territory. Scarcely any land that could be purchased

now would fall in value. It might drag in sales or increase, but it couldn't fall. Ross convinced him of this. He knew it of his own judgment to be

true.

The several things on which he did not speculate sufficiently were the life or health of Mr. Ross; the chance that some obnoxious neighbourhood

growth would affect the territory he had selected as residence territory; the fact that difficult money situations might reduce real estate values—in fact, bring about a flurry of real estate liquidation which would send

prices crashing down and cause the failure of strong promoters, even such promoters for instance, as Mr. Samuel E. Ross.

For several months he studied the situation as presented by his new guide and mentor, and then, having satisfied himself that he was reasonably

safe, decided to sell some of the holdings which were netting him a

beggarly six per cent. and invest in this new proposition. The first cash outlay was twenty thousand dollars for the land, which was taken over

under an operative agreement between himself and Ross; this was run

indefinitely—so long as there was any of this land left to sell. The next thing was to raise twelve thousand five hundred dollars for

improvements, which he did, and then to furnish some twenty-five

hundred dollars more for taxes and unconsidered expenses, items which

had come up in carrying out the improvement work which had been

planned. It seemed that hard and soft earth made a difference in grading

costs, that trees would not always flourish as expected, that certain

members of the city water and gas departments had to be "seen" and

"fixed" before certain other improvements could be effected. Mr. Ross attended to all this, but the cost of the proceedings was something which had to be discussed, and Lester heard it all.

After the land was put in shape, about a year after the original

conversation, it was necessary to wait until spring for the proper

advertising and booming of the new section; and this advertising began to call at once for the third payment. Lester disposed of an additional fifteen thousand dollars worth of securities in order to follow this venture to its logical and profitable conclusion.

Up to this time he was rather pleased with his venture. Ross had certainly been thorough and business-like in his handling of the various details.

The land was put in excellent shape. It was given a rather attractive title

—"Inwood," although, as Lester noted, there was precious little wood anywhere around there. But Ross assured him that people looking for a

suburban residence would be attracted by the name; seeing the vigorous

efforts in tree- planting that had been made to provide for shade in the

future, they would take the will for the deed. Lester smiled.

The first chill wind that blew upon the infant project came in the form of a rumour that the International Packing Company, one of the big

constituent members of the packing house combination at Halstead and

Thirty-ninth Streets, had determined to desert the old group and lay out a new packing area for itself. The papers explained that the company

intended to go farther south, probably below Fifty-fifth Street and west of Ashland Avenue. This was the territory that was located due west of

Lester's property, and the mere suspicion that the packing company might

invade the territory was sufficient to blight the prospects of any budding real estate deal.

Ross was beside himself with rage. He decided, after quick deliberation,

that the best thing to do would be to boom the property heavily, by means of newspaper advertising, and see if it could not be disposed of before

any additional damage was likely to be done to it. He laid the matter

before Lester, who agreed that this would be advisable. They had already

expended six thousand dollars in advertising, and now the additional sum

of three thousand dollars was spent in ten days, to make it appear that

"Inwood" was an ideal residence section, equipped with every modern convenience for the home-lover, and destined to be one of the most

exclusive and beautiful suburbs of the city. It was "no go." A few lots were sold, but the rumour that the International Packing Company might

come was persistent and deadly; from any point of view, save that of a

foreign population neighbourhood, the enterprise was a failure.

To say that Lester was greatly disheartened by this blow is to put it

mildly. Practically fifty thousand dollars, two-thirds of all his earthly possessions, outside of his stipulated annual income, was tied up here;

and there were taxes to pay, repairs to maintain, actual depreciation in

value to face. He suggested to Ross that the area might be sold at its cost value, or a loan raised on it, and the whole enterprise abandoned; but that experienced real estate dealer was not so sanguine. He had had one or two failures of this kind before. He was superstitious about anything which

did not go smoothly from the beginning. If it didn't go it was a hoodoo—a black shadow—and he wanted no more to do with it. Other real estate

men, as he knew to his cost, were of the same opinion.

Some three years later the property was sold under the sheriff's hammer.

Lester, having put in fifty thousand dollars all told, recovered a trifle more than eighteen thousand; and some of his wise friends assured him

that he was lucky in getting off so easily.

CHAPTER L

While the real estate deal was in progress Mrs. Gerald decided to move

to Chicago. She had been staying in Cincinnati for a few months, and had

learned a great deal as to the real facts of Lester's irregular mode of life.

The question whether or not he was really married to Jennie remained an

open one. The garbled details of Jennie's early years, the fact that a

Chicago paper had written him up as a young millionaire who was

sacrificing his fortune for love of her, the certainty that Robert had

practically eliminated him from any voice in the Kane Company, all came

to her ears. She hated to think that Lester was making such a sacrifice of himself. He had let nearly a year slip by without doing anything. In two

more years his chance would be gone. He had said to her in London that

he was without many illusions. Was Jennie one? Did he really love her, or was he just sorry for her? Letty wanted very much to find out for sure.

The house that Mrs. Gerald leased in Chicago was a most imposing one