THE AMERICAN 
 EMPEROR 
 
 WILLIAM SALISBURY 
 
DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Treasure %oom 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/americanemperornOOsali 
 
THE AMERICAN 
 EMPEROR 
 
 A NOVEL 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM SALISBURY 
 
 >L 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 The Tabard Inn Press 
 
 *9'3 
 
Copyrighted, 191 3, by 
 WILLIAM SALISBURY 
 
 Registered at Stationers' Hall, London 
 (All Hights Reserved) 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
"77. ft. 
 
 To 
 
 B. O. FLOWER 
 
 Founder of The Arena and The Twentieth 
 Century, and last of the independent 
 magazine editors. 
 
 Chief enlightener as to our feudalism of 
 privileged wealth, you have launched many 
 a brilliant shaft against its aggressions, 
 doing perhaps more than any one other 
 man to stay the coming of the intellectual 
 night which now threatens to descend 
 upon our country. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 BOOK FIRST— CLAY JEFFERSON GORMAN. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I The Dawning of Ambition I 
 
 II At Heidelberg 12 
 
 III Early Triumphs 18 
 
 IV A Honeymoon in Italy 28 
 
 V His First Railroad 36 
 
 VI Wife and Mistress 48 
 
 VII A Profit of One Million 53 
 
 VIII His First-Born 58 
 
 IX The Great Reorganizer 59 
 
 X A Political Contest 65 
 
 XI A Speech in the Senate 69 
 
 BOOK SECOND— MERCEDES. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I An International Marriage 77 
 
 II A Discussion of Heraldry 84 
 
 III "The Whipped Dog Fears the Lash" 91 
 
 IV A Dream of Empire 98 
 
 V The Opinions of Theodora 103 
 
 VI Mercedes 108 
 
 VII Plans of Rival Financiers 114 
 
 VIII The Durkins' Retreat 118 
 
 IX A Proposition to a Husband 122 
 
 X A Temptation on a Mountain Top 130 
 
CONTENTS 
 BOOK THIRD— GORDON LYLE. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I Four Years in Journalism 137 
 
 II He Sees a Vision 145 
 
 III The Moonlight Club 151 
 
 IV A Letter from Mercedes 160 
 
 V Planning to Scale the Alps of Popular Disapproval. 162 
 
 VI A Mysterious Tip 166 
 
 VII A Substitute Lackey 171 
 
 VIII The Creation of a New Monster 175 
 
 IX A Second Mysterious Message. 184 
 
 X The Coal Trust 191 
 
 BOOK FOURTH— THE GREAT BOND CONSPIRACY. 
 
 CHAPTER • PAGE 
 
 I Lyle and Mercedes Meet 201 
 
 II Delaval Explains the Bond Deal 205 
 
 III A Discourse on Republics 214 
 
 IV A Yachting Party 220 
 
 V Mercedes Leaves the Party 226 
 
 BOOK FIFTH— THE OLIGARCHY. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 I Some Opinions of Delaval 235 
 
 II Lyle Introduces His Wife 241 
 
 III Glacken Hall 245 
 
 IV Valet and Butler 254 
 
 V New Jersey 257 
 
 VI Pirates of the Southern Seas 264 
 
 VII The Cruise of the Buccaneer 270 
 
 VIII The Forward Magazine Is Founded 27s 
 
 IX The Stock Exchange 277 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 X "We Have Exalted Trade Until It Is Seated Upon 
 
 a Throne" 284 
 
 XI Father and Daughter 291 
 
 XII The Story of Major Armitage 296 
 
 XIII The Dance of the Marionettes 306 
 
 BOOK SIXTH— THE EMPEROR. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGI 
 
 I The Patron of Art 311 
 
 II The Fate of Reform Magazines 315 
 
 III Newport 321 
 
 IV Inside the Palace 330 
 
 V The Dinner 336 
 
 VI The Pursuit 342 
 
 VII Imperial Revenge 351 
 
 VIII The Marble Library 353 
 
 IX At the Endowed Theater 359 
 
 X "The People Need a Lesson" 367 
 
 XI The Prelude 373 
 
 XII The Panic 376 
 
 XIII The Bal de Tete 387 
 
 XIV The Greatest of Them All 393 
 
The American Emperor 
 
 BOOK FIRST 
 CLAY JEFFERSON GORMAN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE DAWNING OF AMBITION 
 
 There was a tumult in the mind of Clay Gorman. 
 Three events had just changed the course of all his 
 thoughts. He had finished reading a "Life of Na- 
 poleon." His rich and powerful uncle from the me- 
 tropolis had shown a deep interest in him. And he 
 had met at a neighbor's house a girl whom he desired 
 as he had never desired anything before. 
 
 His age was seventeen years, his home a common- 
 place abode in a New England village before the Civil 
 War. He had never traveled more than forty miles 
 from that place. And seventeen is an impressionable 
 age. The emotions and passions are as strong as they 
 ever become, while the mind is at the dawn of its 
 greatest vigor. 
 
 As Napoleon, by reading of the lives of Caesar, Alex- 
 ander and Mohammed, had been fired with a desire to 
 be like them, so young Gorman now burned to be 
 Napoleonic. The careers of all the martyrs and saints, 
 statesmen and philosophers, artists and poets that he 
 had ever read or heard of did not appeal to him half 
 so strongly as did this story of the Man of Destiny. 
 
2 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 To teach humanity, to uplift, to guide aright or to 
 better the race, or to sacrifice one's life for a great 
 cause — all this seemed to be little worth while com- 
 pared with the glory of the conqueror. To shatter 
 armies and traditions, to wipe out boundary lines, to 
 make kings wait in ante-chambers, to choose what 
 piincess one will wed, to found dynasties and create 
 nobilities — that was the height of earthly achievement. 
 Especially was it glorious for one born of the people. 
 And Napoleon was a "self-made" man, as Clay's uncle 
 was, as most successful Americans were, as Clay him- 
 self intended to be. And Napoleon, he read with 
 secret, self-congratulatory delight, resembled himself 
 in more than one way. The great conqueror had been 
 wont to impress his will upon others at an early age. 
 He had even chastised his elder brother on occasions. 
 So had Clay Gorman. His eyes were blue. So were 
 Clay Gorman's. His hair was dark. So was Clay Gor- 
 man's. And his nose was large — not in the way that 
 Clay Gorman's was, to be sure, but it was large. The 
 conqueror's nasal appendage was greater than the aver- 
 age in size because of its somewhat Romanesque bone 
 structure. Clay Gorman's was exaggerated by a sur- 
 plus of tissue, being slightly bulbous, but its bulk 
 was about the same as that of the masterful Corsican's. 
 Clay's uncle, Asa Gorman, had been successively 
 farmer's son, dry goods clerk, merchant and banker. 
 Years ago he had left this small town of Tilbury, Mas- 
 sachusetts, to find a larger field for his financial oper- 
 ations in New York. He was now on a visit here dur- 
 ing an early summer lull in business, and was filling 
 in some of his leisure hours by instructing the younger 
 son of his brother's widow in the world's ways. The 
 boy's father had died two years before, leaving the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 3 
 
 widow only a small annuity out of his gains as a mer- 
 chant, and her two sons had been compelled to cease 
 their studies at an academy in a nearby town and sup- 
 port themselves by clerking in village stores. 
 
 Asa Gorman found his nephew a ready listener. 
 Like at least a few of the self-made men of to-day, 
 he was seldom happier than when telling of his own 
 achievements. And what he said now sunk deep into 
 the brain of the ambitious youth. 
 
 "I've made my money by keeping cool while other 
 people were excited," he said, as he sat on the front 
 porch puffing a fragrant cigar, while Clay inhaled with 
 delight such wreaths as were wafted his way. The 
 very aroma of the choice tobacco had an inspiring 
 effect upon the boy. He resolved then and there to 
 arrive speedily, by hook or crook, to the point where 
 he could hold just such Havanas, in such a white, well 
 manicured hand, and fill the circumambient air with 
 fragrant smoke for others to inhale. 
 
 "This is the age of commercial opportunity," the 
 uncle went on, philosophically, rubbing his smooth- 
 shaven chin. "All government rests, in the last analy- 
 sis, upon business credit. Take that away, and the 
 whole structure falls. If Napoleon's wars had not 
 bankrupted France, his power would have lasted much 
 longer than it did. (The nephew's interest grew more 
 intense at this point). Upon the ruins of his empire, 
 the Rothschilds built their power. And, by the way, 
 that was the smoothest thing in history, the way old 
 Rothschild hurried to London after Waterloo, and by 
 a lot of half truths, and melancholy shakings of the 
 head, and doleful looks, gave out the impression that 
 Napoleon had won the battle, and then, when prices 
 fell, bought right and left. It's much better to-day to 
 
4 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 be a Rothschild than a descendant of Napoleon, though 
 one of the Bonapartes is seated on a temporary throne. 
 The Rothschilds and other bankers hold the whip hand 
 in the affairs of nations. And they can so manage 
 that no matter which side loses in war, they will win. 
 So can bankers here, if they will only be a little wise. 
 
 "Now, you're a bright lad, Clay," he went on, light- 
 ing a fresh cigar, and brushing a bit of ashes off the 
 knee of his costly trousers. He turned his deep-set, 
 beady eyes upon his nephew, favoring him with a 
 longer look than he usually gave any one. He was 
 pleased to see a strong, hard-set jaw like his own, and 
 eyes which held a glitter. If those eyes had shone with 
 idealism instead, he would have ended the conversation 
 right there. "You're a bright lad," he repeated, "and 
 you should learn at once that this is the age of money, 
 no matter how much war talk you may hear. And in 
 this country in particular, the man in trade is not 
 looked down upon. Sometimes he can mix politics 
 with his business, but business should come first. My 
 partner, Peyton, tried Congress for a while, but he 
 found, after one term, that he was wasting his time. 
 He could get others to do things for him there much 
 more conveniently than he could do them himself. 
 Those who stick to business and let others chase the 
 butterflies of glory will come out ahead — particularly 
 in America." 
 
 Much more of the same kind of philosophy was 
 uttered by the uncle that day, and on other days, in 
 this summer of 1856. And as he was to his nephew 
 the living embodiment of success, the impression his 
 words left was deep and lasting. Before he returned 
 to New York, Asa Gorman promised that if Clay 
 made three hundred dollars within a year from that 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 5 
 
 date, above his salary as a clerk, he would give him a 
 like sum to do with as he pleased. Nothing was said 
 as to how the money was to be acquired. "This is a 
 country full of opportunities," his uncle told him. 
 "Look about you. I hope you'll develop the right met- 
 tle.'' And he thought of himself as an eagle who 
 throws a fledgling from a nest with a hint that choice 
 morsels of food may be found in the world of experi- 
 ence. 
 
 His distinguished relative gone. Clay Gorman busied 
 his brain with plans to achieve his first step toward 
 wealth and power. When he and his brother, Zacha- 
 riah, were invited to an evening party at a neighbor's 
 house, the brother was eager to go, but Clay felt that 
 he would be frittering away his time. Such frivolities 
 were for commonplace, unthinking youths and mai- 
 dens, not for dominant personalities such as himself. 
 
 As he walked down a poplar-shaded lane toward 
 his home in the late afternoon of the day before the 
 party, he was turning over in his mind a plan he had 
 conceived the morning before while selling a railway 
 contractor a pair of suspenders. He had heard the 
 contractor tell the proprietor of the store that he had 
 exhausted his supply of ties with which the railway 
 was being built to Springfield. The road's headquar- 
 ters had been remiss in shipping a badly needed con- 
 signment. At once Clay was reminded of a grove of 
 oaks on a farm near the village. He recalled that the 
 owner of the farm was hard pressed for money because 
 of the illness and death of a child, and that a mortgage 
 on his home was overdue. "I have seventy dollars 
 saved that no one knows of," he thought. "If he will 
 take that as a first payment, and I can get help in cut- 
 
6 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 ting the trees, and pay for the work after I collect from 
 the contractor, I may make some hundreds in profit." 
 
 But the farmer had demanded a hundred dollars 
 down. Clay suspected that Zachariah had some money. 
 And by spying - upon him that evening through a key- 
 hole (Napoleon had peaked through keyholes), he 
 had seen him secrete a bill in the lining of his Sunday 
 hat. When he accused him of having money that 
 should have been given to their mother, Zachariah 
 confessed that he wanted to surprise her with a silk 
 dress as a birthday present. Clay thereupon deter- 
 mined to get this cash in some way before it was thus 
 uselessly spent. 
 
 These were the days in which the country was being 
 profoundly stirred by talk of coming war. Sumner's 
 famous speech in the Senate upon the crime against 
 Kansas by the slave power was ringing in the people's' 
 ears with insistent and clamorous note. "The rape 
 of a virgin territory, compelling her to the hateful 
 embrace of slavery," and other powerful phrases were 
 repeated from mouth to mouth. The bodily assault 
 upon the orator by a Congressman had added fuel to 
 the flames. Great souls that were to be tested in the 
 furnace heat of civil conflict were everywhere being 
 exalted for the ordeal. 
 
 But Clay Gorman did not need to remember his 
 uncle's advice to keep cool. Fine phrases could not 
 sweep him off his feet. Webster's "Liberty and union, 
 now and forever, one and inseparable," Seward's "irre- 
 pressible conflict," Lincoln's "a house divided against 
 itself cannot stand," to him meant only that the North 
 was bent on keeping the South within the Union at any 
 cost. The poems of Whittier, the speeches of William 
 Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips, pulpit prayers 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 7 
 
 and fulminations, John Brown's heroic death-all m 
 these roused in him only thoughts of how he could 
 become an officer if war came, or whether, by his 
 uncle's aid, he could make money from army contracts 
 When he reached home the next evening he found 
 his brother all ready for the party. Zachanah had 
 usually ignored him in his social plans, looking down 
 upon him from the height of superior years until Clay 
 had shown ability to chastise him. And now, in a spirit 
 of generosity born of respect for superior muscles 
 Zachanah urged him to put on his best coat and hat 
 and accompany him. He even promised to lend him 
 a new silk cravat, and to pay for a shave at a barber 
 shop a sybaritic luxury that was a great bribe in itself 
 to almost any rural youth. With that hidden money 
 in mind, Clay was already more than half inclined to 
 go. Frivolity would have its uses if it helped him 
 along the road to ultimate riches. 
 "Where is the party ?" he asked. 
 "At the Pembrokes'." 
 
 "The Pembrokes' ! Why didn't you tell me that be- 
 fore ? " 
 
 He made the most careful toilet of his life, including 
 a fancy waistcoat which his uncle had left behind 
 upon discovering that their sizes were the same. 
 
 The brothers arrived late, and found many guests 
 already assembled. Wax candles glittered in every 
 window, and brilliant chandeliers lighted the broad 
 hallway and the drawing room, these things alone 
 being evidence of wealth. The house was of a substan- 
 tial Colonial style. The Pembrokes were rated socially 
 as the county's best, and Clay Gorman thought them 
 the most worthy of cultivation of anyone he knew. 
 A grandfather of the present head of the house, by 
 
8 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 bestowing upon an early Legislature a testimony in 
 currency of his esteem, had received a land grant that 
 yielded his descendants a large income in rents. Part 
 of this income had been so judiciously used that char- 
 ters for water power rights and for railway lines had 
 vastly increased the family's wealth. They had 
 acquired, among other things, an escutcheon. Clay 
 Gorman felt that his own ancestors had failed signally 
 to take advantage of similar opportunities in the new 
 republic. Both wealth and a family shield should some 
 day be his, he resolved. 
 
 Marie Dalton was the first girl introduced to him 
 that evening. She might have been the only one, 
 in so far as he could afterward remember. Her eyes 
 were of the deep, luminous blue of a perfect summer 
 sky; her hair as black as a raven's wing, her cheeks 
 wax-like, with just a suggestion of color; her graceful 
 neck and shoulders cream-colored and glossy and 
 alluring. Though hoopskirts concealed the lower part 
 of her form, anyone with eyes could have told that a 
 girl with such shoulders possessed other physical attri- 
 butes in keeping. 
 
 ''Marie Antoinette Dalton is my full name," she said, 
 when he had taken her away from the other guests for 
 a stroll down a rose-lined walk. "My mother is de- 
 scended from a French family who sympathized with 
 the royal cause in the great revolution. She had to 
 take to the stage when young to escape a life of pov- 
 erty, and she has been training me in Boston for the 
 same career. My father lived only a few years after 
 I was born. He was an Irish soldier, who was killed 
 in South America while fighting for the Spanish 
 cause." 
 
 There was a sweet melancholy in her tones, which 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 9 
 
 were vibrant and softly melodious. About her entire 
 being was an aura new to the village youth. Untaught 
 in the ways of women of the world, he knew nothing of 
 cosmetics or of the subtle art of Parisian perfumers. 
 But he felt instinctively that here was a rare exotic 
 that fate had been kind enough to bring within his 
 view for the nonce, and her presence filled him with 
 unnameable longings. And he was sure that no artifice 
 could have created the substantial charms which the 
 candle light had shown, and which the rays of the 
 moon now made only the more alluring. 
 
 "And my full name is Clay Jefferson Gorman," 
 he responded. "I, too, have some French blood, 
 through an ancestor on my mother's side, but my 
 ancestor fought with the revolutionists. But if he had 
 lived until now, and had seen all the results of the 
 revolution, perhaps he wouldn't have been so much 
 against royalty," he added, as a concession to her 
 views. 
 
 "You, however, could hardly be a royalist," she 
 averred. "Your name is too democratic. Clay and 
 Jefferson — why, you'd have to change your very name 
 first." 
 
 "Yes," he said. "One of my parents admired Clay, 
 and the other Jefferson, and so I got both those names 
 for my own. I'm told that I ought to run for office, 
 since the Whigs and Democrats both would vote for 
 me. 
 
 "Tra-la-la," she sang out, suddenly, in flute-like 
 tones, "such arguments don't interest me — I mean the 
 politics of it, though the names are strong and fine. 
 But let's talk about — or, no — let's pick roses, or climb 
 an apple tree. Are there any apple trees on this old 
 place?" 
 
io THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 His heart leaped in anticipatory delight. In a voice 
 that he tried to keep calm, he said there were two at 
 the end of the walk. They strolled along, and when 
 they came to the first tree, he said it was the better 
 one, although he knew the branches of the other came 
 lower. 
 
 He clasped his hands together and held them, palms 
 upward, and she placed a small slippered foot within 
 them. Then she grasped him by the shoulder with one 
 hand and, giving a graceful leap upward, caught a 
 limb with the other. A few agile movements, and she 
 had drawn herself to a seat almost before he realized 
 that she had started to climb. He saw only a flash of 
 lingerie, and an elusive, maddeningly brief view of a 
 voluptuous, silk-stockinged leg to the knee. 
 
 "Physical culture is one of the things I had to learn 
 at school," she said, as he clambered up beside her. 
 There he spent the shortest, most delicious quarter of 
 an hour he had ever known. To be near her, to hear 
 that musical voice, to get occasional exhalations of 
 that sensuous perfume, to see the fortunate moonbeams 
 play hide and seek upon her lips and bosom — all this 
 was a kind of intoxication. That she, the daughter of 
 one of the queens of the mimic world, and herself a 
 possible future queen of that realm, should deign to 
 spend her time with him was flattering to the village 
 youth. He did not know that the Pembrokes had told 
 her of his relationship to the mighty Asa Gorman. 
 Nor could he know that his masterful way of taking 
 her to himself as soon as they met had appealed to her 
 feminine nature. 
 
 But here was a game, he thought, worthy of the 
 best art in sportsmanship — the pursuit and capture of 
 such a radiant creature. With no amatory experience 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR n 
 
 save a few surreptitious hugs and kisses snatched from 
 village maids, he yet felt instinctively that a woman 
 trained in the arts of the stage is to the majority of men 
 the most alluring because the most seen and admired of 
 her sex, since it is human to want to possess what every 
 one else desires. 
 
 Strange thoughts for a Christian youth, reared in a 
 Puritan family, amid ideal New England surround- 
 ings ! But, he told himself, he was a person of strong 
 individuality, a dominant personality who would decide 
 for himself in questions of ethics and of morals. Had 
 not Napoleon, when reproached by Josephine for his 
 pursuit of women, responded that he was not as other 
 men, but was superior to all others and could do as he 
 pleased? Yes, Napoleon had insisted upon having his 
 own way — his dark and dominant way — with women. 
 And Napoleon had been a Christian young man, too, 
 and had eventually restored the Church in France. 
 
 First love never had a more propitious opening scene 
 than it now had. The air, languorous with dew and 
 the scent of flowers, was suddenly filled with the music 
 of nature's orchestra in its evening overture. The 
 cicadas' resonant drumming mingled with the flute-like 
 notes of the crickets, while from a distant pool came 
 the vibrant tones of bullfrogs in violoncello accompani- 
 ment. Overhead the moon, a brilliant, pearly globe, 
 surrounded by the jeweled constellations, hung like a 
 huge chandelier in the dome of heaven. 
 
 There is no telling how serious a drama might have 
 begun, despite the hoopskirts that prevented him from 
 sitting as close as he desired, wh^n voices calling to 
 them from the house ended his temporary paradise. 
 
 "Oh, we must get down at once," she cried, looking 
 about for a foothold. And Clav Gorman showed 
 
12 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Napoleonic ability right there. Leaping' to the ground, 
 he stood directly beneath her, pushed aside a limb by 
 which she might have descended, held out his arms and 
 said, "Come!" 
 
 She allowed herself to slide into his embrace, and 
 was crushed to his bosom. Struggling free in time to 
 escape his kisses, she fled up the moonlit walk, looking 
 over her shoulder as she ran. A laugh bubbled from 
 her lips — a laugh that was both a taunt and an invita- 
 tion, and he hastened in pursuit. Her skirts were caught 
 by the eager thorns of a rose bush in the shadow of 
 a large pine tree near the end of the graveled path, 
 and there she was held until he was almost upon her. 
 She tore herself loose in time to elude him, and sped 
 like a winged nymph into the moonlight, up the broad 
 stairs, between the white pillars, and on through the 
 mansion's open doorway. 
 
 "Damnable little witch — I'll get her yet!" he mut- 
 tered, as he slackened his pace, and followed her slowly 
 into the house. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 AT HEIDELBERG 
 
 The country was in the throes of civil war. It was 
 a gigantic national travail, in which the Republic was 
 to be reborn. Although conceived in liberty and dedi- 
 cated to equality, the nation had, for the lifetime of 
 three generations, led a dual life before the world. Its 
 laws proclaimed the right of all to life, liberty and the 
 pursuit of happiness, and yet four millions of human 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 13 
 
 beings were held in fetters in its Southern States. And 
 an arrogant slave power, not content with its sway over 
 half the land, was seizing upon the virgin territories of 
 the West, and dragging them into the Plutonian realms 
 of bondage. Then arose many legions of freemen, 
 inspired by orations and songs, by poems and preach- 
 ments, by books and battle hymns. Hills and valleys 
 were covered by moving forests of bayonets, seas were 
 dotted with ships of war, rivers were spanned by 
 bridges of boats. Love of country was put higher than 
 love of kin, and, in the conflict that ensued, half a 
 million lives were sacrificed that a nation of thirty 
 millions might be united and free. 
 
 And while his country was torn by strife, Clay Gor- 
 man was studying in foreign halls of learning the 
 science of government, and other sciences, and dream- 
 ing dreams of greatness. A vastly different person 
 in appearance was he from the village youth who, in 
 the moonlit garden of the Pembrokes, had pursued 
 Marie Dalton to the mansion's door. He was wearing 
 the latest European style of clothes now, and smoking 
 the best of cigars, and mingling with cosmopolitan 
 groups of noble and wealthy students. 
 
 Success beyond his hopes had crowned his first 
 financial scheme. His deal in railway ties had netted 
 him four hundred dollars in six months, or a hundred 
 more than the amount his uncle had promised to dupli- 
 cate if it were made within a year. He reported the 
 fact, enclosing proofs, but did not mention that one- 
 third of the purchasing price had been loaned by his 
 brother, to whom he paid two dollars as interest. Asa 
 Gorman was so pleased that he told him to come to 
 New York at once. He gave him six hundred dollars 
 in cash, and a clerkship in his bank at an advanced 
 
14 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 salary. But this was only the beginning of his good 
 luck. His uncle, himself childless, became as a second 
 father to him. And such business talent did he show 
 that the banker grew to look upon him as his own suc- 
 cessor. That he might the better fill this role, he was 
 sent to a private tutor after office hours every day to 
 finish the training begun in the Massachusetts acad- 
 emy. Even then his education was still deemed in- 
 complete for the responsibilities that the great growth 
 of the Gorman firm promised for the near future, and 
 a course at Heidelberg followed. Asa Gorman had 
 heard that the German system of mathematics was 
 the best in the world. He wanted his clever nephew 
 to have only the best. 
 
 After the first few weeks at the ancient university, 
 young Gorman did not mingle much with the other 
 students. He preferred to dwell apart, holding himself 
 aloof from their swinish beer drinking contests, their 
 midnight feasting, and their athletic sports. He be- 
 came known as the student who never fought a duel, 
 and who never visited the gymnasium. He knew that 
 dueling was sometimes fatal, and that often it left 
 scars. He could never understand the pride with 
 which some men carried such scars through life. He 
 had heard, too, that athletes oftener than not die earlier 
 in life than other people. He wished to conserve 
 his strength in every way. 
 
 He spent much of his time walking about the famous 
 Heidelberg Castle, which overhung the western part of 
 the town. No ruins in Germany, he was told, equaled 
 in grandeur or in size these relics of former glory in 
 Baden. Near eight hundred years had passed since 
 those battlements and towers had been built. He liked 
 best to stroll about in the courtyard, where four 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 15 
 
 immense pillars, brought from Charlemagne's palace 
 at Ingelheim, still reared their granite lengths skyward, 
 where so much else had fallen to decay. These seemed 
 to him to express the spirit of imperialism undaunted 
 in the midst of the changing forms of government in 
 all the ages since their erection. 
 
 Reaction was again in the saddle in Europe after 
 almost a century of effort by the forces of reform. 
 Revolutions had been suppressed in Baden and else- 
 where in Germany, and a new Emperor ruled in France 
 above the ruins of the second republic. The ideas of 
 Metternich prevailed throughout Europe in place of 
 the ideals of Danton and Robespierre and the "giants 
 of '93." And would the millions who were being 
 driven by this reaction across the sea to democratic 
 America find there a guarantee of permanent liberty? 
 He did not think so. 
 
 The German philosophers then most in vogue 
 appealed to him strongly. Their ideas helped to round 
 out the system of life which he had crudely planned 
 for himself before leaving his native village. He 
 shared Schopenhaur's contempt for the average man, 
 and despised humanity in the mass, but, unlike Scho- 
 penhauer, he was not going to proclaim this fact to the 
 world. Nietszche's doctrine of the inherent superiority 
 of and the necessity for the overman, when it was pub- 
 lished some years later, met with his entire approval 
 also. 
 
 He loved life, though he could not love humanity. 
 He had feelings, but they were capable of development 
 as passions rather than as emotions. He could be 
 transported, he could forget self only when giving way 
 to intense physical desires. Realism was his gospel: 
 "In the beginning there was appetite, passion, will." 
 
16 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Ideas had no original force of their own. It was this 
 old doctrine reasserted that made Schopenhauer 
 attractive to him. But he did not follow Schopenhauer 
 in the hope of refining sensual desires into agents of 
 higher things. He was rather inclined to accept the 
 theory that all thought, every emotion, every human 
 aspiration was based upon the senses — that there was 
 nothing in the mental or spiritual world that could not 
 be traced to a physical cause. 
 
 But while he believed that all religious creeds were 
 thus to be accounted for, he had no intention of staying 
 without the pale of the Church. Of course, no one 
 could follow, literally, Christ's teachings and be re- 
 garded as other than a foolish fanatic in modern 
 society. But religious associations were a great aid 
 to public confidence, and public confidence was a lead- 
 ing asset in his scheme of life. He would pursue his 
 career along the lines of least resistance, and there was 
 sure to be much less resistance in a Christian land to 
 one cloaked in orthodoxy than to anyone destitute of 
 so attractive and popular a garb. And he thought, too, 
 upon the fact that in America, the land of religious 
 liberty, few words were ever said against one creed in 
 favor of another. The subject had become taboo in 
 politics. The public prints avoided it, or touched upon 
 it lightly. All that was necessary was to adopt some 
 one of the recognized Christian beliefs as one's own, 
 and people of other creeds would be satisfied. 
 
 As he desired social position along with other kinds 
 of success, he early decided upon the Episcopal Church. 
 The fact that its membership was largely Tory during 
 the Revolution, and the other fact that its English 
 original had persecuted his own Puritan ancestors 
 and driven them across the sea, did not affect his 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 17 
 
 course. He cared no more for the tragic martyrdom 
 of the Puritans than for the fate of the embattled farm- 
 ers of Lexington. "The shot that was heard around 
 the world" had always seemed to him a foolishly exag- 
 gerated phrase, and the men behind the shot, crazed 
 enthusiasts. 
 
 Hardly had the Civil War broken out when Clay 
 received a letter from his uncle, urging him to return 
 to New York. He had not yet graduated, but the 
 need of his presence was such that he was asked to 
 forego the honor of a degree. Asa Gorman was going 
 to London, there to join his partner in representing 
 the American government's financial affairs during 
 the war. Clay was wanted to manage the New York 
 office in their absence. 
 
 And so to the land of strife, though not to actual 
 scenes of strife, he returned. As he drove uptown 
 from the wharf, evidences of the national turmoil met 
 his view upon every hand. Drum and fife corps were 
 marching about, newly recruited soldiers were drilling 
 by daylight and by lamplight, patriotic airs were being 
 played and sung in theatres and out of doors, impas- 
 sioned speeches inspired crowds in halls and mobs in 
 streets, and even the most fragmentary news from 
 the front drew excited thousands about bulletin boards. 
 But he was more than cool through it all. He was 
 cynical and calculating. At twenty-three years of age 
 one should be willing to die for a great cause, if ever. 
 But he thought only of living for himself. The 
 speeches that inspired the souls of others only made 
 him wonder what political or military office the speak- 
 ers wanted. The emotional enthusiasm with which 
 thousands marched through the streets, causing multi- 
 
18 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 tudes to cheer and wave banners and clap their hands, 
 never infected him. 
 
 He had by this time abandoned all thoughts of a 
 military career. Weighing carefully the chances in 
 that field, he decided that the risks far overbalanced 
 the possibilities of success. He had not lost his ad- 
 miration for Napoleon. But he felt that Napoleonic 
 abilities in war could not achieve the results in demo- 
 cratic America that they had achieved in monarchical 
 Europe. Besides, he had learned that while republics 
 are often ungrateful, bank balances are always potent. 
 And, as his uncle had said, this was pre-eminently the 
 age of capital. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 EARLY TRIUMPHS 
 
 Clay found a long, confidential letter from his uncle 
 awaiting him in the firm's new offices in Nassau street. 
 Forty clerks were now employed there instead of the 
 half dozen that had sufficed in the smaller quarters 
 occupied before his departure for Europe. And for 
 himself there was a private apartment partitioned off 
 in polished wood and ground glass, with his name 
 inscribed thereon in gilded lettering. He sat down 
 in a cushioned chair before a mahogany desk to read 
 the letter from London. 
 
 "For our present purposes, we want a gloomy report 
 of the outlook for the Union cause, no matter what the 
 real situation is," he read. "Mail it at once and enclose 
 some clippings of unfavorable opinions that have been 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 19 
 
 printed in the newspapers in the last few months. Of 
 course, I do not need to tell you that there must be no 
 date marks on these clippings, unless the dates are 
 recent. Follow with other similar letters from time to 
 time until otherwise instructed." 
 
 There was much more of the letter, but this was the 
 gist of it. The report was quickly made up and sent. 
 Not until many weeks later, when Clay learned that 
 his uncle had heavily invested in English factories, did 
 he understand the motive. The factories of England 
 were selling supplies to the Confederacy. The foreign 
 allies of the firm who pointed the way to such invest- 
 ments were in turn informed of the real state of the 
 Union cause, and thus knew when to buy or sell Fed- 
 eral bonds, while the general public bought and sold at 
 the wrong time. The Atlantic cable was not yet laid, 
 so that advices by mail, and usually private advices, 
 formed the only news that investors relied upon. And 
 Gorman, Peyton & Company were the government's 
 own agents, so why should not their advices have been 
 believed before all others ? 
 
 From his studies in law, Clay knew how treason was 
 defined by his country's Constitution. Citizens who 
 levied war upon the nation, or gave aid and comfort 
 to the enemy, were traitors. Yet Gorman, Peyton & 
 Company were not only giving aid and comfort to the 
 enemy, but were speculating upon the misfortunes of 
 their country. And they were rapidly becoming richer 
 thereby. Their wealth mounted by leaps and bounds. 
 When the tide of war submerged a nation's hopes, it 
 brought treasure into their coffers. When the tide ran 
 out, the treasure remained — aye, and it grew again 
 with the rising fortunes of the Union. And now Clay 
 fully realized the wisdom of his uncle's words uttered 
 
20 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 five years before : "A wise man in the world of finance 
 can so manage things that no matter which side loses 
 in war, he will win." 
 
 After some months of labor as a subordinate in these 
 profitable maneuvers, Clay began to yearn to demon- 
 strate his own genius in finance. He felt that the 
 time was ripe to show that his able relative's faith in 
 him had not been wrongly placed. Of course, his uncle 
 was satisfied with him thus far. This he showed by 
 giving him more and more responsibility, and a larger 
 and larger share of profits. The nephew's income 
 was now as great as that of the Governor of the State, 
 and he was barely twenty-three. But individuality and 
 personal power were what he wanted, what he yearned 
 for, what he meant to have. Looking about him for 
 a means of demonstration, he decided upon army con- 
 tracts. This was the field in which even greater 
 returns were to be realized than by any of the processes 
 of private banking. It was the field in which his 
 uncle's firm was most largely profiting abroad. 
 
 On all sides he saw wealth being created in a seem- 
 ingly magic way by speculators in supplies for those 
 legions who were moving southward in ever increasing 
 numbers to overwhelm the forces of rebellion. Before 
 the war began, even to the very hour of its commence- 
 ment, Northern factory owners had sold munitions to 
 those who were preparing to use them against their 
 own government. And now yet greater profits were 
 being garnered by the sale of the remnants of these 
 supplies to the Northern armies. Food which enfeebled 
 rather than strengthened, haversacks which fell to 
 pieces, tents and blankets already mouldering to decay, 
 guns more dangerous to their users than to the enemy, 
 ships that foundered a few days after leaving port — in 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 21 
 
 things such as these were laid the chief foundation 
 stones of the new aristocracy of wealth that was rising 
 above the groans of a nation in travail. 
 
 The Union army had been beaten back at Bull Run, 
 and fear for the cause of the North had gripped the 
 stoutest hearts, when Clay read in a newspaper that 
 five thousand condemned carbines reposed in a New 
 York arsenal. These were part of a great number 
 which had been declared unserviceable by inspecting 
 officers just before the war opened. Thousands of the 
 same kind had been auctioned off at one or two dol- 
 lars each. But now that war had actually begun, rifles 
 of all kinds were scarce, and almost any sort were 
 better than none. A clerk from the office of Gorman, 
 Pevton & Company appeared at the arsenal one day, 
 and offered three dollars each for the supply on hand. 
 The offer was accepted when the well known banking 
 firm was given as security. 
 
 "I had heard that the army in Tennessee was in 
 great need of supplies," Clay wrote to his uncle, in a 
 triumphant report of his operation some months later. 
 "But I waited several weeks after getting the option 
 on the rifles, so as to seem not to have known this. 
 Then I telegraphed General Bludsoe that I could fur- 
 nish him with new carbines for five regiments of cav- 
 alry. The general quickly responded with an order for 
 all on hand. Then, and then only, did I make a pay- 
 ment at the arsenal on my purchase. I sent at the 
 same time a check for fifteen thousand dollars to the 
 arsenal, and a bill to the general for a hundred and ten 
 thousand." 
 
 When the rifles arrived there was explosive anger in 
 the military headquarters on the banks of the Missis- 
 sippi. Soon the bill followed, and there was more 
 
22 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 anger. "The guns would shoot off the fingers of the 
 soldiers who tried to use them," said the general. "The 
 army shall not be robbed in this way." 
 
 Clay did not include these facts in his report, but 
 continued in this wise : 
 
 "The general in command refused to pay, but I out- 
 maneuvered him, and made him bow to a strategy 
 superior to that taught in military tactics. My lawyer 
 — one of the cleverest obtainable — took the matter be- 
 fore a committee of Congress. He could do nothing 
 there, but that was only the first step. The War 
 Department's commission on claims was appealed to, 
 and it decided that, inasmuch as the rifles had actually 
 been delivered, half price should be paid as the best 
 way out of a bad bargain. But half price was accepted 
 only 'on account,' and the Court of Claims was the 
 next citadel stormed. Then it developed that I had 
 made a lucky choice in my counsel, for he knew some- 
 thing about the past record of the most grave and 
 reverend seignior who presides over the court. What 
 it is I cannot say, for he is keeping it to himself, but 
 anyhow, the court decided that the sacredness of con- 
 tract demanded that the claim be paid in full. And 
 thus I sold to the government its own condemned 
 munitions of war at more than seven times its own 
 price, and purchased with funds furnished by itself." 
 
 Imported champagne was quaffed at an elaborate 
 dinner given by the victor to his lawyer and a few 
 select friends at the Astor House a few weeks after 
 this momentous decision. The table was arranged 
 next a marble fountain, which was topped by a statue 
 of Victory. A quartet of escaped slaves sang plan- 
 tation songs and played upon banjos for their amuse- 
 ment. As Clay listened to the melodies, and mused 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 23 
 
 happily over a congratulatory letter he had received 
 from his uncle that morning, he felt that he had been 
 wise indeed not to go to the front in this war. Only 
 the day before he had read of a band of starving Union 
 soldiers who, coming upon the decaying carcass of a 
 mule in a snow bank, had eaten ravenously of the 
 remains. And fevers and other maladies due to ex- 
 posure and hardship were wreaking a greater havoc 
 than bullets among both officers and men. Ugh ! And 
 how glad he was that he had paid three hundred dol- 
 lars for the hiring of a substitute, in accordance with 
 the law passed by Congress at the behest of monied 
 men! 
 
 He had arrived at the point in his musings where he 
 figured his profits on this single deal at a sum equal 
 to the salary then paid the President for a term of four 
 years, when the voices of the negroes and the tinkle 
 of their banjos were drowned out by sounds of con- 
 flict from the street. There was the trampling of many 
 feet, followed by shouts and curses, and then half a 
 dozen revolver shots, immediately succeeded by a vol- 
 ley of musketry. 
 
 "What's that?" he asked, turning a blanched face 
 toward his lawyer, who had rushed to the window. 
 
 "Another draft riot," was the reply. "They killed 
 seventy-five yesterday, mostly niggers — that is, the 
 rioters killed the niggers, and the soldiers shot about 
 a dozen rioters. I notice five or six bodies being car- 
 ried away now, so maybe yesterday's record will be 
 equaled to-day if they keep on." 
 
 As soon as the sounds of conflict died away the din- 
 ner was resumed. 
 
 As he rode home from the banquet, Clay's attention 
 
24 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 was attracted by the sight of a pictured face on a the- 
 atrical lithograph in a store window. It was a face he 
 could never forget, and underneath it was the name, 
 
 Marie Antoinette Dalton 
 
 His blood leaped in his veins, and a wave of delight- 
 ful memories and unsatisfied longings swept over him. 
 He stopped the carriage long enough to learn at what 
 theatre she was appearing, and the next day he went 
 there to inquire about her. He was told that she was 
 living at the Clarendon Hotel. 
 
 When he arrived at the hotel she was preparing for 
 a drive after a late breakfast. She sent him word that 
 he might come to her apartments for a few moments. 
 
 "And so this is Mr. Clay Jefferson Gorman?" she 
 said, fingering the card that had been brought to her, 
 and smiling at him with frank interest. She saw at 
 once that the young man before her was vastly dif- 
 ferent from the village youth whom she had teased 
 and flouted six years before. She had not seen him 
 after that one night, avoiding him with a plea of head- 
 ache when he called the next afternoon, and returning 
 to Boston two days later. But she had heard of his 
 uncle's interest in him, and of his foreign studies, and 
 was now not unwilling to be gracious to the young 
 financier who wore an imported cassimere suit and 
 Parisian boots, and had a diamond in his fancy cravat 
 of sufficient value to start a company on the road. 
 
 "Yes, I use my name in full now, if that is what you 
 mean," he replied. "And you, too, I notice, are spelling 
 yours in full. But a successful and beautiful actress 
 has a right to as many pretty names as she may wish 
 to use." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 25 
 
 "Ah, I see you have learned how to say nice things," 
 she said, laughing low and musically. She was more 
 alluring to him than ever as she sat upon a couch in an 
 attitude of easy grace, her perfect neck and shoulders 
 gleaming through a diaphanous shawl. He had seen 
 the Empress Eugenie as she rode through the streets 
 of Paris, acclaimed as the multitude's darling, and he 
 had been charmed by her Spanish beauty. And he 
 thought that here was one who, in Eugenie's place, 
 would be equally charming. Marie Dalton's years on 
 the stage had given her an added grace and poise, and 
 time had ripened the beauty that a few years before 
 had promised so much. The sparkle of her eyes was 
 more subdued, more subtle, yet even more dangerous 
 than ever. Her lips were as tantalizingly red and 
 inviting as on the night they had eluded his own, and 
 as she smiled now they seemed to hold both invitation 
 and mockery. 
 
 "But I am not successful," she went on, and her 
 tones became melancholy. "These are not the days 
 when theatrical success means much reward in money. 
 Since the Southern cities are closed to us, and North- 
 ern ones are poorer than ever, we Thespians have a 
 hard row to hoe." 
 
 He was not sorry to hear her say this, for he felt 
 that his own success would make him the more attract- 
 ive in her eyes. And he wanted more than ever to be 
 attractive to her. He had had his fling in Paris, and 
 he had not neglected to make, the acquaintance of sev- 
 eral susceptible ladies since his return home. But he 
 had never met any one who roused in him such feelings 
 as did the woman before him. One moment he felt 
 that to be her slave in order to be always near her 
 would be all the paradise he would ask. The next, he 
 
26 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 yearned to be a despot, that he might command her to 
 do his bidding. And each instant she attracted him 
 more, by every glance of her eye, by every shrug of 
 her shoulders, by every movement of her sinuous body, 
 by even the stamp of her pretty slippered foot. 
 
 He talked to her of many things, with all the conver- 
 sational art he had acquired by contact with the world, 
 but constantly he was thinking of how to win her. She 
 told him that she had been married four years earlier, 
 but her husband, he was glad to learn, was now at the 
 front. He was a captain among the troops in the 
 West, and had been wounded in battle. "And the 
 worst of it is," she added, "that he was not wounded by 
 an enemy's bullet, but by a rifle in the hands of one of 
 his own men. The gun prematurely exploded. The 
 soldier was innocent, as the gun was proved to be one 
 of a bad lot that had been condemned, and had been 
 given to the troops by mistake. Oh, if I could only go 
 to him ! I might as well be there, for all the money I 
 am making. But traveling is so expensive." 
 
 "If you would only let me aid you in some way," he 
 suggested, gently. "You see, I can easily do so, 
 and " 
 
 But she would not allow him to finish. "My poor, 
 dear mamma, if she were living, would be shocked at 
 the suggestion," she declared, shaking her head with 
 melancholy resignation, and causing the curls on each 
 side to play hide and seek with her eyes. 
 
 That night he engaged a box at the theatre and saw 
 her play Ophelia to a small audience. And when he 
 called the next day there was an appealing sadness in 
 her eyes, and evidences of recent tears. While talk- 
 ing of his foreign travels, and of the prosperity of 
 his uncle's firm, he let her know by seemingly careless 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 27 
 
 phrases how large his own income now was, and casu- 
 ally referred to his valet and his private secretary. 
 And then, as she seemed interested, he told her of his 
 recent coup in an army contract, without mentioning 
 needless details, and added that it had "netted some 
 tens of thousands." 
 
 "My, but you are becoming quite a financier !" she 
 said, admiringly. 
 
 "And there is no one to share my success," he re- 
 joined, sadly. "My mother is dead, and my brother 
 has become a successful country merchant, partly 
 through my aid, and he needs no further assistance." 
 
 He repeated his offer of a loan, and again she de- 
 clined, though less decisively. They went driving 
 that day, and stopped for luncheon at the gilded cafe 
 of the Astor House. He ordered the costliest French 
 wines, and their food was prepared by a newly im- 
 ported chef from Paris. When she said "Good-by" 
 at the door of her apartment that evening he sought to 
 enter, but with sorrowful accents ?he told him she had 
 dismissed her maid for lack of money, and declared 
 that he must come no further. But she let him hold 
 her hand longer than usual. 
 
 He called the next day with a large bouquet of 
 Mareqhal Niel roses, and she met him in the public par- 
 lor. She was so pleased with the roses that he sent a 
 yet larger bouquet to the theatre that night. She 
 lunched with him the following day, and the next, and 
 the next. A week later she had accepted a loan large 
 enough to pay her hotel bill for a month, and the fol- 
 lowing day he gave her a sufficient sum to re-engage 
 her maid. He called her "Marie" the day after, and the 
 day after that he induced her to call him by his first 
 name. 
 
28 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 It was now early in March. She had told him that 
 her maid was going to a suburban town to visit rela- 
 tives on a Wednesday. Soon after noon of that day 
 the sky became overcast, and a fitful rain fell, while 
 strong winds moaned through the leafless trees in 
 Union Square. There was a savage gloominess about 
 the day that caused one to desire to escape from 
 nature, and to yearn for human sympathy. 
 
 When she opened the door to him he noticed that 
 she had been weeping. She started back as though in 
 surprise when she saw who it was, and caught her 
 negligee gown together at the throat. 
 
 Before she had time to utter a word he seized her in 
 his arms and covered her face with kisses, commanding 
 her to cease her sorrowing about things that could be 
 easily remedied. Her gown fell open again, and he 
 put aside the hand that would have closed it. She pro- 
 tested, at first strongly, then feebly, then not at all. 
 And it was after dark when they emerged together, she 
 perfectly attired for the street and leaning contentedly 
 upon his arm, while he escorted her to a carriage with 
 tender but masterful solicitude. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 A HONEYMOON IN ITALY 
 
 War's fiery tide had receded, and the nation was 
 slowly and painfully recovering from its scars. The 
 South, crushed by sheer weight of numbers, had 
 finally abandoned its heroic fight, and now lay bleeding 
 afresh under Reconstruction's iron heel. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 29 
 
 The war had ruined legions in many lines. Com- 
 merce and industry were half paralyzed in the North, 
 and in "Dixie Land" most of the fairest plantations 
 had been blighted as by a plague. The happy laughter 
 of the care-free negro in fields of cotton and corn had 
 been replaced by sullen demands for wages that could 
 seldom be paid. The lullabies with which black "mam- 
 mies" had sung their white charges to sleep were suc- 
 ceeded in many a cabin by wailings for the death of 
 their own offspring, who had been slain by their exas- 
 perated former masters in secret bands of lawless night 
 riders. 
 
 All classes in every section felt and would feel for 
 many years the weight of a war the most destructive 
 the new world had ever known — all classes, that is, 
 except one. Those who dealt in money had found 
 war a source of even greater gain than peace. The 
 mounting of the public debt from less than sixty-five 
 millions to more than two and three-quarter billions, 
 or about forty-three times what it had been, dismayed 
 many a patriotic heart, but it did not dismay the money 
 changers. By the system which they had devised, the 
 war for liberty and union was now netting them and 
 their clients at least fifty millions a year, and would 
 continue for many years to profit them as much. 
 Special taxes upon trade and industry for a generation 
 or more would be needed to meet this drain upon the 
 national treasury. Not since the beginning of public 
 debts in the days of Queen Anne, when the English 
 began to engage in so many long and costly continental 
 wars, and Parliament decided to put the burden on 
 posterity, had a single war fallen so heavily upon a 
 people. And never had the money changers so profited 
 from the disasters of a nation. 
 
30 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 As Asa Gorman explained it to his nephew : 
 
 "Congress was induced to pass a law providing that 
 the owners of such government bonds as were depos- 
 ited in the Treasury receive the total sum of their face 
 value, less only ten per cent., while continuing to draw 
 full interest on them. Thus what amounts to a double 
 interest is being paid. And bankers are gratuitously 
 allowed to issue currency on the basis of the deposited 
 bonds, and charge interest on the currency. At the 
 same time they are relieved from paying taxes on the 
 bonds. That is one reason I have started a national 
 bank, while continuing as a private banker as well. 
 Our total profits as a result of this bond scheme some- 
 times go as high as fifty per cent, in a year, or even 
 higher, when money becomes unusually stringent. 
 Who would not be a banker in this age and country, 
 Clay?" 
 
 When the elder Gorman had returned from England 
 at the war's close, he was already one of the richest 
 men of his time. But this was not enough for him. 
 He wanted to be the very richest. He joined the 
 clique of financiers who, in many devious ways, were 
 undermining the people's rule in State and national 
 legislatures, to obtain laws that would still further add 
 to his wealth and power. Some of the most eminent 
 politicians, who to the masses were known as states- 
 men, were his aids. In return for their help, they 
 were given blocks of stock in various enterprises, or 
 sold government bonds on the most favorable terms. 
 Young Gorman used to wonder what the masses would 
 do if they could understand what was taking place. 
 That the immense majority could not understand, 
 only increased his contempt for them. 
 
 Meanwhile, a new aristocracy of wealth was rapidly 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 31 
 
 rising in the North, and this aristocracy was fully rep- 
 resented at the wedding of Clay Jefferson Gorman on 
 a May evening in the year 1868. The scene was a 
 home in what was then upper, but is now lower Broad- 
 way. There were sounds of music, revelry and song 
 from within, and of laughter and gay chatter from 
 under the trees on the broad lawn that was a-light with 
 Japanese lanterns. The tall wooden palings that in- 
 closed the lawn kept out the curious public, but did not 
 prevent a view of the pretty outdoor scene. 
 
 But here and there about the lawn fair heads were 
 bent together, and "Ohs" and "Ahs" and suppressed 
 gigglings were heard, and the fair heads were quickly 
 drawn apart when anyone of masculine gender ap- 
 proached. These heads belonged to the friends and 
 acquaintances of Millicent Lawton, the bride. They 
 were discussing the details of the approaching cere- 
 mony, no doubt. And perhaps, too, they were saying 
 that although the bride was to be envied in some 
 respects, in others she was not, since she must share 
 his affections with another. For it had become known 
 in some circles that the groom was fond of a certain 
 actress, and that he continued to spend much of his 
 time with her even while paying attentions to Miss 
 Lawton, the daughter of Obadiah Lawton, whose 
 banking house, the chief rival of the Gorman firm, 
 would be allied to the Gorman interests by the mar- 
 riage. But whatever anyone, including the bride's 
 parents or the bride herself, may have heard of this 
 subject, preparations for the union had not halted. 
 
 And now, in a few moments, to the strains of a wed- 
 ding march played by an orchestra concealed behind 
 palms, the bride and groom marched down the broad 
 stairway, and under the Morris hangings of the draw- 
 
32 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 ing room door into the presence of a "distinguished 
 and brilliant company," as the newspapers of the next 
 morning had it. Here they said their vows, received 
 their congratulations, and smiled their happy appre- 
 ciation of it all, and then joined the company at a 
 banquet. 
 
 And some of the company were really distinguished, 
 too. It is true that there were no war heroes, 
 no statesmen, no artists, no philosophers. But fully 
 a dozen among the guests could prove that they had 
 attended the ball given to the Prince of Wales when 
 he had visited the city some eight years before. And 
 one of the ladies present had danced with the Prince 
 himself, who had autographed her programme. 
 Another had been allowed to stand by his side while he 
 reviewed from a balcony of the Clarendon Hotel a 
 procession given in his honor. There were, besides, 
 several other guests who were on the visiting list of 
 the first American woman to bear an old world title. 
 
 At the conclusion of the banquet a toast was drunk 
 to the young couple, and then, amid a shower of rice, 
 they stepped into a carriage and were driven to a pier 
 to board a steamer that sailed at dawn for Europe. 
 
 Their honeymoon travels included London, Paris 
 and Vienna, and thence they went to Italy. They 
 were to remain in Rome for a full month. Millicent 
 had never been abroad before, and she enjoyed every 
 hour of their journeyings. She was particularly 
 enraptured with the Eternal City. The many cathe- 
 drals, the art treasures of the Vatican, the melancholy 
 and hoary mystery- that brooded over the ruins, the 
 thought of the great tragedies, the glorious deeds 
 enacted in ages past upon the very ground she now 
 walked on — all this appealed to her strongly. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 33 
 
 She had been well educated, and she possessed a 
 genuine love for classic art. Next after her social 
 position, due to her father's fortune, she had attracted 
 her husband by her ability to talk understandingly and 
 well upon many subjects. As to her physical qualities, 
 she had a good form and a handsome face, illumined 
 with fine dark eyes. 
 
 She had admired Clay for his knowledge of the 
 world, and for his ability in winning her father's 
 approval over three other suitors. Long before their 
 first meeting she had heard of him as a young finan- 
 cier who was so successful that ere he was twenty-five 
 he was able to contribute a thousand dollars toward 
 the building of St. Mark's Church. She did not know 
 just how his success had come, but she felt that he must 
 be an exceptional young man. And his wooing had 
 been so impetuous. From the first he had simply taken 
 entire possession of her time and of her mind. She 
 liked to be won that way, and she had soon yielded. 
 
 He did not enthuse with her over the ruins of Rome. 
 But he did admire much of the statuary, though his 
 thoughts about it were vastly different from hers. In 
 the museum of the Vatican, for instance, he wondered 
 why the holiest of men should live among so many nude 
 figures, even if these were only of marble — figures 
 which depicted the loves and liaisons of the sensual 
 deities of paganism. And he speculated upon the 
 morals of the ruling pontiff. 
 
 Millicent had first suggested that their wedding trip 
 be taken in the United States, and that Gettysburg 
 and other famous battlefields be included. As a patri- 
 otic young man who had laid the foundations of his 
 fortune in that war, he should have been interested 
 enough to visit at least a few of its scenes. Perhaps 
 
34 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 he should have stood upon the field of Gettysburg and 
 resolved, with Lincoln, "that these dead shall not have 
 died in vain." But he preferred to spend his Ameri- 
 can-made dollars in more interesting and artistic and 
 aristocratic surroundings. 
 
 He thought Lincoln had done very well as Presi- 
 dent, but when assassination had ended his career, he 
 had considered its effect upon the stock market more 
 than in any other way. And as he stood now amid 
 the ruins of the Capitol where Caesar had fallen, he 
 recalled a biographer's eulogistic phrase about Lin- 
 coln : "His life was an epic, and his death, like that 
 of Caesar, beggars the art of Melpomene." Well, what 
 of it ? He was dead now, was Lincoln, cut down in his 
 prime, just when he might have begun to enjoy the 
 fruits of his labors. And if he had lived he would 
 probably have been maligned and vilified in his declin- 
 ing years, when stripped of power and helpless against 
 his traducers. Political glory was so precarious and, 
 in a republic, so poorly paid a thing! 
 
 He admired the strong and masterful leaders who 
 had defeated republicanism in France and Italy. That 
 was the way to do things — as Louis Napoleon had 
 done, making himself Emperor of the French upon the 
 ruins of a republic, or as Victor Emmanuel had just 
 done in Italy, building a throne out of the bones of 
 republican leaders. And Mazzini, who had striven for 
 a lifetime to unite Italy in one great commonwealth, 
 and had retired to die of disappointment — well, he was 
 a fool, or else an adventurer who had been euchered 
 out of the spoils by those cleverer than himself. 
 
 Clay meditated so much during their stay in Rome 
 that Millicent began to fear he was becoming melan- 
 choly. Their hotel rooms overlooked the Corso, the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 35 
 
 main boulevard, and he used to sit by the hour gazing 
 at the passing show. She found him thus one sunny 
 afternoon when she came into his room. He was in 
 the same position in which she had left him when, 
 more than an hour before, she had gone to view one of 
 the ancient churches. 
 
 "See where the fleas have bitten me," she said, open- 
 ing her dress at the neck. (Fleas in Italy know no 
 race, caste or sex, and seem especially to prefer tour- 
 ists.) He saw two red welts disfiguring her fair skin. 
 
 In the earlier, tenderer days of their travels he would 
 have spoken soft and soothing words, and petted the 
 place of affliction or pressed his lips there. But now 
 he merely glanced at it, remarked, "They did bite you 
 hard," and resumed gazing out at the gay throng. She 
 turned away with an indrawing of her lips, and an 
 expression of pain in her eyes. 
 
 The mellow afternoon sun shone upon a colorful 
 scene in the Corso, which temporarily eclipsed the 
 misery and squalor and degradation of the masses : 
 Cardinals, resplendent in their red robes, lolling luxu- 
 riously in carriages ; army officers in the uniform of the 
 newly established kingdom, many of them gold braided 
 and riding high-stepping steeds ; nobles of both the 
 old and the new order, the former proud and haughty 
 of bearing in proportion to their shabbiness ; ambassa- 
 dors adorned with gold lace and other decorations of 
 honor; beautiful women in exquisite gowns, bedizened 
 with jewels, and bright-eyed with interest, or from the 
 use of belladonna; and many merely rich tourists, 
 mostly from America, trailing along in hired convey- 
 ances, endeavoring to shine in the reflected glory of 
 it all. 
 
 Millicent began to plan ways to get him to start back 
 
36 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 to America. She would have liked to stay much 
 longer, but no woman can endure neglect on her 
 honeymoon trip. She could not know that after the 
 first delights of their new life, due mainly to novelty, 
 he had begun to yearn for one who had never palled 
 on him. She could not know that all the beautiful 
 forms of goddesses and nymphs in marble, of bright- 
 eyed, voluptuous Italian maids and matrons in the 
 flesh, had reminded him of another than herself. 
 
 An urgent letter from Asa Gorman the next morning 
 changed his brooding into animated interest in time 
 tables and sailing lists. The house of Gorman, Peyton 
 & Company required his presence on the eve of an 
 election that might mean much to them and their allies. 
 "You know some of the big politicians as well as I 
 do now," wrote his uncle, "and there are many of 
 them to be looked after these days. We must not 
 waste our ammunition by giving campaign funds to 
 the wrong parties." 
 
 The bridal couple left at once for Naples, and two 
 days later sailed for New York. Millicent became 
 happy again, merely to see him brighten into a gayety 
 approaching that of their pre-nuptial days. She did 
 not suspect that the Other One across the sea, who 
 had been recently widowed, and to whom distance lent 
 an added enchantment, was waiting for his return. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 HIS FIRST RAILROAD 
 
 "These railroads," said Asa Gorman, after a day 
 filled with conferences, "are going to have a wonderful 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR Z7 
 
 lot to do with running this country. If I were a 
 younger man I would be interested in railroads beyond 
 the marketing of their stocks and bonds." 
 
 He did not say this directly to Clay. He uttered it 
 musingly, as he sat puffing a fragrant cigar and 
 gazing idly out of his plate glass window at the hurry- 
 ing throngs in Nassau street. It was a year after his 
 nephew's return from abroad. 
 
 There were many more lines in the elder man's face, 
 and the sacks of flaccid skin under his eyes had grown 
 much larger in the past few years. His hair was thin- 
 ning rapidly, and on top of his head he was almost 
 bald. His hand shook at times, too, as though with the 
 palsy. Old age was claiming him for its own, though 
 his years were not yet three score. "Perhaps I've 
 stayed too close to the grind," he said. "Wine, woman 
 and song should not be mixed with business, but a little 
 gayety now and then helps to keep one young. And 
 it's been all work and no play with me. No, I've had 
 too much work in life already, and I will keep out of 
 railroads." 
 
 Clay had now progressed to the point where he 
 relieved his uncle of most of the work of the office. 
 He not only attended to clients, but directed the firm's 
 activities among both State and national politicians, 
 and told the lawyers what was expected of them in 
 many important cases. A few years more and, he 
 promised himself, he would be the actual head of the 
 firm instead of a minor partner. It was "Asa Gorman 
 & Company" now, and he was the company. Peyton 
 had retired to build himself a palatial home, and, by 
 spending a tenth of his fortune in public benefits, had 
 become known as a philanthropist. 
 
38 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 In expressing a wish to get "interested in railroads," 
 his uncle had spoken Clay's own thoughts. He had 
 begun to long for a more active life. He was not 
 of a disposition to sit quietly by and enjoy merely the 
 sight of money flowing in a goodly stream into his 
 coffers. Nor did slothful ease, nor even dalliance in 
 the boudoir of the most charming actress of the day, 
 attract him for long. The force that was stored up 
 in his being demanded other outlets. He craved action 
 — action, preferably, that would vastly increase his 
 wealth, but action for its own sake rather than not at 
 all. The walls of the banking house were too much 
 like a cage to him — a pleasant cage, even a gilded 
 cage, but a cage, nevertheless, and fit to be only a rest- 
 ing place, not a permanent abode for his eagle-like 
 spirit. 
 
 He liked that idea : the idea that he was an eagle. 
 Napoleon was an eagle — the eagle of Austerlitz, whose 
 wings were broken at Waterloo. Yes, he, too, was 
 an eagle, and he would be a Napoleonic eagle in the 
 world of finance. He looked about in preparation for 
 his first long flight. 
 
 Railway building was then attracting some of the 
 best business talent of the day. Men of nerve and 
 daring were making enormous fortunes out of those 
 bands of steel which were binding the States together 
 in a stronger union than ever political ties had bound 
 them. And the power these men acquired was propor- 
 tionately stronger than the power of civil magistrates. 
 In fact, the latter were often but the tools of those 
 more dominant personalities whose rule did not depend 
 upon popular approval. Already there were more than 
 thirty thousand miles of railway in the republic, or 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 39 
 
 about as man)- as the two greatest European countries 
 together had. "And the railway power is in its 
 infancy," his uncle had often said. 
 
 Clay's knowledge of law made him the more anxious 
 to try his wings. He knew how much richer than in 
 any other land were the prizes to be won in railway 
 exploitation here. And what he did not know his 
 uncle told him. 
 
 "In Great Britain and on the Continent," Asa Gor- 
 man said, "borrowing powers are granted to builders 
 in very limited degree, and generally for only one- 
 fourth of the capital, and the debenture or other obli- 
 gations respecting the authorized debt are esteemed as 
 a security of the highest character for investment, and 
 are usually guaranteed by the government. But here, 
 borrowing powers are exercised for the most part 
 under general laws, and without limitation, so that 
 often all the actual capital for building a railway is 
 raised by forms of debt, while the share capital is 
 issued solely for the contractors' benefit, and affords 
 no guarantee or margin for protection of indebted- 
 ness. 
 
 "This means, in plainer language," he went on, 
 "that any group of men that possess or can borrow a 
 small margin of capital are allowed to build a railway 
 wherever they see fit, subject only to judicial regula- 
 tion. And 'judicial regulation' is something that any 
 one as familiar as we are with the workings of prac- 
 tical politics should not be afraid of. Judges are all 
 human, you know." 
 
 "A good many of them own stocks and bonds in the 
 roads whose cases they decide, and yet the people 
 never seem to think of that," remarked Clay. "You 
 
40 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 remember old Judge Allenby, whom Gluten and Bliss 
 let in on the Bedling road's stock?" 
 
 "Surely, I remember that matter, and many others. 
 The explanation seems to me just this : All judges 
 have been lawyers, and lawyers, as a class, are men 
 originally without property, and their chief business in 
 life is to protect property. It is more than a mere 
 saying that 'Possession is nine-tenths of the law.' You 
 find that in Blackstone, don't you? Well, the gentle- 
 men of the law, whose mission in life is mainly to aid 
 people who have possessed themselves of property 
 to keep possession of it, are not going to waste much 
 of their talent in — what was that philosophical word 
 you brought back from Heidelberg? 'Casuistry' — 
 that's it. They can't let conscience figure very largely 
 in it. As I was about to say, as long as these guar- 
 dians of property get a good share of what they guard, 
 they will not look behind the scenes too closely to 
 learn the methods whereby it was acquired." 
 
 "Napoleon once said," Clay rejoined, "that 'Provi- 
 dence is on the side of the heaviest battalions.' Per- 
 haps we should revise that dictum for modern use by 
 saying that in contests before courts, 'Providence is on 
 the side of the largest pocketbook.' " 
 
 "Excellent! Excellent!" and Asa Gorman cracked 
 the parchment-like skin of his face into smile. "In 
 other words, property is the god of law. And yet, how 
 the people do look up to law and lawyers ! It is won- 
 derful how many of them study the law, too. Maybe 
 it is because it's so great an aid in politics and business. 
 Long ago, I heard that more copies of Blackstone 
 had been sold in America than in England. Lawyers 
 are usually in the majority in Congress, often 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 41 
 
 immensely in the majority there, as well as in most of 
 the State legislatures. But we should never interfere 
 with this general regard for lawyers. It has helped 
 me in many a big deal." 
 
 "But about the railroads," Clay resumed, fearing 
 that the old man would continue indefinitely in vain- 
 glorious reminiscences if he should get started in that 
 line. "Towns are springing up fast in many of the 
 new States, and are simply crying for railroads. 
 Legions are pouring in from Europe every day to help 
 swell our population. The country is now gaining a 
 million a year." 
 
 "Yes," said the uncle, "and the people are so eager 
 for railroads that they don't stop to haggle over the 
 terms of the builders. Speculators are given rights 
 that could be sold at immense premiums. Instead of 
 selling franchises, county and town boards freely grant 
 perpetual rights of way. This is not all. They donate 
 bonds toward the building, besides the State and federal 
 bonds that are loaned by millions of dollars' worth to 
 builders. We have handled many of these, and they 
 make my hands itch to go out and get hold of the 
 roads themselves. In this State alone, forty millions 
 have been taken from the treasury to help railroad 
 promoters, who at the same time are given power to 
 dictate to the people what they shall pay for using 
 the roads thus built. Oh, if I were not so old, I would 
 get in the game." 
 
 "And the bribery scandals never seem to amount to 
 much," added Clay. 
 
 "Pooh ! Of course not. The public memory is short, 
 and there are too many people high up in the transac- 
 tions to let any very large cat out of the bag. Take 
 
42 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 that Credit Mobilier affair, for instance — the American 
 Credit Mobilier, I mean, not the French." 
 
 "Ye a , tell me about that," said Clay, who found this 
 the most interesting conversation he had ever had 
 with his well-informed relative. "I was on my honey- 
 moon trip when things happened, and I didn't get a 
 clear idea of it." 
 
 "Well, our house pulled down a big share of the 
 proceeds in that, so I ought to know something about 
 it. The Union Pacific, as you know, was the first 
 road across the Western plains and mountains, and the 
 only one, as yet. A group of daring spirits put the 
 thing through — the political end of it, I mean, and I 
 helped along in a financial way. My share was forty 
 thousand of the fund put up to be used in Congress. 
 The law that was finally passed gave the promoters 
 every alternate section of land on both sides of the 
 track, besides the right of way itself, along the whole 
 length of the road through half a dozen States. Two 
 hundred million acres, or more than three hundred 
 thousand square miles, have been granted in this way — 
 principally to the U. P. crowd — and the promoters 
 were the principal gainers." 
 
 Clay did a little figuring on a sheet of paper before 
 him. 
 
 "That's more land than there is in all of France," 
 he said, looking up from the figures. "It's a greater 
 area than the original thirteen States together." 
 
 "Besides all this," his uncle went on, "sixty millions 
 in federal bonds have been loaned the builders, and 
 these very lands that were donated were given as 
 security. By God, that was a deal for you!" and the 
 old man smacked his lips. "Of course, there was a 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 43 
 
 little scandal in Congress when the details came out, 
 and a few members who were proved to have accepted 
 gifts of stock had to resign, but nothing more serious 
 happened. As I said, my share of the expenses was 
 forty thousand, and my profit from placing the bonds 
 was half a million." 
 
 "There is no precedent in history for such a land 
 grant, is there?" asked his nephew, whose study of 
 the law had given him a liking for precedents. 
 
 "Precedents?" repeated the uncle. "There don't 
 need to be precedents for things done in this country 
 of glorious opportunities. Ah, if I but had my life to 
 live over again ! 
 
 "But say," he said, suddenly, arousing himself from 
 his half pleasant, half melancholy meditations, "if you 
 want to see what you can do in railroads right now, 
 I've got an idea. The stock of the New York and 
 Tallahanna road is going a-begging because of a war 
 between two sets of directors. The line runs from the 
 Hudson to the heart of the rich coal lands of Penn- 
 sylvania. Though it's short, its possibilities are 
 immense. Other bankers look askance at its securities, 
 but we have got hold of a large block, and I think 
 we should have more." 
 
 A few days later there was a new figure at the meet- 
 ing of the stockholders of the New York and Tella- 
 hanna road. The company's headquarters were in 
 a side street, near the Gorman offices. It seemed that 
 Fate itself had bidden young Gorman to take a hand, 
 for he had only to walk a few hundred steps to be in 
 the midst of a shouting, gesticulating crowd of mer- 
 chants, farmers and speculators who wanted some one 
 
44 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 to lead them out of the chaos in which they found 
 themselves. 
 
 He sat quiet for the first half hour, listening to all 
 that was said. Then he moved about, making new 
 acquaintances and renewing old ones. The profes- 
 sional stock traders or speculators he already knew. 
 These were taking the most prominent part on both 
 sides in the fight for control, though none of them 
 had ever given as much as a dollar of his own money 
 toward the building of the road. One of them, a 
 former politician, had been elected president of the 
 road by his faction, and his side Gorman championed. 
 It was through his uncle that this man had acquired 
 his stock cheaply. 
 
 The opposition was led by two formidable specu- 
 lators, Gluten and Bliss. Gorman knew their strength, 
 but they did not know his. They looked upon him as 
 a mere upstart, a creature of his uncle. Both were 
 older than he in years, and they were, moreover, vet- 
 erans of many a hard-fought financial campaign. 
 Gluten was a clever Jew, whose prestidigitations in 
 stocks and bonds, sometimes bringing him millions 
 at a single move, had given him the name of wizard, 
 and Bliss was a scarcely less able lieutenant. In local 
 politics they had an advantage unsuspected by most 
 of their enemies. They always furnished the funds that 
 elected at least two of the judges before whom such 
 cases as they figured in were to be tried, and Gluten 
 had more than once bought a new court over night 
 when his defeat seemed certain. And when Gorman 
 and his fellow stockholders went to the meeting on 
 the second morning it was to learn that the Jew had 
 made another judicial alliance, for an injunction 
 barred them all from the office. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 45 
 
 "Come to the office of Gorman & Company," said 
 Clay, speaking to the crowd assembled on the side- 
 walk. "Not only will my firm back your cause to 
 the limit of its resources, but we may be able to get 
 foreign financial aid if necessary. Meanwhile, our 
 offices are at your service." 
 
 It seemed only natural, after this, that the young 
 financier should head the list of directors nominated 
 by the ousted faction. A group of farmers were 
 among the most enthusiastic admirers of the new 
 leader. Some of them were influenced by the words 
 of one of their number, when he said, "I like this 
 straightfor'ard young man. Them other fellers is just 
 money pirates without religion. But I know a man 
 that b'longs to the same church he does, and he says 
 young Mr. Gorman 'tends regular. That means more'n 
 a little to me." 
 
 A desperate move was now planned by Gorman and 
 his speculative ally, whom the other faction would not 
 recognize as the president. They sent out emissaries to 
 win over all the engineers, firemen and brakemen. 
 They had got control of some of the engines and cars, 
 and were preparing to operate the line without wait- 
 ing for a decision of court, when Gluten and Bliss 
 appealed to the Governor to order out the troops. The 
 next day the bayonets of five hundred soldiers glistened 
 in the railway yards. 
 
 "Well, my boy, it looks like they'd got you for the 
 present," said Asa Gorman, who had been watching 
 the contest with keen interest. "But since you're in 
 the fight, you ought to stay in it. What's your next 
 move?" 
 
 "It seems to be a matter of influence," replied Clay. 
 
46 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "Is there any court in this town that Gluten hasn't 
 got his grip on?" 
 
 "Hardly a one," replied his uncle. "But there are 
 courts elsewhere, you know. The first move, how- 
 ever, may have to be made at the State capital. Get 
 a vote of confidence from your stockholders, so that 
 you can proceed in your own way, and then I'll give 
 you some suggestions." 
 
 There seemed to be nothing for the Gorman party 
 to do but give him a vote of confidence, and the next 
 day, after receiving that, he consulted with his uncle 
 again. Asa Gorman had aided the man who was now 
 in the Governor's chair, when that politician held the 
 more lowly but in some respects more important office 
 of Speaker of the House in tke Legislature. He had 
 aided him to good investments in return for the Speak- 
 er's service in preventing the passage of a law to reg- 
 ulate the Stock Exchange, which the Gorman firm and 
 its allies did not want to be regulated by either the 
 State or the national government. These and other 
 things were gone over in a long consultation. The 
 Governor's ambition to go to the United States Senate 
 was mentioned more than once. 
 
 Young Gorman and a committee of his followers 
 went to their opponents the next morning with a plan 
 for a compromise. They would make a fair and 
 open proposition ; yes, very fair and open : since there 
 could be no agreement as to who had been elected, both 
 sides would join in writing to the Governor, asking 
 him to appoint some State official to manage the road 
 until a board of directors satisfactory to all could be 
 elected. After four hours of discussion this offer was 
 accepted, and a joint letter was sent to the capital. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 47 
 
 That evening Clay Gorman and an influential politician 
 started on a secret trip in the same direction. 
 
 A few days later the troops had been withdrawn 
 from the railway yards, and the road was again peace- 
 fully carrying coal to supply the public needs. Another 
 attempt was made to elect directors, but, as before, 
 two rival sets were chosen, and there were more 
 charges of fraud. This time the president of the road 
 was accused of illegally issuing some thousands of 
 shares of stock to help elect the Gorman ticket. While 
 this point was being argued in court before a Gluten 
 judge, the Gorman party was making its master move. 
 That secret midnight visit to the Governor's office 
 had not been in vain. 
 
 The Attorney General of the State had, by the Gov- 
 ernor's order, brought a suit against both sets of direct- 
 ors, filing the papers before a judge in the northern 
 part of the State. This judge was a friend of neither 
 faction, but this fact did not prevent his being a friend 
 of the Governor. The petition to him set forth that 
 none of the elections had been legal, spurious votes 
 having been counted for both sides, and that the whole 
 contention should be reviewed by an unprejudiced 
 court. 
 
 Gluten and Bliss were stunned by the suddenness of 
 this move. In the courts presided over by their pur- 
 chased judges, when they could not frighten their 
 enemies into retreat, they could lay pitfalls and ambus- 
 cades, and lure them to their doom. But in the rural 
 districts they were neither known nor feared. When 
 the case was reviewed, the country judge decided for 
 Gorman, and the New York and Tellahanna railroad 
 passed into his control. 
 
48 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WIFE AND MISTRESS 
 
 The conqueror returned, feeling much as he fancied 
 Napoleon must have felt after his first notable victory 
 in Italy. And he could imagine the defeated Gluten 
 complaining, in language similar to that of the veteran 
 Austrian general at Montenotte : "He violated all the 
 rules of war. He attacked before daylight, and struck 
 from the flank, the front and the rear all at once and 
 without warning, and acted in all things without order 
 or precedent." 
 
 But while the losses in the engagement at Monte- 
 notte were some thousands of lives, there had been 
 comparatively few casualties in the struggle between 
 Gorman and his foes. There were two train wrecks, 
 due to incompetent workers hired to replace those who 
 had been induced by bribes to desert their posts. 
 Eleven persons were killed in the first wreck, twenty- 
 two in the second. The State troopers had shot sev- 
 eral workmen while guarding the railway yards. Of 
 course, shippers of merchandise had suffered losses 
 amounting to thousands of dollars in perishable goods, 
 and an epidemic of cholera in a mining town had car- 
 ried off scores of children because physicians from 
 the city could not get there in time. But the suffer- 
 ings of non-combatants were seldom counted in esti- 
 mating the losses of war. 
 
 "Only the brave deserve the fair," was a refrain 
 that ran through the victor's mind as he rode in his 
 splendid private carriage to his new home in upper 
 Broadway. He had once read a poem with such a 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 49 
 
 refrain. It was about Alexander the Great, if he re- 
 membered rightly, but he never had a good memory 
 for poetry. He approved the sentiment, however, and 
 he thought that it should apply to himself. Why 
 should there not be choruses of young girls to strew 
 roses in his path, and put chaplets on his brow, while 
 a beautiful princess — perhaps a fair captive — awaited 
 his return at the end of a triumphal procession ? Here 
 was a fine carriage, it was true. But there were only 
 the solemn coachman and footman to greet him with 
 a merely respectful "Good evening, sir," and they 
 would have been just as respectful had he been de- 
 feated, so long as their wages were paid. 
 
 Well, he would enjoy the fruits of victory, soon or 
 late — as soon as his beautiful Marie returned to the 
 city, in fact. If she were only here to-night! 
 
 It was Saturday evening, and the next morning he 
 was to drive to church with his wife. He was now a 
 vestryman in St. Mark's, and he regularly attended 
 services with her whenever he was in the city. She 
 saw so little of him at other times that she was always 
 glad when Sunday came. The rector and the parish- 
 ioners thought them a devoted couple. And the pass- 
 ing of the contribution plate by Gorman was regarded 
 as a kindly and generously performed task by one 
 whose very presence was a bulwark of religion. 
 
 But, in truth, Millicent and he saw less and less of 
 each other as time went on. They even had separate 
 chambers, after the manner of fashionable foreign folk 
 whose homes he had visited. His occasional absences 
 over night became more and more regular, and finally 
 were regarded by her as a matter of course. His 
 excuses were always the same, "Business conferences," 
 and the words were spoken in tones of increasing curt- 
 
50 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 ness until she ceased to make inquiries. Before the 
 end of a year she took up church work to fill part of 
 the great void in her existence. 
 
 Returned from Sunday morning service, he was rest- 
 less all the day, reading a little but brooding more. At 
 last, throwing upon the mahogany center table of the 
 library a book of Jefferson's political philosophy which 
 had brought many a sneer to his face, he looked 
 toward his wife and said: "I'm going down to the 
 Everett House this evening. My lawyer wants to talk 
 things over with me and one or two others. And I 
 may have to take another little trip out of town." 
 
 She laid down her copy of St. Elmo, over which 
 she had often thrilled and sighed in years past, and 
 in which she was now trying to get interested again. 
 She had riches, servants, carriages, she had fashionable 
 gowns and jewels, and with all these she had social 
 prestige as great as she had ever wished for as a novel- 
 reading girl. But not finding romance in real life, she 
 had returned to the kind of fiction that she had loved 
 in her youth in order to recall those gilded visions that 
 had once filled so many day dreams. 
 
 "Very well, Clay," she responded, quietly. "I was 
 hoping you might be home to-night, for the Hudsons 
 thought of coming in for a while. They are the only 
 neighbors you seem to care anything about." 
 
 "Oh, Hudson's not a bad sort, but he lacks nerve," 
 he said, as he put on his top coat and pushed back the 
 forelock that had fallen over his brow, the while 
 regarding himself approvingly in a pier glass. "He 
 held back from buying any New York and Tellahanna 
 stock until I had put Gluten and Bliss out of the game. 
 And the case had hardly been decided yesterday when 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 51 
 
 he sent me a message saying that he wanted to get in. 
 He won't do." 
 
 He started away, but turned before reaching the 
 door, walked back to where she was seated and gave 
 her the kiss she expected, but which she knew he 
 bestowed only because it was expected, a knowledge 
 that made it worse than tasteless. Then he sauntered 
 carelessly out of the door, down the graveled path 
 and past the stone pillars that formed the gateway 
 to the brick wall which fenced their colonial home. 
 He did not turn and wave his hand in farewell, as he 
 had never failed to do during the first half year of 
 their married life. She went up to her room half 
 blinded with tears, to spend another night in mourning 
 for her dead love, and in praying for a child. 
 
 He returned from the conference after midnight — 
 for this time he had really attended a business confer- 
 ence. The next evening he remained at home, and he 
 was more cheerful, and more considerate of her feel- 
 ings than he had been for many weeks. He even con- 
 sented to play checkers with some members of St. 
 Mark's church, who unexpectedly called. 
 
 Millicent was nearer happy than she had been for 
 an entire year. She did not guess, and she could not 
 know, as she had never dared to search his pockets, 
 that his mood was due to a letter with a Southern post- 
 mark upon it which he had received that morning. 
 The letter exhaled a perfume remindful of its writer, 
 and it read like this : 
 
 "My Own Deat?: 
 
 "Your poor Marie is not so happy to-day as she was 
 when yon last saw her. Her eyes are red from weeping, 
 and there is no one to kiss the tears away, which makes 
 her weep asrain. Ah, if you were only here to comfort 
 her in her loneliness and misfortune! But I can write to 
 
52 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 you, knowing that the horrid ocean no longer divides us, 
 as it did during those long weeks when you were away 
 with — with another — another whom you have sworn yott 
 can never love as you love me. That assurance in your 
 last letter, which I have just read, is the one bright and 
 shining star in a sky otherwise dark and storm-clouded. 
 
 "If only our company had kept out of the South! But I 
 had not been here since my poor dear mamma died, and 
 I wanted to see dear old New Orleans again. And our 
 manager thought that by this time the large Southern 
 towns would pay well enough. But from the time we 
 left St Louis things went badly. At Memphis, at Nash- 
 ville, at Natchez, at Mobile, at Baton Rouge, the attend- 
 ance dwindled more and more. It is not that the best 
 people — the kind that would come to our plays — have a 
 prejudice against a Northern troupe. They are above that 
 in matters of art, and besides I was born in the South, 
 and many of them know it. But the class that supports our 
 kind of theatricals are still working to build up ruined 
 plantations, and they have no time or money for amuse- 
 ments, and the commercial people who have begun to 
 make the most money in railroads and things don't know 
 how to spend it. 
 
 "Why, just think, dear, I have worn the same street 
 dress ever since I left New York in August — and this is 
 November fifteenth! And I have worn out my last pair 
 of silk stockings. I dare not raise my dress above my 
 ankles in crossing a street, for I must not be known to 
 wear cotton ones. Part of the troupe left us at Mobile for 
 lack of salaries, and we have had to double up in parts 
 since. Two nights ago Mr. Hammond, the manager, 
 decided it was no use, and closed after the second per- 
 formance of 'The Taming of the Shrew,' when we had 
 intended to play for a week. And here we are in Louis- 
 ville, unable to raise enough money to get us even as 
 far as Pittsburgh. And I, with a board bill of sixty-six 
 dollars for myself and maid, and almost too shabby to 
 appear on the street! 
 
 "Oh, my dear, if I could only be back in New York where 
 I could be comforted by you as no one else can comfort 
 me! That dear hotel apartment where we were so often 
 happy together! And those drives in the park, and over 
 country roads at dusk, when I sometimes had to make you 
 behave — ah, will I ever be happy again!!! 
 
 "If I were there now I know I could organize a better 
 company of my own, and start over again this season. 
 There is a rich manager of another company here who 
 wants to advance me five thousand dollars. But I don't 
 like the way he looks at me, even if he is thought hand- 
 some by some women. Yet he is so kind, and it seems 
 that so very few people m this dark and gloomy world 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 53 
 
 are kind to your Marie any more. She is lonely and 
 miserable, and doesn't know what do. Write her a nice, 
 long letter. Your last one is now her most precious 
 possession, and it reposes next her heart. The way you 
 referred to Napoleon's letters to Josephine — how he sent 
 her kisses, but didn't want her to send him any, since they 
 always set him on fire, and how you wanted me to send 
 you kisses, even if they did burn, as you would willingly 
 be consumed in such a flame — ah, that was so beautiful 
 and full of meaning! 
 
 "I must close now, for I would not worry you, dear, with 
 all your business and matrimonial cares. There is one 
 woman to be envied above all others in this world, and 
 she is there by your side. And there is one to be pitied 
 above all others, and she is here — your sorrowful and 
 lonely but loving "Makie." 
 
 When Gorman had finished this, he picked up an 
 order he had just written to a furrier for a complete 
 set of sealskins for his wife's birthday. He tore that 
 to fragments, and then he wrote a long letter, enclosed 
 a check of large size, and mailed it to Louisville. 
 
 A week later, in a closed cariage, he crossed on the 
 ferry to Jersey City to meet a train from the West. He 
 did not return home that night, nor the next night, 
 nor for several nights thereafter. Two weeks later 
 the dramatic columns of all the newspapers announced : 
 
 "Marie Dalton, after an only partly successful tour of 
 the West and South, has formed a new company of her 
 own, to play a repertoire of the best classic and modern 
 drama. She will spend the remainder of the season in 
 New York." 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 A PROFIT OF ONE MILLION 
 
 "Why, Clay, you almost take my breath away !" said 
 Asa Gorman, looking at him with new interest and 
 admiration. "I myself would hardly have dared to 
 
54 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 float so much capital on such a road. It's seventy-five 
 thousand or more for each mile. But I'm proud of 
 you, and I hope you can make it go." 
 
 "Oh, the bonds are being placed all right, and so 
 are the stocks. The investors, of course, don't know 
 that the hundred and fifty miles of road could be dupli- 
 cated for thirty thousand a mile. But the value I have 
 set on it will be realized soon, for I have made a com- 
 bination with the rival line on rates, and besides, the 
 natural growth of the coal traffic will help along. Of 
 course, some of the securities will have to go to Bilkins 
 and his crowd of the other road." 
 
 "And the new capital is eight millions !" mused the 
 old man. "And on top of that, four per cent, bonds to 
 the amount of three millions more will be floated. 
 Well, our international prestige will probably carry 
 it through. It's lucky that Gluten is so busy corner- 
 ing the gold market, or else he might turn his bat- 
 teries on us in revenge." 
 
 "Yes, I decided that this was the psychological hour 
 to put the deal through," said the younger man, draw- 
 ing complacently on a strong Havana, and watching 
 the rings float lazily out of the open office window 
 into the April sunshine. "There's only a little criticism 
 so far, which comes from a paper whose owner is 
 friendly to a small clique of stockholders whom I 
 wouldn't let in on the cutting of the big melon. The 
 paper is the Luminary, and it has quite a following, 
 because Dalaman, who runs it, was in Lincoln's cab- 
 inet. As if that made any difference in Dalaman's 
 motives !" 
 
 "It makes no actual difference in his motives, but the 
 Lincolnesque halo he wears makes a difference in the 
 public mind," rejoined the uncle. "You've got to be 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 55 
 
 careful how you handle the press. The libel laws are 
 looser here than in any other country, and sometimes 
 one paper can start an agitation that will smash the 
 biggest of plans. Gluten's success is largely due to the 
 fact that he owns one paper, and knows how to influ- 
 ence others at critical times. And I have headed off 
 more than one attack by diplomacy. 'Give a hound a 
 bone,' is my motto, when the chase gets too hot. Dala- 
 man probably wants a share of those stocks, or maybe 
 he'd prefer the bonds, as he's pretty wise, and if you 
 let him in on low terms, he will probably give no more 
 space to those complaints." 
 
 "I haven't told you what my share for reorganizing 
 the road is to be," Clay resumed, after a time. "Of 
 course, I and my friends will run things, but besides 
 controlling a majority of the stock I have placed a 
 million of the bonds to my personal credit." 
 
 "A million? Well, I think that beats any single 
 deal thus far pulled of! by anyone. But what do the 
 stockholders say to that?" 
 
 "Some of them squealed, but I had them in a cor- 
 ner. I said, Til place these securities on the terms 
 named, or not at all.' The prestige of our house, and 
 the politicians in our following and whose non-inter- 
 ference I told them I felt sure of, made them realize 
 that they would better come to my terms. Besides, the 
 promised rise in rates helped to win over the principal 
 kickers, for it will really make their new shares worth 
 more than the old ones. Of course, too, I looked after 
 my friends of the new directorate." 
 
 "And now you're a millionaire in your own right," 
 continued the old man, admiringly. "Well, well, and 
 you are barely thirty. I knew you had it in you, 
 though I didn't think you'd do it so soon. But keep 
 
56 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 a cool head. There are as many fine fish in the sea as 
 were ever caught. Always be an optimist in the mar- 
 ket — a bull, as they say on 'Change. This country is 
 going to outdistance the world in business, and the 
 railroads are the key to the situation — the railroads 
 and capital. But I am growing old — yes, growing 
 old," and he looked moodily out of the window. 
 
 These words of his uncle started a train of thought 
 in Clay's mind. And long after the old man and the 
 clerks had gone home for the day, and the traffic in 
 the narrow streets of the financial district had ceased, 
 and dusk had settled upon all the marts of trade, and 
 the gas lights at street corners shone upon only an 
 occasional wayfarer, he sat, meditating. 
 
 A million dollars ! He had "made" within much less 
 than one year the amount of the President's salary as 
 it then was for forty years. He could retire now, and 
 continue to receive as long as he lived,, and his heirs 
 after him could receive indefinitely an income from this 
 million, at the modest rate of five per cent., of twice the 
 President's salary. Why, then, should he long for the 
 fleeting glory, with its puny financial rewards, of the 
 greatest office possible to win in this country? 
 
 A million dollars ! It was more than the King of 
 Saxony received in a year for the support of all his 
 royal household. Was not he, Gorman, then, in the 
 class of royalty, by virtue of his surpassing financial 
 legerdemain ? Aye, and he was superior to some of the 
 proudest of European monarchs in his income for this 
 year, and if he kept on at the rate he was going, what 
 triumphs were not possible? But to consider this year 
 alone : There was the Queen of Holland, with her civil 
 list of three hundred thousand, and the King of Servia, 
 with his paltry two hundred thousand, and the King of 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 57 
 
 Wurtemburg, with his five hundred thousand. These 
 three monarchs together received only as much as he 
 had made by a single Napoleonic coup in finance. 
 
 A million dollars ! His mathematical mind pondered 
 the sum. A dollar a day was the wages of a laborer 
 on his railroad — his railroad, on which he had never 
 traveled till after it became his, and parts of which he 
 had not seen even yet. If such a laborer, who digged 
 in the soil, and laid the ties, and fastened the rails to 
 them, and did other back-breaking work to make his 
 dollar each day, were to undertake to make a million 
 dollars, how long would it take him? Why, it would 
 take a million days, without allowing for holidays or 
 for accidents, for sickness, or pestilence, or famine. 
 It would take a million days to make, not to save, a 
 million dollars. And by dividing the figure 1,000,000 
 by 365, one might learn the number of necessary years 
 of toil. The answer was 2,739. Two thousand, seven 
 hundred and thirty-nine years would be required, not 
 counting a twelvemonth or two extra on account of 
 leap years, and the laborer would have to be endowed 
 with immortality. And where would this take him in 
 history? It would take him back eight hundred years 
 before the birth of Julius Caesar, and more than eight 
 hundred years before the appearance of the Crucified 
 One, whose name Gorman glorified in the hymns he 
 sang every Sunday morning. 
 
 Just then he felt a pang in his stomach, which re- 
 minded him he had forgotten dinner. He suddenly 
 felt very hungry. His cigar had long since gone out. 
 He lighted another to appease his appetite until he 
 reached home, and left the office. 
 
 As he stepped upon the sidewalk, he saw a bent and 
 aged man under the gas lamp on the corner. The man 
 
58 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 was poorly dressed, and he walked with a shuffling 
 gait, and Gorman knew that he was a beggar before he 
 heard his whining plea for alms. The old man's eyes 
 lighted up as he saw the large diamond in Gorman's 
 cravat and the heavy gold watch chain which hung 
 across his stomach from pockets on either side of his 
 silken waistcoat. 
 
 "I have not had a bite to eat since yesterday," he 
 began, and his gaunt appearance justified his words. 
 
 Gorman had been in the habit of giving to any beg- 
 gar who seemed really deserving a twenty-five cent 
 piece. But now he felt in his pocket, brought forth 
 several quarters and dimes, and carefully selected one 
 of the smaller coins. He handed this to the beggar, 
 put the rest back in his pocket and then walked hur- 
 riedly away. 
 
 He was feeling, in greater degree than ever before, 
 the responsibilities of wealth. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 HIS FIRST-BORN 
 
 "It is a boy, Clay," the fond mother said, holding 
 aside the silken hangings of the canopy of the Napo- 
 leon bed. 
 
 His soul had expanded with a joy that only the 
 father of a first-born child may know. And it was a 
 joy greater than that felt by the ordinary father, as 
 his ambition was greater. Now he would have an heir 
 and, as the child was a male, a successor to his growing 
 fortune and — dominions. Yes, his estate would be 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 59 
 
 such that a common word would not express it. It 
 should and would be something worthy of a child born 
 in the kind of bed in which his child had first seen the 
 light of day. 
 
 He had bought that bed of an impoverished French 
 widow, who had lived near his uncle's mansion. It 
 had been in her family's possession since the days of 
 the Empire. Regally it stood upon its massive posts of 
 carved mahogany, its feet shaped like a lion's claws, 
 its four tall supports to the canopy topped by bronze 
 eagles. He had slept in the bed ever since his bachelor 
 days, and until several months after Millicent had 
 become enciente (he preferred the French word), 
 when it was moved into her chamber. 
 
 For the first time in two years there had been some- 
 thing akin to rapture in the kiss he gave her when she 
 said, "It's a boy, Clay." And for the next few days 
 she had been nearer happy than at any time since the 
 early days of their honeymoon. He showered her with 
 Marechal Niel roses until she reposed upon a couch 
 of golden, fragrant beauty, and he waited upon her 
 with all a lover's gallantry, and gave her frequent 
 caresses with almost a lover's fervor. Was she not 
 the mother of his heir — his heir, who was to succeed 
 to his dominions? And he had begun to fear that she 
 would not have a child, after all. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE GREAT REORGANIZER 
 
 "I see that another railroad wants you to reorganize 
 it," remarked Asa Gorman, looking up from his morn- 
 
60 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 ing paper, as Clay entered the office. "You didn't tell 
 me about it. This makes five, doesn't it, in the last two 
 years ?" 
 
 "Yes," said Clay, "and this is the biggest of all. I 
 didn't mention it because I was not yet sure. The news 
 must have been given out at the Ohio headquarters 
 of the road. That means they have come to my terms." 
 
 "How you do put the deals through ! I take as much 
 pride in them as though I myself was the moving spirit, 
 instead of being an old man who lacked foresight in his 
 own youth. Here, take this Havana — it's the real thing, 
 and hard to get nowadays, since the Cuban revolt is on. 
 Now tell me about this latest deal." 
 
 "Well, uncle," said Clay, lighting the fifty-cent cigar 
 and whiffing the smoke ceilingward in graceful 
 wreaths, "without your aid and prestige from the 
 beginning, I wouldn't have been half so good at this 
 reorganizing business. But about this latest," and then 
 he narrated his work in putting another system on its 
 financial feet, and told of his plan to place two mil- 
 lions in securities to the credit of Gorman & Company. 
 
 "It was high time something like this was done to 
 bring order out of chaos," mused the old man, after 
 the recital. "The situation is frightful, compared 
 with any other country in the world. A hundred rail- 
 way systems have been wrecked by their organizers, 
 and interest payments defaulted on near half a billion 
 of bonds, and State and national governments have been 
 euchered out of the many millions they were so kind 
 as to loan to the promoters. If this were a monarchy, 
 and the people knew how things had been going, the 
 throne would be overturned damned quick." 
 
 "I suppose you know," said Clay, "how men of straw 
 have held shares amounting to as much as half a mil- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 61 
 
 lion each in some companies, while many directorships 
 were filled by the same man ?" 
 
 "Yes, and how porters and office boys have been 
 made directors to vote for extensions or for contracts 
 to supply materials at enormous prices to enrich the 
 ruling clique. Many other crooked deals have been 
 put through. There is not one American road upon 
 which some or most of these things were not done, 
 and on which they will not continue to be done. But 
 there is no comparison in the world with the land 
 grants and government bond issues, and the over- 
 capitalization." 
 
 "But many of these things strike me as petty and 
 unscientific," Clay went on. "Agreements on rates, the 
 organization of supply companies on a large scale, re- 
 bates to powerful shippers to put rivals out of busi- 
 ness, and the respectable selling of stocks and bonds 
 on 'Change, based on whatever capitalization we want 
 to fix — that is the way to do things." 
 
 ''Fine ! Fine ! I see you've got the scientific idea," 
 chuckled the old man. "And always look after the 
 politicians, too — the leaders, you know. Never mind 
 the small fry." 
 
 "Of course not," returned Clay, lighting another 
 cigar. "The Napoleonic idea of going to the centre 
 is the thing. If you get the strategic centre, the rest 
 is easy. Now, there's the Governor in this State, and 
 the chairman of the State Committee. They know how 
 to do things, and the little politicians know they will 
 get no party promotion if they oppose them. And so 
 it is in " 
 
 "The politicians are getting more greedy, though," 
 Asa Gorman broke in. He was occasionally hard of 
 hearing, and he often interrupted another person thus 
 
62 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 unless he saw the other's lips moving. "Thirty dollars 
 a man used to be the price in the New York Legislature 
 and it seldom went above fifty. Now it's a hundred. 
 Some want four or five hundred, and others will take 
 thirty or forty, so I'm told, but the average is a hun- 
 dred. In Massachusetts, and in a few far Western 
 States, the average is about fifty. Of course, there's 
 always some that won't be induced to vote one way or 
 another if they don't want to, for any consideration, 
 not even political promotion, but the majority can 
 always be won over. That's been the experience of De 
 Blick and his crowd, anyhow, and they've got the rail- 
 roads of this State and Jersey well in hand." 
 
 "Oh, yes, the majority always can be handled," said 
 the nephew. "And what can't be done in one State can 
 be done in another. Gluten bought a whole county- 
 ful of free and independent citizens in West Virginia 
 recently to put through an important connection for 
 one of his roads — lined 'em up and gave 'em two to five 
 dollars each, and thus beat the county board which was 
 trying to keep him out. The same thing's been done 
 in other States. They say Gluten never bothers to elect 
 anyone to office. He waits till after election and then 
 goes after the men he needs. He says it's simpler." 
 
 "Yes, but campaign funds and stocks and bonds are 
 the more scientific — always remember that," and the 
 old man never looked more serious, or more wise 
 "Gluten is a brilliant meteor, but he leaves too many 
 tracks, and he rouses strong opposition — needlesslv so, 
 I think." 
 
 "Speaking of greedy politicians," continued Clay, "I 
 don't know of any whose greed equals that of the fed- 
 eral judge who ordered the sale of the J. and B. road 
 which I'm going to reorganize. He appointed one of 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 63 
 
 his former law partners receiver, and the receiver's fee 
 for simply selling the road, and which the court cheer- 
 fully allowed, was fifty thousand — for one hour's work, 
 mind you. Of course the judg"e must have got at least 
 half of that." 
 
 "Oh, yes, those fellows come high. But never 
 oppose them, except through some other lawyer. The 
 courts are the best bulwark that our financial struc- 
 ture has. And remember that in two decisions : the 
 Georgia land grant case in seventeen-ninety some- 
 ing, and the Dartmouth College case as argued by the 
 great Daniel Webster, the federal Supreme Court has 
 done more for property rights than was ever done by 
 the judges of any one other court in the world. These 
 decisions are the twin pillars of modern corporate 
 power. In the first case there had been charges of 
 bribery, but it was decided that no matter how the 
 Legislature was influenced to make its grant, the grant 
 must stand, even though the succeeding Legislature 
 tried to rescind its action. In the second, the court 
 held that a charter once granted could not be revoked 
 for any cause. So, you see, the judges by these decis- 
 ions, and by their ability to maintain their superioritv 
 to law-making bodies, though the Constitution does not 
 give them that superiority, have made themselves indis- 
 pensable to our class — especially the federal judiciary, 
 who are appointed for life." 
 
 "You have a good command of law, even if you are 
 not a lawyer," said Clay, admiringly. 
 
 "But I have a better command of lawyers," amended 
 the old man. "Now, take Burlemuth, our clever 
 counsel " 
 
 "That reminds me," interposed his nephew, taking a 
 
64 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 letter from his pocket "Here is something from 
 Burlermith. He seems to know how to do things, as 
 this will show. Your wisdom in picking him off the 
 bench to make him our chief of counsel in Pennsyl- 
 vania at twice his official salary is justified. But read 
 this." 
 
 Asa Gorman took the letter and read : 
 
 "Our new reform Governor does not yield to the usual 
 arguments, and we will have to bring about the desired 
 result in some more indirect manner. As you know, the 
 general distrust of the Legislature, due to disclosures as 
 to how coal and other lands have been given away in past 
 years, led to the passage of especially stringent laws 
 against bribery. The penalties were doubled, and the 
 language of the statute is more sweeping than that in any 
 other State. 
 
 "It was particularly hard to obtain the passage of the bill 
 so much desired by the New York and Tellahanna stock- 
 holders — the one permitting one railway company to own 
 the shares of another company, so that an advantageous 
 combination of roads could be brought about Legislators 
 feared to vote for even so worthy a measure, on account 
 of the state of public feeling. However, the desired 
 result has been brought about A full report of the lega.t 
 expenses involved will be made upon my return. But now 
 the Governor proves a stumbling block. He wants another 
 term, and he fears that even such a thing as the possession 
 by him of railway stocks or bonds would be construed by 
 some persons as something in his disfavor, if it should 
 ever become known. He was elected on a reform wave, 
 and he has Senatorial ambitions. 
 
 "Well, to get to the point: He has some waste land 
 somewhere in the Allegheny foothills, upon which he is 
 willing to take a mortgage of thirty thousand. He wants 
 to send his family upon a tour of Europe, and then build 
 a new house for them to move into as soon as they return. 
 He is so busy planning these things that he tells me he 
 has had no time to think over the merits or demerits of 
 that railway bilL If I were to take that mortgage off his 
 mind he could find time to consider the bill, and I believe 
 he would consider it favorably. There may be— remem- 
 ber, I do not say there are — but there may be rich coal 
 deposits underlying his land. Anyhow, we should be 
 willing to take chances, and in the interests of the New 
 York and Tellahanna I am willing to assume the mortgage 
 if allowed the necessary legal expenses." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 65 
 
 "By God !" ejaculated the old man. "That is a new 
 one, but it is clever. Well, you're running that rail- 
 road, and you know best what to do. I've always 
 found, for my part, though, that the way to succeed 
 is to succeed." 
 
 The genius of young Mr. Gorman in extending the 
 New York and Tallahanna road and in doubling its 
 dividends that year added greatly to his reputation. 
 
 His fortune now mounted rapidly. His fee for reor- 
 gaizing a road grew to be a million and a half, then 
 two millions, and, finally, in the case of a great sys- 
 tem, three millions. He began to be looked upon as the 
 greatest and safest of all reorganizers. He seemed to 
 be the one man who always knew what to do and fear- 
 lessly did it. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 A POLITICAL CONTEST 
 
 "What a splendid fight you are making, James! 
 You are a host in yourself. I shall be proud of you, 
 prouder even than I now am, if to-night you can put to 
 rout those clever debaters imported to champion the 
 railway's cause, and win over an opera house full of 
 hostile people." 
 
 "I don't doubt that I can win them over, if I am 
 allowed to make my argument without interruption," 
 replied Congressman Delaval. "But remember that, 
 even though I am elected to the Senate, it will be only 
 the beginning. There is probably but one, or perhaps 
 there are two Senators in Washington, who dare to 
 
66 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 favor government ownership of roads. There are 
 immense obstacles to overcome before one of the big* 
 parties will take up the cause in a national election." 
 
 "Ah, but you are sure to bring it about, if any one 
 can," said the Congressman's wife, with confidence 
 born of pride, as they drove through the streets of 
 Richmond on the way to the meeting. "I cannot 
 imagine any obstacle that you can't overcome, since 
 you have done so much." 
 
 "There are dozens which I can imagine, however." 
 he responded, grimly, though he smiled at her words, 
 feeling a thrill of happiness over her devotion. "Some 
 of my most powerful aids have been seduced away 
 from me in this contest. I myself was offered, only 
 last week, four times the salary of a Senator if I would 
 become chief counsel of the Virginia Central for Gor- 
 man." 
 
 "But of course you refused?" 
 
 "I sent back word that there was not enough money 
 in the federal treasury to cause me to go over to the 
 interests I have been fighting so long. I want those 
 people to understand that there is one lawyer in politics 
 who is not for sale." 
 
 She kissed him as the carriage halted before the 
 opera house door, and then, to the mingled sounds of 
 acclaim and disapproval, the sidewalk crowds parted 
 to make way for the speaker of the evening to enter 
 the hall. 
 
 Beaten in the courts after three years of effort to 
 prevent Gorman's reorganization of the Virginia Cen- 
 tral, Congressman Delaval had decided that the only 
 way to curb the railway power was for the govern- 
 ment to own the railroads. He had twice been elected 
 to the House on the issue, and now was fighting his 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 67 
 
 way into the Senate. He was a magnetic orator, and 
 the money that was poured out to defeat him produced 
 little effect. Only an occasional member of the Legis- 
 lature could be elected without a pledge to work for 
 Delaval for Senator. His campaign had stirred up 
 the Old Dominion as it had not been stirred since the 
 close of the war. His success now would mean a pow- 
 erful impetus throughout the country to the cause of 
 government ownership. It seemed that at last after 
 many years of costly misrule, the people might come 
 into their own. 
 
 "The railway power in America," he said in his 
 speech that night, "is already the most gigantic 
 power in the world's commercial history, and it is 
 advancing at a rate that augurs ill for the future 
 of the republic. We now have more railways than 
 Germany and Great Britain and France and Austria 
 combined. And we have all of the ills of manage- 
 ment which those countries know, magnified many 
 times, and we have few of their benefits. I could 
 cite volumes of facts to prove this, but a few will suf- 
 fice. And I shall begin by quoting, not from a political 
 pamphlet, but from a book written by one of the Wall 
 Street oligarchy— by none other than Richard Burton. 
 It is entitled Twenty Years on the Stock Exchange. 
 In a moment of frankness, he says in this book : 
 
 " 'The actual cost of a railroad is ordinarily less than 
 fifty per cent, of the stock and bonds issued against the 
 property and its first mortgage exceeds the amount of 
 legitimate actual cost of building. Beyond the profit 
 made from construction, there remains in the hands of the 
 builders the ent.re capital stock, besides any second mort- 
 
 foTA° P M S <n 7^ have reCeived from Illative bodies, 
 to be held for future appreciation, and to maintain control 
 of the company, and be ultimately sold on a market deftly 
 manipulated for that purpose. ucitiy 
 
 * 'The hundreds of millions of dollars so suddenly ac- 
 
68 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 cumulated by our railway barons is the measure of this 
 iniquitous taxation, this perverted distribution of wealth.' 
 
 "Out of the mouth of the railway dragon itself, as it 
 were, has come its own condemnation. And yet the 
 majority of voters, who do not know the truth and 
 who, as the railway power controls more and more of 
 the public press, and puts more and more of its puppets 
 in office, may never know the truth, are regularly in- 
 fluenced to record their approval of the monster which 
 devours their substance and, by fearful wrecks due to 
 greedy management, devours increasing numbers of 
 themselves. 
 
 "How docs it devour their substance? In a multitude 
 of ways. The blood of the very government which fos- 
 tered it is now being sucked out by this monster. 
 We have a postoffice department that is supposed to be 
 managed by the nation in the interest of the nation, but 
 is really managed by the railways in the interest of the 
 railways. No other postal system in the world is con- 
 ducted at a loss to the government. The reason is, in 
 a word, that the American railway power takes mil- 
 lions more every year from our department than it 
 earns in carrying the mails, and then points to a postal 
 deficit as a warning against government ownership. 
 
 "We Americans do not like to be compared with 
 other peoples unless favorably. But is it not time that 
 we knew the truth about this frightful dragon that is 
 gripping the nation's vitals? On the government- 
 owned railways of Germany and Austria, not even 
 the Minister of Railways can accept a pass. The Ger- 
 man Emperor himself, when he travels, buys a ticket. 
 The King of Great Britain also pays his fare. In 
 France the railways agree to carry all government offi- 
 cials free, and so the privately owned roads there can- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 69 
 
 not subsidize them thus. And in France the roads will 
 eventually revert to the nation without compensation to 
 their owners. What a difference in America ! Here a 
 gigantic loot of the national treasury " 
 
 At this point a terrific uproar was started in the cen- 
 tre of the hall and the disorder quickly spread to all 
 parts of the audience. A gang of political workers had 
 been imported from New York and Philadelphia, and 
 at a signal from the leader they broke forth into yells, 
 cat-calls and hisses. "He's slandering the country," 
 "He's a liar," "He's un-American," "Down with the 
 demagogue !" were some of the cries. 
 
 Fist fights were started in a dozen places, and the 
 police were called. The next morning the chief news- 
 papers said the violence of Delaval's utterances had 
 started a riot. But so strong was his following that 
 he was elected to the Senate with many votes to spare, 
 and the next winter he took his seat amid demonstra- 
 tions of the greatest popular approval. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A SPEECH IN THE SENATE 
 
 Speeches in Congress sometimes reveal great truths 
 in splendid fashion. But there are so many poor 
 speeches, and so much time is taken up with debates 
 over dry and wearisome details, that it can seldom be 
 told in advance when an oratorical effort will be worth 
 while. Even when a famous orator is announced to 
 speak upon a great question the result is often disap- 
 pointing, for an orator is not always sure of being elo- 
 
70 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 quent. The subject, the hour, the man, must all con- 
 spire to produce a fine oration. And a fine oration 
 may not be appreciated when delivered. Many a 
 forensic masterpiece has fallen upon hostile or unbe- 
 lieving ears, and, discredited and forgotten almost as 
 soon as uttered, has been filed away in dusty archives, 
 to be resurrected in some distant time when the public 
 mind is better able to understand its truth and beauty. 
 
 Such an oration was that delivered by James Delaval 
 in the Senate on a March afternoon of the year 1882. 
 
 "Your father will not have a very large audience 
 to-day, I fear," said Mrs. Delaval, who sat in the gal- 
 lery with her son, a serious faced lad in his early teens. 
 
 "Why is that, mother?" he asked. He had melan- 
 choly brown eyes like hers, and a high forehead and 
 a thin-iipped mouth, like his father's. "Doesn't he 
 always have lots of listeners ?" 
 
 "He used to, Arthur dear, but now so few of his 
 speeches are ever printed, or when printed they are 
 distorted or belittled by the principal newspapers. And 
 of late few papers will announce his speeches in 
 advance. They call him a demagogue." 
 
 "What is a demagogue?" 
 
 "Demagogue is a Greek word, meaning one who in- 
 flames the passions of the multitude for selfish pur- 
 poses. Your father was never that, but the people are 
 being made to believe it, and that is almost as bad 
 for him as if he were really such. You see, all the big 
 capitalists are now against him. At first it was the 
 Gorman power alone, and then as the others, like 
 Gluten and De Blick and Plaster and Burton, saw 
 what a force he was becoming in public life, they 
 joined with Gorman to help discredit him." 
 
 "Why should Gorman hate my father?" 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 71 
 
 "Because his campaigns have cost Gorman and his 
 friends millions. His speeches keep investors out of 
 Wall street. The oligarchy will never forgive him 
 that." 
 
 "What is an oligarchy ?" 
 
 "Oligarchy is also a Greek word. The first part of 
 it means few, and the second part means government. 
 Oligarchy, then, is the rule of a few persons over the 
 many. And C. Jefferson Gorman, since the death of 
 his uncle, seems to be the leading spirit of our new 
 oligarchy. When you begin studying Greek next month 
 you will see what beautiful words the people of old 
 Greece had for even the unbeautiful things of life. 
 And when you go to the German university you will 
 learn how the philosophy you study there can be 
 applied to life in America. But see, there is your 
 father entering the hall below us — through the middle 
 door he comes, leaning on his secretary's arm." 
 
 "Is that father? Oh, yes, I recognize him now. But 
 how old he looks, and haggard, too. What a change 
 in the seven months I have been away to school !" 
 
 "Time is not the only maker of old age. Six years 
 ago, when he came here, he looked twenty years 
 younger than he does now. The past year has aged 
 him more than any other. But listen, if you want to 
 hear a real demagogue. One is speaking now — a Sen- 
 ator from Texas, who has been accused of bribery." 
 
 The Texan was at that instant brushing back a long 
 mane of hair from his brow, while he declaimed : 
 
 "I come from the State where the Alamo was 
 defended by those heroic men — those immortal heroes 
 more brave than Achilles' hosts at Troy, more resolute 
 than the Greeks at Thermopylae, more heroic than a 
 regiment of Horatiuses at the bridge." 
 
72 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Here he was interrupted by thunderous applause 
 from his constituents in the galleries. 
 
 "But what has that to do with bribery?" asked 
 Arthur. 
 
 "Nothing, my son. That is the way, however, to 
 make the people forget about corruption. Ah, he has 
 finished speaking, I am glad to see, and the matter has 
 been referred to a committee. And now your father 
 is going to speak. See how the other Senators are 
 leaving the hall. Most of them take that method of 
 showing disapproval of him. He stands almost alone 
 now in his fight, but he is greater than they all." 
 
 Senator Delaval began with a masterly array of facts 
 against the railway manipulators, and concluded with 
 these words : 
 
 "The government must own the railways, or the rail- 
 ways will own the government. An overwhelming 
 vote has just defeated the party that made this its slo- 
 gan, yet the truth lives. Majorities may be wrong, 
 and I think they often are wrong, and when they are 
 wrong it is our duty to set them right. Bismarck, that 
 giant among modern statesmen, has nationalized the 
 railways of his country. How did he do it? He him- 
 self has said that 'the great questions of the day are 
 not decided by speeches and majority votes, but by 
 blood and iron.' What is true of Germany is true, 
 with a slight difference in terms, of this country. The 
 great questions of the day among us are not decided by 
 speeches and majority votes, but by cunning and gold. 
 
 "Oh, that we had a Bismarck to give real unity to 
 our loose confederation of States, and create a central 
 power strong enough to endure beyond a few fleeting 
 years, and to enforce respect for its mandates — a power 
 to match if not to overcome our oligarchy of traders, 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 73 
 
 who are daily growing more arrogant and greedy and 
 terrible ! 
 
 "It is a wondrous tale of empire-building, the story 
 of American railroads. In many parts it is like a song 
 of man's triumph over the hostile forces of nature, but 
 in others, alas ! it is like the Republic's funeral dirge. 
 We have penetrated wildernesses with the iron horse, 
 and in those quondam trackless solitudes fair cities 
 and beauteous homesteads have sprung up as though 
 in response to a magic wand. We have laid our 
 rails of steel across the desert sands, and where in 
 former days the tired feet of famished travelers sank 
 in glittering wastes that dragged them down to hellish 
 deaths, while vultures soared aloft in waiting for a 
 feast, the swiftest trains now thunder past, annihilating 
 space and carrying man on wings of steam more sure 
 than vultures' wings. We have bridged the chasms 
 and the mightiest rivers, and have tunneled mountains 
 whose majestic peaks are capped by snows eternal. 
 
 "Through coldest winters, you of the North have on 
 your tables all the fruits the Southland knows, and in- 
 land citizens may eat the oyster and the finest dishes of 
 the sea almost as soon as they are caught. The Eastern 
 factory and the Pacific orange grove are now as 
 though in neighboring counties. Yes, mankind is 
 served by this new power as were the gods of old in 
 poets' dreams. Our carriers of steel and steam are 
 swift as winged chariots, and we daily taste ambrosial 
 foods from distant gardens, and we know by messen- 
 gers more fleet than Mercury the things that happen 
 daily 'round the globe. 
 
 "But beware! These instruments of power are pass- 
 ing into fewer and fewer hands. The nation which 
 so lavishly has fostered them is now itself in danger. 
 
74 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Already does it play the vassal to the railroads where 
 it should be master. And the people of no State or 
 section are secure from plunder. The growing profits 
 of the Western farmers drew their greedy eyes, and 
 every year the freight rates were put higher until now 
 some forty millions more are paid to transport wheat 
 than was exacted but a few years since. When Con- 
 gress passed a tariff law to aid the lemon growers, the 
 railroads were the only gainers. They raised the rates 
 and took the profits — none could force them to dis- 
 gorge. Towns are built or towns are ruined as these 
 bandits will, and woe to those who fail to pay them 
 all the tribute asked. 
 
 "Where are the steamboats of yesteryear? Gone 
 with the galleons of Spain. The proud craft which, 
 on many a river, floated grandly past, are seen no more, 
 or perhaps are represented by mere travesties of what 
 they were. The hoarse and musical blast that like a 
 Titan's horn once woke the echoes is displaced now by 
 the shrill metallic shriek of locomotives. Tracks were 
 built to parallel the steamers' routes, and rates cut 
 down until the water lines were throttled, when the 
 rates went up again. Canals were likewise paralleled, 
 and in the same way were reduced to impotence. 
 
 "And now the railroad power is supreme. And day 
 by day this power grows in arrogance and greed. 
 Unless we take it by the throat it's bound to have our 
 heart's blood. It may be likened to the fabled serpent 
 in the Trojan war : instead of being a heavenly gift, 
 the gods mayhap have sent it as a punishment upon a 
 nation false to its ideals. Beware! or it will seize the 
 fair Republic as the serpent seized Laocoon, and, fold- 
 ing it in coils of steel, crush out its life and drag it to 
 the depths of hell !" 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 75 
 
 The Senate chamber was almost empty as he 
 finished. The president sent pages scurrying about 
 the ante-rooms to recall enough members to vote for 
 adjournment. The galleries were vacant save for Mrs. 
 Delaval and Arthur, and a few yawning reporters. 
 The early darkness of a winter's day had fallen and a 
 mournful wind shrieked about the statue of Liberty 
 on the Capitol's dome, coating the figure with ice, and 
 veiling it with swirling robes of snow. 
 
 During the remainder of his term the Senator had 
 few friends among his colleagues. There were some 
 others indeed who thought as he did, but for fear of 
 being suspected of too great friendliness for one whom 
 they knew to be a marked man, they mostly avoided 
 him. And when he stood for re-election the power he 
 had attacked reached out, seized him in one of its coils 
 and crushed out his political life. He was denounced 
 as a Utopian dreamer, as a demagogue who sought 
 to make himself a king, as a disappointed schemer who 
 had been thwarted in his ambition to own the Virginia 
 Central, and lastly as one who had actually become 
 insane from brooding over various impossible dreams 
 and schemes. His very name became a jest and a 
 reproach, and his memory was discredited by all save 
 his closest friends. 
 
 END OF BOOK FIRST 
 
BOOK SECOND 
 
 MERCEDES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 AN INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGE 
 
 "I tell you, sir, the elder line of the Bourbons is 
 extinct. The Count de Chambord was the last." 
 
 "Who, then, is the Count de Paris ?" 
 
 "He is a grandson of King Louis Philippe, and a 
 representative of the younger, or Orleans line," 
 
 "And is not this Count de Dalcerand next in suc- 
 cession T* 
 
 "Certainly not. Philippe, Due d'Orleans, will suc- 
 ceed as head of the royal line. The Count de Dal- 
 cerand is only a distant relative." 
 
 A high social function was in progress at the new 
 Dawson mansion in Fifth avenue, just off Washington 
 Square. This dialogue, which took place in the smok- 
 ing room before dinner, was characteristic of the con- 
 versation among many groups of guests. The dinner 
 was in honor of the Count of Dalcerand, and most of 
 New York society was there to meet him. The Count's 
 engagement to Helen Dawson, daughter of the Gov- 
 ernor, had just been announced. Mr. and Mrs. Gor- 
 man, as the closest friends of the young woman's 
 
 77 
 
78 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 parents, were among the first to receive invitations, 
 and though Gorman did not often go anywhere with 
 his wife, save to church, he made an exception in this 
 important case. 
 
 The time was in the middle eighties, when American 
 society, as typified by its New York representatives, 
 was undergoing a change. A half century before, Mrs. 
 Trollope had compared America with a bride, the hus- 
 band being Independence, for whom alone she had eyes. 
 But the country now had eyes for other things than 
 independence. It was even a mark of distinction in 
 society to know the names and histories of the various 
 pretenders to the French throne, although thrones 
 were no longer the fashion in France itself. 
 
 These were the days when the overflowing abund- 
 ance of wealth had left the lower avenues and was 
 showing itself uptown. Manhattan Island, below the 
 point where the Harlem River empties into the Sound, 
 is shaped like a boot with not much of a heel, and a 
 tiny, sharp-pointed toe. From a map one gets the 
 impression that in this boot the State of New York 
 is walking toward New Jersey, having used Long 
 Island as a stepping stone. Until the middle of the 
 nineteenth century, the main part of the city was in the 
 toe of this boot. It was still there when Gorman, as a 
 country youth, arriving on a midnight train from New 
 England, beheld from afar the brilliant gas-lighted 
 streets and the glittering horse cars, and felt himself 
 to be in an enchanted city full of wonders and of 
 riches. 
 
 At that time society was yet partly entrenched in 
 the dark corners of Pearl street, Hanover Square and 
 Exchange Place, and Battery Park was the favorite 
 promenade, though social advance guards had begun 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 79 
 
 to invade Cedar street, Maiden Lane and John street, 
 and the handsomer thoroughfare called Liberty street. 
 But now society had abandoned that section to business 
 and to tenements for the poor, and was establishing 
 itself in the wider reaches of Fifth avenue and Broad- 
 way to the north and west. A few fine residences had 
 been built as far north as Central Park, though on 
 the Harlem Heights nearby humble shanties yet 
 housed the poor, and Irishmen's goats browsed upon 
 scanty vegetation among tin cans and signboards, fur- 
 nishing ideas for illustrated jokes to the comic weeklies 
 just then blossoming into vari-colored existence. 
 
 Brownstone mansions with narrow lawns guarded by 
 iron pickets were succeeding the colonial dwellings 
 that had been set in the midst of spacious greenswards 
 and surrounded by wooden palings. And pavements 
 of asphalt were being laid instead of the cobblestones 
 and cedar blocks of older days. Electric lights were 
 displacing gas, and underground cables and overhead 
 trolleys were propelling cars in many streets in lieu of 
 horses, and elevated trains were running by steam 
 power on steel trestles over some of the business thor- 
 oughfares. At this time, too, the telephone was com- 
 ing into general use. 
 
 And the era of great fortunes had begun — fortunes 
 of fifty to one hundred million dollars, and there had 
 set in the worship of the owners of these fortunes by 
 the masses whose eyes, dazzled by the increasing bril- 
 liance of the new society, could not see clearly how 
 these sums had been accumulated. This decade saw 
 the beginning of lavish donations to libraries and uni- 
 versities, and the erection of a great art gallery, and 
 of a grand opera house, where the costliest produc- 
 tions in the world were given. It was the time, too, 
 
80 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 when numerous of the new possessors of wealth began 
 to show their contempt for mere money by bizarre 
 entertainments, at some of which a single night's fun 
 would cost many thousands of dollars. At several 
 affairs the hosts had been known to pelt their guests 
 with paper wads which, upon being opened, were found 
 to be fifty- or hundred-dollar bills. And yet famous 
 foreign visitors, after being entertained by this society, 
 usually went home to say, "Broadly speaking, there is 
 no culture in America." 
 
 New York had become the third city of Christen- 
 dom in size, and was aspiring to exceed Paris and rival 
 London itself. The first "skyscrapers" were rising to 
 twenty stories or more in height, and the largest hotels 
 in the world were being built. The Brooklyn Bridge, 
 a titanic connecting link of steel, had been flung, pier- 
 less, across the waters of the bay to bind Brooklyn yet 
 closer to Manhattan. 
 
 The city was being aided to greatness by all of 
 Europe. It had ceased to be a city of Americans, and 
 had become the polyglot commercial capital of the new 
 world. Already its foreign-born population was more 
 than half, and by the end of the century was to become 
 three-fourths of its total. New York had first been 
 Dutch, and then it became British. After the war of 
 the Revolution Americanized it, the Irish had flocked 
 there. Following the revolutionary troubles of the 
 forties in Germany and Austria, the Teutons came, and 
 after Bismarck's repression of democratic tendencies 
 in the new German empire, came more Teutons. The 
 Irish continued to come. And now the Russian Jews, 
 and immigrants from Poland and from Hungary, Aus- 
 tria, Italy and elsewhere in southern Europe were fill- 
 ing its tenements, and by their votes were helping to 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 81 
 
 decide its destiny — generally as ordered by political 
 bosses. Already the city contained, including the 
 boroughs it was soon to annex, more Germans than 
 Hamburg, more Irish than Dublin, more Italians than 
 Venice, more Poles than Posen, and more Jews than 
 Jerusalem ever knew. It had newspapers published in 
 ten languages. 
 
 The Statue of Liberty had been completed, and 
 nightly the harbor's approach was lit up by the gigantic 
 torch which she held aloft. This statue was the gift of 
 the people of France to the people of America, a tribute 
 of esteem from one republic to another. And it, as well 
 as the other most notable feature of the harbor, the 
 suspension bridge, was designed and built by foreign 
 talent. The statue was the work of a Frenchman, 
 Bartholdi, and the bridge, of Germans, the Roeblings. 
 
 But while its population was mostly foreign, New 
 York's representative society was still American. And 
 in increasing numbers the members of this society 
 were traveling abroad and discovering that the old 
 world had much to teach. Smart foreign frocks were 
 to be seen with growing frequency upon modish folk, 
 and many foreign-made traps joined in the regular 
 Sunday procession in Central Park. It was even said 
 that some of the bangs and bustles then in vogue had 
 been imported by their fair wearers. 
 
 Greater numbers of French maids were seen wheel- 
 ing baby carriages, and French governesses were in- 
 stalled in many homes. English butlers were seen in 
 numerous households. (American butlers were not 
 respectful enough). There was no longer a hired 
 girl in any rich family. All feminine servants were 
 maids. Dressmakers were modistes, cooks were chefs, 
 not a few country estates had become chateaus, and in- 
 
82 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 ternational marriages were alliances. To wed for the 
 sake of money or position was to make a marriage de 
 convenance. A marriage beneath one's station was a 
 mesalliance. Boulanger's March was being played in 
 streets and music halls. Opera bouffe was the favorite 
 kind of play. 
 
 Opera bouffe was the favorite, that is, at this particu- 
 lar period, but there was another kind of play that, 
 through decade after decade, proved the best drawing 
 card in American theatres. That was the kind in which 
 royal and other titled characters trod the boards, 
 whether Shakespeare or some one else was the author. 
 And perhaps opera bouffe owed much of its popularity 
 to the fact that besides its picturesqueness and tune- 
 fulness it so often portrayed regal joys and sorrows 
 and regal splendors. "The American people like 
 kings," said Edwin Booth, then in his prime, and 
 kingly characters he mostly portrayed for them. 
 
 This was the time when steam yachts and private 
 railway cars came into fashion, and when regal names 
 were applied to them so profusely, as well as to the 
 "palace sleeping cars" that were for hire to the multi- 
 tude. Both on and off the stage the word "palace" 
 was strangely popular in the American vocabulary. 
 
 It was the time when society notes in weeklies like 
 the Town Tatler began to be illuminated with notes 
 like the following: 
 
 "Lady Cecil Sapcappe, of Mouldage Hall, formerly 
 Maude Lawleson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Lawle- 
 son, of the Inter-State Railway system, has just presented 
 her husband, Baron Sapcappe, with a son and heir to the 
 barony. The little chap is distantly related to the Marquis 
 of Drakenham, who is devoted to Princess Maude, a 
 niece of the Prince of Wales, though his devotion is said 
 to be hopeless, as reasons of state forbid the union. How- 
 ever, should the marriage ever take place, an American 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 83 
 
 family would be connected with British royalty, though 
 quite distantly, it is true. Lady Sapcappe was the wife of 
 H. Suffern Moses, the tobacco king. Since her divorce 
 and remarriage, she has never vistcd her childhood home, 
 having severed all her American ties. Mr. Moses, after a 
 brief period of grass widowerhood, married Mrs. George W. 
 Hoopson, nee Harriet Jones, of the distillery family of 
 Brooklyn. There is a son who was the offspring of the 
 Moses-Lawleson union, and he is being brought up by 
 his grandparents on his father's side. His mother thought 
 of adopting him, but was dissuaded by her British rela- 
 tives. She was enabled to make so brilliant a match after 
 her divorce by reason of the million and a half settled on 
 her by her first husband at the time of her marriage to 
 him, and also, perhaps, because of the million in her own 
 right inherited from her father, the late railroad king." 
 
 English lords and French counts were still the ob- 
 jects of ridicule in many American-made plays. But 
 these plays were ephemeral. Their very names are 
 now for the most part forgotten. And even while 
 titled persons were objects of ridicule on the stage they 
 had begun to be objects of pursuit by American social 
 leaders. Already more than a score of alliances like 
 the one impending between Helen Dawson and the 
 Count of Dalcerand had turned the attention of think- 
 ers to this peculiar phase of American life. 
 
 One of these alliances was between the daughter of 
 an ex-President and a moneyless Russian Prince. "Un- 
 American and disgraceful," said countless critics. Had 
 the marriage taken place before her father's last race 
 for the presidency, it would doubtless have meant his 
 defeat. But he had been elected twice, and two terms 
 were the limit to such honors. The daughter, seeing 
 that there was to be for her family no more of that 
 temporary kind of glory, sought the more lasting emi- 
 nence of an inherited title, and having obtained it, 
 laughed at her critics. 
 
 Helen Dawson's father had been Vice-President be- 
 
84 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 fore he became Governor, thus reversing the usual 
 order. He was now very wealthy and quite old, and 
 his political ambitions had been fully satisfied. There- 
 fore, his daughter did not wait for his term of office to 
 end before espousing a title. And that two out of 
 three of such marriages had ended unhappily did not 
 deter either herself or her parents. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 A DISCUSSION OF HERALDRY 
 
 The dining room was done in the style of Louis XV. 
 A large screen in five sections, on which were painted 
 portraits of ladies of the French court, concealed the 
 doorway which the uniformed lackeys used in passing 
 to and from the kitchens. 
 
 "Isn't it perfectly gorgeous — reminds me of my 
 week in Versailles," said Mrs. Rhinelander Hudson 
 to Mrs. Stelson Parans. 
 
 "Certainement," replied Mrs. Parans, who had been 
 studying French with the private tutor who was teach- 
 ing her children. "Mr. Dawson," she added, "im- 
 ported the architects who designed this house and his 
 country chateau." 
 
 "Made most of his money in railroads, didn't he?" 
 one of the masculine guests at the next table was ask- 
 ing another at this moment. 
 
 "That, and the big bond deal he and Gorman pulled 
 off together about ten years ago," was the response. 
 "He did pretty well in telephone stock recently, too," 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 85 
 
 was added. "When you're in the Governor's office, 
 a lot of good things are apt to come your way." 
 
 "What a rise he's made in his lifetime!" continued 
 the other. "Before the war he was a clerk in Boston 
 at a few dollars a week. How did he get his start?" 
 
 "Army contracts. And now his railroads hire more 
 men than the United States army and navy together 
 can muster, though he never smelled powder." 
 
 "Well, did any one in this whole crowd ever smell 
 powder, or face a cannon ?" 
 
 "Yes ; there's General Peckham down the line there, 
 the man with the gray beard, seated next to that 
 pretty blonde, who is his daughter. But he wouldn't 
 be here if Gorman and Dawson didn't want him to 
 head their new telephone combination. You see, 
 they're doing what Gluten did after he captured the 
 telegraphs — getting a general with a war record to 
 give respectability and prestige to their concern." 
 
 "How much is he worth?" 
 
 "Who, Dawson? About thirty millions, I should 
 say." 
 
 "Whew ! He ought to be able to buy a title. I 
 wonder how much he's settling on the bride?" 
 
 "Thirty-five thousand a year, I understand. My 
 valet tells me — he gets it from the valet that came over 
 from England with Dawson's man — that Dalcerand 
 wanted fifty thousand: said it would be worth that to 
 be ridiculed by continental society." 
 
 "Ha! Ha! What did Dawson say to that?" 
 
 "Told him he would be hanged if he gave him 
 another cent. Said he could get a German Baron for 
 the same money, and that titles were good in Ger- 
 many. Finally, the Count agreed to his figure." 
 
 "Well, I hope, for the bride's sake, that he won't put 
 
86 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 the screws on the old man at the altar like that English 
 Earl did to a Pittsburgh family." 
 
 "How was that? So many of these things happen 
 that I can't keep up with the news." 
 
 "Why, the Earl of Balmoncton married that girl out 
 of the big steel family — Ethel Brickley. He at first 
 asked more than they would agree to, but then said 
 he'd take her with twenty thousand a year, and a hun- 
 dred thousand extra in advance. Preparations for the 
 wedding went ahead, but at the last minute, when all 
 the guests were in the church, the Earl got the girl's 
 father in a corner and told him flat-footed that he must 
 raise the bid. The bride was waiting in an ante-room, 
 and when she heard of the situation she begged the 
 old man to yield to save the family's face. Finally, 
 her tears and pleadings, added to those of her mother, 
 prevailed, and the old man gave in to avoid a terrible 
 scandal. But the poor countess wishes by this time 
 that she had never met him, so I'm told by young 
 Herbert De Blick, who's just got back from the other 
 side. It's less than a year since her marriage, and 
 she's suing for divorce. The Earl, it seemed, had the 
 lowest tastes, and from the first he neglected her for 
 other women. They say a committee of matrons will 
 be appointed by the court for the purpose of ascertain- 
 ing if what she says is true : that she has never been 
 his wife except in name." 
 
 At this moment an orchestra concealed behind palms 
 started "I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls." 
 The bride-to-be was at the head of the middle table 
 with her fiance, and as the music began she gazed at 
 him with an expression of pride and rapture. 
 
 "How pretty she looks," a woman remarked to her 
 husband. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 87 
 
 "And he's so anemic looking," replied the husband, 
 a coal mine owner. "He's no fit match for her." 
 
 "But just think — he is in line of succession to the 
 Bourbon dynasty," said the wife, who had been read- 
 ing up on French history, and had acquired some 
 phrases to fit this occasion. 
 
 "Pretty far down the line, I'm afraid. I don't want 
 to cast reflections on anyone, for Dawson's not a bad 
 sort; but if there wasn't between fifty and a hundred 
 lives between this count and a bare chance to claim 
 the throne, he wouldn't be marrying on this side of the 
 pond, bad as he needs the money." 
 
 "But he has a lovely chateau near Chantilly, or some 
 such romantic place, where the terrors of the revolu- 
 tion never " 
 
 "Plastered with mortgages," he put in, giving her 
 no chance to perorate. "That's why he came over 
 here. He brought a picture of the castle along as a 
 bait." 
 
 "Oh, Hiram, don't be so utterly critical," she pro- 
 tested. "His title is one of the oldest in France, any- 
 how." 
 
 "How do you know?" 
 
 "The De Blicks hired their expert genealogist to look 
 it up. Why, it's in the Almanach de Gotha," she 
 added, triumphantly. 
 
 "I wonder if the De Blicks got their expert genealo- 
 gist to buy their pictures for them on their last foreign 
 trip?" he returned, unabashed. "I heard down in 
 Wall street the other day that their Corots and Dau- 
 binnies — or Daub-something, I can't remember all 
 these foreign painters' names — were mostly forgeries. 
 They say Americans are easy pickin' in Paris art 
 stores. I'm goin' to keep away from them when I go 
 
88 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 over. I hear the De Blicks are anxious for titles in 
 their family. I hope they'll come out better in that 
 line." 
 
 Their conversation was interrupted by the singing 
 of an Italian tenor. "Cost five hundred to get two 
 songs by that opera singer — Dawson told me so him- 
 self," whispered the coal mine owner. 
 
 There were cries of "Encore?" "Voilat" and 
 "Bravo I" when the song ended. 
 
 "They say the oil people are coming into Wall 
 street," remarked a man to his neighbor. "I should 
 think they'd be satisfied with what they've made in 
 Pennsylvania, by rebates and such things. They're 
 an awfully rich crowd, if they are greasy." 
 
 "Yes, but the Wall street pickings are apt to be 
 richer than anything. What the railroads have done 
 in manipulation, promoters in sugar and oil and other 
 things can do, too, so long as there's no regulation. 
 Have you met the new 'Oil King,' as every one calls 
 him?" 
 
 "No; they say he and his family are not being re- 
 ceived yet. But I suppose they'll break in soon. 
 Between you and me, there are very few families here 
 to-night that were heard of twenty years ago, and if 
 they were let in, why shouldn't such a bunch of money 
 as the oil crowd have got be given a chance to spread 
 around ?" 
 
 "You're right. And they have begun to spend, all 
 right. That was a swell dinner they gave that fake 
 Lord Harrington at Delmonico's. Why, it cost twelve 
 thousand, and it lasted four hours. That's at the rate 
 of fifty dollars a minute. They had real trees and a 
 greensward, and live lambs bleating about. Foun- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 89 
 
 tains played in the centre of the table, and gold fish 
 swam for crumbs that the guests threw in." 
 
 "Think of all that money wasted on a fake noble- 
 man !" 
 
 "Yes, but it gave the Gotells such a reputation that 
 they attracted a real marquis, and now they're repre- 
 sented among the British nobility." 
 
 Seated at the main table was the most select com- 
 pany. Titled persons, or relatives of such, and those 
 whose families had possessed wealth for more than 
 a generation were there. And the conversation was 
 of a higher order than at the other tables. No reflec- 
 tions were made upon the nobility of any country, and 
 nothing was being said about such things as dowries 
 and mortgages. Reminiscences of meetings with titled 
 persons, the scenery of England in summer and of the 
 Alps in winter, the health of the British royal family, 
 heraldry, French fashions, German watering places, 
 and kindred things were being talked about. 
 
 Heraldry had become the specialty of young Herbert 
 De Blick, and he was gratified by the attention 
 attracted by his conversation with the Count of Dal- 
 cerand. He seemed to know even more than the 
 Count about the origin of many armorial bearings. 
 
 "Ha! — you are vairee — what you call expert," said 
 the Count. "Now, I do not study thees, except of m« 
 own famil-lee." 
 
 "What I want to know is, what does 'or' mean?" 
 asked a young woman. 
 
 " 'Or' means gold," replied De Blick. "In engrav- 
 ing it is denoted by small dots or points spread all over 
 the bearing. 'A lion couchant on or' means a lion 
 lying down on a field of gold. Much of history is 
 explained by heraldry. For instance, take the title of 
 
go THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 the French crown prince under the old monarchy. He 
 was called the Dauphin. Now, dauphin mean dolphin, 
 does it not, Count ?" 
 
 "Yes," replied the Count, pulling at his thin black 
 mustache, and smiling inscrutably. 
 
 "It was the crest of the lords of Vienne," continued 
 De Blick. "It arose from the circumstance that Hum- 
 bert the Second, of Vienne, in the ninth century, be- 
 queathed his lordship as an appanage to the French 
 throne on condition that the eldest son of the monarch 
 should always bear the title of Dauphin of Viennois." 
 
 "And what does 'gules' mean?" asked the young 
 woman. 
 
 " 'Gules' means red, or the color of blood. It is " 
 
 At that instant a clamor arose in the street, drowning 
 the voices of the gay company within. And soon, 
 above the din, was heard the shrill treble of a news- 
 boy, crying: "Extry! 'Nother accident at the Noo 
 York Midland crossing ! Five people killed ! All about 
 it!" 
 
 "They kill a dozen or more there every year," re- 
 marked a guest at one of the minor tables. "If the 
 city would only make the road raise its tracks, as is 
 done in cities throughout Europe, those accidents 
 couldn't happen. But the De Blicks have too much 
 influence in politics." 
 
 "Wouldn't they save money by doing it?" 
 
 "No. That's why they won't do it. It would cost 
 a million or more, while damage suits don't bother 
 the road much, with its clever legal staff, and its con- 
 trol of judges. Altogether, three hundred people have 
 been killed there since the war, and hundreds more 
 seem doomed in the next dozen vears or less, since the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 91 
 
 population is growing so fast. Frightful, isn't it? 
 The street has been nicknamed Skeleton avenue." 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 "the whipped dog fears the lash" 
 
 Gorman and his wife were among the last to leave 
 the party. Most social affairs bored him, and yet on 
 this occasion he had been interested throughout the 
 evening. 
 
 When they had returned to their own mansion, a few 
 doors north of the Dawsons' in Fifth avenue, he asked, 
 "How old is Theodora?" 
 
 "Just sixteen, Clay. Why?" she added, though she 
 felt intuitively the reason for his query. 
 
 "I suppose she'll be coming out soon, eh?" 
 
 "Yes, next spring." 
 
 "We'd better take her abroad right afterward. The 
 sooner she mingles in good society, the better." 
 
 "You mean the titled kind?" 
 
 "Well, yes, generally speaking, but there are some 
 over there who have no titles and yet are the right 
 sort." 
 
 "But you mean you want a title for Theodora?" 
 
 "I think it would be advisable." 
 
 "But " 
 
 "We can afford anything in that line to be had, and 
 a title's the thing now in the eyes of our society, as it 
 was bound to be from the beginning." 
 
 "But, Clay, if her happiness is to be considered, 
 
92 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 hadn't we better wait and see whether she falls in love ? 
 Without love " 
 
 "Forget that, and listen to reason for a while." 
 
 She sat down, and pulled her opera cloak more 
 closely about her shoulders. It was a warm October 
 night, but, suddenly, she felt cold. The mild breezes 
 whistling without seemed to be wintry blasts that 
 sought to penetrate her heart. For the past decade she 
 had looked older than he, though she was four years 
 younger; and now, at forty-two, her hair was mostly 
 gray, and there were many lines about her large, dark 
 eyes, which held an expression of settled melancholy. 
 She had lost all taste for society, and had gone to this 
 function to-night in the line of duty rather than as 
 a seeker for pleasure. Denied her husband's com- 
 panionship in almost everything save religious affairs, 
 she saw less and less of society, and lived more and 
 more within herself, lavishing upon her two children a 
 wealth of love which had no other outlet. 
 
 And now ambition, which had robbed her of so 
 much, was about to sacrifice the darling of her heart 
 upon the altar of social prestige. Her son's future she 
 had not hoped to decide. He was finishing his educa- 
 tion at Heidelberg, and would doubtless be trained 
 to succeed his father. But for Theodora, who was 
 barely out of short frocks, she had been dreaming of 
 years of girlhood yet to come, and then a happy mar- 
 riage, and a quiet life near herself afterward. Why, 
 Theodora still had a year to spend at school, and was 
 such a child. 
 
 He paced up and down before her while he talked, 
 speaking at her rather than to her, and emphasizing 
 his words by waving his arms, and by an occasional 
 pause to stamp his foot. Sometimes he leaned against 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 93 
 
 the grand piano, the top of which was decorated by a 
 painting of nymphs at play. The shining front of his 
 dress shirt was not more smooth than his bald fore- 
 head and the crown of his pate, though about midway 
 of these two points there still flourished a tuft of hair. 
 One of his most fervent hopes was that this tuft would 
 grow larger. Instead, it diminished from year to year, 
 in spite of the application of many patent hair lotions. 
 At first he would have given a thousand dollars to be 
 able to restore each hair that fell out. Then he would 
 have paid two thousand, then three, then four, then 
 five thousand per hair. Later he felt ready to barter 
 an entire railroad system for half as many hairs as 
 he possessed at twenty years of age. But the more 
 he worried about it the fewer hairs he had. In des- 
 peration, he finally thought, "I would give half my 
 fortune for a crop of genuine hirsute beauty upon my 
 head." As he had inherited his uncle's thirty mil- 
 lions, and now was the master of at least thirty more 
 millions besides, the strength of his desire can be appre- 
 ciated by those of avaricious minds. But still the 
 hairs became fewer and fewer, and he began to think 
 of a wig. 
 
 But while his hair was sickly, his body was not. 
 He was yet in the prime of physical vigor, and his 
 brain was busier than ever with his schemes of domin- 
 ion. His form had grown thicker, and his appearance 
 now, he liked to think, was about that of Napoleon 
 at his age, except that he was taller than the Emperor. 
 And he rejoiced that he still had enough hair to form 
 a forelock, which he draped over his forehead. In a 
 photograph artistically posed, with his head held high, 
 the bare crown was not discernible. It was at this 
 crisis mat, fearing his forelock would soon vanish, he 
 
94 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 imported an artist who preserved it on canvas. That 
 portrait was afterward presented to the new American 
 Museum of Art, along with other treasures with which 
 he enriched its galleries. 
 
 "You read too many love stories, and not enough 
 history or philosophy," he said to his wife. 
 
 "No," she replied, in a low voice, but without meek- 
 ness, "I seldom even glance at romances nowadays, 
 and I do read some philosophy." 
 
 "Whose?" 
 
 "Well, Ruskin's, for one. I think he and some other 
 literary men whom I could name are among the truly 
 great of the earth." 
 
 He sneered. "There was a famous Frenchman — or, 
 rather, he was an Italian born in Corsica, and he made 
 France great — and he said of literary men that they 
 were mere manufacturers of phrases. I think he was 
 about right. But what of Ruskin?" 
 
 "I believe in his philosophy of the creation of beau- 
 tiful things, just for the love of creating. I have given 
 much toward a society which is trying to carry out his 
 ideas." 
 
 "Ruskin is a doddering old fool who doesn't under- 
 stand the humanity he talks of benefiting. Read Scho- 
 penhauer and Nietzsche." 
 
 "They are so depressing." 
 
 "That's the way with most women. They don't like 
 the truth unless it tickles them. But enough of philos- 
 ophy. Let's get down to present day facts. I want a 
 title for Theodora, and it's got to be a good one. It's 
 got to be respected on both sides of the Atlantic, 
 matching in social prestige the money prestige I have 
 won. My son will hand down my name in America, 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 95 
 
 and my daughter shall do her part for the family 
 abroad." 
 
 "Why shouldn't you seek political honors now, 
 Clay? To be a Senator is quite an honor. I'm sure 
 you have the ability. You might be a great orator 
 
 like Senator Roslin, who " 
 
 "He is my lackey. I can buy political orators like 
 him by the dozen. As I have said before, no political 
 honors for me." 
 
 "Not even if you could be President?" 
 "Bah! A cheaply paid glory that ends about as 
 soon as it begins. Who can remember even the names 
 of the Presidents? The one we've got now has to 
 take orders from me and my friends. I want a title in 
 my family that's above political changes, just as the 
 power of money is above it." 
 
 "Good Americans don't respect a foreign title." 
 "They don't? That's about the only kind they do 
 respect for long. No, you're right They don't respect 
 titles — they worship them." 
 "Not good Americans." 
 
 "Yes, all Americans, from the rabble in the tene- 
 ments to the Fifth avenue crowd. We must believe 
 what we see. What I saw one day last summer was 
 enough for me, even if I had never seen other things 
 like it. Why, my carriage couldn't get through the 
 mob in front of the church where the Schuyler-Ban- 
 glesby wedding took place. They had two hundred 
 police to keep 'em back, and heads were broken and 
 clothes torn and children trampled on in the rush to 
 get a sight at the Marquis of Banglesby. I saw women 
 dressed in the height of fashion who shed tears because 
 they couldn't get into the church." 
 
96 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "The people should be taught the folly of such 
 things." 
 
 " 'The people should be taught.' Don't you know 
 there are some things the people can't be taught, be- 
 cause they won't be ? The whipped dog fears the lash." 
 
 "But, Clay " 
 
 "The whipped dog fears the lash, and loves the hand 
 that beats him, once he has recognized his master. The 
 average man, I tell you, is a serf, and America is 
 peopled by average men, and is now filling up with less 
 than the average kind. The theory of atavism is being 
 proved by our mob's slavish tendencies. The mob 
 always adores those by whom it is most masterfully 
 ruled and despised, and " 
 
 "Despoiled ?" 
 
 "Well, yes — despoiled. The people need to be over- 
 ridden and made to work for their rulers." 
 
 "Ah, but think of the progress from past ages. 
 Think of what has been done." 
 
 "I see what is being done. In the last six or eight 
 years the fortunes that have been allied to old world 
 titles have totaled more than the debt of the American 
 colonies after the eight years of the Revolutionary 
 War." 
 
 "But we are a richer nation " 
 
 "That is not all. It is but a fragment. The Ameri- 
 can people are now paying interest on near two billions 
 of railway stocks and bonds held by aristocratic for- 
 eigners. So you see what's happening to the ^eople of 
 a republic that decided to have no aristocracy, no 
 caste, no titles." 
 
 "You overwhelm me with your facts, Clay, but you 
 do not convince me that we would be happier with a 
 title for Theodora/' 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 97 
 
 "Our international social position would be assured 
 by it." 
 
 "Must we have a place in international society?" 
 "Must we have it? My God, woman, what is the 
 use of all the wealth and power I have built up, if it 
 is not to be turned to any account? Already I can 
 name the American Minister to one of the big Euro- 
 pean courts, and some day " 
 
 "But we are growing old." 
 "I decline to think of myself as aged." 
 "Peace and quiet are much to be preferred to soci- 
 ety's terrible whirl. We have more money than we 
 can ever spend. If we could only retire to some nice 
 
 little country place " 
 
 " 'Some nice little country place!' " 
 Imagine Alexander, about to annex Persia, being 
 asked to retire to some cottage in the Macedonian 
 hills. Think of Caesar, having crossed the Rubicon 
 hearing a plea from Calpurnia to return to Rome, give 
 up his command, and settle down to a life of rustic 
 simplicity in the suburbs. Picture Napoleon after 
 Marengo, requested by Josephine to become a wine 
 grower m Corsica. Conceive, if you can, of the scorn 
 the ridicule, the contempt with which such a request 
 would have been received by any of these lights of his- 
 tory at the dawn of his greatest glory, and you may 
 understand the manner in which Gorman repeated the 
 words of his wife. 
 
 His lip curled up, his nose was drawn down and his 
 entire visage expressed both disgust and despair-the 
 kind of despair one feels when his greatest thoughts 
 fall upon unsympathetic ears. And his voice was filled 
 with mockery, with contempt, with ridicule and with 
 rage. The sound he gave vent to was at once a bestial 
 
98 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 snarl, a human sneer, and a demoniacal laugh, and 
 through it all ran the verbal mimicry, the words of 
 which would have been indistinguishable by anyone 
 who had not heard the original utterance. 
 
 At the same time there appeared in the centre of his 
 forehead a strange discoloration. It was somewhat 
 smaller than an oak leaf, but shapeless, and mainly 
 of a purple hue, tinged on the edges with red. He had 
 noticed this mark come and go of late whenever he 
 became enraged about anything. Seeing his own re- 
 flection now in a pier glass, he stopped short, and then 
 began silently pacing back and forth to calm himself 
 before he spoke again. After a moment the discolora- 
 tion disappeared, and he said : 
 
 "Mrs. Gorman, please listen to me for a moment." 
 Whenever he addressed her as "Mrs. Gorman," she 
 knew he was going to use weighty language in a for- 
 mal way about something most important. But she 
 was hardly prepared for what followed. 
 
 "You see before you," he said, "the heir to North 
 America." 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 A DREAM OF EMPIRE 
 
 Her eyes had half closed from weariness, but now 
 they opened wide, and she looked up at him with 
 renewed interest, as he continued: 
 
 "You may think my career almost completed, but I 
 tell you it has just begun. Fifty to a hundred millions 
 may satisfy the ambition of a De Blick, or a Gluten, or 
 a Plaster. But the money I have made is scarcely the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 99 
 
 foundation of the structure you will see me build. 
 Already my power is international. I have the confi- 
 dence of a group of men who control thirty per cent, 
 of the gold of all Europe, and my American allies are 
 the principal monied men of America. 
 
 "I am even now the master spirit in forty thousand 
 miles of railway, and that is as much, if not more, than 
 France and Great Britain together have. With this 
 power goes the political rule in half a dozen States. 
 The people don't know this, but I do, and that is 
 enough. These States can decide a Presidential elec- 
 tion when the contest is close, and they will help me 
 take my pick of the candidates in the next campaign. 
 But these things are mere details. The big fact is, 
 that I and the others who control the railways in the 
 United States can } when we combine with those who 
 control its money, rule the country itself. These rail- 
 ways are the arteries of trade. Money is the life blood 
 of trade. The Stock Exchange and the big banks form 
 the centre, or heart of all. In other great countries 
 these things are more or less creatures of the nation. 
 Here, they are greater than the nation. And I now 
 have my grip on more of these instruments of power 
 than any other one man. 
 
 "A truly imperial dominion awaits the man who can 
 combine and then direct these various forces. But I 
 fear I am boring you. Like the majority, you are 
 hard to interest in the most vital facts. You like the 
 easy, pleasant ways of getting information, but really 
 valuable information is never pleasantly acquired." 
 
 "No, Clay," she replied, patiently, "you interest me 
 tremendously — you truly do, though you don't con- 
 vince me that we ought to sacrifice Theodora." 
 
 "Well, as I said, imperial power awaits the man 
 
]CO 
 
 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 who can make himself the leader of these forces. 
 Whether a crown will go with this power or not will 
 depend upon circumstances. But the power is there, 
 and before you stands the man who will some day- 
 wield it." 
 
 He paused and regarded her intently from beneath 
 the penthouse of his heavy brows, and he was pleased 
 to see that she looked at him with new interest. There 
 was a wistfulness about her expression which he did 
 not understand. Not once did she think of laughing at 
 him. She had seen him accomplish too much not to 
 believe him capable of doing almost anything he under- 
 took. 
 
 "You think the Americans won't have a king or an 
 emperor?" he continued. "Yet you remember how 
 every one in America bowed down to the Prince of 
 Wales in i860. There were so many people in the 
 Academy of Music that the floors caved in. And you 
 saw them kow-tow to Dom Pedro of Brazil at Phila- 
 delphia. Triumphant democracy was there celebrating 
 a century of 'self rule.' And when the Emperor of an 
 inferior South American country came along, he was 
 cheered by the mobs, and the old families that had 
 come down from the Liberty Bell-ringing times fought 
 for a chance to honor him. 
 
 "While all this was going on, I was looking over the 
 first models of the telephone on exhibition there, and 
 getting control of patents which alone have brought 
 me as large a revenue as Dom Pedro ever received. I 
 combined the Southeastern and the Northern com- 
 panies, you remember, doubled their capitalization, 
 and floated the stock on the Exchange ; a million in 
 profits right there by the handy syndicate way of doing 
 things. And five millions more have come to me 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 101 
 
 through later stock issues, and I've hardly begun with 
 telephones. I've already squelched all competition in 
 the East." 
 
 "Yes, Clay, you are wonderful ; you can succeed in 
 everything you undertake," and as she said this she 
 was possessed of a feeling she dared not express. "But 
 how does this lead to imperialism?" 
 
 "In this way : Those who own the property of a 
 country, own the country. Already one per cent, of 
 our people own about ninety-nine per cent, of the 
 country. And a Wall street group of less than fifty 
 whom I could name can swing the balance of power in 
 the nation when they get together. The trouble with 
 them all is that they can't trust each other. I'm going 
 to become known among them as the one man they can 
 all trust, while at the same time my foreign backing 
 will make me invincible against them should they 
 oppose me too strongly." 
 
 "How about the people — the masses?" 
 
 "Fit only as food for cannon, or as subjects for 
 exploitation. I tell you there must be but one supreme 
 head in any country — and this must be a permanent 
 power to be respected. Such is the lesson of history. 
 If I don't embody that power in America, some one 
 else will. And why should I abdicate when I am just 
 on the threshold of greatness ? For whom would I step 
 aside? For some one who, in his shortsightedness and 
 his ignorance, would make a botch of things? No, I 
 shall not step aside now. I shall rule, and I shall rule 
 in every way. What I have done with telephones and 
 railroads, I shall do with telegraphs, with coal and 
 other mines, and with many other industries besides. 
 I shall dominate, too, in art, in literature, and in 
 
102 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 science, and become a supreme ruler, in fact if not in 
 name, but perhaps in name also." 
 
 He continued talking- far into the night, outlining the 
 ways in which he would capture this industry and that, 
 and pile power upon power until his very name should 
 become a thing to be heard with awe wherever spoken. 
 And then other lands should come under his sway. 
 Canada was to be annexed, and Mexico and Central 
 America, until an entire continent was in his grasp, 
 and the rest of the hemisphere looked to him as its pro- 
 tector. Then Europe should beware of offending him, 
 and he would be the foremost man of his time. 
 
 Against the background of this imperial dream he 
 loomed gigantic to his wife. As he talked the gates of 
 his very soul seemed to swing open, and she saw its 
 cavernous and gloomy depths illumined as by a terrible 
 splendor. And in these depths she beheld, almost with 
 a gasp of terror, his ambitions crouching in readiness 
 to spring. These ambitions were of varying hues and 
 forms, but all were bestial, though of more than human 
 cunning, and there was a symmetry about them that 
 imparted a kind of fearful beauty — a beauty such as 
 a row of lurking tigers might possess. 
 
 When he ceased talking she was exhausted, and had 
 nothing to say except a few perfunctory words of 
 admiration. He went to bed moody, and with a feeling 
 of rebellion against a fate which had given him a wife 
 so little appreciative of his genius. She retired to her 
 lonely chamber to weep until dawn, when she sank into 
 a troubled slumber. While he planned an empire of 
 earthly dominion, she mourned the loss of an empire 
 of the soul. She realized now that such a man could 
 never really love anyone but himself, and she knew 
 that thenceforth it would be futile to try to love him. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 103 
 
 Although they had lived side by side for a score of 
 years, they were in reality further apart than the poles. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE OPINIONS OF THEODORA 
 
 On a day near the end of the following spring the 
 face of C. Jefferson Gorman was being minutely 
 studied in a mirror by its worried possessor. After 
 an unusually violent fit of passion, more colors than 
 ever had appeared in the shapeless mark upon his 
 forehead. The veins stood out as though from tre- 
 mendous physical exertions, and vari-hued blood shone 
 through the skin as if from a slap by the hand of a 
 pugilist. 
 
 To find a remedy for this new and strange affliction 
 the physicians of two continents had been consulted. 
 Dieting and strenuous exercise, the hot springs of 
 Arkansas, the curative waters of Germany, blood med- 
 icine by the dozen bottles had been of no avail. Was 
 the liver to blame, or should it be laid to the kidneys? 
 None knew. Drinking could not be the cause, for he 
 drank few intoxicants, and seldom had he ever drunk 
 to excess. He had too good a command of himself to 
 indulge in such dissipation save in rare intervals, and 
 then only in the privacy of his club or home, or in the 
 apartments of his mistress. Was it heredity? As far 
 as he could discover, none of his forbears had been 
 afflicted in such a way. Then was it atavism, that 
 irregular heredity, the recurrence of a disorder cre- 
 ated by some ancestor who had lived not wisely but too 
 
104 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 well, and left the penalty to his posterity ? The doctors 
 disagreed. But the victim seemed doomed to bear his 
 intermittent burden through life. 
 
 But how capricious was Fate, how one-sided its re- 
 wards ! Here it was with one hand rapidly bestowing 
 wealth and dominion upon this man, helping him to 
 realize, as it is seldom given mortals to realize, youthful 
 dreams of success. And yet with its other hand, 
 unseen, pitiless, inexorable, it had perpetrated this 
 frightful and enduring jest, placing this motley decora- 
 tion of a clown's face upon one who would rule as a 
 king! 
 
 It was in a hotel in Baden-Baden that Gorman was 
 reflecting thus. He had come to this resort with a 
 two-fold object. He wished to make another trial of 
 the waters' medicinal powers, and to bring his family 
 into touch with the European nobility. He had begun 
 to think that the baths were really benefiting him, 
 when an argument with his wife had brought on a 
 recurrence of his affliction. He was now exerting 
 his will power to the utmost to calm his feelings, hav- 
 ing found that only in this way could he dissipate the 
 humiliating discolorations. 
 
 Gorman wanted a duke for Theodora, a British duke, 
 preferably. He might have taken a lesser title in the 
 British nobility, or he would have liked a Russian 
 prince of the best lineage, or a German, Austrian, 
 Spanish or Italian title of high rank, but he would not 
 have a French title, nor did he care for the nobility 
 of the minor kingdoms and principalities. He even 
 dreamed of an alliance with some branch of royalty 
 until he saw and felt the utter frigidity with which the 
 representatives of such houses met any suggestions of 
 the sort. European royalty may have many weak- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 105 
 
 nesses, but even its lesser lights have ever kept up the 
 strongest bars against an alliance with any American 
 family, though millions were piled upon millions as an 
 inducement. 
 
 Theodora was not told of the plans for her future. 
 It was thought best to give her a chance first to become 
 acquainted with the elect of foreign society. But 
 Theodora herself did not seem enthusiastic about the 
 nobility. She had even expressed disapproval of some 
 of the scions of Europe's noblest houses who had been 
 presented to her as the result of the most skillful 
 maneuvering. Perhaps this was because most of these 
 men were old and dissipated or anemic-looking. Or 
 perhaps she was already in love, either with some 
 American youth she had met or seen, or with merely 
 an ideal. She was of an age when ideals are strongest, 
 and when the real world, breaking upon the view while 
 the mind is yet filled with the fairer visions nurtured 
 within seminary walls, seems dull and commonplace 
 by comparison. 
 
 But whatever the reason, Gorman suspected his wife 
 of having secretly influenced the girl's mind against 
 his wishes. A quarrel resulted while Theodora and her 
 brother were out driving. This quarrel had thrown 
 Gorman into a passion, and had left his wife in a more 
 melancholy state even than was her wont of late. He 
 had retired to his own room to calm his feelings, and 
 was still gazing into his mirror when he was handed 
 a cablegram, which read : 
 
 "Grand Union stock falling. Rival line building." 
 
 This stung him into action as nothing had done for 
 months. He burst into their suite, and ordered his wife 
 
io6 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 to prepare to sail on the earliest steamer from Ham- 
 burg. 
 
 "But the children," she protested. "They are just 
 beginning to enjoy themselves, and we were going to 
 see the Cologne Cathedral before we sailed." 
 
 "To hell with cathedrals !" he responded. "This 
 thing of which I have told you may mean that I'll win 
 or lose enough to build a dozen cathedrals. Don't stop 
 
 to argue about such trivialities when " here he 
 
 thought of his forehead, and paused to modify his tone 
 and his temper. "We really must go, Millicent," he 
 went on, more gently. "Here's a draft. Order what 
 you may need for the trip home. Or, no, perhaps 
 after all you had better stay here till June, and finish 
 your visit. There's still a chance that Theodora will 
 see the advantage of making friends in the best circles, 
 and I'll grant that you will not discourage her in that 
 direction. Only give her a chance, that's all, and she 
 may do the rest," and he hurried out. 
 
 Theodora came in a moment later. In the spring- 
 time of life, and fresh from the out-of-doors on a per- 
 fect spring day, it would have been strange if she had 
 not brought a vernal atmosphere into the apartment. 
 But young and blooming as she was, there was yet a 
 touch of melancholy in her presence, a shadowy, seri- 
 ous something in her deep brown eyes that hinted of a 
 soul attuned to the sorrows of others, if it felt no 
 sorrow of its own. Though named for an empress, 
 she was democratic in her sympathies, and she both 
 loved and resembled her mother more than she did her 
 father. Intuitively she knew that there was little love 
 between her parents, and she had a feeling of resent- 
 ment against him on this account, though she had 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 107 
 
 never learned of their quarrels, nor heard her mother 
 utter a complaint. 
 
 "Your father must return to New York at once," 
 Mrs. Gorman said. "We may remain till June, if we 
 like." 
 
 "We may remain?" repeated Theodora, seating her- 
 self upon a couch. "Well, if you wish it, although I 
 don't like Germany as much as I thought I should. 
 So many of the people, including even the nobility, 
 seem gluttonish." 
 
 "It is your father's opinion that you should cultivate 
 acquaintances among more exclusive and aristocratic 
 society than you do now, my dear." 
 
 "Well, mother, I have my own ideas about friend- 
 ship, and I think I might be allowed to choose my 
 friends. Those I have met and liked seem to be of 
 as high character as — well, as anyone." 
 
 "It is not character so much as position that we 
 should think of, your father believes. He has high 
 ideas as to those whom you and your brother should 
 cultivate." 
 
 "High ideas, but does that mean high ideals}' 'If you 
 would have a friend, you must be one,' some philoso- 
 pher says, and I agree with him." 
 
 "You are so serious, Theodora, and yet I like to 
 have you so. I myself think friendships are not to be 
 restricted to any one class, and that a true friendship 
 is a thing above class. But you might discover friends 
 among— among, say, the titled folk whom your father 
 knows here. Surely, there are some agreeable persons 
 in that class." 
 
 "Perhaps, but I haven't met many among them. Thev 
 are often coldly critical, and when they are pleasant 
 to us, they seem condescendingly so. At least I feel 
 
io8 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 that to be their attitude. I want to be looked at, rather 
 than upon, and actually to be one of a set rather than 
 to be tolerated in it." 
 
 "That young Russian, Prince Sergius Krupoffkin, 
 likes you, and he wishes to call oftener, doesn't he ?" 
 
 "Yes, but I dislike him. I have heard that these 
 polished Russians are often brutal under the veneer 
 of culture. Clay told me that he heard at Heidelberg 
 that when they go back to their estates they are brutes 
 in their treatment of the peasants. I feel — I don't 
 know, but I feel that Prince Sergius is that kind, for 
 all his suavity." 
 
 "How about the other noble young men you have 
 met?" 
 
 "Few have been young, and still fewer interesting. 
 My English friends tell me that without exception 
 titled persons in Europe care nothing about us Amer- 
 icans unless we have money, and lots of it." 
 
 "Your father has lots of it, Theodora." 
 
 "That is precisely why I am not flattered by the 
 'love' of Prince Sergius or any other nobleman," and 
 she went out, humming : 
 
 "'I would be loved as I could love— 
 'Twere not enough to seem. 
 Oh, yes, my Love must truly love, 
 Else love were but a dream/" 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 MERCEDES 
 
 For all of love's witching arts was Mercedes Durkin 
 formed, and she seemed formed for little else. From 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 109 
 
 her mother she inherited the blood and the beauty of 
 a Creole, who was half French and half Spanish. From 
 her father, a Louisiana planter, who, as colonel of a 
 regiment, had followed to poverty and disease and 
 death the hopeless cause of the Confederacy, she got 
 little save pride and ambition. The sterling qualities 
 of the old soldier might have been developed in a son, 
 but they seemed lost in a daughter to whom love of 
 ease and luxury was stronger than all else. 
 
 Her mother, spending her declining years in genteel 
 but galling poverty, relieved by the charity of her 
 Cuban relatives, had resolved that Mercedes should 
 meet no similar fate. They lived in a side street in New 
 Orleans, and the girl attended social affairs whenever 
 she possessed a presentable gown. At one of these 
 affairs she met Richard Durkin, son of a Philadelphia 
 manufacturer. He was charmed with her, and wanted 
 to marry her. He was a Yankee — one of that hated 
 race that had overrun and despoiled the fair South- 
 land — but he was a rich Yankee. And Mercedes, 
 urged by her mother's ambition to die comfortably, 
 and by her own ambition to live comfortably, married 
 him. Her mother died happy soon afterward. 
 
 Mercedes was well received in Philadelphia, and was 
 welcomed even more cordially in New York. That is, 
 the men were cordial to her, and so were a few of the 
 women of that advanced stage of life at which they 
 could not possibly be her rivals. These elderly dames 
 loved her vivacity, her soft Southern accent, and the 
 atmosphere of unmistakable gentility about her. Be- 
 sides, she was related to a Spanish marquis on her 
 mother's side. Of course she was quite vivacious, but 
 then, the Latin blood is given to gayety. Warm 
 natures come from warm climes. 
 
no THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 While her husband drank, and played poker, and 
 was "trimmed" by some of the men in the fast set, his 
 wife was pursued and laid siege to by the others. 
 
 It was at a bal masque — formerly known as a masked 
 ball — at the home of the Rhinelander Hudsons, in 
 upper Fifth avenue, that Gorman first saw her. She 
 came as a Spanish peasant girl, disdaining the gor- 
 geous costume, powdered hair, patches of court plaster 
 on chin, and other decorations that so many of the 
 feminine guests affected. She was dressed as a peas- 
 ant, which at a bal masque means an ideal peasant 
 Her skirts came only a little way below her knees. 
 Diamonds shone in her ears, and upon her wrists were 
 circlets of gold. Her dark tresses, bound merely by 
 a loose red ribbon, flowed over perfect shoulders. 
 
 The simple black domino which she wore could not 
 conceal her identity. Men surrounded her at every lull 
 in the dancing. Her card was filled before the first 
 dance was begun. She was followed by a motley train 
 of courtiers wherever she went. She was the pivot 
 upon which all the festivities turned. If envious 
 glances had been poisoned darts she would have per- 
 ished before the evening was an hour old. 
 
 Gorman, attired as a Dutch burgomaster, led the van 
 of her admirers, shouldering aside most of the others. 
 The sheer force of his personality, masked though he 
 was, counted here as in the more practical affairs of 
 life. He had the foresight to obtain the host's prom- 
 ise to seat him next to her at the midnight supper. 
 But he sought further triumphs. "Will you come with 
 me to the conservatory after this dance?" he whis- 
 pered, as he held her more closely than necessary to 
 guide her about the waxed floor. "I have something 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR in 
 
 to say about your husband's business prospects that will 
 interest you." 
 
 An unromantic reason, this. But she suspected his 
 identity, and his very name lent a certain glamour to 
 his attentions. Her husband's rapidly dwindling bank 
 balance and her own ambition to soar socially made her 
 averse to offending him. 
 
 "Who are you, please?" she asked. 
 
 He spoke his name in low tones. 
 
 She slightly inclined her head, and at the end of the 
 dance she allowed him to lead her into the conserva- 
 tory. They sat upon a divan shielded by palms, and 
 near a plashing fountain. The scent of roses and of 
 that rare exotic, the Peruvian heliotrope, filled the air. 
 Occasionally masked revelers strolled past Gorman 
 summoney a lackey, and ordered wine. 
 
 "My dear Mrs. Durkin, I have so long wanted to 
 know you better," he said, filling her glass to the brim. 
 His eyes feasted upon her. "I have heard that your 
 husband is in temporary financial embarrassment, and 
 for your sake and his, I want to aid him." 
 
 "Why, how — how strange, Mr. Gorman, but 
 really " 
 
 "I have heard of Mr. Durkin's business ability," he 
 went on, glibly, "and I have thought of making him 
 one of the managers of my telephone system." 
 
 "Well, I am sure poor Dick would be grateful, but 
 — but why don't you ask him ?" 
 
 "I have thought of writing him to call at my office, 
 but I am told that he is not here to-night, so decided 
 to discuss it with you instead." 
 
 The man whose "business ability" so impressed Gor- 
 man was at that moment in a private hospital recover- 
 ing from a debauch. 
 
ii2 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "I will send him to see you in a few days," she said. 
 "It is the first offer of substantial aid from any one. 
 All his pretended friends in this wicked city win his 
 money at cards, and help him to throw it away in 
 other directions." 
 
 "Yes, they are beasts, many of them — they are vul- 
 tures. They should be restrained by the thought of 
 his beautiful and accomplished wife, if by nothing 
 else." 
 
 And then he told of a new extension to his telephone 
 system, and of another issue of stock that was to 
 result. If her husband would only take some of the 
 stock at half the price at which it was to be placed 
 on the market, he could surely recoup his gambling 
 losses and re-engage in business. "Think of what it 
 would mean to you to have all your fortune back, and 
 perhaps much more," and as he uttered these words he 
 moved closer, and let his hand fall upon hers. 
 
 She withdrew her hand and replied, "Ah, yes, but it 
 takes money to buy stock " 
 
 "Not always/' he interrupted, moving closer. "Now, 
 in Mr. Durkin's case, I would take his note for as much 
 as he wants to invest, up to — say twenty thousand. 
 The stock is sure to double or treble in value." 
 
 "Why, Mr. Gorman!" she exclaimed. "You are 
 kind, but I do not — why, we have never even been 
 introduced !" 
 
 "Love laughs at locksmiths and at introductions," he 
 said, seizing her hand again. "I feel that I have known 
 you always," he went on, in a frenzy of desire. "If 
 would only let me love you a little " 
 
 She rose from her chair and struggled to be free. 
 He attempted to press her to him, when he collided 
 with the table, and a wine glass crashed to the floor. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 113 
 
 As she wrenched her hand loose she heard footsteps 
 approaching, and she sank back in her chair, while he 
 also resumed his seat 
 
 "That was the last dance before supper," she said, as 
 several guests with masks off passed by. "Let us 
 Unmask now and go in. I don't know what to think of 
 you, Mr. Gorman," she added, when the others were 
 out of hearing. "I really don't know what to think." 
 
 "Think that I love you." 
 
 "Impossible. Why " 
 
 "I tell you that I do." 
 
 She took off her domino, but avoided his gaze. She 
 was more attractive than ever now, with her long 
 lashes drooping over eyes of luminous beauty, and her 
 classic profile showing in all its perfection. She re- 
 minded him of a beautiful statue come to life, as in 
 the fable of the Grecian sculptor. 
 
 "Aren't you going to unmask?" she inquired, ignor- 
 ing his last protestation of love. She looked toward 
 him, but her expression was merely one of polite 
 interest. 
 
 He began to remove his mask. The rubber band 
 attached to it caught on his wig of long, curly hair, 
 and in trying to loosen it he pulled the wig from his 
 head. Mask and wig fell upon the table together. 
 When he looked up it was to see an expression of hor- 
 ror upon the beautiful face before him. 
 
 His passionate excitement had caused a recurrence 
 of the frightful mark on his forehead. It now glowed 
 like a hideous carbuncle, shot with opalescent fires, and 
 above it rose his gleaming bald head, relieved only by 
 a scanty forelock. 
 
 At this moment a party of guests approached, 
 headed by Herbert De Blick. The commonplace, 
 
ii4 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 almost vacuous face of that young man seemed to Mer- 
 cedes almost Apollo-like in comparison with that which 
 she had just looked upon. She turned to him quickly, 
 and gave him her arm. 
 
 "Good night, Mr. Gorman," she said, over her shoul- 
 der. "I won't stay to supper, thanks," and she whis- 
 pered to her companion to move away. "I'm so glad 
 you came. Take me back to the Gorbets, where I am 
 staying now. I'll explain in the carriage." 
 
 CHAPTER VTI 
 
 PLANS OF RIVAL FINANCIERS 
 
 All that summer Gorman worked to stifle the 
 scheme of his rivals to build a railway to compete with 
 his Grand Union system. That system bisected Penn- 
 sylvania from east to west, and in alliance with the 
 telephone and telegraph, gas and street railway and 
 other corporations often dominated the State. The 
 rival financiers were headed by old Jacob De Blick, 
 who already ruled the railways of New York State. 
 
 Gorman sat in his office one autumn morning talking 
 over the situation with his chief counsel, Eli j all Bron- 
 son. His offices now occupied three floors of a ten- 
 story granite building that had been erected at a prom- 
 inent Wall street corner for his firm. The approach 
 to the sanctum of the chief was guarded by a cordon 
 of lackeys, and it was a most clever person who could 
 gain access if he was not desired. There was a large 
 apartment adjoining, furnished with a long center 
 table and a dozen chairs, and a buffet containing fine 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 115 
 
 wines, liqueurs and cigars. This was for conferences 
 when more than two or three visitors of importance 
 came at one time. The chief carpenter who designed 
 all this under Gorman's eye asked him why he did not 
 have his office one story higher, where he could receive 
 more daylight, since a tall building was being erected 
 across the street. "In case of fire I want to be near 
 the ground," was the reply. 
 
 "Bronson," said Gorman on this autumn morning, 
 "you must get by any means the names of everybody 
 behind this South Union hold-up. Of course, it's a 
 hold-up, though many of those with old De Blick don't 
 know it." 
 
 "Well, I've tried everything," replied Bronson. 
 
 "The telephone and mail included?" 
 
 "Yes. We've had a wire connected with the De Blick 
 home and office wires night and day for a week now, 
 and I can show you copies of all the conversations of 
 every one who talked with him. There's nothing more 
 than we knew beforehand. He must suspect." 
 
 "How about the mail ?" 
 
 "Well, you know that isn't so sure, but our post- 
 office aids know their business pretty well. De Blick's 
 messengers have been watched, and whenever they've 
 dropped letters in mail boxes, other letters, properly 
 marked, have been put in right on top. Reports on 
 two dozen or more that were opened show nothing 
 important" 
 
 Bronson was clean shaven and keen eyed, cold and 
 emotionless. He could not easily win a verdict from 
 a jury. But he could make, perhaps, the clearest, 
 most logical argument to a court of any man in Amer- 
 ica. And in the cases of greatest importance, the kind 
 that are oftenest appealed to the highest tribunals, 
 
n6 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 where juries do not sit, such talent is more valuable 
 than the spectacular ability of wringing tears from 
 jurors' eyes. He was a grave and reverend seignior 
 in appearance, and when he rose in court to present his 
 case he was always sure of a respectful hearing. The 
 fact that he had begun his career by finding legal 
 loopholes for criminal politicians did not detract from 
 the esteem in which he was held by bench and bar. 
 Gorman had overbid a dozen others when he retained 
 him at the head of his legal department. 
 
 Bronson soon found, if he did not already know it, 
 that he must do other things than render legal ser- 
 vices to his employer. To supervise an intricate spy 
 system was one of these things. He did not balk at 
 this. Rather, he at once set about improving the sys- 
 tem. A dozen men sometimes reported to him in a 
 single day as to the movements of his master's rivals 
 and enemies. Their remuneration was recorded on the 
 company's books under "legal expenses." 
 
 "We must stop the building of that line, and stop it 
 quick," Gorman went on. "De Blick has no business 
 getting into that State. I've let him alone in New 
 York, and he's got to let me alone there. The Grand 
 Union wants all the business between here and Pitts- 
 burgh, and it's going to have it." 
 
 "De Blick has strong support among the old fam- 
 ilies of Philadelphia," said Bronson. "The Durkins, 
 for instance, have invested about all they had with him. 
 They sold " 
 
 "Who, the Durkins T 
 
 "Yes. They sold their town house and retired to 
 their country estate in the Blue Ridge mountains in 
 Virginia. It is young Durkin's last desperate chance 
 to recoup himself after a giddy whirl in high life." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 117 
 
 "How much stock did you say he bought?" 
 
 "I didn't hear the figure, but he bought all he could 
 get with the money he raised on his house. Old De 
 Blick made him believe it was a great chance, though 
 the inside crowd got it for about half what Durkin 
 paid. From what I've heard, young De Blick is rather 
 attentive to Durkin's wife, and perhaps he'd like to be 
 a kind of rescuing angel after the old man takes all the 
 family's cash." 
 
 The Durkins had disappeared from New York one 
 week after the Hudson ball. Gorman had heard that 
 they had returned to Philadelphia, only to vanish from 
 the social life of that city. The intelligence he now 
 heard was his first definite news of their whereabouts. 
 
 He pressed a button at the side of his desk, and 
 when an office boy appeared, told him to call in Mr. 
 Sloat, who was a junior partner. Sloat was president 
 of one of the two Gorman banks, having inherited the 
 place when his father died He was content to be a 
 banker and a banker only, and had little relish for the 
 ambitious schemes which his chief was always 
 engineering. He preferred collecting books and pic- 
 tures for his home to spending his leisure hours in 
 planning a greater fortune. Having such views, he 
 was. of course, out of harmony with the ideals of 
 American business life. Gorman, who secretly envied 
 him his hair, but hated more his lackadaisical business 
 methods, intended to supplant him with his own son 
 as soon as Gay was old enough for the place. 
 
 As Sloat now entered, languidly pulling at his 
 mustache, he resolved to displace him as speedily as 
 he could find an able and trustworthy lieutenant in his 
 stead. That was the great trouble in Wall street: so 
 few of the ambitious men were trustworthy 
 
u8 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 After talking with Sloat and Bronson for a while, 
 he summoned several other assistants, and started giv- 
 ing orders like a general at the beginning of a battle, 
 not waiting for replies or questions. 
 
 "Work every possible source of information about 
 South Union. Buy the stock in at any price, wherever 
 you can find it. But don't bother the Durkins unless I 
 say the word. Telephone the right brokers and give 
 them orders to sell South Union on 'Change, and then 
 fire orders in from the other side to buy as soon as 
 prices drop four or five points. Never mind expenses. 
 I'm going on a still hunt myself, and I want good 
 reports on my return." 
 
 He whirled about in his revolving chair, and picked 
 up a document on his desk. At this, the others with- 
 drew at once, and he began planning a journey in- 
 tended to bring him success of more than one kind. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE DURKINS' RETREAT 
 
 Early the next morning he left home in a hired 
 carriage. His wife and daughter had returned from 
 Europe, and when they were at home he often thought 
 it best to use a public conveyance. One's own livery- 
 men were too apt to be asked leading questions by the 
 members of one's own family. 
 
 He was driven ten blocks north in Fifth avenue, and 
 thence into a side street. The carriage stopped before 
 one of a solid row of brownstone houses. 
 
 On the first floor resided Oueen Isabella of the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 119 
 
 Roderigos, a tribe of Spanish gypsies. Gorman, deal- 
 ing with the hard facts of life every day, and meeting 
 with few reverses in his ascent of fortune's wheel, 
 felt himself on an uncharted sea when in pursuit of the 
 charms of love. He reasoned that those who had 
 garnered the wisdom of older civilizations upon this 
 Bubject were better qualified, rurely, than others to 
 guide one's course over that sea. He might be a little 
 superstitious, he admitted to himself. But then, Napo- 
 leon was superstitious. 
 
 Queen Isabella, in a sleeveless red gown, came into 
 the little darkened parlor, took Gorman's right hand 
 between her two pudgy ones, and closely studied the 
 palm for several minutes. Then she turned the hand 
 over and looked at the back, and quickly reversed it 
 again. "Ah," she said, "you have the web-like for-r- 
 mation between the fingers. They ar-re long in the 
 back and shor-rt in fr-ront. That means that you have 
 no business ability." 
 
 "What, no business ability?" he repeated, in dis- 
 trustful accents. He thought that she must be only 
 a crude trickster, after all. 
 
 "Oh, no business ability in the or-rdinary sense," she 
 replied. "You have gr-rasp of the big affairs, and 
 str-r-ong char-racter, as I see by the palm, but in 
 ever-ry day things you do not have the business ability. 
 No, your mind is illuminate by electric flashes, and 
 then you do wonder-rful things — yes, by electric 
 flashes, like some gr-reat capitains — like — well, like 
 Napoleon, say, like that he was some time." 
 
 Distrust was now succeeded by a thrill of pleasure. 
 
 "And how about love ?" he asked. 
 
 "Ah, I see a complicate heart line. You will be 
 mar-ry more than once, maybe. And a square at the 
 
120 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 end of the hear-rt line means success in love, but — let 
 see, now — but not altogether success. You will suc- 
 ceed more in the money, yes, much more in the 
 money." 
 
 He pressed into her hand a five-dollar bill instead of 
 her regular fee of two dollars, and hurried away to 
 catch a train. 
 
 The last ten miles of his journey were made in a 
 stage coach. The only other passengers were three 
 men and one woman, and these were left at farm 
 houses in a valley before half the way had been trav- 
 eled to the Durkins' retreat near the top of a Virginia 
 mountain. 
 
 It was mid-autumn, and the heralds of the coming 
 Winter had spread gorgeous tapestries in honor of his 
 approach. The grass, turning from green to rich yel- 
 lows and golden browns, had been adorned by brush 
 and bramble of varying hues and forms until it was like 
 a titanic Gobelin masterpiece hung upon the mountain 
 side. The sumac's crimson fires were balanced by 
 the evergreen's cool disdain. The dogwoods, with 
 claret leafage massed atop of slender stems, were as 
 immense cups of wine which, when stirred by the 
 breeze, seemed bubbling in readiness to be quaffed. 
 The greater trees, clad in the season's splendid raiment, 
 appeared to have acquired human attributes therefrom. 
 The oak had been shocked into purple blushes by the 
 frost king's familiar touch, while the hickory, a more 
 willing concubine, was already bedecked with gold. 
 The maple, in scarlet coat, was in knightly attendance 
 upon the courtly beech, who, with fleecy, lace-like 
 branches and foliage of amber richness, was like a 
 regal beauty come into her own. And at times when 
 the wind freshened, all these and other forest nobles 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 121 
 
 were set a-nodding to each other as though about to 
 join in the stately measures of a minuet. 
 
 But there would have been little music for such a 
 dance save the whistling winds. The last of the musi- 
 cians of the woods had flown southward except the 
 red-winged blackbird, whose lonely carol was heard 
 at intervals, and whose vermillion pinions were seen 
 flashing in the sun as an interlude, his gorgeous color 
 tones supplementing and rounding out the beauty in 
 his tones of sound. And ofttimes above his plaintive 
 notes rose the caw-cawing of the somber hued crows, 
 droning a hoarse requiem to autumn's passing glories. 
 
 But to all of nature's symphony Gorman gave scarce 
 a thought. Ever single-minded when in quest of an 
 important object, he was busily turning over in his 
 brain as he smoked upon a strong cigar his plan to 
 capture what, to him, was nature's greatest handiwork, 
 the beautiful woman he desired above all others. How 
 to account satisfactorily to the Durkins for his unan- 
 nounced visit, how to put the husband under obliga- 
 tions to him, how to influence the wife to accept favors, 
 and to exact favors from her in return, all without 
 risking his life or reputation — this was his problem, 
 and visions of his success were more charming than 
 aught else. 
 
 Marie Dalton would no longer suffice. She was past 
 forty now, and was still charming in her well preserved 
 way, still an artist on and off the stage, although now 
 retired from active life. He himself had reached the 
 forty-seventh milestone of existence. But a vigorous 
 man of that age is only in his prime, while a woman 
 near the same period has entered into inevitable decline 
 in all that pertains to the senses. And in such a love 
 as had existed between them the senses were para- 
 
122 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 mount. Yet she had some feeling of finer regard for 
 him, based upon memories of his earlier years. She 
 had always pretended not to notice his growing phys- 
 ical unattractiveness, and his increasing sordidness of 
 mind. And he in turn was not destitute of conscience. 
 He never let her know that she was less desirable to 
 him. The gradual decrease in the frequency of his 
 visits she believed to be due to his business cares and 
 to infirmity caused by overwork, rather than to his 
 pursuit of other women. And so she was content to 
 live m her country villa, surrounded by luxuries, and 
 thus slip peacefully and gracefully into old age. 
 
 When the coach arrived at the Durkin home it was 
 past noon, and the horses were almost exhausted by 
 their long climb. The sound of creaking wheels and 
 the driver's "Whoa" brought both husband and wife to 
 the door. Visitors were so rare that the sight of a 
 passenger alighting sent them running down the path 
 that wound in and out from their cabin among pine 
 and scrub oak trees to the road, fifty yards distant. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 A PROPOSITION TO A HUSBAND 
 
 A hunting lodge built of rough hewn logs, and 
 enlarged by the addition of four small rooms to the 
 original one of large size, was the place to which 
 Richard Durkin's dissipation had reduced himself and 
 his wife. The lodge was made habitable by furniture 
 from their Philadelphia home, and here they were 
 spending their time as well as they could, waited upon 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 123 
 
 by a single mulatto maid of surpassing faithfulness, 
 and hoping desperately that their last investment would 
 soon profit them enough to take them back to a life of 
 luxury. It was a gambler's chance at best, but a 
 gambler's chance was better than none. 
 
 He passed the time in hunting, in riding about the 
 country and in trying to keep Mercedes from becom- 
 ing melancholy. But this latter task was like putting 
 a silver pheasant in a narrow cage, and asking it to 
 be happy. At times she amused herself at the piano, 
 which had been saved from their fortune's wreck and 
 brought up the mountain side at no little expense. At 
 other times she took horseback rides to plantations five 
 to fifteen miles away. She and her husband occasion- 
 ally spent a week at such places, and then she enjoyed 
 life, for there was music and dancing, and there were 
 men to strive for her smiles. There were some good 
 books in the hunting lodge, and in the long evenings 
 she read these, though her tastes ran to life rather 
 than to literature. She was steadily growing more 
 discontented and moody, in spite of her outdoor life, 
 which kept her physically strong and helped to buoy 
 her spirits. 
 
 On this autumn day, when they recognized the well 
 known face and form of Gorman before their house, 
 husband and wife were almost transfixed by surprise. 
 Mercedes had never told Richard more of her experi- 
 ence with the magnate than that she had danced with 
 him at the Hudsons' ball. She felt that she loathed 
 him. But she now hastened forward to greet him. 
 She was a Southern woman, and he had come to be her 
 guest. She introduced him to her husband, wondering 
 the while at his cool assurance, and speculating as to 
 his exact motive in visiting them. 
 
124 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "I had no time to warn you that I was coming," Gor- 
 man said, as they all walked slowly toward the cabin. 
 "It all happened so suddenly. I saw my way to aid 
 you to big things in a railroad deal, and came at once. 
 Was I right?" 
 
 Richard, who had insisted on carrying his traveling 
 bag, heartily assured him of his appreciation. Mer- 
 cedes smiled inscrutably, but said nothing. In spite of 
 her dislike, she was not sorry the magnate had come. 
 Almost any visitor was better than no visitor, and she 
 welcomed diversion as an exile welcomes news from 
 home. 
 
 "But let us have dinner, and then we can talk things 
 over at leisure," said Richard. "Won't you stroll about 
 with me and look at the view while the maid sets the 
 table?" 
 
 Gorman said he would be delighted, and the two 
 men were soon walking about, chatting like old friends, 
 while Mercedes went in to help Matilda, the maid, 
 prepare the midday meal, which is luncheon in New 
 York, but dinner south of Mason and Dixon's line. 
 
 Two rabbits shot that morning, sweet potatoes from 
 a plantation in the valley, canned vegetables, a raisin 
 pudding, coffee and some imported cheese brought 
 from Philadelphia were served on a mahogany table 
 in Dresden china dishes. In the center of the table was 
 a cut glass vase filled with autumn leaves and flowers. 
 The napery was spotless, but was beginning to show 
 signs of wear. "Moonshine" brandy was drunk by all 
 as a preliminary, and it produced that mellow glow 
 which only pure liquor can give. 
 
 "A feast fit for the gods, in a place that is a second 
 Olympus," burst from Gorman's lips, as he began to 
 chew a rabbit's leg. "I haven't had such an appetite 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 125 
 
 for years. Durkin, you are really to be envied. If I 
 could feel like this every day, I'd want to give up 
 business to-morrow, and move to some place like 
 yours." 
 
 'The fall is lovely enough, but the winter — ugh!" 
 said Mercedes. "The monotony and the cold both will 
 be too much." 
 
 "Pshaw!" put in Richard, pulling at his dark mus- 
 tache with one hand, and with the other fastening the 
 middle button of his coat to conceal a hole in his vest ; 
 "it isn't so cold in Virginia in winter as it is in New 
 York in October. But, of course, city life is best in the 
 winter season. We hope to get back there soon if they 
 put the South Union into Pittsburgh." 
 
 "Maybe you can go back sooner than you expect, 
 though the South Union may never be finished," said 
 Gorman. "That's what I came to see you about. But 
 perhaps we'd better postpone the subject till after this 
 glorious dinner. Sweet potatoes are more important 
 than stocks, and pudding, when it's cooked this way, 
 beats a bullish market." 
 
 "Oh, let's talk about the stocks. I'm anxious to 
 hear all about it now," Mercedes urged, with uncon- 
 cealed eagerness. "It means a lot to us, you know.'' 
 
 "Well, if you wish," Gorman replied. He turned 
 from the dessert to look at her, while her husband was 
 pouring himself another drink. He thought her more 
 charming than ever in her simple dark blue jersey. 
 Perhaps the way in which it brought out the beauty of 
 her form made him think so. But he watched with 
 delight, too, the color that came and went in her 
 cheeks, and the smoldering fires in the depths of her 
 eyes. Her impatience made him rejoice inwardly. 
 
126 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "Upon De Blick's recommendation you invested in 
 South Union — let's see, how much?" 
 
 "Twenty thousand — all I could raise at the time," 
 responded Richard. 
 
 "And how much did he say you'd make ?" 
 
 "He said I'd double it in six months or a little more 
 — said it would be pretty safe to buy on margin, but it 
 was all I had, and I couldn't take the risk, so bought 
 it outright." 
 
 "Well, the capitalists behind the Grand Union, in- 
 cluding myself, own a majority of South Union stock 
 now, and they don't want the road finished. They've 
 beaten De Blick this time, though he's probably made a 
 big profit by holding 'em up for high prices. He's not 
 a bad fellow to meet personally, in a club, or at a dinner, 
 but this work is simply a refined sort of blackmail." 
 
 "Wh — why hasn't he kept us informed of this?" 
 asked Mercedes, her voice trembling with agitation. 
 
 "Because he doesn't want to admit failure until he 
 has to," replied Gorman. "And he always looks after 
 his own interests first." 
 
 "But how can we win out?" Richard wanted to 
 know. 
 
 "That's what I came to tell you. It is so important 
 to your welfare that I couldn't trust the mission to any 
 one else. De Blick promised to double your investment 
 in six months, and has left you in the lurch. Some 
 time in the far future, if the traffic situation warrants, 
 the South Union may be finished. But until then, your 
 stock will be worth nothing. I can make your invest- 
 ment profitable now by taking the stock off your hands 
 at twice what you paid, or perhaps more. Not that 
 my clients want it, but I think it will be worth that 
 eventually, and I want to save you from a pitfall." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 127 
 
 "But, Mr. — Mr. Gorman, wh — why do you do this 
 for us?" stammered Richard, the hand on his weak 
 chin shaking violently. 
 
 "Because," and Gorman beamed upon him, and then 
 upon Mercedes, into whose eyes had come the light 
 of understanding, "because I like you both, and I don't 
 want that old hypocrite to get the best of my friends. 
 To show my good faith, and to assure you that there 
 will be no greater rise in value than I have offered, I 
 am willing to sign an agreement to return your stock 
 at whatever the prevailing market prices may be at any 
 time during the next year or two years, or within an 
 even longer period, if you wish." 
 
 "Just what is the stock selling at now?" asked 
 Richard. 
 
 "I have the latest quotations in the daily papers. 
 We'll look them over after dinner, and perhaps we can 
 come to terms. 
 
 Mercedes left them sitting at the table, smoking 
 cigars that Gorman had brought, and went to her bed- 
 room to think. But the hum of voices disturbed her, 
 and she went out of doors and away from the house. 
 She found a quiet spot overlooking a valley, and sat 
 upon a log. 
 
 She noticed how badly worn her dress had become 
 at the knees. Then she looked at her shoes that had 
 been made of dainty leather, and were never intended 
 for such rough usage as they were receiving. They 
 were scarred and torn by brush and bramble and 
 stones. She did not know when she could have a new 
 pair. But of what use to have fine shoes, or fine 
 dresses, or anything pretty to wear if one must always 
 live in such a place? Of what use to live at all, if one 
 
128 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 could not really live? She covered her face with her 
 hands, and sat thus meditating for she knew not how 
 long. 
 
 ****** 
 
 Gorman's mind, like that of any great captain, leaped 
 to the center of a difficulty when once he decided to act. 
 He heard Mercedes leave the house, and he watched 
 through a window as her graceful form disappeared 
 among the trees. Then he remarked, "It must be 
 lonely for you and Mrs. Durkin at times." 
 
 "Yes, Mercedes does get melancholy, in spite of all 
 that I can do," Richard replied, pouring himself his 
 fourth glass of brandy, and passing the decanter to 
 his guest, who had taken but one drink. 
 
 "I would like to see you both resume your proper 
 place in society," Gorman added, covertly watching 
 the other from under half closed eyelids, while with 
 seeming carelessness he blew a cloud of smoke ceiling- 
 ward. "Mercedes is such a charming woman." 
 
 Richard struck a match, relit his cigar, and glanced 
 out of the window, as he responded, "It is very good 
 of you, Mr. Gorman, to take such an interest in us." 
 
 Months of outdoor life had entirely removed the 
 marks of dissipation from his face. Gorman had heard 
 that he had not only wasted his money in gambling and 
 drink, but had spent not a little of it in the pursuit of 
 women. And it had become a maxim with the cap- 
 italist that an immoral or a dissipated man is much 
 more easily influenced to do things for a money con- 
 sideration than one free from such weaknesses. 
 
 Had Durkin resented, by word or tone, the use of 
 his wife's Christian name, or had he even looked 
 straight at him as he replied, Gorman would have felt 
 vastly more doubtful of success. But the younger 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 129 
 
 man's eyes continued to roam about the room, studying 
 now the antlers of a buck above the fireplace, now the 
 two great flat rocks which composed the hearth, now 
 the design of the rug at his feet, now the rafters, now 
 the piano, then the details of the furniture, and finally 
 the decanter, for which he reached again. 
 
 The apartment in which they sat was at once the 
 dining room, library and parlor. When the dinner 
 dishes were taken away, the tablecloth was replaced 
 by a piece of tapestry. Much of the furniture in this 
 room had been owned by Mercedes' parents, and many 
 of her earliest recollections were associated with it. 
 There were four Heppelwhite chairs, beautifully 
 carved, the kind of which the old Southern aris- 
 tocracy was so fond ; in one corner the lowboy, with 
 shell and fluted columns, the cabriole legs carved at the 
 knees, and with claw and ball feet; the sofa, with 
 eagle's wings for arms and lion's claws for feet. But 
 there was nothing eagle-like or lion-like in the master 
 of this house. 
 
 "I could procure your election to the board of direct- 
 ors of the telephone system, if you cared to become 
 interested in that business later," Gorman continued. 
 "Of course, you would have to hold a considerable 
 amount of stock — say fifty thousand or so — but I 
 could buy it in your name, and you might make a small 
 payment, of about five thousand, to bind the bargain." 
 
 "But I'll need all I make in South Union to get a 
 decent start in business in Philadelphia," protested 
 Richard, lighting a fresh cigar that was handed him. 
 
 "Oh, I'll see that your profit on that is twenty-five 
 thousand." 
 
 Durkin glanced quickly at him, met a steady, inscru- 
 table look in return, and shifted his glance again to the 
 
130 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 antlers, to the rug, to the ceiling, to the sofa, and to 
 the decanter, from which he poured more brandy. 
 
 "I understood you to say a while ago," his tempter 
 went on in even tones, taking another small drink to 
 keep him company, "that you had to make a trip to 
 the valley this afternoon to loan one of your horses to 
 a friend. Don't let me detain you, though I'll be sorry 
 not to have you here. But I'm tired and want to rest, 
 and perhaps I can pass the time comfortably." 
 
 The husband did not look at him this time, as he 
 stammered : "By — by the old Harry, I was about to — 
 to forget that. Glad you reminded me. And that tel- 
 ephone offer — you — you're good to help me out. It's 
 good of you — really it's good of you — ah, here's Mer- 
 cedes returning. I'll tell her I must be off." 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 A TEMPTATION ON A MOUNTAIN TOP 
 
 Mercedes was walking slowly, listlessly, toward the 
 house, when Richard, shaking off the lethargic effects 
 of the brandy, hurriedly emerged from the front door 
 and greeted her. 
 
 "I had almost forgotten my promise to lend Dolly 
 to Tom Denton this afternoon," he said, hastily. "He 
 wants her for a fox hunt to-morrow. I'll take her, and 
 ride the other horse. I ought to be back by supper 
 time. You can show Mr. Gorman about or — or sing , 
 him a song, and — entertain him till I get back, won't 
 you?" 
 
 He looked away as her eyes met his, and he stam- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 131 
 
 mered out the latter part of his speech. Then he went 
 closer to her and said, in low tones : "He thinks he 
 may give us forty-five thousand for the stock, and we 
 must be pleasant to him. Think of what it means to 
 us !" Turning with her and walking toward their 
 guest, who had followed at a distance, he continued in 
 louder accents : 
 
 "I hate to run away like this, Mercedes, but you 
 know how good Denton has been to us. You under- 
 stand, Mr. Gorman, that it's an urgent case. But we 
 hope you'll stay several days, and make a good visit 
 while you're here." 
 
 He ran to the stable and soon returned, riding a 
 large roan and leading a smaller horse of a wiry and 
 powerful build. He waved his hat in adieu as he rode 
 past, and soon disappeared down the mountain road, 
 leaving his wife and Gorman "".anding together. 
 
 As soon as the hoof beats had died away, Mercedes 
 forced a smile, and turning toward him, asked if he 
 would not come into the house. 
 
 "Everything is so beautiful out of doors that it 
 makes a more appropriate background for yourself," 
 he responded. "But I will gladly come in if you will 
 sing one of your Southern songs. I have always 
 wanted to hear you sing." 
 
 She avoided his gaze as she replied that she would 
 be pleased to try, although her voice was not in the 
 best of condition. She led the way in, and sat down at 
 the piano. Her fingers rippled softly over the keys, and 
 then in a rich soprano voice she began the slow, liquid, 
 pulsing notes of a negro lullaby. It was full of sooth- 
 ing measures and suggestive of balmy breezes and 
 waving fronds, the scent of magnolias and the gentle 
 lap of waves upon a sandy shore in the moonlight. 
 
132 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Gorman, upon the sofa opposite, drank in the mel- 
 ody in delight. When it was ended he begged for 
 another song, and then she sang a livelier air, full of 
 the rollicking, carefree spirit of the Southland in the 
 olden, golden days of its power. There was might and 
 majesty in the swing of it, love of wine and woman 
 and song in the ring of it, and her voice was clear toned 
 and vibrant as a bell. Her listener would have given 
 one of his millions if at that moment she had come 
 floating toward him across the billows of joyous sound 
 and told him that she was his. 
 
 Before the song ceased he had partly risen from his 
 seat, but just then the form of Matilda, the serving 
 maid, darkened the door. She had come for direc- 
 tions about the evening meal. Mercedes left the room 
 for a time, and when she returned he asked her to go 
 for a stroll about the mountain top. If she refused, 
 he would feel that his long journey had been in vain. 
 
 She stood thinking for a moment, with downcast 
 eyes. Then, "How far do you wish to go?" she asked. 
 
 "Oh, anywhere that you will take me," he said. 
 "There must be some beautiful scenery hereabouts. 
 And it is so pleasant out of doors, anyhow." 
 
 ''Wait till I get a shawl. In the evening here it gets 
 so much cooler." 
 
 She hurried to her room, and left him thinking upon 
 the word "evening" and the delightful possibilities it 
 suggested. The sun was still blazing high in the 
 heavens, for it was only mid-afternoon. Did she mean 
 to stay out with him until the shades of evening fell? 
 But then, he regretfully recalled that in the South 
 "evening" meant any time after the noon hour. 
 
 He was sauntering about among the pines some 
 yards from the house when she came to the door, car- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 133 
 
 rying on one arm a mantilla of a soft, fleecy material. 
 She was bareheaded, and her hair, parted in the middle, 
 hung loosely on either side, the ends reposing in grace- 
 ful coils at the back of her neck. Very few women 
 can look attractive with their hair arranged in that 
 style. Mercedes, with her plentiful tresses and her 
 well shaped head, could afford to be disdainful of the 
 fashion of wearing bangs, then in vogue. Her wealth 
 of hair was not the least of her charms to him. As 
 the growth upon his own head gradually diminished, 
 his admiration for hair upon feminine heads rose in 
 proportion. 
 
 "I know a nice, big rock where we can sit and view 
 the river in the southern valley," she said, leading him 
 over a barely discernible path among the underbrush. 
 The rock was about half a mile distant, and they 
 walked slowly, vet they arrived much too soon, he 
 thought. She clambered up ahead of him. and when 
 he reached her side she pointed out the Shenandoah, 
 winding in and out among the rocks far below, and 
 seeming no larger than a silvery serpent. He removed 
 his light overcoat, and folded and placed it for her to 
 sit upon. 
 
 She still wore the blue jersey, which clung to her 
 supple figure. It was what was suggested yet con- 
 cealed rather than what was revealed that lent charm. 
 This is ever the rule, even among savages. A recently 
 returned traveler tells of the Kavirondos. in British 
 East Africa, the women among whom wear no dress 
 whatever, nor even any ornament other than a string 
 of beads about the waist. And yet they will "neither 
 clothe their nakedness nor surrender "their integrity 
 without due ceremony, and then only to one of their 
 own blood." But among their sisters of the Baganda 
 
134 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 tribe in Uganda there is a little more dress, coupled 
 with far less virtue. The Baganda ladies wear what 
 the traveler describes as a most fetching evening cos- 
 tume called the laso, a garment that is wound tightly 
 about the body from a little below the hips to just 
 above the swell of the breasts, the arms and shoulders 
 remaining bare. And the moral condition of these peo- 
 ple is such that they would speedily die out were not 
 their numbers constantly recruited by raids upon other 
 tribes. 
 
 For a time Gorman could only sit and gaze raptur- 
 ously at his fair companion as she sat with hands 
 clasped about her knees. He had found as he grew 
 older and became more and more absorbed in business 
 schemes that his ability in lovemaking grew less and 
 less, though his desires abated none. Mercedes talked 
 on about the river, the birds, the autumn foliage, and 
 the near approach of winter, while he made replies in 
 monosyllables. But when she mentioned her dread of 
 loneliness he was inspired to say, "Yes, you will be 
 very, very lonely, I should think, up here away from ail 
 your friends. I should so like to see you back in 
 society, where you belong." 
 
 He looked down at her shoes, and rejoiced that they 
 appeared much worn, and he looked at her dress and 
 was glad that it was shabby. The greater her need, 
 the easier should be his conquest. 
 
 "Well, I just can't understand your interest in me, 
 Mr. Gorman," she replied, keeping her eyes averted. 
 
 "My dear Mrs. Dnrkin," he began, then continued, 
 feverishly, "Mercedes — may I call you Mercedes ? — ah, 
 yes, let me call you Mercedes. I was interested in you 
 from the very first moment I saw you. It was before 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 135 
 
 the Hudsons' ball. It was at the opera. I sat opposite 
 you. Patti was singing, but I could not hear her while 
 I looked at you. A week later I attended that ball 
 just to meet you. I have thought of you, dreamed of 
 you, every moment since." 
 
 He moved nearer, and attempted to take her hand, 
 but she drew it out of his reach. "And now that I see 
 my way to aiding you and your husband," he ran on, 
 "won't you let me help you back to your proper place 
 in life? I will do more than I promised him. I will 
 make you a queen of society, as you are fitted to be. 
 I will settle upon you an income fit for a duchess. You 
 will be the most splendid woman in America. You 
 shall " 
 
 She had kept her eyes averted during most of this 
 plea, but now she turned and looked at him. At this, 
 his words ceased, and he gazed beseechingly at her. 
 She was thinking how much less repulsive young Her- 
 bert De Blick would have been in his place. But her 
 lot in life had become unbearable to her, and the man 
 before her offered the keys to an earthly paradise. The 
 sun had gone behind a cloud, and his back was toward 
 it and his face partly in the shadow, so that it did not 
 seem so monstrous, so Satanic, after all. If she had 
 been wise and philosophic she might have compared 
 herself with the Man in sacred history who was taken 
 upon a mountain and offered the kingdoms of the earth. 
 But she was a woman, and she knew no philosophy 
 except to live and enjoy life. Yet she resisted when 
 he seized her hand and then, and then — the sun came 
 from behind the cloud, gilding anew the autumn foli- 
 age, and touching with an added glory the crags and 
 peaks about them. And the rays which gave thus 
 lavishly of beauty to nature's charms, struck with 
 
136 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 pitiless brilliancy the rainbow-hued, passion-distorted 
 face of Gorman as he attempted to seize her in his 
 arms. And after one look, filled with loathing and ter- 
 ror, she tore herself from his clutch, and crying, "No, 
 no! Never!" turned and fled down the path toward 
 home. 
 
 END OF BOOK SECOND 
 
BOOK THIRD 
 GORDON LYLE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 FOUR YEARS IN JOURNALISM 
 
 On a spring day in the year 1890, there sat in Union 
 Square, New York, a pale, melancholy young man. 
 His coat was frayed, his trousers shiny, and his shoes 
 showed signs of wear. But while he was melancholy, 
 he did not lounge dejectedly, with hat drawn over his 
 eyes, like many others of the impoverished class who 
 were in the majority among those on the park benches. 
 His hat was off and his head was thrown back, and 
 he even smiled at times, though rather wistfully, as he 
 sat with arms outstretched upon the back of the bench, 
 absorbing the sunshine. 
 
 Not a few young women glanced at him more than 
 once as they passed. It may have been his tawny hair, 
 which fell in wavelets over his brow, or his almost 
 classic features, or his idealistic gray-blue eyes, or it 
 may have been all of these together which attracted 
 them. But their glances were not returned. He feared 
 that they were looking at his shabby attire. Besides, 
 his attention was largely taken up by the sparrows. 
 There were dozens of these little creatures, and they 
 
 137 
 
138 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 were most industriously engaged in a variety of ways : 
 drinking from the fountain about which the benches 
 were ranged, or looking for worms among the freshly 
 planted tulip beds, or quarreling over crumbs of cake 
 ' thrown among them by little children, or picking up 
 bits of string with which to make nests for a summer 
 brood, chirping nuptial songs the while. 
 
 It was the antics of the birds that brought occasional 
 smiles to the young man's face. They helped to dis- 
 tract his mind from gloomy reflections. He compared 
 their petty troubles with the fortunes and misfortunes 
 of humanity. "After all," he thought, "while we are 
 physically so much larger, are human affairs more 
 important in the sum of things than theirs ? That cock 
 sparrow who has just whipped the bird that tried to 
 steal a piece of string from his mate is quite as heroic 
 as any man who goes to battle for the sake of those 
 he loves. By that fight the sparrow missed a chance 
 to share in the distribution of cake by that little girl. 
 And he was more worthy of the cake than those who 
 enjoyed it. Yet he is none the less glorious without 
 a reward. And it is more important to be worthy o'f 
 a reward than to receive it." 
 
 With this thought came a glow of satisfaction which 
 lighted up his face. Gordon Lyle had need of such 
 philosophy just now. A week before he had been 
 discharged from a position that he had held for only 
 two months, a time barely long enough to enable him 
 to pay off debts formed in three months of idleness. 
 This made the second position within the year that he 
 had lost for doing what he believed — aye, what he 
 knew to be right. He was a newspaper writer, and 
 in both instances he had been assigned to write of polit- 
 ical corruption. The first time he had followed the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 139 
 
 trail until it led to the doors of the closest friends of 
 the paper's owners. The next time, while working for 
 another paper, the trail was taking him near to the door 
 of the owner himself, when he was told to cease his 
 investigations. 
 
 But in neither case had he hesitated. He had in- 
 sisted upon writing all the facts, and when these were 
 not used by his editor, he had given them to a reform 
 weekly. Each time his discharge had quickly followed. 
 The weekly paper could not afford to pay him any- 
 thing, and his only compensation was the knowledge 
 that he had helped to spread the truth. 
 
 Gordon Lyle had left college four years earlier, when 
 he was twenty-two years old, to follow "the profession 
 of journalism." That was what he liked to think it, 
 and that was what he called it until his co-workers 
 ridiculed him out of thinking that journalism was a 
 profession. His associates did not like even the term 
 "journalism." They called their vocation "the news- 
 paper business," and they spoke of themselves as 
 "newspaper men." Many of them said they were 
 "noospaper men." 
 
 Three years in journalistic work in smaller cities 
 had destroyed many of the illusions with which he had 
 left college. His father, a professor of history in the 
 institution he attended, had been a warm admirer of 
 Horace Greeley, and by his conversation with others 
 about the great editor, rather than by any direct advice, 
 had instilled in his son's mind an ambition to be a jour- 
 nalist. His father had died when Gordon's college 
 course was little more than half finished, and his in- 
 valid mother had soon afterward followed her husband 
 to the grave. The father's salary had been the family's 
 only income, and out of the money from his insurance 
 
140 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 policy, after the expenses of the two funerals were 
 paid, there remained barely enough for Gordon to com- 
 plete that year's term in school. 
 
 The day after the close of college the student went 
 to the office of the Wasp, one of the two local daily 
 papers, and was hired at ten dollars a week to report 
 suburban news. The city of Denver itself had but 
 100,000 inhabitants, so that there was little chance to 
 achieve journalistic greatness in its suburbs. But by 
 the end of two years Gordon had progressed farther 
 than the average reporter usually did. He had passed 
 through all the grades of reportorial work, and had 
 become the writer of City Hall news. 
 
 It was here that his illusions began to suffer most 
 severely. Every newspaper office is a school of cyni- 
 cism, differing only in degree, and he now saw why 
 the reporters of riper experience than himself had 
 always looked skeptical and talked cynically about 
 reform movements undertaken by newspapers. The 
 City Hall of Denver had just been reformed. That is, 
 one set of politicians had been voted out and another 
 set, favored by the Wasp, had been voted in. The Wasp 
 assured its readers that good government for the next 
 two years was now certain. 
 
 The Wasp was owned by a Jew who had come to 
 America as an immigrant from Hungary, and had 
 worked his way up from the ranks of printers to the 
 ownership of a newspaper worth a quarter of a million 
 dollars. The growth of the city to four times the size 
 it boasted when he had first entered it as a tramp 
 printer twenty years earlier had of course made possi- 
 ble his rise to wealth and power. But his native abil- 
 ity had more to do with it. And after business success 
 had come political ambition. He wanted to be a 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 141 
 
 United States Senator. This was aiming high for one 
 whose father had been a butcher in Budapest, but 
 America was the land of opportunity. He had often 
 championed reformatory movements, sometimes mildly, 
 at other times strongly, and thus had won a large meas- 
 ure of the public confidence. There were those who 
 whispered that his paper usually kept strangely silent 
 about certain public wrongs, notably those committed 
 by the railway power, but the clamor he raised about 
 other and lesser forms of corruption created a chorus 
 of praise in which these whisperings were drowned. 
 
 Gordon Lyle had been assigned by his city editor 
 to write attacks on the previous Mayor and Council 
 for granting favors too freely to gas, paving, electric 
 light, street railway and other public service corpora- 
 tions. And when the new officials were elected and 
 they began to show favoritism toward the same inter- 
 ests, he wrote similar articles against them. But these 
 articles did not appear in print. The IV asp had lost its 
 sting. "Let them alone. They're the owner's friends 
 now," the city editor told him, and when he continued 
 to write the attacks he was reduced to the work of 
 reporting Sunday school picnics. 
 
 "Old Flosser, your boss, owns stock in most of those 
 companies himself these days," a politician told him. 
 "They fixed him as soon as they saw he was strong 
 enough to rule the town's politics." He was told that 
 the rival newspaper, until then conservative, had be- 
 come reformatory in some instances because its propri- 
 etor was being neglected in new stock distributions. 
 
 He refused to believe these things at first. Particu- 
 larly did he hate to admit, even to himself, that Flosser 
 was corrupt. Of course, all reporters on his paper, as 
 well as those on other newspapers, had to be careful 
 
143 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 not to offend big advertisers, and some of Flosser's 
 aids had been discharged for writing things that hurt 
 the feelings of such advertisers. But that was not cor- 
 ruption. There was a time, though, when a new 
 department store in Denver would not patronize the 
 Wasp, and the Wasp had criticized its methods 
 severely until its owners began to advertise again, 
 when the criticisms ceased. This worried Gordon 
 somewhat, especially since he had written some of the 
 attacks. Still, this was not exactly corruption, and it 
 might be explained in several ways. 
 
 But Flosser was already a rich man, and besides, he 
 was a man of the people. He had come up from the 
 lowest round of the social ladder. He was, moreover, 
 of that race of pariahs who for eighteen centuries had 
 wandered over the face of the earth, reviled and spat 
 upon because their ancestors had crucified the Man of 
 Sorrows. No land could this race claim for their own. 
 Many nations had persecuted and driven them onward, 
 and none had accorded them more than grudging 
 refuge until the United States bade them welcome 
 to all the rights of citizenship. A million and a half 
 of them, or one-fourth as many as all Europe con- 
 tained, had flocked to these shores. And surely if any 
 of that race should be grateful to the country it was 
 Flosser. Flosser should be among the last to help 
 undermine the institutions of a people that had made 
 him all that he was. 
 
 And yet Gordon was at last forced to believe every- 
 thing that was said about him, for there was no evi- 
 dence to the contrary. And several weeks after he 
 was reduced in rank he decided to leave Denver and 
 try journalism in other cities. He had saved a hundred 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 143 
 
 dollars out of his salary, which now amounted to 
 twenty dollars a week. 
 
 He had long yearned to be a journalist in the nation's 
 metropolis. But he felt incompetent as yet to work for 
 its great newspapers. He feared that he must serve 
 an apprenticeship in larger cities than Denver before 
 he could aspire to write of the big events that trans- 
 pired in the city where Greeley had founded "the first 
 broadsheet dynasty in America." 
 
 He went first to St. Louis, then to Cincinnati, then to 
 Pittsburgh, working three months in the first city, five 
 months in the second and four in the last. An account 
 of his experiences in that year would have made a 
 sordid story, illuminated at rare intervals by exceptions 
 to the general rule of corruption. His memory of his 
 career thus far he often compared with a brilliant and 
 variegated tapestry. Journalism was a kaleidoscope 
 through which he had seen life in multifarious phases. 
 He had walked with governors and senators, and with 
 burglars and pickpockets. He had seen joy and sor- 
 row hold the stage in high life and low life. He had 
 banqueted with the elect one day, and had been ordered 
 off front porches by butlers and chased by bulldogs 
 the next. He had seen men nominated for high office, 
 and inaugurated, and he had seen other men con- 
 demned to death and executed. He had heard the 
 shouts of victors on many an athletic field and in 
 many a convention hall, and he had heard the groans of 
 the dying in train wrecks, in hospital wards and in 
 holocausts of fire and flood. He had beheld joyous 
 weddings and brilliant festivals, and he had watched 
 while victims of tragedies gave their dying gasps, and 
 had heard the wails of the newly made widows and 
 orphans. 
 
144 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 But the frequent stifling of the truth when it affected 
 the material interests of his employers had soiled this 
 vari-hued tapestry of memory until it was a thing he 
 would fain have forgotten. Every newspaper he had 
 worked upon or heard about was either more corrupt 
 or less corrupt than Flosser's. Corruption was so 
 common among them that many of the workers did 
 not think it corruption. They thought it merely good 
 business enterprise. For the owners to accept passes 
 from railways for themselves and their employes, to 
 take shares of stock in corporations, and remain silent 
 about abuses ; to protect department stores and other 
 interests that advertised, and to expose public wrongs 
 only when the owner's interests were helped or at least 
 were not injured thereby — these things were the rule 
 in journalism. Four times in that year's experiences 
 in the three cities he had been discharged for writing 
 of corruption in ways that offended his employers. 
 
 He had found conditions in Pittsburgh worse than 
 anywhere else, but worse only, he thought, because the 
 temptations were greater. Besides the usual forms 
 of corruption were the favors extended by the owners 
 of the steel mills. These mills were immensely profit- 
 able, mainly because of the tariff laws that enabled 
 their owners to charge more for steel in America than 
 they sold it for abroad. That kind of corruption ex- 
 tended to the national capital, and he could not follow 
 the trail so far as yet. He observed, however, that all 
 of the Pittsburgh papers argued in favor of that kind of 
 patriotism. But a worse manifestation of this corrup- 
 tion was the way in which workers were killed and 
 maimed, and the way in which families were huddled 
 in loathsome, disease breeding shacks. Corrupt offi- 
 cials inspected these mills, and reported them properly 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 145 
 
 managed, and yet four hundred deaths a year took place 
 in them ; and corrupt health officers inspected the work- 
 men's homes, and reported them sanitary, and yet the 
 mortality in these homes was the highest in the coun- 
 try. And the newspapers said little about these condi- 
 tions because their owners drew dividends on shares 
 of stock in the mills, and grew wealthy enough to 
 send their families touring through Europe. He had 
 been discharged by the owner of the Express, an untu- 
 tored person named Hashman, for writing an article 
 on the subject, Some of these newspaper owners were 
 even negotiating for titles for their daughters in rivalry 
 with "railway kings." 
 
 Assuredly, liberty of the press was a most beneficent 
 thing for some persons in America, Gordon Lyle 
 thought, after four months in Pittsburgh. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 HE SEES A VISION 
 
 When he arrived in New York he was not yet 
 thoroughly disillusioned. "Surely," he thought, as he 
 looked at the tall buildings that housed some of the 
 more important papers, "things cannot be so bad in 
 this great city — this center of American civilization 
 and culture, where such large profits are to be honestly 
 made." 
 
 He had heard that the profits of the leading daily 
 amounted to near three-quarters of a million a year. 
 Four or five other papers had made their owners 
 immensely rich. Every daily of importance had corre- 
 
146 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 spondents in the State and national capitals, and in one 
 or more of the great European cities as well. The fact 
 that the names of these correspondents, with fewer 
 and fewer exceptions, were no longer known to the 
 public, had escaped his attention, and if he had noticed 
 it he would probably not then have thought much about 
 it. To be a great journalist, to win fame thereby if 
 possible, but if not, to be a great journalist anyhow — 
 that was his ambition. 
 
 He had read all the books and articles about jour- 
 nalism that he could obtain, and in none of them was 
 much said of corruption. The kind of corruption that 
 he had found so common was not mentioned at all. 
 But he read of rare instances of the bribery with money 
 of writers and editors, and of more frequent instances 
 of bribes being indignantly refused. In one book that 
 he saw in a public library was an account of the bribing 
 of many of the correspondents at Washington in 1867, 
 when the bill to purchase Alaska from Russia was 
 passed. In another book he found this incident vaguely 
 referred to, with the comment: "This kind of thing 
 could hardly happen nowadays. The reason is that 
 when the influence of Washington correspondents is 
 wanted, it is obtained through the owners. The writ- 
 ers, individually, amount to nothing, and their very 
 names are, with scarcely an exception, unknown out- 
 side of the offices that employ them." 
 
 But he had known of few dishonest writers. There 
 were, of course, some blackmailing reporters of police 
 news, and he had heard of an occasional crafty 
 city editor who would make an appointment to meet 
 a politician in the back room of a saloon, and there 
 accept a bribe. Still, such men were always in the 
 minority in any city. In most instances, anyone who 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR i 47 
 
 tried to corrupt an editor or a writer would be ordered 
 out of an office, and if he did not go he would be 
 kicked out. But he had never heard that any capitalist 
 or promoter had been ordered out for offering a news- 
 paper owner shares of stock. 
 
 The first New York paper he had worked on was 
 influenced to stop a reform crusade by a block of stock 
 in a street railway company. The second had yielded 
 to the persuasion contained in asphalt trust shares. 
 Several politicians had been sent to prison for taking 
 money bribes from this trust. But to share in stock 
 distributions was a thing that did not seem to be 
 widely regarded as taking a bribe. Besides, who was 
 to investigate a newspaper's methods? Public officials 
 were generally afraid to do so. There was the danger 
 of arousing the passion for revenge, and a newspaper 
 had a legion of voices to cry "Stop thief!" to drown 
 any charges against itself. And newspapers did not 
 print such things about each other. Why? 
 
 "Hello, Lyle. What are you dreaming about ?" said 
 a familiar voice at his elbow, as, seated on the park 
 bench, he had arrived at this point in his meditations. 
 He looked round and saw Jack Holmes, a reporter on 
 the Morning Trumpet. The Trumpet, the last paper 
 on which he had worked, was one of the oldest and 
 most respected dailies, and was housed in its own build- 
 ing of twenty stories on a prominent corner. Its pro- 
 prietor lived most of the time abroad, cultivating 
 acquaintances among the European aristocracy, but he 
 kept in touch with his paper by cable everv day. It 
 was the Trumpet which made the largest profits of any 
 paper in the country, and this had caused Gordon to 
 think that it would be less likely to yield to corrupt 
 influences than any other. 
 
148 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Gordon was glad to see the friendly, jovial face of 
 Holmes. He regarded him as one of the better sort of 
 reporters. Holmes had not a great deal of education 
 or culture — not many successful reporters had — and he 
 was not an idealist. But, broadly speaking, he was 
 honest. He was known to have refused bribes, and 
 when a dissipated reportorial friend, in a fit of maudlin 
 frankness, had confessed to having taken fifty dollars 
 for suppressing a scandalous story, he forthwith cut 
 his acquaintance. 
 
 "I'm not dreaming," Gordon said, in response to his 
 query. "I'm thinking of my last discharge. Haven't 
 you heard?" 
 
 "Not a word. Just got in this morning from Con- 
 necticut — that murder mystery, you know. I'm 
 awfully sorry, old man. What's the cause?" 
 
 Gordon gladly poured his story into sympathetic 
 ears. Holmes sat down by his side and lit his bulldog 
 pipe, puffing stolidly on it till his friend ceased speak- 
 ing. 
 
 "Well, I could have told you in advance what your 
 finish would be in such a case," he commented. "The 
 trouble with you is that you take things too seriously. 
 Now, a newspaper man has got to learn to obey orders, 
 like a solidier." 
 
 "I'll not be a hired soldier in a bad cause." 
 
 "But if you're going to inquire into motives every 
 time you receive an order, you'll never get very far 
 along in the neAvspaper business." 
 
 "This was a suspicious ending of a crusade, and if 
 the owner wasn't to blame he ought to have known 
 what his editors were doing." 
 
 "I wouldn't be surprised if he knew about it. He 
 watches things rather closely. This asphalt trust is 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 149 
 
 going to make millions, and he doesn't object to having 
 a few of them to spend on his titled friends. He owns 
 all kinds of railway and telegraph and other stocks, 
 you know — why not a little asphalt?" 
 
 "It is wrong. It is monstrous. I'll not be a party 
 to it." 
 
 "You don't have to be — directly. A soldier isn't 
 guilty of blackmail when his country " 
 
 "My God, Holmes! Don't compare my case with 
 that of a soldier fighting for his country. I feel like 
 an assistant pirate." 
 
 "Only you didn't get your share," said Holmes, 
 smiling, as he emptied the ashes from his pipe. Then 
 he turned and looked at his friend. He observed his 
 pale, earnest face, and his worn and shiny clothing, 
 and he felt respect for him. It was the respect which 
 an inferior soul feels upon recognizing a superior soul, 
 to whose heights it cannot attain. He had been about 
 to say, "You're a fool, Gordon Lyle. Go and get 
 another job, if you can, follow instructions, and keep 
 your mouth shut about the queer doings of your em- 
 ployers, and you'll wear good clothes and never be out 
 of work." Instead, he asked in a kindly tone, "What 
 are you going to do next, old man ?" 
 
 "I don't know what to do," replied Gordon, slowly. 
 "None of the papers have an opening, so they tell me. 
 Perhaps I can sweep out hallways for a chance to 
 sleep in them, and empty garbage cans for the priv- 
 ilege of ravaging their contents." 
 
 "Great Jehosaphat! Things are not so bad as that, 
 are they ?" 
 
 "Almost. I owe a week's room rent, and I have 
 eighty-seven cents left. I know a place on the Bowery 
 where you can get coffee and rolls for five cents. That 
 
150 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 will do for a breakfast. And I can get a dinner for 
 ten cents at the same place. Thus I can live six days 
 upon my present funds if my landlady doesn't learn 
 that I have been discharged, and put me out before 
 then. Anyhow, spring has come, and I can rest on 
 park benches at night." 
 
 "Where is your watch?" 
 
 "Still in pawn. I put it in after I was separated 
 from the Planet's pay roll." 
 
 Holmes took a card case from an inside pocket of 
 his tweed coat, opened it, and extracted a ten-dollar 
 bill. He extended this toward Gordon, who shook his 
 head. 
 
 "Take it, old man," he said. "I don't need it, really. 
 I'm one of the kind that never get fired — too damned 
 much like a faithful plough horse, I guess. Or, maybe 
 a more up to date thing to compare me with is a piece 
 of machinery that never breaks down nor talks back. 
 Take this, I say, and when you need more, let me 
 know. I saved it on my expense account on this last 
 trip, so it's pure velvet — went to a cheap hotel and 
 used the telephone instead of paying cab fare in that 
 jay Connecticut town. And say, call me up by 'phone 
 to-morrow. I've heard rumors about a new paper to 
 be started, and it'll mean a lot of new jobs." 
 
 Gordon reluctantly took the bill, and Holmes, after 
 a hasty handshake, hurried away, leaving him to his 
 meditations. Through the branches of the maples, 
 just then bursting into leafage after a winter of sur- 
 passing cold, he caught glimpses of Bartholdi's bronze 
 statue of Lafayette. Upon the hilt of the sword a robin 
 perched and thrilled a joyous madrigal. "A lesson to 
 humanity in that," he thought. "A song of happiness 
 instead of the sword uplifted to strike. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 151 
 
 "But do we need such lessons in America as yet?" 
 he mused on, in another vein. "Perhaps we have too 
 much slothful peace, and that may account for our 
 sordid commercialism. War is terrible, but it rouses 
 men to noble deeds, and brings out the finer feelings, 
 such as self-sacrifice, chivalry, devotion to ideals. Men 
 learn to care less for their bodies in sacrificing them for 
 abstract principles, and this benefits their souls " 
 
 Here his meditations came to a sudden halt, for, 
 upon raising his eyes to a line of carriages passing 
 northward in Broadway, he saw a beautiful, dark-eyed 
 woman looking at him. Her gaze, which had been 
 concentrated upon him while her victoria went the 
 length of the square, had irresistibly drawn his eyes 
 in her direction. And she was actually smiling at him", 
 this radiant vision. But just then her driver whipped 
 up his horses, and her carriage quickly disappeared 
 beyond the line of buildings to the north. 
 
 Gordon had half risen from his seat, but he now sank 
 back, trembling, his mind a tumult in which happiness 
 and despair were blended. He had looked into Para- 
 dise for a moment, and then the gates had closed, shut- 
 ting him out, seemingly forever. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE MOONLIGHT CLUB 
 
 Gordon was not lacking in friends during his exile 
 from employment. A strong spirit of comradeship 
 pervades a large part of newspaperdom. When the 
 reason for his discharge became known in the Trumpet 
 
152 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 office a fierce though secret resentment flamed up in 
 many breasts. No one else would have gone so far as 
 he in attacking corruption. But genuine moral courage 
 is admired even by those who least possess it. And 
 every one in the office felt a sympathy for him, includ- 
 ing the city editor, who had reluctantly discharged him 
 after consulting with the managing editor, who cabled 
 a report to the owner, who was then traveling in 
 Europe, and who cabled back orders to take summary 
 action. 
 
 Jack Holmes thought about the affair until he raged 
 inwardly. Then he talked of it among the reporters 
 and sub-editors, known as copy readers, until a dozen 
 of them united in raising a purse of seventy dollars for 
 the victim. When Gordon telephoned to Holmes sev- 
 eral days later, he was asked to come to a cafe near 
 the Trumpet office, where the money was handed to 
 him. 
 
 "Now, don't refuse it, old man," said Holmes. 
 "Consider it a loan, if you wish. Here's a list of the 
 contributors. Johnson heads it, you see, and then there 
 are Jones, Haskins, O'Donnell, Williams, Britt, Gallo- 
 way, Smith and the others. I've put down their con- 
 tributions opposite their names. You'll need the 
 money, I think, for no city editor as yet seems to want 
 to hire you. You may be blacklisted this time, you 
 know, and may not be able even to place Sunday 
 features." 
 
 Gordon surveyed his soiled collar and frayed cloth- 
 ing in a mirror on the opposite wall and, muttering 
 heartfelt thanks, slowly pocketed the roll of bills. 
 
 "How about the rumors of a new paper?" he asked, 
 putting the list of contributors in his card case for 
 future reference. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 153 
 
 "Oh, there's little yet but rumors. I think, though, 
 that it will be a live proposition, for there must be 
 something in so much talk. I heard to-day that it's 
 a millionaire from the West who is coming to start 
 a sensational sheet along new lines. The other day, 
 rumor had him from Boston. Meanwhile, since you 
 have time on your hands, and to-morrow is my night 
 off, won't you come to the Moonlight Club with me? 
 I know you're not much on bohemianism, but there'll 
 be some really clever people there this time, and some 
 nice dames as well that you may like to meet." 
 
 And that was how Gordon chanced to be at the 
 Moonlight Club's monthly dinner the next evening. 
 The Moonlight Club was one of the most "advanced" 
 of the several dozens of bohemian clubs in the metropo- 
 lis. Being bohemian, it appropriately enough had no 
 home, but held its meetings at a different public res- 
 taurant each month, where course dinners were served 
 to members and guests at a dollar and a quarter a plate. 
 Actors, newspaper men, law clerks, writers of short 
 stories for magazines, and a Jewish playwright who 
 had a successful play to his credit were among the 
 members. Most of the other members were writers 
 of unpublished novels, and authors of plays not yet 
 produced. 
 
 The "guests" were generally such persons as the 
 club's president had heard possessed the price of a din- 
 ner, a percentage of which in each case went to the 
 president, unknown to the "guests." Many of these 
 were of the curious minded sort who were attracted 
 by the glamour of Bohemia. They fondly believed that 
 in attending the club dinners, they were getting 
 glimpses into that rare and beautiful land where 
 geniuses dwell, where coruscations of happy wit 
 
154 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 abound, and where the flowers of poetic imaginations 
 luxuriate for the delectation of all comers. They did 
 not know, and the guests of the scores of similar clubs 
 which have since sprung up in New York do not know 
 that real bohemians always shun such an affair if they 
 know its character in advance. 
 
 Gordon had gone to the dinners of three different 
 bohemian clubs of the Moonlight variety, and each 
 time had promised himself not to go to another. The 
 food, called a "course dinner," was cooked and served 
 in a way designed to make the largest margin of profit, 
 and the wine was so adulterated with acids and water 
 that it was facetiously referred to as "red ink." But as 
 he was no epicure and, unlike most of his fellow re- 
 porters, cared little for liquors, he regretted more than 
 all else the lack of mental pabulum. And so it was 
 with misgivings that he attended to-night's dinner. 
 
 "Well, I have no place else to go," he thought, "and 
 I might as well be there as anywhere else." The 
 weather was warm, and he had grown tired of reading 
 in libraries and sitting on park benches. He had made 
 no friends except those in newspaper offices. A re- 
 porter has little time for outside friendships. More- 
 over, Gordon was an orphan, with only a few distant 
 relatives in New England whom he had never seen, 
 and he had no correspondents with whom to while 
 away the time save two reportorial friends in the West. 
 His regular round of the newspaper offices had brought 
 only discouragement that morning. He could neither 
 get a position nor sell one of the two Sunday "fea- 
 tures" he had written. Was he blacklisted? Had his 
 independence of soul made him a journalistic pariah? 
 It was too early to say, but he began to have misgiv- 
 ings. Meanwhile, with part of the money raised by 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 155 
 
 his sympathizers, he had bought new clothes. Good 
 attire lends poise, self-possession, courage. He was 
 almost cheerful as he walked with Holmes along Sec- 
 ond avenue toward Stuyvesant Square, near which 
 was the restaurant where they were to dine. 
 
 The Moonlight Club had the upstairs section of the 
 eating house to itself. There were four long tables 
 placed lengthwise, while across the forward end of the 
 room, and opposite the entrance, was a fifth, the 
 speakers' table. Here the notables sat, and most of 
 them wore dress suits. Among the hundred guests, 
 of whom about half were women, ordinary attire was 
 as frequently seen as evening clothes. This gave a 
 mottled appearance to the gathering. The effect was 
 increased by an occasional bald head gleaming in con- 
 trast to the ultra long hair on the heads of some of the 
 "geniuses." From below came the strains of an 
 orchestra muffled by the distance, and to this music 
 the waiters, who outshone the masculine diners by the 
 uniformity of their attire, marched in and distributed 
 the first course. 
 
 Gordon had not been dining well of late, and he 
 faithfully followed the meal through all its courses. 
 He knew just what to expect. It was the same kind 
 of dinner he had eaten at the three previous "bohe- 
 mian" dinners. And it was the same kind that will be 
 served at all such "bohemian" dinners to-day, to- 
 morrow and the day after, and so on endlessly. After 
 the soup, on this occasion termed mock turtle, came 
 in regular order the piece of anonymous fish, cut with 
 mathematical exactness into a square of the dimen- 
 sions of one inch and a quarter, accompanied by a 
 dwarf potato ; the slice of juiceless meat, euphoniously 
 
156 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 called roast beef, but which was open to the suspicion 
 of being something else, convoyed by a dish of mashed 
 potatoes and another dish containing a dozen and a 
 half of peas ; the two lettuce leaves barely kept from 
 aviation on the breath of some vagrant breeze by the 
 weight of a slice and a half of anemic tomatoes, the 
 combination being known as salad; the strip of tri- 
 colored and frozen corn starch two inches long by one 
 wide designated Neapolitan ice cream ; the half inch 
 cube of Roquefort or Brie cheese, and the demi-tasse 
 of coffee. 
 
 As the last coffee cup was set down the president of 
 the club, Homer Leonard Abbott Carr, rose in his 
 place and rapped for order with the handle of his knife. 
 All eyes were focused upon him. He smiled conde- 
 scendingly upon his "guests," and gave them ample 
 time to discover the resemblance which he had once 
 been told his countenance had to that of Voltaire. He 
 had written one novel that had been published, and 
 three more that had not. In order to pay living ex- 
 penses (even geniuses must live), he acted as private 
 secretary to the illiterate head of the Board of Alder- 
 men. He conducted the Moonlight Club dinners at a 
 monthly profit of thirty or forty dollars. But the 
 opportunity to appear regularly as one of the city's 
 literati in the eyes of a hundred or more people, and 
 the joy of being occasionally mentioned in the daily 
 press as an author and leader of thought — this was 
 what he lived for, this was become as the breath of his 
 nostrils. Of course, being an underling to a politician, 
 he could express no political views of importance, but 
 he acquired a certain reputation for courageous liber- 
 ality by uttering at intervals such phrases as "The time 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 157 
 
 for reform is at hand," or "The mob will some day rise 
 against its masters." 
 
 He used up five minutes in introducing "one who 
 needs no introduction, Mr. Harding Block, who wrote 
 'The Dilemma of the Princess,' now appearing at one 
 of our well known theaters." He added that "Mr. 
 Block will take the negative of the question for debate 
 this evening, which is, 'Was Shakespeare a Great 
 Dramatist ?' After his remarks we will call upon others 
 present for opinions in the affirmative." 
 
 The lion of the evening then rose, brushed back a 
 thinning mane of hair from his brows, pulled at his 
 heavy mustache, inclined his head first toward the 
 president and then toward the audience, smiled be- 
 nignly upon all whom he was about to instruct, and 
 began his speech in accents that faintly suggested, 
 though they did not entirely betray his Hebraic origin. 
 He had been basely accused of taking his plot for "The 
 Dilemma of the Princess" from an English play a gen- 
 eration old, revamping it and locating his scenes and 
 characters in an imaginary German principality, and 
 changing the hero to an American, whose conquest of 
 the heart of a princess appealed strongly to republican 
 audiences. But the charge of plagiarism was not be- 
 lieved by his friends. 
 
 "Far be it from my purpose to disparage the great- 
 ness of William Shakespeare," said Mr. Block. 
 "Shakespeare was the greatest po-hut that ever lived, 
 and that is enough glory for any man. But he was not 
 a great dramatist. His dramas do not act well, and 
 that is the test by which a dramatist's powers must be 
 measured. The flowers of poetic genius which dec- 
 orate his pages are rightly the admiration and the de- 
 
158 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 spair of many a pohut. And his dramas, in spite of 
 their manifest crudities, are an intellectual feast. But 
 you can enjoy them best in the quiet of the study. 
 Upon the stage they do not satisfy the critical taste 
 of the present day. They do not ring true of life as 
 it really is. No jealous husband nowadays would act 
 as Othello did — granting that Othello really did the 
 things that Shakespeare represents him as doing. Your 
 modern husband, coming home late at night and find- 
 ing another man with his wife, would not even fly into 
 a passion. He would simply say, 'How will you have 
 your rarebit ?' Moreover, even if people ever existed as 
 Shakespeare portrays them, we have progressed beyond 
 the age of Shakespeare." 
 
 He talked on in this way for half an hour. To help 
 prove his contention he cited statistics of decreasing 
 attendance at Shakespearean plays in American cities. 
 "Shakespeare was the greatest po-hut that ever lived," 
 he concluded. "Take him to your study, but do not 
 delude yourselves with the belief that he is any longer 
 to be regarded as a great dramatist as viewed in the 
 light of modern critical opinion." 
 
 A period of five minutes to each person was allowed 
 for the expression of opposing views. Shakespeare's 
 admirers rallied to his defense, and the president had 
 difficulty in limiting some of them to the allotted time. 
 Their combined efforts were about equal to Mr. Block's 
 attack. One of the speakers insinuated that Mr. 
 Block might be a little jealous of the reputation of a 
 rival playwright, whose dramas had endured for three 
 hundred years, to which Mr. Block responded with 
 facetious complacency, "Oh, no. If my plays run for 
 three hundred nights on Broadway 111 be satisfied of 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 159 
 
 the discriminating taste of the modern piaygoing 
 public." 
 
 Finally, Arthur Delaval, journalist and dramatic 
 critic, was asked to say something. A slender young 
 man with brown eyes, in which brooded a gentle 
 melancholy, rose opposite Gordon, faced the president 
 and the speaker's table, and said: "In view of all that 
 has been uttered, I think it best for both Shakespeare 
 and myself to remain silent this evening," and then he 
 sat down again. 
 
 "Thanks be to Jove for that lightning flash, in this 
 chaos of shallow opinions!" Gordon whispered to 
 Holmes. But his remark was not heard, for the assem- 
 blage was breaking up, and Holmes had risen with the 
 rest, and was talking to a man on his other side. 
 
 In the next instant Gordon had forgotten Holmes, 
 the dinner, the speeches, the witticism of Delaval — 
 everything in the world but a beautiful face which he 
 now beheld for the second time in his life. It was the 
 face of her whom he had seen from a bench in Union 
 Square a week before, the face of the radiant woman 
 who had smiled at him from her carriage, and then dis- 
 appeared, leaving him filled with ecstasy and despair. 
 And as she had vanished then she was vanishing now. 
 But this time she was leaning on the arm of a man who 
 was escorting her toward the far end of the long room. 
 Her gaze was not turned in his direction now, how- 
 ever. And more than a hundred people blocked the 
 way between them. 
 
 "Oh, to think that she was here all the evening, and 
 I did not know it !" he muttered to himself, as he began 
 desperately to shoulder his way toward her. Holmes 
 had been calling to him, and now seized him by the 
 
160 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 coat, but he heeded him not In a kind of frenzy he 
 made his way through the throng, and ran, hatless, 
 down the stairway and into the street, only to see the 
 beautiful one and her escort whirled away in a car- 
 riage. 
 
 "Who is that woman — er — uh — that couple, officer ?" 
 he asked, feverishly, turning to the first person at hand, 
 who chanced to be a policeman. He showed his re- 
 porter's star, and added : "You see, I'm working on a 
 big story, and " 
 
 At this instant the president of the Moonlight Club 
 came down the stairway. "Ask him ; he knows," said 
 the officer. 
 
 "Oh, that couple?" repeated the literatus. "They 
 are Mr. and Mrs. Richard Durkin. They occasionally 
 visit bohemian clubs. They live up on Murray Hill 
 somewhere — in Park avenue, I think." 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 A LETTER FROM MERCEDES 
 
 Yes, the Durkins had come to New York to live, and 
 the following letter, received near the end of the pre- 
 ceding winter, may help to explain why : 
 
 "Dear Mr. Gorman: In the loneliness of a winter on 
 the mountain top I have been wondering how you have 
 been passing the time. Your kindly interest in our affairs 
 makes me believe that you would like to hear from us, 
 and I am writing you, although I don't think Richard 
 would approve if he knew. But poor Richard is not him- 
 self nowadays. He is so melancholy over the way the 
 South Union stock turned out that he drinks more moon- 
 shine whisky than is good for him, and he keeps me 
 worried much of the time. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 161 
 
 "The social life in this part of the world is duller in 
 winter than in the fall, for many of the planters go to 
 Richmond or Baltimore for the season, and so I, too, am 
 none too cheerful. I play over some of those songs I sang 
 to you, and which you liked so well, and it makes me think 
 of your visit that was so pleasant to us, and it also reminds 
 me of the glorious time I had at the Rhinclander Hudsons' 
 ball where we first met. Ah, those were happy times, and 
 how I do long for their return! I was not made for this 
 kind of an existence, and though Dick sometimes reads me 
 the philosophy of Epictetus, I cannot, T cannot be recon- 
 ciled to a life without light and color, and without beau- 
 tiful things to enjoy. I am a woman, and not a very old 
 one yet, and I love life, and not a peaceful in-the-chimney- 
 corner kind of existence. Philosophy was not made for 
 me. Or anyhow, I am sure 1 was not made for philosophy. 
 
 "I am sad to-day, muy triste, as my Spanish mother 
 would have said. I hope I am not taking up too much of 
 your time. I am writing just to relieve my feelings a 
 little, and to give myself the sensation of reaching out 
 from the tomb in which I am now enduring a kind of 
 living death, and touching hands with some one who 
 sympathizes with me. But do not write to me in return. 
 If there is any news about the South Union, though, I 
 am sure Richard would like to hear it. Most of his 
 friends in Philadelphia and New York seem to have for- 
 gotten him. Poor boy! Perhaps you can tell him of 
 some one who would like to buy his stock at somewhere 
 near what you offered for it, or you may have a client 
 who would like to loan money on it_ 
 
 "Anyhow, be assured that we appreciate the interest you 
 have taken in the affair, and that we hope to meet you 
 again. "Your sincere friend, 
 
 "Mercedes Durkin." 
 
 The day after this communication was received, a 
 business communication was sent from the house of 
 Gorman & Company to Mr. Richard Durkin, in care 
 of a small Virginia postoffice. It contained an offer 
 of forty-five thousand dollars for his stock in the South 
 Union Railroad. There was a postscript, signed by 
 Gorman himself, requesting to know whether Mr. Dur- 
 kin would accept a directorship in the new telephone 
 company, "as per our conversation upon the subject 
 while visiting at your home recently." 
 
i& THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 PLANNING TO SCALE THE ALPS OF POPULAR DISAPPROVAL 
 
 From his first important defeat in the game of love, 
 a defeat galling, humiliating, maddening in its seeming 
 nearness to victory, Gorman had returned to New 
 York in a savage mood. He left the Durkins' eyrie 
 with ruffled feathers on the morning after Mercedes 
 had fled from him, although for appearance's sake he 
 felt compelled to show a smooth front to the husband. 
 Richard's failure to come back that night until long 
 after the supper hour had given ample time for love- 
 making if the wife had been as willing as the husband 
 seemed. 
 
 Mercedes did not appear at table for supper, but told 
 her maid she was ill, and Gorman ate alone. The next 
 morning's meal was eaten in almost total silence. Only 
 when Richard escorted him to the mountain road to 
 meet the stage coach did Gorman refer to the stock 
 deaL "I'll write you just what I can do as soon as I 
 consult with my partners," was all he said, and the 
 other, suspecting the real situation, bade him a per- 
 functorily cordial good-by without further discussion. 
 
 He sought to dull the sting of it all by plunging 
 fiercely back into business. For weeks he devoted all 
 of his days and many hours of his nights to schemes 
 for the defeat of De Blick, and for the extension 
 of the powers of his banking house. His aids had not 
 been idle during his absence, and they had obtained 
 many blocks of South Union, so that he and his allies 
 now possessed almost a majority of it There were 
 some holders, however, so tenacious that he resolved 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 163 
 
 upon another stock market campaign. After several 
 weeks De Blick was brought to his knees, threw over 
 his own holdings before it was too late to make a profit, 
 and was rewarded with a directorship in the Grand 
 Union. His abandonment of the South Union left 
 many others in the lurch, but that did not trouble his 
 conscience, or, rather, it did not trouble his mind. 
 
 It was with grim satisfaction that Gorman thought 
 of the Durkins as among the ruined investors. They 
 would have a sorry time of it this winter, and after- 
 wards. Well, let their miseries be upon their own 
 heads, or upon the head of the woman who had twice 
 scorned his advances. Poor Mercedes, with her proud 
 spirit and her love of luxury, how she would suffer ! 
 Perhaps he would some time make another attempt 
 in that direction — but not yet, not yet. And one day 
 as he was musing thus, he received her letter. 
 
 Within a month the Durkins had been installed in a 
 home of luxury in one of the most fashionable thor- 
 oughfares of Murray Hill. The wife was received in 
 society, and the husband became known as one of the 
 successful young financiers of the day. 
 
 Meanwhile the trend of public events was such that 
 most of Gorman's time and all of his mental abilities 
 were needed to strengthen and maintain his position as 
 one of the rulers of the industrial world. What he and 
 other capitalists were pleased to think of as the middle 
 and lower classes had begun to understand how their 
 property and even their lives were passing into the 
 control of fewer and fewer men. There were growls 
 of protest in public meetings, in the press, in State 
 Legislatures, and in the halls of Congress. The pres- 
 sure of public opinion became so strong that even 
 those Congressmen who had been elected by the aid of 
 
164 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 railroad funds were forced to join in a demand for 
 some kind of a law to regulate the roads. 
 
 Many Senators and Representatives thundered for 
 days against "these despoilers of the people." There 
 was a far Western Senator who declared that "Capi- 
 tal has been organized, bold, unscrupulous, law-defy- 
 ing, moving upon State Legislatures, upon the courts, 
 upon the Congress of the United States, unblushingly 
 purchasing laws and interpretations thereof. In a 
 republic they despise the people and control its repre- 
 sentatives." And a Southern Senator said the rail- 
 roads had issued bogus bonds to the amount of three 
 billion dollars, and that they were assessing the people 
 to pay an actual taxation upon them of three hundred 
 millions a year. Yet few dared to say that the nation 
 should own the roads. 
 
 After months of such speeches a law was passed 
 creating an Interstate Commerce Commission, and 
 the "middle class" rejoiced greatly for a time. But 
 when tested in the courts the law was found to be a 
 sham. The friends of the railroads had not been idle, 
 although they had kept silent while the tribunes of the 
 people loudly declaimed. As a result of their work, 
 and by the connivance of some of these very tribunes, 
 clause after clause had been drawn in an unconstitu- 
 tional way. When the grave and reverend jurists on 
 and off the bench got through with the law, the com- 
 mission was found to be quite a harmless body. It had 
 no power to enforce its rules. It could not even com- 
 pel witnesses to attend sittings. It was little more 
 than a bureau for the collection of statistics. 
 
 The public rage at being tricked and beaten soon 
 found expression in a new law. It was aimed at all 
 combinations of capital in restraint of trade, and was 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 165 
 
 opposed by the railways no less bitterly than by those 
 new industrial combinations known as trusts, which 
 were then rising to menacing proportions to control 
 a nation's commerce, each in its own particular line. 
 An ambitious politician who wanted to make the White 
 House his home had drawn the new law. Severe pen- 
 alities, including imprisonment, were provided. As it 
 developed, no judge was so cruel as to sentence any one 
 to jail for even one day under this law. Still, heavy 
 fines were provided, and it was feared that some judge 
 to whom high political office shone with an alluring 
 glitter might treat an industrial baron as a common 
 criminal to get the vote of the common people. 
 
 The owners of the railways, however, knew the value 
 of union. Their lobbyists had long worked together, 
 sharing "legal expenses" at State and national cap- 
 itals. And now they decided to join forces against this 
 new reform. There would be danger if this were done 
 openly, for many of the States were following the 
 national government in passing anti-trust laws. The 
 country was aroused against the railways as never be- 
 fore. Secrecy must prevail. 
 
 And who was to lead this movement against popu- 
 lar clamor ? The physical courage to take the initiative 
 seemed lacking in the heads of all the railroads. Not 
 one of these men but had been the target of invective 
 by legislators or in the public prints. The popular 
 mind was inflamed and was demanding a victim. Be- 
 sides, most of them were men advanced in years, and 
 they desired more than aught else to enjoy peaceably 
 the luxuries that their swollen fortunes would procure. 
 The leading magnate of the Pacific coast had bought a 
 Russian prince for his daughter, and was spending 
 much of his time abroad. De Blick had erected a mar- 
 
1 66 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 ble palace at Newport, and was negotiating for a title 
 for his daughter. Yet they and all the other capitalists 
 were ready to follow if some one would show the way. 
 Napoleon crossed the Alps and took Italy while 
 other generals were debating as to whether it could be 
 taken at all. In much the same way C. Jefferson Gor- 
 man now stepped to the front, assumed command of 
 the railway and banking forces, and began his cam- 
 paign for the control of industrial America. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A MYSTERIOUS TIP 
 
 "Maybe I'll have to leave town after all," Gordon 
 remarked, gloomily, to Holmes. 
 
 They were in a cafe near Park Row. A month had 
 passed since they had attended the Moonlight Club's 
 dinner. Holmes regularly paid for Gordon's meals 
 now, but the latter still clung to his cheap room in a 
 Macdougal street lodging house, refusing to share the 
 other's apartment further uptown. The money raised 
 by his friends in the Trumpet office had long been 
 spent, and he was twenty dollars in debt. 
 
 "Oh, don't give up yet," responded Holmes. "A lot 
 of fellows will be taking vacations soon, and some 
 paper will have to give you a show." 
 
 "I refuse to be a burden on my friends any longer. 
 There must be a secret blacklist in this town, though 
 perhaps they haven't extended it to the other big cities 
 as yet. But I know that in office after office where I've 
 had an application in for more than a month, they've 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 167 
 
 taken on new reporters, and yet there is no vacancy for 
 me. And there's no sign of that new paper being 
 started." 
 
 "Have you been everywhere?" 
 
 "Everywhere, except to the papers printed in foreign 
 languages. I know only a little French and less Ger- 
 man, and the score of Italian, Hebrew, Polish and 
 other foreign sheets might as well be in Greek for all 
 I can read them. Besides, they have small staffs and 
 pay so little compared with the big papers printed in 
 English." 
 
 "How often have you been the rounds?" 
 
 "I've gone to the offices of the eight morning and 
 seven evening dailies on Manhattan Island at least 
 twice each week, and I've been to the four Brooklyn 
 sheets once a week. I've already worn out my shoes, 
 and the patience of a dozen city editors. 
 
 "Well, you know, Lyle, I'll stake you for more shoes 
 any time " 
 
 "Of course you would, old man, but I can't accept 
 any more clothes or money from you. You shan't 
 postpone your marriage on my account again. I'll 
 simply efface myself. My resolution to work in New 
 York is worn almost as threadbare as my coat." 
 
 "How about feature stories?" 
 
 "Well, two Sunday editors have taken about four 
 dollars' worth of stuff each — just enough to indicate 
 that they have nothing against me, but not enough to 
 keep me alive without help from my friends. I might 
 have sold a few features to the Star, which has such 
 a love for sensations, you know, if I could fake or 
 exaggerate in the way it likes. But I can't bring 
 myself to doing such work, unless perhaps to save 
 myself from actual starvation." 
 
i68 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "Perhaps you don't know that the highest salaried 
 newspaper man in town — I think he gets eighteen thou- 
 sand a year — is Sunday editor of the Star, and that's 
 the main reason he gets it — his faking ability, I mean. 
 He started all this craze for Sunday sensations about 
 the greatest and the littlest everything, and the 
 learned discussions as to whether Eve was a blonde, 
 and how much better shaped are the legs of American 
 chorus girls than those of their English cousins, and 
 so on. They say that when he is short of top-head 
 stories, he will actually send a man out with forty or 
 fifty dollars to pay some milliner or shop girl to 'stand 
 for' a fake about a proposal from a bogus count or 
 marquis. Of course, it's easy money for the girl, and 
 she has no reputation for veracity to lose, and the mob 
 gulps down such 'romances' in a greedy fashion. One 
 of his latest schemes was to pay fifty dollars to a poor 
 fellow out of work to advertise himself for sale as a 
 slave, in order to keep his family from starvation. 
 That produced a series of sensations, and a lot of opin- 
 ions from lawyers as to whether such a transaction 
 would be constitutional, which of course it wouldn't, 
 but it finally gave the poor workless devil so much 
 advertising that he got a job. I tell you there are 
 worse ways of making money than that." 
 
 "I doubt whether I could get even such assign- 
 ments," said Gordon, moodily. "But I certainly shall 
 not seek them." 
 
 "Then you won't buck the game any longer?" asked 
 Holmes, who did want to get married, and who, be- 
 neath the surface of his cordiality, cherished the hope 
 that Lyle would do something for himself before long, 
 even if he had to leave town to do it. The sympathy 
 he had felt for him at first had begun to wane. He 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 169 
 
 wouldn't have been so foolish as Lyle was in that 
 asphalt trust matter, so why should he suffer? 
 
 "Now I'm down and out, in so far as New York is 
 concerned," replied Lyle. "I think I'll go to Phila- 
 delphia next week, and — but here's a letter I got this 
 morning that you may like to read. It may be a tip 
 on a big story, or it may be a joke. A few weeks ago 
 I would have been excited by it ; now, I am losing my 
 enthusiasm, I've followed so many false tips. But 
 read the letter. It's anonymous, you see. It came this 
 morning, and I forgot to speak about it" 
 
 The letter was in a disguised feminine hand, on per- 
 fumed paper. It read : 
 
 "There will be an important meeting at a private resi- 
 dence, number Fifth avenue, on Friday of this week. 
 
 Say 'Louis Sixteenth' to the butler. 
 
 "The writer of this is interested in the addressee, but for 
 reasons which cannot be stated here, does not wish to 
 sign this communication." 
 
 The effect of this upon Holmes was electrical. He 
 half rose from his chair in agitation, sat down again, 
 and then said, in tones that trembled : 
 
 "Lyle, old man, that's probably the hottest tip that 
 has come to a newspaper man in this town for many 
 moons. Don't you know what that number on Fifth 
 avenue means? It's C. Jefferson Gorman's home. To- 
 morrow is Friday. There'll be some great doings there, 
 or I'm a blithering idiot. Go to the Star office with 
 this. They're none too friendly toward Gorman, and 
 they print the most sensational r,heet in America, as 
 you know. If this pans out half as well as I'm sure it 
 will, it'll break the hoodoo and get you a job. Hurry 
 up. Here's a dollar for incidental expenses. Tell me 
 about it to-morrow — no, wait till it's all over. It's 
 
170 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 a great story, but I'll keep silent at the Trumpet office. 
 I'll be glad to see you score a beat on them after the 
 way they treated you. Go to it, old man; scoop the 
 whole world, and I'll be on hand to cheer when you 
 come under the wire !" 
 
 It was with high hopes that, half an hour later, Gor- 
 don pushed his way past the office boy on guard at 
 the railing before the editorial rooms on the twelfth 
 floor of the Star building, and walked boldly into the 
 city editor's "den." The occupant, a nervous, anemic, 
 bespectacled man, with a bald head and a straggly 
 mustache, opened his mouth to swear at this insistent 
 visitor, whom he had already told fourteen times that 
 his services were not wanted. But before he could 
 speak, Gordon had thrown the letter on the desk before 
 him, saving, "Read that, please." 
 
 The effect upon the city editor was similar to that 
 upon Holmes. He jumped up and ran with the letter 
 into the managing editor's office adjoining. From 
 behind the thin partition of cherry wood and ground 
 glass, Gordon heard various exclamations, and caught 
 such phrases as, "But he's the only one that can get 
 past the butler." "We've got to have the story." "It 
 must be exclusive." "Oh, he can handle it, all right." 
 
 When the city editor returned his superior was with 
 him. They both fired questions at Lyle, and when 
 they had learned all he knew, the managing editor 
 gave him an order on the cashier for fifty dollars, "to 
 use on the servants, if necessary." 
 
 "And just wait a moment," the managing editor 
 added, hurrying into his office and out again. "We 
 have a copy of a typewritten circular that may help 
 explain things. It was sent out by the four largest 
 banking houses to big railway men all over the country. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 171 
 
 It was registered, and marked 'Private and Confiden- 
 tial,' and it says that 'the meeting to organize the 
 owners of the roads for the purpose of maintaining 
 stable rates will be held at the time and in the place 
 agreed upon.' Never mind how we got this copy, but 
 the affair at Gorman's must be the meeting referred 
 to. Jerusalem ! What a story it will make ! It's in 
 defiance of law if they organize for that purpose — but 
 that won't deter such a crowd." 
 
 And Gordon Lyle, his entire being aflame with 
 enthusiasm, went forth with instructions to "Get the 
 story ! No matter what happens, get the story !" 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 A SUBSTITUTE LACKEY 
 
 Even the greatest commanders are liable to err in 
 some details of the most masterly plan of campaign. 
 None can foresee every contingency. The sentry 
 before the general's own tent may be an enemy's spy. 
 Or, perhaps, the man who serves him coffee has been 
 bribed to poison it. Or there may be a sunken road, 
 hidden by shrubbery and unknown to either army, 
 midway of the heights that might otherwise be easily 
 taken. And then, instead of victory, there results the 
 engulfment of a regiment or a brigade, and the panic 
 and rout of an entire command. 
 
 Gorman's butler, Tibbits, was taken suddenly ill 
 on the morning before the momentous railway confer- 
 ence. The man had been in his employ for more than 
 a year, and had always seemed entirely trustworthy. 
 
172 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Gorman had never been able to keep valets or butlers 
 very long at a time because of his irritability and his 
 irregular hours. But he made it a rule to assure him- 
 self of their honesty before the end of the first month 
 by leaving diamond pins lying about, or placing ten- or 
 twenty-dollar bills in garments that he gave them to 
 press. He lost hundreds of dollars in this way, but he 
 reasoned that he saved thousands in the end, for a dis- 
 honest servant, if kept for long, might steal ten times 
 as much and escape with the loot. 
 
 When Tibbits sent word by the valet that he was ill 
 in his attic room, his master thought little of it. And 
 when Gorman saw Hawkins, who had been provided 
 as a substitute, he had a vague remembrance of having 
 seen the man before, but still he did not think much 
 about it. His mind was too busy with his plan to beat 
 the forces of reform. Anyhow, one butler should do 
 about as well as another for this occasion. Only a 
 dozen railway heads in all America, besides himself 
 and his banking friends, knew of. the purpose of the 
 meeting, he felt sure. And a butler, even if he were 
 dishonest and talkative, would have to be very much 
 above the ordinary in intelligence to understand what 
 the proceedings meant. 
 
 Mrs. Gorman and the serving maids had been sent to 
 their villa at Newport for a visit of several weeks. 
 Theodora was at an English finishing school for young 
 ladies, and Gorman, Junior, was still at Heidelberg. 
 Upon sending his wife away, he told her that he was 
 to have "a little stag party of old cronies, who wanted 
 to combine business with pleasure." And he added, 
 "I desire them to enjoy all the comforts of home, but 
 to feel free to do as they like, which they couldn't do 
 in a hotel, or in a house with women about." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 173 
 
 It was Hawkins who opened the door to Lyle half 
 an hour after he left the Star office. The footman 
 had been dispensed with for this day, as well as the 
 feminine servants. "There's no one at 'ome, sir," 
 Hawkins said, looking superciliously at the much worn 
 coat of the man before him. 
 
 "Louis Sixteenth," replied the reporter. 
 
 "Come in," said the butler. "Follow me," and he led 
 the way through a darkened hallway. 
 
 Lyle stepped upon the softest of Persian rugs, whose 
 elusive hues were lighted up by only an occasional ray 
 from a colored glass window, and he went past statues 
 and pictures whose outlines he but vaguely glimpsed. 
 He thought he detected the marbled likeness of Julius 
 Caesar on one pedestal, and on another the exquisite 
 lines of a Donatello angel such as he had seen among 
 Gorman's donations to the American Museum of Art. 
 But before he could take a second look at anything he 
 was at the end of the hall, and had passed into the din- 
 ing room, with its richly paneled and decorated walls. 
 Thence the butler proceeded into a rear hallway, say- 
 ing, "Right up these stairs," and led him up two 
 flights. The guide entered a small but well furnished 
 room, sat on a couch, told Lyle to be seated in a chair, 
 and then began : 
 
 "Hi don't know a blessed thing about why I'm 'ere, 
 or why you're 'ere. But you're to work 'ere as a waiter 
 to-morrow — hif you wish, sir. Them's my horders. 
 The regular butler's hill, and 'e knows nothing, sir. 
 Please remember that, sir. Now, do you know hany- 
 thing about waiting upon gentlemen, sir?" 
 
 "I'll be glad to learn. Do anything you wish with 
 me as long as I'm allowed to be here to-morrow while 
 the conference is going on." 
 
174 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "Hi know nothing of any conference, sir. There's fo 
 be some gentlemen 'ere most of the day. You can be 
 one of my 'elpers with the lunch and things. Come at 
 nine in the morning to the back door, hand 111 let you 
 in and give you your hapron and things. Hif you're 
 asked questions, say your name's Pillsbury, and tell 
 your story to suit yourself, honly saying that you're 
 from Stedman's agency. Hall I'm to know is that you 
 was recommended by a friend of mine that's left town. 
 Hunderstand, sir?" 
 
 "Perfectly. Now give me your orders. You'll find 
 me ready to do anything you say. Can I pay you for 
 instructions — say, twenty-five or " 
 
 "Not a cent, sir." 
 
 "All right, go ahead with your instructions," said 
 Lyle, who wondered if the butler was half as much 
 puzzled by it all as he was. 
 
 Who was his mysterious aid and informer, who had 
 lifted him out of despondency, and placed him on the 
 road to success, remaining hidden the while behind the 
 veil of anonymity? Surely, she must be rich and pow- 
 erful, as well as good. Good she certainly was, else 
 she would not thus help a penniless reporter, and in a 
 cause that might mean so much to the general wel- 
 fare. She was his good angel — nay, she was a stoop- 
 ing goddess thus to aid him. Why had she done it? 
 
 After two hours of faithful practice in the duties of 
 a waiter, attired in a lackey's suit of dark blue with 
 gold trimmings, Lyle telephoned to the Star and re- 
 ported his experiences. "Go home and get a good 
 night's sleep," he was told, "and be on hand when 
 things begin to happen. You'll know best what to do 
 then. But come to the office with the story as soon as 
 God will let you !" 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 175 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE CREATION OF A NEW MONSTER 
 
 Lyle was busily polishing the buffet mirror in the 
 Jacobean dining hall at ten o'clock A. M., when the 
 first carriage rolled up to the Gorman home. He had 
 not yet seen the master of the house, but he had heard 
 a heavy, resonant voice which he felt sure must be his, 
 in the adjoining library, giving final orders to Hawkins 
 for the comfort of the guests. It was the voice of one 
 used to being obeyed. 
 
 "Ah, there's Gluten — and Padue," he heard the voice 
 say, as the first carriage discharged its occupants. And 
 a moment later the men were in the library, and 
 another carriage had arrived with two more visitors. 
 Others came singly and by twos and threes, until there 
 were twenty in the house. 
 
 Hawkins entered the dining room, walked up to 
 his new assistant, and said in low tones, "Keep at your 
 work, and don't say a word unless you're spoke to," 
 and passed on. Just then there was a ring from the 
 library, and Lyle hurried to answer it. He had barely 
 reached the threshold when a voice boomed forth from 
 the center of a group of half a dozen guests, "Ask 
 these gentlemen what they'll have," and Lyle, with sub- 
 missive mien and downcast eyes, went the rounds and 
 took their orders for drinks or cigars. 
 
 And so began the conference upon which the fate 
 of the nation so largely hung. As Lyle, in the imper- 
 sonal garb of a servant, walked freely among them, lis- 
 tening, observing, meditating, he realized from their 
 words, if he had not realized it before, that here were 
 
176 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 the real rulers of the country. Billions of wealth were 
 represented here. From a corner of his eye he watched 
 them as they sat upon the leather upholstered chairs 
 and sofas and settees, and admired the Flemish oak 
 wainscoting, and the groined and vaulted ceiling of the 
 same dark, beautifully grained wood. Some of them 
 occasionally opened the massive book case, picked up a 
 rare edition and glanced carelessly through a few 
 pages. Others strolled into the Louis Quatorze draw- 
 ing room to admire its rich furnishings, or meandered 
 into the dining room to watch the gold fish sport in a 
 great glass bowL They told anecdotes the while of 
 fishing trips, or of railroad building, or of journeys in 
 private cars to remote parts of the country, and in 
 private yachts to West Indian isles, to South America, 
 and even to Mediterranean shores. And in the 
 accounts of these latter journey ings there were many 
 things, he thought, that would have had to be expur- 
 gated if printed for Sunday school libraries. 
 
 Upon the dining room buffet reposed boxes of the 
 choicest cigars from Havana, and bottles of the finest 
 liqueurs from the monasteries of France, of the mel- 
 lowest sherry from Spain, of port from Portugal, and 
 of whiskies oily from age, and containing the garnered' 
 gladness of the sunny corn and rye fields of old Ken- 
 tucky and of older Scotland. And there were sand- 
 wiches of milk-fed poultry, of Norwegian sardines, of 
 Westphalia ham, of French cheese, and of real Russian 
 caviar of the kind that is not for the multitude — all 
 these and other delicacies were there to refresh the 
 bodies of these masterful men while their brains wres- 
 tled with the problem of how best to keep a nation 
 obedient to their wills. But Lyle noticed that few of 
 them ate much, and that they drank little also, save 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 177 
 
 of seltzer or soda or coffee. Only occasionally did any 
 of them taste of the whiskies or wines or of the insidi- 
 ous liqueurs, and then but sparingly. He reasoned that 
 this was because the men who dominate other men are 
 the kind who rule themselves as well on important 
 occasions, and one cannot properly rule one's self 
 when the head is in the clouds and the brain is set 
 a-reeling by liquid sirens that sing sweet harmonies 
 out of tune with this earth and its problems of cold, 
 hard fact. 
 
 As Lyie passed the cigars for the third time he 
 noticed that the velvet hangings had been taken down 
 from between the oaken pillars with their Ionic carven 
 tops that divided the somber library from the cream 
 and gold hued drawing room. Hawkins called him, 
 and they, with two other lackeys, now placed rows of 
 chairs in somewhat the manner of those in a theater's 
 auditorium. When these chairs had been filled, Haw- 
 kins stationed Lyle and a fellow servant behind the last 
 row, to answer any call made upon them. 
 
 Soon a firm and resonant voice was heard asking for 
 order. Then all other voices were hushed, and all 
 eyes were turned toward the speaker. He stood with 
 his left hand resting upon the grand piano, his right 
 upraised to command attention. He talked in slow 
 and measured tones, and used simple language. Nor 
 did these men want oratory. Oratory appeals to the 
 emotions. These men had no emotions that they could 
 not hold in obedience to their wills. 
 
 After explaining the cause of the meeting and the 
 great revenues at stake, Gorman said : 
 
 "Competition has gone too far, and it is time to call 
 a halt. I am authorized to say," and here his eyes 
 swept slowly over all the faces before him, "on behalf 
 
178 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 of the banking houses represented here, that if an 
 organization can be formed practically upon the basis 
 I will outline, and with an executive board able to 
 enforce its provisions, on which the bankers shall be 
 represented, they will not negotiate, and will do every- 
 ing in their power to prevent the negotiation of any 
 securities for the building of parallel competing lines, 
 or for the extension of lines not approved by the execu- 
 tive board. Let this be distinctly understood." 
 
 "Ah," thought Lyle, "this shows how the men who 
 own the money can rule the men who own the railroads, 
 who rule the country." He longed for a chance to put 
 that speech on paper ere he forgot its salient phrases. 
 But he dared not change for an instant the statue-like 
 pose he and his fellow lackey were maintaining. He 
 kept his hands to his sides, and looked straight ahead, 
 but his mind was busy repeating the phrases over and 
 over again. 
 
 "The National Railway League is the name sug- 
 gested for our new association," and as he said this 
 Gorman paused as though listening for any dissenting 
 voice. He heard none. Then he sat down before a 
 marble topped, golden legged table, and with a pair of 
 shears cut half a hundred square bits of paper from a 
 large blank sheet. He wrote something on each square, 
 and then called out, without looking up : 
 
 "Hawkins, send me two cigar boxes, or vases, or 
 something else to hold these ballots." 
 
 Within half a minute two empty cigar boxes were 
 before him. He then looked up and beckoned to the 
 liveried figures behind the rows of seats. When Lyle 
 and the other walked forward, he placed a box in the 
 hands of each, and said : 
 
 "One of these boxes contains slips marked 'No,' and 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 179 
 
 the other contains slips marked 'Yes.' See that every 
 gentleman gets one of each kind." In louder tones he 
 continued, looking now at the assemblage : 
 
 "Those who favor the forming of the National Rail- 
 way League will vote 'Yes.' They who want to keep 
 up a ruinous competition will vote 'No.' Mark your 
 ballots with the names of your roads. One vote will 
 be allowed for each sphere of influence. Do not write 
 your own names." 
 
 "How appropriate," Lyle muttered to himself. 
 "Money rather than men, dollars and not names, not 
 even theirs," and then he caught his breath for fear 
 he would say something aloud. 
 
 When the ballots were brought back Gorman 
 poured them out on the table before him. Not a single 
 'No' was among them. And likewise did they all vote 
 for an executive board, with him as chairman. Then 
 the ballots were passed a third time, and an agreement 
 to maintain prevailing rates everywhere was approved. 
 
 "And who are these men who meet here at his be- 
 hest, meekly and cheerfully take his orders, keep silent 
 while he speaks, and vote to follow where he leads?" 
 Lyle asked himself, as he passed in and out among 
 them. He could not answer the question satisfactorily, 
 for in most cases these powerful personalities were 
 little more than names to him. He was later to com- 
 prehend all that he now but vaguely understood. 
 
 They each in some way resembled their leader. That 
 is to say, they were kindred spirits, all. Their begin- 
 nings were largely alike, as were their methods, their 
 ideals, their goal. What he had become nationally, 
 each of them was locally, save those whose power 
 extended over a sufficient number of States to make 
 them in some degree his rivals. Not one of them 
 
180 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 had built a railway or a part of a railway. They were 
 not engineers, or surveyors, or layers of track, or 
 builders of bridges, or diggers of tunnels. They were 
 not makers of rails, or of cars, or even of car couplings. 
 They knew neither science nor mechanics. They were 
 not inventors of anything, save sordid schemes. Most 
 of the railways they ruled were built long before they 
 came into possession of them, and many were built 
 only by the aid of public appropriations. 
 
 There was Burleson of the Pacific coast railways, 
 tall and spare, with eyes cold, hard and glittering, with 
 the nose of an eagle and the face of a hawk. He had 
 traded in hardware and miners' supplies while other 
 men risked their lives seeking gold or warring with 
 Indians. And while Grant and his legions were fight- 
 ing the battle of the Wilderness, he was bribing Con- 
 gress for land grants and bond issues for his railways. 
 "When I buy a man, I always make him take a check, 
 if I can, for when the check comes back, I own the 
 man," was one of his maxims. 
 
 And Gillman of the Northwestern was there, too. 
 An uncanny Scot was he, who thought little of "Auld 
 Lang Syne," but looked ever to the future. His beady 
 eyes shone above a thistle-like beard that was gray 
 and gloomy as the mists that hang over a moor and 
 hide from travelers its dangerous places. His methods 
 were like Burleson's, except for lack of frankness 
 Like Burleson, he had stayed away from war, trading 
 while others fought. How he bought men he did not 
 say, but he owned many newspapers, some of them 
 openly, and many politicians and judges, all of them 
 secretly. He pretended to be open and above board 
 in all his dealings, and often delivered speeches oc 
 agriculture. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 181 
 
 Beside him sat the aristocratic De Blick. Well 
 groomed, soft spoken and rather bored of mien, he was 
 the only man present not "self-made." His grand- 
 father, however, had been such in every sense of that 
 term as exemplified by the others. The founder of the 
 family wealth had stayed far, far from the scenes of 
 battle in the war of 1812, carrying passengers on a 
 ferry instead of carrying a musket or a sword in battle. 
 The Mexican and Civil wars had meant to him and his 
 sons only a means of enlarging their gains, and they 
 had founded one of the first of the families of Ameri- 
 can multi-millionaires. 
 
 Flanking him sat his favorite lawyer, Padue. Witty 
 was this Senator, this tribune of the people, and wise in 
 season. In the war which made his party great he 
 bore no arms, but when the smoke had cleared away 
 he mounted public platforms and become a most valiant 
 speaker against slavery. He was, besides, a droll fel- 
 low well met about banquet boards, with his Dundreary 
 whiskers and his unweary tongue. None more able 
 than he to make the worse appear the better reason, 
 for in the gales of merriment his words created his 
 listeners' sense of logic was often swept away. His 
 salary was greater than that paid by the people to their 
 President, and it was well earned, his master thought, 
 for he was learned in the law's delay, and his work 
 before courts and juries had in it little of jest. 
 
 And there was Bronson, Gorman's chief legal aid. 
 Battles over points of law were the only kind of war- 
 fare he had ever known. The deliberation that sat 
 deep engraven on his front was no mere pose. His 
 advice on the best ways of keeping out of prison was 
 esteemed more highly than that of any living light oi 
 jurisprudence. The public knew him little, and he 
 
182 THE AMERICAN EMT'EROR 
 
 was content that this be so. To him the public was an 
 ass, and he cared not for its brays of praise, nor did he 
 like to venture near enough to risk its kicks. His elo- 
 quence was for the ears of the elect. 
 
 Here, too, was Gluten, and in the front row — that 
 creature with eyes and beard of raven hue, with 
 Hebraic, vulture-like nose, and with the soul of a vam- 
 pire. He had made honor and faith and good intent 
 a sorry joke in railways, in telegraphs, in all he 
 touched. He had begun as a clerk in a country store, 
 showing all of the talent in trading that is expected 
 of one of the Chosen People. Not him could the rabbis 
 blame if his race became borrowers and not lenders. 
 He never borrowed. He stole. And he did not lend. 
 He bought, with stolen funds, politicians, and judges 
 and newspapers. He had wrecked railway systems and 
 robbed thousands of investors, and caused scores of 
 suicides. "Beware of Gluten — his touch is the touch 
 of death," had become a Wall Street maxim. 
 
 And here, above these and all the others, Clay Jef- 
 ferson Gorman, exalted, sat, with a kind of majesty. 
 Not a man there but had either felt his greater power, 
 or admired or envied his greater success. Now, they 
 were learning more of the peculiar force of his char- 
 acter, of his audacity, of his genius in the planning 
 and doing of big deeds. And no voice was raised 
 against him — not that they loved him much, or at all. 
 Some of them hated him, and few liked him even a 
 little. But they all loved success more, and he could 
 lead them to success. He, himself, was success per- 
 sonified. Had any of the plans of that master mind 
 ever been known to fail? None, though many were 
 the midnight schemes laid to ensnare him. He had 
 passed by every ambush, and taken every redoubt 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 183 
 
 sooner or later, showing strength in ways unexpected, 
 having aids wherever needed; in legislative halls, in 
 executive offices, or on the bench. 
 
 And all that day he and they worked in harmony, 
 weaving the gigantic web that was to enmesh sixty 
 millions of people in bands of steel. These people were 
 all unconscious of what was impending for them. Like 
 careless flies flitting about in the sun, seemed many of 
 them, who were laughing and chatting gaily as they 
 passed under the very windows of the house where 
 the web was being woven. These people seemed to 
 think that every invention, every advancement of 
 science was for the real betterment of them all, and 
 were ready to hail as a benefactor every one who pro- 
 posed to extend those benefits upon almost any terms. 
 They forgot that the republic's constitution makers 
 could have foreseen few, if any, cf the wonders of 
 science that were making the nineteenth century blaze 
 with glory. They forgot that even the discovery of 
 oil as an illuminant was still in the womb of Time 
 when Washington and Jefferson and Jackson had been 
 carried to their tombs. And out of the conflicting 
 forces in the oil-fields came the first of those combina- 
 tions of capital known as trusts, to be followed by so 
 many others, monstrous distortions of the power of 
 incorporation which, octopus-like, with head in one 
 State and tentacles in all the others, sucked the life 
 blood of commerce and, chameleon-like, assumed hues 
 in keeping with every locality. 
 
 But here was a monster being created in secret, and 
 meant to remain ever invisible to the people it de- 
 spoiled. It was to strike from the dark, or from seem- 
 ingly nowhere. It was to have no color, no apparent 
 form, no corporate being. Yet it was to be more 
 
184 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 powerful than all the others, which were to be merely 
 its aids or dependants, for as blood and arteries are to 
 the human body, it was to be to the body politic. It 
 controlled money, the life blood of commerce, and the 
 railways, now become the arteries of commerce. 
 
 It was in no sense chosen by the people, nor was it 
 even to be consciously tolerated by the people, yet it 
 was planned to rule, and rule always, having no term 
 to be fixed by the fickle masses or their representatives. 
 It was unofficial. It was unlawful. Aye, it was the 
 antithesis of both law and the duly created powers of 
 office : it was criminal. And yet it was to be more 
 powerful than any mere official or set of officials, than 
 any law or set of laws. It was to make laws, and have 
 laws set aside or defined as it wished. And it was to 
 make or unmake officials in vastly greater number than 
 any or all of its organizers had made or unmade them 
 before. Existing outside of the law, in defiance of law, 
 it was yet to become both law and government. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 A SECOND MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE 
 
 It was two days later that Holmes, seeing Lyle in 
 the Press Club library, slapped him on the back and 
 congratulated him upon his "beat" about the organiza- 
 tion of the National Railway League. 
 
 "A great story — it will go down in newspaper his- 
 tory," he rhapsodized. "I notice all the papers had to 
 follow suit, including even the Trumpet, friendly 
 though it is to big interests. You can bet I told 'em 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 185 
 
 up there that it was your work. Of course, you're on 
 the regular Star staff now ?" 
 
 "Yes," said Lyle. "But the Star didn't print all of 
 my story. They cut out some of the strongest parts, 
 such as the references to the thing being a criminal 
 conspiracy." 
 
 "Oh, well, you can't expect any newspaper to tell 
 the whole truth about anything, especially when its 
 owner's interests are affected. Bilstine holds shares in 
 some of those roads, you know." 
 
 "Is that possible?" 
 
 "Sure, and he cares only about protecting his own 
 property there and elsewhere. He's a shrewd business 
 man, and he wants to make the Star the most popular 
 and influential sheet in America. He doesn't like Gor- 
 man a little bit, and yet he won't oppose him very 
 strongly in this scheme, for fear of endangering his 
 own pocketbook. Being one of the Chosen People, his 
 heart is not far from his pocketbook at any time. Be- 
 sides, he has social ambitions — wants his daughter to 
 marry into the swell set." 
 
 "But a Star editorial to-day demands the prosecution 
 of these men." 
 
 "That's only a bluff ; a mild editorial written by the 
 old man himself, just strong enough to attract popular 
 support, while your story was toned down. Less and 
 less will be said about this matter by any of the papers, 
 after the denials by the secretaries of these big men 
 have been printed — denials that the real intention of 
 the league is what you said it was, you know. Any- 
 how, none of those fellows will be prosecuted. Why ? 
 If you knew how much they contributed to elect the 
 President who appointed their choice for Attorney 
 General you would understand just why. The Presi- 
 
1 86 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 dent wants to be re-elected, you know, and against 
 their combined opposition he never could be even nom- 
 inated. They sometimes go to Washington and give 
 the old boy straight talk. You would be surprised to 
 know the language they use to him. 'You won't get a 
 damned cent for your campaign,' they tell him. And 
 then they send political leaders to him, and they 
 know the language they use to him. 'You won't get a 
 single delegate to the next convention.' I was in Wash- 
 ington for several months as a correspondent, and I 
 know how things are sometimes done. It's largely be- 
 cause a President has so short a term that even when 
 he's honest he can barely start a reform before it is 
 time to elect his successor. 
 
 "But I didn't know you were a member here," 
 Holmes added. 
 
 "I'm not. A friend from the Star brought me over," 
 and Lyle looked about him with interest. Above the 
 rows of books the walls were decorated with original 
 drawings of cartoons that had done service in previous 
 campaigns, and with pictures of Greeley and other 
 famous journalists. In the place of greatest promi- 
 nence, however, was a drawing of a human skull, 
 crowned with laurel-leaves, and resting upon a pile of 
 books. Underneath were the words : "WHAT'S THE 
 USE?" 
 
 "Let's sit down over here in the corner and order a 
 bottle of something," said Holmes. "You ought to 
 join here, since you've become a fixture in town." 
 
 "So Mason, of the Star, told me. It was he who 
 brought me over. He said the club needed more mem- 
 bers who would pay their dues, and added that a lot 
 of tradespaper people, and politicians, and doctors who 
 had written pamphlets on almost any subject, and 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 187 
 
 various kinds of persons who should never have been 
 admitted, are members because they are needed to keep 
 the club going." 
 
 "That's it ; newspaper men are not to be depended on 
 to pay their dues. Even when they don't spend their 
 money for booze, they're never sure of holding a posi- 
 tion for long. Or, even if they don't fake too much— 
 or too little— they may offend some petty tyrant who 
 himself has but temporary power over them, and be 
 ousted without notice, no matter how many years of 
 faithful service they have rendered. It's a dog's life, 
 and yet I know nothing else, and so I stay at it." 
 "What do you think of my chances with the Star?" 
 "Oh, you're a fixture now, as much as any of us, and 
 you've' won out over big odds, and without faking. 
 Your record is exceptional. By the way, have you 
 found out who sent you that tip ?" 
 
 "No, and I can't guess. I think of her as a mys- 
 terious angel," and Lyle gazed dreamily into space. 
 "Why she should select me I don't understand. I have 
 no women friends in town." 
 
 "That part is a mystery," said Holmes, ordering a 
 second bottle, of which he drank the most, for Lyle had 
 not cultivated the average journalistic taste for drink. 
 "But her motive is easier to figure out. She probably 
 belongs to some family that's been ruined, or is about 
 to be ruined by Gorman. This expose won't stop him 
 and his crowd, though it may cause them a little 
 trouble. Nothing seems really to stop them, any more 
 than building breakwaters stops the movements of the 
 
 tides themselves. For instance " 
 
 Just then a steward entered, crying out : "Telephone 
 for Mr. Lyle !" 
 
 When Lyle answered the call, it was to learn that he 
 
1 88 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 was wanted at the Star office at once. A letter marked 
 important had just arrived there for him by special de- 
 livery. The time was barely noon, and he was not due 
 at the office for an hour, but he hurried over, to find a 
 missive in the same handwriting that had led him to 
 the Gorman residence. This time he read : 
 
 "A splendid report in yesterday morning's Star. An- 
 other triumph almost as big awaits you if you learn what 
 transpires in Pittstown, Pennsylvania, Friday and Satur- 
 day of this week. A big coal combination is to be formed. 
 Burn this letter." 
 
 "What do you think of this, Mr. Allen ?" asked Lyle, 
 handing the letter to the city editor. "I assure you I 
 don't know any more about it myself than I knew 
 about the first one." 
 
 The anemic face of Allen lighted up as he perused 
 the letter. "It means another big story, if it means 
 anything," and he squinted at the script, as though 
 trying to decipher a name from the various combina- 
 tions of words. "Some woman is after Gorman, that's 
 sure. Wouldn't it be a beautiful story if she should 
 take a shot at him the way the mistress of Flickens, 
 the Wall Street shark, potted him in a theater lobby? 
 But this is better, in a way, for us, since we have it 
 exclusive. Anyhow, you'd better have a talk with the 
 managing editor. This is Sunday, and there is ample 
 time to lay your plans for a beat before next Friday." 
 
 Phillips, the managing editor, was younger than his 
 subordinate, as is not infrequently the case in journal- 
 ism, where mental alertness and physical vigor com- 
 bine with chance to raise young men above older, 
 though more experienced, and, often, better educated 
 men. Phillips was a kind of human dynamo, who 
 spent from twelve to sixteen hours a day at his desk, 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 189 
 
 and expected those under him to toil as hard, for much 
 less money. He was an ideal journalist of the suc- 
 cessful American type, a type very much like that of 
 the ideal condottiere of the early Italian republics. His 
 master's interests came first, but only as long as he was 
 well paid. When the enemy offered him more money, 
 then the enemy became his master. Phillips had 
 worked his way up in the service of a Gorman paper, 
 and when Bilstine offered him a bigger salary than he 
 had been receiving, he cheerfully served Bilstine in 
 attacking Gorman. Had an agent of Gorman offered 
 him an increase over the salary he now received, he 
 would have served Gorman just as loyally as he was 
 serving his present master. No granite was harder in 
 appearance than his strong lower jaw, through the skin 
 of which, even after a close shave, the hair showed in 
 a myriad of tiny blue-black points. And no steel was 
 more cold than the glitter of his eyes when listening to 
 a plea that the paper correct an injustice done to some 
 one whose wrongs did not concern himself or his 
 employer. 
 
 "Draw up a chair and sit down, Mr. Lyle," said 
 Phillips, with a smile. "You did very good work on 
 that railway combine." Lyle flushed with pleasure, for 
 this was as high praise as any one ever got in journal- 
 ism. "I'll go into the history of this coal situation a 
 bit so that you may know along just what line to 
 work," continued the managing editor. "You see, 
 Gorman has just acquired the Philadelphia and Pitts- 
 town road, and that, with the other lines he has con- 
 trolled for so long, makes him a big factor in the coal 
 fields. How he got this last and most important road 
 I won't stop to explain fully now, but it was by the 
 help of the banking clique you saw at his house the 
 
190 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 other day. McAdams, of the Pittstown road, wanted 
 to float new bond issues to get money for improve- 
 ments and extensions, so as to develop unmined de- 
 posits. He applied first to Gorman's banking-house, 
 and it was then that this scheme was probably born. 
 McAdams was told that he could not be accommodated 
 there, but to go to Barton, Slode and Company. That 
 firm sent him away with the same statement, naming 
 another banking-house, and so it was with two or three 
 other houses. At the same time, Gorman and De Blick, 
 who now work together instead of against each other, 
 sent agents into the stock market with the story that 
 McAdams couldn't raise money on his road. They 
 beat down the price of shares, and scared enough 
 stockholders into selling out to give them control. 
 Money was then easily found to float a bond issue for 
 the road. You see how the bankers can work together 
 against any other interest. Well, having got into the 
 coal fields, these men will probably join with other 
 railway and mine owners, and prices of coal will go up, 
 or I'm badly mistaken. 
 
 "When you get to Pittstown, wire in all you can 
 learn, and never mind expense. But let's see, that con- 
 ference doesn't begin till Friday. Here's something I 
 want you to do meantime. We have a rumor that a 
 well known actress is going to sue for divorce. Hei 
 husband is a fast young millionaire, and a friend oi 
 Bilstine, the owner here. I want you to follow that 
 actress for a couple of days, and see if you can't learn 
 about her conduct, so that in case she does bring that 
 suit we can have some interesting matter about her." 
 "But has this anything to do with the coal story?" 
 "Oh, no," said Phillips. "It is something to keep you 
 busy till the day you leave for Pittstown." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 191 
 
 Lyle inwardly rebelled against the task. He felt that 
 it would degrade him to the level of a cheap detective. 
 To become a common spy, and perhaps help to ruin the 
 character of a woman who had never harmed him, and 
 whom he did not even know, and to do this for hire — 
 was this journalism ? For a moment he could scarcely 
 refrain from crying out in righteous indignation 
 against so ignoble a proposal. But he crushed down 
 this feeling. He wanted to achieve great things in his 
 profession, even if he had to wade through mire to do 
 so. He accepted the assignment, and was glad to re- 
 port, after three days, that he could learn nothing to 
 the discredit of the woman. Then he started for 
 Pittstown. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE COAL TRUST 
 
 "But the State constitution forbids railway com- 
 panies to own or operate coal mines." 
 
 "What is the constitution between friends?" and 
 Gorman laughed loudly at his own joke. He was 
 joined by about a dozen others, and the general mer- 
 riment infected even the grave and reverend Bronson, 
 who had quoted the law. The counselor's chuckle, as 
 well as the guffaws of the others, penetrated distinctly 
 to the adjoining room in the Pittstown hotel, where 
 Lyle sat, with his ear against the partition. 
 
 "Nevertheless, it is well to know what obstacles we 
 must circumvent," Bronson continued, "and that is 
 what I am here to tell you. You railroad men can 
 
192 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 organize hojding companies, made up of your clerks, 
 bookkeepers and office boys, and tell them whom to 
 elect as directors. In that way you can manage as you 
 wish the mines you get control of, and be entirely 
 within the law." 
 
 "The situation, then, is this," followed in the voice 
 of Gorman. "You operators represent three-fourths 
 of the anthracite coal mines of this State, and that 
 means that you control almost three-fourths of the 
 whole country's yearly output of sixty to seventy mill- 
 ion tons, for there are not a hundred thousand tons 
 mined in all the other States together. This State also 
 produces three times as much soft coal as any other, 
 or nearly half of the country's total. Therefore, if you 
 stand together, you can dictate both the price of coal 
 and the wages of the miners. When you consider that 
 in the United States there is mined a little less than half 
 of the world's coal supply you will realize your power. 
 
 "And now for the point : The railroad owners, who 
 have acquired some mines, and will acquire others, 
 want to help you better your position. If you sign this 
 agreement as to prices and wages, your coal will be 
 hauled on our roads at one-third the rate charged 
 others. And you will get a dollar and a quarter more 
 for each ton from the consumers. It means millions 
 a year more in profit, so why should you hesitate?" 
 
 "Won't this be a combination in restraint of trade?" 
 asked one of the mine owners. "You know the coun- 
 try is stirred up about that question." 
 
 "It will not mean any such thing," came in the 
 smooth tones of Bronson. "The law you refer to is a 
 federal law. You all do business in one State. Opera- 
 tors in the other States may later get together in a 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 193 
 
 similar way, but you need not appear to know about 
 it." 
 
 "But if we refuse, what then?" another operator 
 wanted to know. 
 
 "Those of you who decline to have money put into 
 your pockets will find that your wiser competitors will 
 take away even the business you now have," responded 
 the voice of Gorman. "And when you try to build 
 opposition roads, nobody will be found to buy your 
 bonds." 
 
 "There will be a lot of howling from the papers, and 
 from politicians. Congress may investigate us," said a 
 timid operator. 
 
 "Let them howl and investigate. We will own the 
 coal and the railroads." 
 
 "An added profit of a dollar and a quarter a ton on 
 only forty million tons — and we can control more than 
 that — will mean fifty millions more each year from the 
 consumers." This statement followed the scratching 
 of a pen by a person who had evidently been figuring 
 up totals. 
 
 "Fifty millions — that is quite a pile of money to look 
 over," some one else remarked. 
 
 "I don't think the investigators will overlook it all, 
 either, from what I know of politicians," yet another 
 voice put in, and again there was a general burst of 
 merriment. 
 
 "What excuse will we give for putting up prices?" 
 inquired the timid operator again. 
 
 "A shortage in supply, of course," responded Gor- 
 man. "We will see that articles on this subject are 
 printed and circulated everywhere." 
 
 "And it would be well," said Bronson, "if any writ- 
 ing persons come around to you gentlemen asking for 
 
194 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 figures, to afford them no satisfaction. Give accurate 
 figures about nothing, except under oath, and even then 
 your memory need not be infallible. There is too much 
 at stake." 
 
 This and much else did Lyle hear that day and the 
 next, as he listened in an uncomfortable room to the 
 voices of a score of men who were planning to seize 
 the coal trade of a nation. He had arrived after an all 
 night ride from New York. At the only hotel, which 
 was one of the two brick buildings in the town, he 
 learned that rooms had been engaged "for a party of 
 gentlemen who were to stay a couple of days." By 
 careful questioning he found out what room was to be 
 occupied by the leaders of the party, and then he be- 
 trayed a desire to use the adjoining room. This desire 
 was costly to the Star, for the wily hotel proprietor 
 charged him seven dollars a day for the room, which, 
 on ordinary occasions, could have been had for one. 
 
 "Some detective that's tryin' to trail down a New 
 York millionaire murderer," the hotel keeper said to 
 his wife that night. He had recently been reading sen- 
 sational fiction. "Anyhow, these detectives always has 
 plenty of money, and we might as well git some of it." 
 
 Lyle pretended to be a hardware salesman, but as he 
 stayed in the hotel lobby listening to the conversations 
 of the well-dressed visitors as long as they were about, 
 and then went to his room and remained there while 
 the secret meeting was in progress, the hotel keeper 
 thought him a crude detective, which he was. 
 
 When Gorman looked at him intently across the 
 hotel lobby on the second morning, Lyle flushed, and 
 then started to light a cigarette, but dropped the first 
 match, and burnt his fingers with the second. But the 
 magnate's attention was distracted at this moment, and 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 195 
 
 when he again looked, Lyle was seated in a wide-armed 
 lobby chair, with his feet on a low window-sill, non- 
 chalantly blowing smoke ceilingward. 
 
 Lyle wrote in his room until ten o'clock P. M. after 
 the second and last day of the conference, and when 
 he passed through the silent hotel corridors on his way 
 to the telegraph office he realized that the conspirators 
 had all left town. He decided to stay over the follow- 
 ing day and see the interior of a coal mine. Now that 
 the owners were gone, there was little need for secrecy. 
 He applied to the mine superintendent for a pass, say- 
 ing he wanted to write a descriptive article for the 
 Sunday Star, and the pass was freely given him. Such 
 courtesies are seldom refused to metropolitan journals. 
 
 As he walked down the village street the next morn- 
 ing, he thought of Pittstown and its surroundings as a 
 blot on a beautiful landscape. The Alleghanies in the 
 distance were green topped, and picturesquely draped 
 with a purplish haze, but here the mountain-side had 
 been cruelly ravaged, and it seemed that from its 
 wounds had come black blood. This blood had coagu- 
 lated into what upon closer view was seen to be pyra- 
 mids of sifted anthracite, and great hills of culm and 
 slag. Among these gigantic excrescences were frame 
 buildings, and railway cars, and wagons, and mules, 
 and men, all mottled with the dust of coal and the dust 
 of clay. These objects, and occasionally women and 
 children with soiled clothes and soiled faces, all 
 blended with their environment. Lyle felt depressed. 
 Humanity seemed to have come here only to wound 
 the beauty of nature, and had remained to aggravate 
 the wound. 
 
 He presented his pass to the assistant superintendent 
 at a little shack between two immense pyramids of 
 
196 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 slag, and was told that he could go down with the next 
 party of miners. Three empty iron cars stood on a 
 track in front of an enormous crane. On this crane 
 was a steel cable that wound or unwound as the cars 
 were raised or lowered. 
 
 With a guide and four others Lyle entered the first 
 car, and crouched on the dust covered bottom, while 
 he righted the oil-flare on the visor of the cap that had 
 been given him. A signal wire rattled, and he was 
 told that a bell was sounding in the depths. A parallel 
 wire jerked in response, and a gong struck near by. 
 Then the cars began their downward roll. 
 
 Suddenly the glare of the sun was replaced by a 
 blackness that was pierced in half a dozen places by 
 the flickering light of the smoky lamps. The car was 
 sliding into the depths, under the great timbers and the 
 bare rock of a tunnel which he but occasionally 
 glimpsed overhead. The declivity increased until the 
 rails became almost vertical, and the cables strained 
 and groaned and the car rattled so that Lyle, at times, 
 held his breath, fearing that the machinery had broken 
 and that they were falling into an abyss. But after a 
 time, and when he felt they had dropped for miles, the 
 straining and rattling gradually ceased, and the guide 
 called out, "Thirteen hundred foot level !" 
 
 The car came to a full halt, and all stepped out into 
 a gloomy cavern. To Lyle the sooty faces of his com- 
 panions appeared as black masks, in which their eyes 
 gleamed like the eyes of frightened negroes. Few 
 words were said by anyone, and these only in under- 
 tones. A short distance from the car the four miners 
 silently disappeared up a tunneled way. 
 
 Lyle looked at the dark, mysterious face of his 
 guide, and felt something akin to a shudder as he re- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 197 
 
 alized that he was now alone with him in the eternal 
 night of the underworld, where the gloom was relieved 
 only by the feebly twinkling stars of light upon their 
 caps. What if this man were a maniac who should 
 suddenly decide to murder him? He might be slain, and 
 
 lie buried in these abysmal depths, where Just 
 
 then the guide spoke, and the visitor's apprehensions 
 vanished, for the tones were low and pleasant, and the 
 words well chosen. The man was a foreman. 
 
 "This is your first trip below, I take it ?" he said, and 
 when told that he was right he added that he would 
 explain things more fully. As they walked along he 
 pointed out the little stalls and chambers off the breast 
 of headings and gangways in which men toiled, kneel- 
 ing upon beds of shining coal and digging above, be- 
 low, and all around them. He showed the braddish- 
 men adjusting wooden doors or partitions in the air- 
 ways or cross-cuts, and stopping beside an immense 
 pillar of anthracite, he said, "This is left to help uphold 
 the roof. At the end, it, too, will be taken, and the 
 mine will be abandoned to its fate. 
 
 "See those stables?" and he pointed to a row of 
 stalls hewed out of the rock where a dozen patient 
 mules were munching hay. "Well, those mules were 
 born right there, and they will work their lives out in 
 this darkness, and here they will die." 
 
 They walked on. Suddenly they saw flashing lights 
 ahead, and heard rumbling sounds. "And those boys 
 driving the mules hitched to those iron cars," the guide 
 continued ; "they don't see much more of the sun than 
 the animals do. They are too young to work this way, 
 but — you're a writer, are you, and you won't say I told 
 you this ? Well, the mine inspectors are the friends of 
 
198 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 the owners, and they don't ask too closely about the 
 ages of the poor boys here." 
 
 The guide knew the mine as a bee knows its hive. 
 He took his guest at an easy, swinging gate along the 
 black, muddy tracks on which the iron cars had rolled 
 until they came to a lofty chamber, a cavern within a 
 cavern. This was the lair of a scaly dragon which 
 gushed forth streams of water as thick as a barrel. 
 "The machinery — the pumps and engines," said the 
 guide. "They send power through iron pipes into 
 every part of the mine." 
 
 When they had gone what seemed to be a half mile 
 or more beyond this point they arrived at another air- 
 door. "What are those crosses chalked upon the cas- 
 ings?" Lyle asked. "They mean danger from blast- 
 ing," was the reply, and the guide led him quickly in 
 another direction. "The shale is often so loosened that 
 it falls and keeps falling till men are buried alive. They 
 sometimes get a man out by quick surgery, but the sur- 
 gery is crude, and the man's mining days are over." 
 Lyle shuddered. 
 
 The air now became heavier, and in its dankness was 
 a suggestion of decay. "Beyond that brattice ahead 
 of us," said the guide, "is a robbed mine — that is, most 
 of the pillars of coal have been taken out. There will 
 probably be no danger for months yet. But a hundred 
 and thirty-five men were killed here about ten months 
 ago by an explosion of fire-damp. There was no fire- 
 damp indicator, as the law provides, although that was 
 never allowed to become known. You see, the trouble 
 is poor inspection, caused by corrupt politics — I have 
 your word as a gentleman, sir, that you won't say I 
 said this? Miners that have worked in Europe, and 
 especially in Belgium and France, tell me that the men 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 199 
 
 can't be robbed there by the company stores and the 
 company doctors as they are here. And more import- 
 ant, when a mine is inspected there it is inspected, and 
 there is a small percentage of men killed. Do you know 
 that sometimes as many as three thousand men perish 
 in a year in the mines of this country ? In the last ten 
 years more than seventeen thousand have lost their 
 lives, and about thirty-five thousand have been maimed 
 or crippled. But you can get a better idea of how 
 those facts reflect upon the government of this country 
 by comparison with other countries." 
 
 Here the guide paused, and took from an inner 
 pocket a note book which he opened and held up so 
 that the light from his lamp fell upon its pages. "I've 
 got the figures here," he resumed, and then he read: 
 "In Prussia, about two men in every thousand engaged 
 in mining are killed each year ; in Great Britain, the 
 average is a little more than one ; in Belgium, it is ex- 
 actly one, and in France, less than one in a thousand. 
 In the United States more than three men in a thou- 
 sand are thus sacrificed." 
 
 "Are things becoming worse or better with us?" 
 asked Lyle. 
 
 "The accidents increase almost every year. And 
 now that the control is to be in the hands of Wall 
 Street men, who will probably never take any interest 
 in the mines beyond dividends, I look for still worse 
 conditions. The present owners care little enough. 
 The main fault, I would say, lies with the government. 
 Officials change too often, and those that are in office 
 want to get rich before they have to get out. Some 
 way. too, there's no respect for authority here, or not 
 near so much as in England, where I am from, sir. 
 Shall we go on ?" 
 
200 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "Yes," said Lyle. 
 
 They walked past the brattice, and down a long 
 slope monotonously bare, damp and chilly. Fitful 
 drafts of heavy air, redolent of mould and decay, 
 blew upon them and sucked at the flames of their 
 lamps. Careless miners, unprovided with matches, 
 sometimes had their lights extinguished by these drafts, 
 and met death horribly, after groping blindly for days 
 in abandoned mines. 
 
 They passed under rotting beams covered with 
 mildew or fungus, and further on they saw stalactites 
 of salt hanging from a roof of rock. When they had 
 reached the lowest level, of fifteen hundred feet, they 
 came upon a heap of crumbling ties and wornout rails, 
 half buried in the shale and silt. And in a great cav- 
 ern, to one side, their lurid lights showed masses of 
 iron lying promiscuously about among piles of toppled 
 brickwork. There were immense boilers, and pipes, 
 and wheels, and other parts of abandoned machinery, 
 slime coated and red with rust, a lamentable wreck of 
 power lying dead and forgotten in the tomb it had 
 made for itself. It was like the last circle of Hell, and 
 it required no great imagination to people it with 
 specters wailing over their wasted lives and vanished 
 hopes among this wreckage of material things. 
 
 "Shall we return to the surface, or shall I explain 
 the use of this machinery?" asked the guide. 
 
 "Let us return, please," said Lyle. 
 
 END OF BOOK THIRD 
 
BOOK FOURTH 
 THE GREAT BOND CONSPIRACY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 LYLE AND MERCEDES MEET 
 
 A letter from Gordon Lyle to Mercedes Durkin : 
 
 "October 15th, 1894. 
 
 "My Beautiful Lady of Mystery: At last I have 
 learned the identity of the one to whom I owe so much, 
 and I venture to address to you these words of thanks. 
 Of course I shall hold as sacredly confidential all the in- 
 formation you have given me. (The latest, about the 
 approaching bond conspiracy, is the most promising of 
 all). I shall not even write you again, if that should be 
 your wish. But you who have been my good angel, 
 shedding your radiance into the dark pit where I struggle, 
 and thus helping me to achieve — surely you will not deny 
 me the privilege of expressing my gratitude! 
 
 "You can forgive me, can you not, for discovering you? 
 In newspaper work one learns to make deductions in 
 unraveling mysteries as detectives do. Your last note 
 was on mourning paper. I knew that for scarce a year 
 now you have been a widow. The note was mailed at a 
 branch postofhce on Murray Hill, near your home. And in 
 the lobby of the opera house, where our eyes met for an 
 instant after the sacred concert two Sundays ago, you 
 smiled at me. That smile, the third you have ever given 
 me (the second was at the Horse Show — you see I have a 
 good memory) told me more than aught else. It was the 
 sweetest smile of all. It was soul speaking to soul. 
 
 "And so it is you, fair altruist, to whom the whole nation 
 owes a debt of gratitude for having been informed of 
 many things of vital import. And while the growth of 
 the sinister new Power in our land has not been effectu- 
 
 201 
 
202 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 ally checked thereby, its progress has been much re- 
 tarded. And I, the penniless reporter of four years ago, 
 am personally in your debt more than I can ever repay. 
 By your aid I have, as it were, been given wings that 
 enabled me to rise from an abyss of failure and despair, 
 and fly over many obstacles that would surely else have 
 overwhelmed me. When, for instance, my articles were 
 too radical for the Star, and I had them printed elsewhere, 
 I was not discharged as I had been for such conduct in 
 the past on other papers. Instead, I was kept on the staff 
 because I possessed an invaluable source of information. 
 Through you I had already become one of the highest 
 salaried news writers in New York when Fortune smiled 
 again, and I was engaged by the Circle, the new and ultra- 
 radical and entirely unfettered daily, at five thousand a 
 year. The best feature of it all is that I continue to write 
 just the things I want to write, for the owner is not only a 
 champion of popular rights, but a multi-millionaire as 
 well, which makes him independent of the usual influences 
 employed against reform papers. 
 
 "But more of this, I fear, would bore you. Please 
 pardon, if he has offended by writing even this much, one 
 who would serve you in any way. "Yours sincerely, 
 
 "Gordon Lyle." 
 
 From Mercedes Durkin to Gordon Lyle : 
 
 "My Dear Mr. Lyle: Your letter of yesterday came to 
 hand this morning, and I hasten to express my apprecia- 
 tion. It is true that I have long been interested in your 
 work. You. of course, have destroyed all communications 
 from me? I hope you will always do so. The informa- 
 tion which you mention is obtained through a woman to 
 whom the gentleman is fond of boasting. As to the effect 
 of the news upon the public I know nothing, but I am 
 glad to have been of service to you. 
 
 "I am less happily situated than you may think, for all 
 the comforts that surround me. Although I have been a 
 widow for less than a year, I have long lived alone and 
 lonely, unloving and unloved. 
 
 "I wish to know of your continued success. Your letter 
 was not too long — it was not long enough. 
 
 "From your 
 " 'Lady of Mystery.' " 
 
 From Gordon Lyle to Mercedes Durkin, after the 
 exchange of several more letters : 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 203 
 
 "My Beautiful Lady of Mystery: Of love I have no 
 right to speak, and yet I cannot keep silent. I would have 
 loved you had you never aided me in the least. I have 
 loved you from that moment years ago when I glimpsed 
 your beautiful face smiling upon me — upon me. as I sat 
 among the outcasts in a public park. Like a star you 
 gleamed before my vision for an instant, and then you 
 vanished, and it seemed that eternal night had begun. 
 Frantically I searched for you in that labyrinth which wc 
 call a city's streets, but I searched in vain. And even 
 when I did see you again, at the dinner of the Moonlight 
 Club, it seemed that the fiends of the lower regions had 
 brought me within sight of you only to mock me, for that 
 night I learned that you were the wife of another. 
 
 "And yet, like a stooping goddess, you continued to reach 
 down from your eminence, and I was raised to such 
 success as seldom comes to one of my peculiar craft. 
 And all this time you were concealed behind the veil of 
 anonymity and, Isis-like, withheld, as you still withhold, 
 the reason for your great goodness. You say I must not 
 see you. Good and beautiful one, I know I am unworthy, 
 but that I have received so much emboldens me to hope 
 for more. Yours always, 
 
 "Gordon Lyle." 
 
 From her next letter : 
 
 "How well you write, and how I like to read your letters! 
 I should say you were wasting your talent, if not your 
 time, in journalism. ***** And so you think me 
 good as well as beautiful? But suppose I were not good? 
 I fear that I am not." 
 
 From his next letter : 
 
 "If you are not good, then for me there is no goodness. 
 Rather, goodness must conform to you to prove itself, or 
 else in my eyes it were evil." 
 
 From her next letter : 
 
 "I feel strangely drawn toward you. ***** There 
 are some things which I feel you should know before you 
 allow yourself to believe that you love me. My marriage 
 was entirely a mercenary one. Nothing in my life is so 
 regrettable as that marriage, despite all the sanction of 
 
204 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 religion which it received, and yet I deliberately entered 
 into it I wish to atone for that and for other faults by 
 aiding humanity in some way. Your idealism appeals to 
 me. Perhaps I am undeserving of any of your good 
 opinions. I may be even less good than I am willing to 
 confess." 
 
 From his next letter : 
 
 "I can only repeat that 'If you are not good, then for 
 me there is no goodness.' May we not meet, at least 
 once?" 
 
 From her next letter : 
 
 "I will see you for a few moments in Central Park 
 Tuesday afternoon at five o'clock. Look for a victoria on 
 the driveway south of the reservoir. When it stops, walk 
 up and greet me as though we were old friends, and speak 
 of Mr. Durkin's property in Philadelphia. We will let the 
 coachman think you a lawyer from that city. ***** 
 Your last letter was beautiful." 
 
 From his next letter, after the meeting : 
 
 "I am off to Washington to-morrow to watch the bond 
 deal, and I write you now because I shall have so little 
 time there. ***** I am more enchanted than ever 
 since that delightful drive about the park. I love your 
 soft Southern vowels, and your simple way of dressing 
 your hair. I love, too, your pretty hands, which to look at 
 are like cool ivory, and to the touch are like velvet. But 
 more than all do your eyes fascinate me. What did we 
 talk about? I cannot remember, but your eyes I can 
 never forget. ***** Were I a sculptor I would 
 chisel you in marble, were 1 a painter I would image you 
 on canvas, were 1 a poet I would write you madrigals in 
 words of fiery beauty. But even were I all of these 
 combined I could impart to others but a faint conception 
 of your loveliness." 
 
 From her next letter : 
 
 "You have the soul of an artist, and you are a poet 
 though you may never write a line of verse. ***** 
 Your stories about the bond deal make me proud of you. 
 I feel that after all I am somewhat worthy of the Southern 
 cavalier who was my father if I have aided you to do the 
 big things you are doing. *****! admit that it is 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 205 
 
 sweet to be loved by you. And I am really your ideal? 
 How beautiful to think of that!" 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 DELAVAL EXPLAINS THE BOND DEAL 
 
 "See, Lyle, there they go ! — those young men and 
 boys, there, almost touching the statue of Washington 
 as they enter the Sub-Treasury." 
 
 "What have they in those packages, Delaval?" 
 
 "Bank notes and treasury notes called greenbacks, 
 which they will exchange for gold. They form part 
 of the endless chain that has been draining the nation's 
 treasury for more than a year. And yet the people 
 didn't wake up to it till your stories in the Circle ex- 
 posed the facts. Even now, the majority — oh, that ig- 
 norant, that terrible, that monstrous thing called the 
 majority — realize nothing of what all this means." 
 
 Arthur Delaval was a cynic. Every newspaper 
 office, as Lyle had long since learned, was a school of 
 cynicism, but most of the matriculates were as shallow 
 as they were insincere. Delaval, however, was an ex- 
 ceptional journalist. He was a graduate both in law 
 and in medicine, and had finished the broadest educa- 
 tion obtainable in America by studies at the University 
 of Vienna, where he took two four-year courses in 
 three years. Returning home, he had practised law 
 three months and medicine six, and then abandoned 
 both to write for newspapers. "After all, the most in- 
 teresting study is human life," he concluded. His 
 specialty was dramatic criticism. 
 
 Once, when asked why he preferred newspaper 
 
206 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 work, he replied, "The trade fits me so well. Bis- 
 marck, you know, defined a journalist as one who has 
 failed in his profession. I should therefore be doubly 
 competent." On another occasion, at the Press Club, 
 when a bibulous editorial writer declared pessimis- 
 tically, "We are all literary prostitutes," he rejoined, 
 "You are wrong — we are not literary." 
 
 He was noted for his ability to write upon a larger 
 variety of subjects, and to keep on his feet after drink- 
 ing a larger variety of liquors than any other member 
 of the craft. 
 
 Lyle had admired him ever since the night of the 
 Moonlight Club dinner when he had punctured the 
 pretensions of a group of bohemian critics of Shake- 
 speare with the single phrase, in response to a request 
 for his opinion, "I think it best for both Shakespeare 
 and myself to remain silent this evening." That was 
 characteristic of Arthur Delaval : his sententious, 
 rapid-firing wit. But Lyle admired him also for his 
 wide and deep knowledge. His very name of Arthur 
 had been chosen by his parents because it was spelled 
 the same in English, French and German. And that 
 fact was indicative of the son's breadth of view. Both 
 his parents were dead now, and he and Lyle, being 
 orphans, as well as having many congenial tastes, felt 
 drawn toward each other by unusually strong ties. 
 
 Lyle was glad whenever his work brought him and 
 Delaval together. Upon returning from Washington, 
 where he learned that there had been a secret midnight 
 conference about the bond issue between Gorman and 
 the President, he was told to discover what he could 
 in Wall Street. And there he met Delaval on the same 
 errand for his paper, the Evening Hope. Though sel- 
 dom assigned to do reportorial work, Delaval's knowl- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 207 
 
 edge had caused him to be pressed into service for this 
 task. He had already taken half a dozen drinks when 
 Lyle saw him. "To drown my sense of shame," he 
 said, pulling dejectedly at his brown mustache, and 
 looking moodily at the line of hurrying bank messen- 
 gers across the street. 
 
 "Why a sense of shame?" asked Lyle. 
 
 "Why ? Because I've got to write of these doings in 
 a way to please Gorman himself — Gorman, who drove 
 my father from public life and into his grave. 'Decent 
 people don't write for me,' was one of Bismarck's say- 
 ings. Gorman may echo that now. I'm not decent, 
 and I know it, but what can I do ? I must live, and I'm 
 not fitted for any other kind of work. Perhaps I'll 
 write a drama some time, and even up with Gorman in 
 that way. 
 
 "But come into this cafe," he added, turning toward 
 an establishment a few doors from where they stood. 
 "From the front window of that we can watch opera- 
 tions, and while we imbibe something we can be ex- 
 changing facts. I've been talking with a banker who 
 wasn't allowed in on this big deal, and the things he 
 told me can better be used by you, since I've got to 
 show the other side." 
 
 As thev were being seated at a table Lyle remarked, 
 "I've noticed that the respectable papers like the Hope 
 and the Luminary are defending this deal." 
 
 "You mean respected, not respectable papers," re- 
 joined Delaval, ordering absinthe for himself and 
 coffee for Lyle. "I've often suspected that the Hope 
 was under Gorman's thumb, and now I know it. He 
 holds its mortgage bonds for half a million, and has 
 passed around railway stock to the nominal owners of 
 the paper, and he has done the same thins with other 
 
208 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 sheets. Of course, he has owned the Luminary for a 
 long time, as we all know. Oh, he'll get the Star, and 
 even the Circle in time, or if he doesn't some of his 
 allies probably will. These reform papers look to me 
 like hungry hounds howling for their share." 
 
 "Not the Circle, surely," protested Lyle. "Ransom 
 is too rich already, even if he were not too honest." 
 
 "My dear Lyle, nobody in American journalism — 
 among the proprietors, I mean — is too rich to be dis- 
 honest, or too honest to be rich. And Ransom is said 
 to have political ambitions. If these wealthy traders 
 and manipulators can't get him in any other way, 
 they'll bring him to time if he ever runs for office. But 
 what impresses me most about this deal is its boldness 
 — the Napoleonic strategy of it." 
 
 "How Napoleonic?" 
 
 "Why, Gorman has captured the center of things at 
 the start, and that was the Corsican's way, always. 
 Next to the White House and the Senate leaders comes 
 journalism in importance. The railway and banking 
 clique spent three to five millions to put this adminis- 
 tration in office, and now they're collecting usurious 
 interest, multiplied several times, upon the investment. 
 Well, Gorman, as the leader of this clique, owns the 
 President, and the Senate leaders were already in the 
 control of himself and his allies. As to journalism : 
 the Luminary and the Evening Hope and the Trumpet 
 are the oldest and most respected journals in the 
 metropolis. They have age, tradition, prestige back 
 of them. What they say influences the so-called 'better 
 element' throughout the country. And what are known 
 as the 'conservative' dailies in all the other large cities, 
 which also, without exception, are more or less under 
 the control of the railway and banking interests, echo 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 209 
 
 what these papers say. It reminds me of how Napo- 
 leon entrenched his power by the marriages he brought 
 about for his relatives and his generals with the old 
 families of France. In that way he obtained the sup- 
 port of tradition and prestige for his throne." 
 
 "How strangely you argue, and yet you more than 
 half convince me. But I can't use these theories in a 
 news article. Explain this endless chain that's drain- 
 ing the treasury. I have all the rest of the matter 
 clearly outlined in my mind." 
 
 "It is this way," said Delaval, ordering another 
 drink. "About three hundred million dollars' worth of 
 greenbacks were in circulation when this most popular 
 President took office. You remember how the people 
 went half-mad with joy over his election? They 
 lighted bonfires, and in many cities sedate and intelli- 
 gent men threw their hats in the air and, forming in 
 long lines and holding hands, they 'cracked the whip' 
 like schoolboys. And now panic grips the land, and 
 gaunt hunger stalks abroad, while many of the legions 
 who paraded in flambeau clubs have joined the ragged 
 armies which are marching toward the capital to ask 
 for bread. But to continue : 
 
 "These many millions of paper money were all, ac- 
 cording to law, 'redeemable in coin,' which, by the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury, appointed for that purpose, was 
 construed to mean gold, if gold were demanded. A 
 little while before, a silver-purchasing law, that kept 
 silver on a parity with gold, was repealed, and its re- 
 peal paved the way for what followed. It happens that 
 none other than Gorman's chief legal counselor, one 
 Elijah Bronson, as you know, is now Secretary of the 
 Treasury. He was our present amiable President's 
 
210 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 law partner not many years ago. You see the con- 
 nection ? 
 
 "The trouble with a country like this, whose people 
 think they rule themselves, is that so many evils can't 
 be voted upon at all, even when they are understood. 
 Take the average man in the street, and he knows no 
 more of finance than a cat knows of astronomy. The 
 people voted against a robber tariff which had been 
 afflicting them for a generation, and when the reform 
 Congress went into office, it was bought by the trusts, 
 and so the people didn't get what they voted for. But 
 they got this treasury loot, which they never dreamed 
 of getting. 
 
 "Well, the treasury's policy was to hold at least a 
 hundred million dollars' worth of gold in reserve for 
 special emergencies. There was no law about this — it 
 was just a policy. Now, a rich and powerful govern- 
 ment can be independent of such a policy when it 
 wants to, since law, not metal, is money, but Gorman's 
 cabinet simply didn't want to be independent, not hav- 
 ing been elected for that purpose. However, let's 
 have another drink." 
 
 After quaffing a brandy and soda, Delaval looked 
 more cheerful for a time, but as he went on with the 
 gloomy details of his explanation he relapsed into 
 melancholy. "It is a terrible thing to say, Lyle," and 
 he paused and looked straight at his friend, "but the 
 treasury has been deliberately opened to the vultures of 
 finance — and there goes the greatest vulture of them 
 all." Gorman's carriage was just then passing on the 
 way to his office two blocks distant. It was followed 
 by the admiring glances of hundreds. 
 
 "But to resume," said DelavaL "You and I are 
 fairly intelligent persons, and I think it no exaggera- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 211 
 
 tion to say that we are far above the ordinary when 
 it comes to understanding public questions, and yet 
 this one question of finance alone is difficult for us to 
 grasp in any of its larger phases. When the financiers 
 are our real rulers, then, what can the majority hope 
 for, or what can we hope from the majority? As I 
 said, the banking clique for a year has been exchang- 
 ing its paper money for gold, and twice the treasury 
 reserve has gone below the danger mark, and two bond 
 issues of fifty millions each to get this gold back in the 
 treasury have resulted. Now, in past years, an average 
 of less than three millions a year have been exchanged 
 for gold at the treasury, so you see how actively this 
 endless chain of messengers has been operated. 
 
 "The new bonds sold readily, though the interest was 
 less than cither France or Great Britain was paying for 
 securities. All the big bankers shared equally in the 
 commissions, and there was no secrecy. A few 
 millions could have been saved the people, however, 
 if the bonds had been sold directly by the government 
 to the trustees of widows and orphans' estates, who 
 eagerly bought them — but what do we have bankers 
 for? Well, after the second sale, the endless chain 
 worked more quickly. In one month the raiders 
 seized thirty-one millions. Then next, they took oat 
 forty-five. And then, for the third time, came the cry 
 from Washington that the gold reserve was depleted. 
 
 "This was the time for Gorman's master move. 
 Leaving the other raiders happily gathering in their 
 ordinary profits, he got aboard his private car and 
 went to consult with his President and his Seretary of 
 the Treasury. You know the rest. As you said in your 
 dispatch, a four-hour conference was held, lasting till 
 after midnight. And then it was announced that the 
 
212 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Gorman syndicate had been given the contract to fur- 
 nish sixty-two millions in gold to the government. For 
 to-morrow's paper you will want to explain just what 
 the terms of this contract mean, and I will tell you. 
 
 "Those sixty-two million dollars' worth of thirty- 
 year, four per cent, bonds were sold to Gorman at one 
 hundred and four and one-half. And only yesterday, 
 government bonds, to be cancelled twelve years later, 
 were selling on public exchanges at a hundred and 
 ten and a half, equal to a two and fifteen-sixteenths 
 per cent, basis. Thus, by the stock market's infallible 
 test, the bonds that Gorman got were worth a hundred 
 and nineteen and a half to twenty, in the dry phrase- 
 ology of finance. And think, Lyle, one of the statements 
 I have got to embody in my account for the Evening 
 Hope — oh, the prostitution of it ! — is this : 'Hearing 
 that the treasury's gold reserve was again in danger, a 
 number of patriotic bankers clubbed together, and 
 placed their gold at the disposal of the government.' 
 Ah, but 111 even up the score with that monster some 
 day! Meanwhile, another drink. Waiter, bring a 
 vermouth frappe." 
 
 Hardly had this been disposed of when sounds of 
 disturbance came from the street. There was a con- 
 gestion of traffic in front of the cafe, and many men 
 were seen gesticulating and pointing in one direction, 
 whence shouts were heard. Lyle and Delaval hurried 
 out. 
 
 "There's a crowd around Gorman's office," said 
 Delaval, and when they had approached within dis- 
 tance of the open doorway, he added, "Those men 
 are brokers, and they are pleading for a chance to buy 
 those bonds at a hundred and eighteen. They're strug- 
 gling like football players. Hear the cries of treach- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 213 
 
 ery ! Ah, he's quieting some of them by saying he will 
 form a second syndicate, and sell them at a hundred 
 and nineteen. That must mean that they will eventu- 
 ally be sold several points higher." 
 
 "But tell me this," said Lyle, who hung upon 
 Delaval's words like a child seeking a wise father's 
 advice, feeling that there was no question he could not 
 answer, "how does Gorman's profit on this compare 
 with the profits of bankers on former bond issues?" 
 
 "In the four years of the Civil War," replied Delaval, 
 while he watched the antics of the brokers, "two and 
 three-quarter billions were borrowed by the nation 
 when it was smaller, poorer, weaker by half than it is 
 now — a nation fighting for its life, and often in danger 
 of extinction, and yet the total of bankers' commissions 
 for all that money was less than Gorman and his allies 
 will make on this single loan of sixty-two millions." 
 
 "And their profit will be?" 
 
 "The inner ring, headed by Gorman, will make 
 eight and a half millions. And the second ring will 
 make two or three more millions." 
 
 "My God, what a loot!" 
 
 "To express the thing another way," Delaval con- 
 tinued, "I will say that history might be searched in 
 vain for an instance of where a government was robbed 
 of an equal amount in so short a period by its own 
 citizens, in time either of peace or war." 
 
 "And he's planning another bond deal on the same 
 terms — one for two hundred millions this time. It is 
 frightful. I feel that I must dip my pen in vitriol or in 
 blood to write of it." 
 
 "Yes ; but meanwhile let us have a drink of good red 
 wine," said Delaval as they turned and walked away. 
 
214 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A DISCOURSE ON REPUBLICS 
 
 "Have you heard," asked Delaval, looking up 
 boozily, but with the smoldering fire of his quick intel- 
 ligence flashing in his melancholy eyes, "that beautiful 
 poem entitled 'New York' that is now going the 
 rounds? The style is hardly classic, but the sentiment 
 meets with my entire approval." 
 
 Lyle and Holmes said they had not heard it, and 
 Delaval after sipping his fifth drink, a gin rickey, 
 recited : 
 
 *"Vulgar of manner, overfed, 
 Overdressed and underbred. 
 Heartless, Godless, Hell's delight, 
 Rude by day and lewd by night; 
 Dwarfed the man, enlarged the brute, 
 Ruled by Jew and prostitute; 
 Purple robed and pauper clad, 
 Raving, noting, money mad; 
 Millions with a single goal — 
 Mammon's herd, without a soul; 
 Crazed by avarice, lust and rum, 
 New York: thy name's Delirium!"* 
 
 "Great!" said Holmes. "We'll have another round 
 of drinks on that. But there's a point or two of fact 
 in which the verses are off. The Irish rule the politics, 
 the Jews the business of this town, while over all is 
 the stock market crowd. Also, few of us are overfed 
 nowadays. Why, a prominent actor fell fainting on 
 Broadway yesterday, and it was learned that he had 
 eaten nothing for three days. And in the poor quar- 
 ters people are actually starving." 
 
 "You're right about the politics," said Delaval. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 215 
 
 "New York is Canaan to the Irish. And yet, no matter 
 how honeycombed with corruption the town is, no one 
 must ever say that it reflects on the race. But I'm 
 not sorry for the actors as a body," he went on. "As 
 entertainers they must always look to pleasing people 
 of means, and that forms a habit of mind which comes 
 pretty near to making all of them toadies. In every 
 great revolution the jesters, the clowns, and the player 
 folk generally have been on the side of the ruling 
 classes. Take the rebellion against the Stuarts, 
 
 now " and he launched into a diatribe against the 
 
 people of the mimic world. 
 
 It was a night in January of 1896, and the three 
 friends were in a Park Row cafe frequented by news- 
 paper men. The hour was midnight, the supper time 
 of the workers on morning papers. Delaval, though 
 on an evening journal, kept "morning paper hours" 
 because of his duties as a dramatic critic. 
 
 "But to get back to New York and America," said 
 Delaval after disposing of his next drink, a Scotch 
 highball. "Since the city and the country are what 
 they are, why worry about it, Lyle? I agree with 
 Walpole, who said, 'I could love my country better if 
 it were not for my countrymen.' Any individual, 
 however strong, who honestly seeks to breast the flood 
 tide of corruption in this country is doomed to failure, 
 soon or late." 
 
 "That's what I say, Lyle," Holmes put in. "The 
 tiling to do is to get your share — that is," he added, 
 seeing Lyle's lips draw together and a dangerous light 
 come into his eyes, "I mean honest graft. There's 
 plenty of the honest kind, such as tips on the stock 
 market, you know." 
 
 Holmes had now been for three years night editor of 
 
216 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 the Trumpet, and he had become typical in more ways 
 than one of those of his craft. He was growing heavy 
 from his sedentary life, and he was already partly 
 bald, though his age was little past thirty. He wore 
 spectacles, through which his red-rimmed eyes seemed 
 about to pop — the result of much reading under arti- 
 ficial lights of many and various kinds of "copy." His 
 skin had the yellowish pallor characteristic of night 
 workers who take no exercise. 
 
 "There is no 'honest graft,' " replied Lyle, without 
 looking at him. 
 
 "You're too much of an idealist for this age," mut- 
 tered Delaval. 
 
 "I don't know whether or not I should be called an 
 idealist," said Lyle. "But I believe that idealists save 
 the world. Man, if not quite a beast, is still largely 
 bestial after eighteen centuries of Christianity, and ten 
 of noble paganism. And the whole human race might 
 eventually relapse entirely into bestiality were it not for 
 the idealists, who by their deeds as well as by inspired 
 words awaken in men conscience and the desire for 
 emulation. These idealists, who are the guiding stars 
 of human destiny, are moved by impulses over which 
 they have no control, whose very source they them- 
 selves may but vaguely glimpse. Art and religion, 
 music and poetry — the finest things in the world, and 
 the only things that lift humanity out of the muck and 
 mire of animalism — all these spring from idealism. 
 And an idealist, to be true to himself, must by his own 
 life show his contempt for material things. He must 
 obey only those impulses which an inner voice tells 
 him are from a higher than human source, a source 
 which for lack of a better name we will call divine." 
 
 Delaval had started to lift a cocktail to his lips, but 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 217 
 
 his interest in Lyle's words was such that the hand 
 holding the glass remained poised in the air. Secretly 
 he felt an admiration for his young friend greater 
 than he ever expressed in words, and psychically 
 he leaned upon Lyle as much as Lyle, in matters of 
 mere knowledge, leaned upon him. 
 
 "Well, old man, you have done things " he 
 
 began, as he slowly put down his glass, but Lyle inter- 
 rupted to say : 
 
 "I'm not speaking of myself." 
 
 "But / am. You stopped that second bond deal, by 
 which more than twice as much loot would have been 
 taken from the national treasury as the raiders got the 
 first time, and a popular loan was brought about by the 
 Circle, putting an end to that particular brand of 
 piracy. And you, a mere reporter, did that." 
 
 "With Ransom's paper behind me," added Lyle 
 modestly. "You see, he is something of an idealist, 
 too " 
 
 "Idealist nothing," interjected Delaval, scoffingly. 
 "He's a sordid politician who wants to drag down the 
 President. I've heard from those who worked on one 
 of his Western papers that he's part owner of the 
 California Southern road, and that he got his shares 
 by holding a club of exposure over Burleson's head. 
 But please pardon my interruption." 
 
 "I was going to say that I didn't start things myself, 
 either," Lyle resumed. "Without my secret source 
 of information I could have done nothing." 
 
 "Did you ever find out who that mysterious woman 
 was ?" asked Holmes. 
 
 "She is still a mystery," said Lyle, and he began to 
 talk of another subject. This was only a half truth, 
 
2i8 THE AMERICAN EMPEROF 
 
 but he would have been willing to lie like a gentleman 
 if necessary to shield her. And his heart grew warm 
 as he thought of a letter he had received only that day, 
 and had speedily destroyed, because the news in it was 
 too precious to keep in material form. 
 
 "Nevertheless, idealism never had a more terrible 
 force to overcome than it has in America to-day," 
 Delaval remarked after a time. "That bond deal was a 
 brutal rape of the fair Republic," he added bitterly, 
 "and there was none to defend her until too late to save 
 her honor, though she ivas saved from further pollu- 
 tion. Why could such a thing happen, here, though it 
 could not happen in any European monarchy, except, 
 perhaps, Russia? Because there is not, and judging 
 by the present state of human progress, there never will 
 be enough loyalty among any people to republican 
 ideals. After all, what is the idea or the ideal of a 
 republic? It is a beautiful conception in the minds of 
 a few thinkers, but to the masses, who will never really 
 think, it is a vague and formless thing, exciting neither 
 love nor loyalty. The masses require a human per- 
 sonality to embody their ideals. They will worship a 
 king. They will never worship an abstract theory. 
 
 "Democracy, as Plato so well showed, is ever suc- 
 ceeded by tyranny. And so it will inevitably be with 
 us. So it is even now. Already, as a people, we are 
 ruled by our lowest elements rather than by our high- 
 est, and we are tyrannized over by our passions more 
 than any other nation in the world. You don't believe 
 that?" as his auditors looked incredulous. "I am 
 going to startle you. 
 
 "The best evidence of any government's stability is 
 the protection it affords to human life. How many 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 219 
 
 murders do you suppose there were in the United 
 States last year? There were more than ten thousand 
 five hundred. That is a greater number than were 
 killed at Gettysburg, the greatest battle of the Civil 
 War. It is an average of twenty-seven human beings 
 slain from sunrise to sunrise the year 'round. The 
 murders increased after the bond deal and the panic. 
 
 "And how was it in Europe, with its respect for law 
 and order bred by monarchical governments? Well, 
 in Italy, with her vendettas and her banditti, traceable 
 in some degree to her climate, there were only three 
 thousand murders; in Spain, there were but half that 
 many ; in France, there were eight hundred ; in Aus- 
 tria, seven hundred ; in Germany, six hundred, and in 
 Great Britain, which alone has two-thirds as many 
 inhabitants as our glorious country, there were fewer 
 than five hundred murders. 
 
 "On an average, less than two per cent, of the mur- 
 derers in this country are convicted. Half of the mur- 
 derers in this town were not even arrested. You know 
 that Buckle in his 'History of Civilization' shows that 
 crime and other disorders prevail in proportion to a 
 government's efficiency, or — but this is getting dry, 
 isn't it? Another drink, waiter!" 
 
 "What would you, say was the main trouble with this 
 country? Can't you sum it up in some epigram?" 
 asked Lyle. 
 
 "Perhaps — after another drink," and Delaval sum- 
 moned the waiter again. As they all set down their 
 glasses for the last time, he said, "I would put it this 
 way: There is too much respect for the judiciary and 
 too little respect for law in America." 
 
220 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 A YACHTING PARTY 
 
 Majestically she rode at anchor on this fair April 
 day in a sheltered part of the harbor known as "Mill- 
 ionaires' Basin." This new steam yacht of Gorman's 
 outshone in magnificence as she excelled in speed any 
 pleasure craft in American waters. 
 
 He had given carte blanche to the builders, and soon 
 after his bond deal was completed they had created 
 for him this imperial toy. The yacht was as large as 
 ocean liners had been a generation earlier. Her length 
 was more than three hundred feet, her width was 
 thirty-three. Her bare steel hull would have been 
 worth a fortune as fortunes were once reckoned, and 
 her fittings and furnishings might have stood for the 
 plunder of a province in olden days. 
 
 The main saloon was done in the style of Louis 
 Quinze. Its walls were paneled in satinwood from 
 West Indian shores, and on its floor were velvet car- 
 pets of harmonious shades, woven without seam. 
 Statues of marble and bronze and pictures by old 
 masters added to the beauty of the room, as did an 
 ornate fireplace, fronted by brass andirons, on the tops 
 of which were heads of winking Cupids. 
 
 The walls of all the staterooms were paneled va- 
 riously in woods beautiful and costly. On the floors 
 were rugs of softest texture, brought from Bokhara. 
 The wardrobes opened by the pressing of a button, 
 and were lighted by electric iamps, enclosed in bulbs 
 of ground glass. The bureau drawers were on ball 
 bearings, and they opened soundlessly at a mere touch. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 221 
 
 Attached to every stateroom were private baths of 
 marble and cabinets for maids or valets. 
 
 The Avails of Gorman's room were done in Circassian 
 walnut and inlaid with pearl. On one side the apart- 
 ment opened on a Roman bath, done in Carrara mar- 
 ble. A professional masseur always accompanied him 
 on long sea trips. In the lower regions of the yacht a 
 Gallic chef presided. 
 
 There was no shooting gallery or gymnasium, as on 
 many yachts owned by the idle rich, for the master 
 cared not for athletic sports. But a large sun parlor 
 and lounging room ran the entire length of the lower 
 deck. And here was a case of books for such guests 
 as cared to read. 
 
 The body of the yacht was done in hues of old gold 
 and brown, and when the sunlight struck her sides, 
 and played upon the brass rails of her decks, and upon 
 her plate glass windows, and glinted from the glass 
 door knobs and from her polished decks, she shone 
 resplendent. And she cut the water with precision 
 and with easy grace, for her crew of forty men were 
 of the best sea talent to be had. 
 
 Lulled by the lazy lap of waves, she lay in the harbor 
 on this April afternoon, a gentle purr of steam denot- 
 ing that her engines were being made ready for a 
 voyage. Seamen in white duck, trimmed with pale 
 blue cording, ran about the deck while officers, in gold- 
 braided caps and dark blue coats with gilt buttons, and 
 white trousers and shoes, stalked about giving orders. 
 
 Soon a naphtha launch puffed alongside and from it 
 stepped two men and one woman, who clambered up 
 the narrow stairway that was let down to receive them. 
 A little later another launch, carrying two women and 
 two men, emptied its passengers in like manner, and 
 
222 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 went puffing away, and then a third launch, carrying a 
 solitary woman passenger, delivered her to the yacht, 
 and returned to shore. 
 
 After this there were a few sharp staccato com- 
 mands, the seamen winched the anchor, neatly coiled 
 the lines, and the yacht's steel nose swung slowly to 
 the outgoing tide. A jingle of bells, a snorting rumble 
 of the screw, a scream of the siren whistle, and she 
 moved faster and faster toward Sandy Hook and the 
 open sea. 
 
 The passengers were soon at ease in their new sur- 
 roundings, walking about the holystoned decks, or 
 viewing the spectacle of the great city fading in the 
 distance, or chatting as they lolled upon the couches 
 in the sun parlor. But when clouds sailed athwart the 
 sun and a storm seemed to be brewing they retired to 
 the main saloon. 
 
 "You're looking so well, dear Mrs. Durkin," said 
 Mrs. Richard Burton, a blonde of advanced years. 
 "Why have we seen so little of you in the past several 
 years ?" 
 
 "I've been spending a good deal of my time in the 
 South with relatives," replied Mercedes, who was 
 indeed looking well. "And since my husband died, I 
 don't go about much. I have been trying to settle up 
 his estate with Mr. Gorman, who, as you may know, 
 is one of the trustees." 
 
 "You must look out or you'll become a recluse like 
 Mrs. Gorman. They say she's never been on this yacht 
 once since it was put in commission a year ago." 
 
 The Reverend Dr. Sapleigh Squires and his wife 
 now entered, and Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Bronson soon 
 followed. The women held rather tightly to their hus- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 223 
 
 bands as the boat was being assailed by heavy starboard 
 winds, which caused her to roll badly at times. 
 
 "What the world loses the church gains," said the 
 reverend gentleman, who had heard the last part of the 
 dialogue, as he piloted his wife to a sofa. "Mrs. Gor- 
 man's interest in our parish cannot be estimated in 
 dollars. She is a true worker in the cause." 
 
 As he spoke he was looking over the heads of the 
 ladies facing him, into a gold framed mirror that 
 reflected a painting of a feminine figure by 
 Bouguereau. 
 
 "Did not Mrs. Gorman ask her husband to give that 
 hundred thousand dollars toward a new Episcopal 
 cathedral, Dr. Squires?" asked Mrs. Burton. 
 
 "Oh, no; indeed, no," he responded, warmly. "Mrs. 
 Gorman does much for the church, and gives a great 
 deal of her own time, but so does Mr. Gorman. It is 
 remarkable that a man of such vast interests can attend 
 so many of our conventions, both diocesan and national, 
 besides finding time to act as vestryman. And his 
 interest in things is keen, and his influence always for 
 good." 
 
 Darkness was now coming on rapidly, and Dr. 
 Squires stopped stroking his Van Dyck beard long 
 enough to rise and press a button in the wall. The 
 saloon was flooded with a softened radiance. 
 
 Just then Gorman, in the full glory of his captain's 
 uniform, entered. From the gleaming black visor of 
 his cap, with its glittering anchor, to his white canvas 
 shoes, he looked the typical yachtsman. And his walk 
 had that swaggering superiority which a natty uniform 
 often begets in its wearer. Under his dark blue coat 
 he wore a sweater, for the winds that swept the deck 
 were cold and penetrating, and tinged with ice from off 
 
224 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 the New Foundland banks. Spray clung to the hair 
 on the sides of his head, while his almost bald dome 
 glistened with the drops that had spilled from his cap 
 as it was removed. 
 
 "I came in to say that it is near dinner time," he 
 announced. "Now, I want you all to be as informal 
 as you please aboard this boat, and don't dress up for 
 dinner unless you feel like it" 
 
 "I think we ought to wear evening clothes as a com- 
 pliment to each other," said Mrs. Burton. "Besides, 
 it makes things seem more — uh — well, in keeping with 
 our beautiful surroundings, you know." 
 
 The others agreed, and the guests went to their state- 
 rooms to prepare for the first meal aboard. 
 
 Gorman returned to the deck, to get his "sea legs" 
 again, he explained, but really to gloat over his new 
 possession, and to muse upon this new evidence of his 
 dominating genius. 
 
 Bronson and Burton meanwhile put on their evening 
 clothes, and then ascended to the smoking room off 
 the top deck. They were joined by Dr. Squires, and 
 while waiting for the bugle call to dinner, all indulged 
 in some appetizing liquids from the buffet, and passed 
 the time in pleasant chat. 
 
 "Why do you suppose he named this yacht the 
 Buccaneer?" asked the reverend gentleman, as he saw 
 Gorman, with chest expanded, stalk past the window. 
 
 Bronson's lean visage was contorted into a smile, 
 and he helped himself to a drink as he replied : "Oh, 
 just a whim, I suppose. There's nothing further from 
 our host's real character than such a name." 
 
 "I understand that he wanted to call it the Corsair," 
 said the heavy-faced Burton, "but there was another 
 yacht already registered under that name." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 22$ 
 
 "It was just a whim, anyhow," added the Secretary 
 of the Treasury. "One of the peculiarities of the 
 great, I suppose, is to indulge in such whims." 
 
 Gorman had in reality lamented the fact that he could 
 not christen his yacht the Corsair. In his early youth 
 he had been charmed by the tales he had read of the 
 picturesque courage and daring of those sea raiders 
 along the North African coast. And of all the poems 
 he had ever read the only one that he cared to manorize 
 was Byron's "Conrad the Corsair." And now, as he 
 paced the deck in lonely grandeur, he tried to imagine 
 himself the heroic and terrible Conrad : 
 
 "That man of loneliness and mystery, 
 Scarce seen to smile, and seldom heard to sigh; 
 Whose name appals the fiercest of his crew." 
 
 At this point Gorman had reached the bridge of the 
 lower deck near the wheelhouse, when a sailor ap- 
 proached. "How far out are we, my man ?" he asked, 
 
 "Not more'n a dozen leagues, captain, though she's 
 makin' good time," replied the sailor, saluting and 
 passing on. He had recognized the owner in the faint 
 light shed by the binnacle lamp. 
 
 Gorman reveled in the salute and the title, though 
 he could not have given a half dozen commands in 
 correct language. Two other seamen now joined in 
 the work of repairing the davits of one of the small 
 boats that the stiff breeze had weakened. When they 
 had finished, their hands were grimy, their faces wet 
 with spray, and their uniforms soggy and bedraggled. 
 They saluted as they passed on the way aft Gorman 
 coldly returned the salute and then, inhaling a chest 
 full of salt-tinged air, adjusted his cap more firmly 
 
226 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 and resumed his walk. As he paraded he recalled more 
 of the poem : 
 
 "What should it be that thus their faith can bind? 
 The power of thought — the magic of the mind: 
 Linked with success, assumed and kept with skill, 
 That moulds another's weakness to its will. 
 Wields with their hands, but still to these unknown, 
 Makes even their mightiest deeds appear his own. 
 Such hath it been — shall be — beneath the sun, 
 The many still must labor for the one! 
 'Tis nature's doom — but let the wretch who toils — " 
 
 The bugle call for dinner now sounded, and Gorman 
 went below to find the others assembled about the 
 long table in the dining room. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 MERCEDES LEAVES THE PARTY 
 
 All the guests were in evening dress, and the scene 
 at first glance was much like a dinner party ashore. 
 But the uniform of Gorman and those of the stewards 
 lent a nautical air that was accentuated at times by the 
 roll of the vessel and the muffled throb, throb of the 
 distant engines. 
 
 A pleasant buzz of conversation began with the 
 cocktails, of which all partook save the rector and his 
 wife. Gorman was in high spirits, and he beamed upon 
 every one, and at times allowed his eyes to feast upon 
 the shoulders of Mercedes, which so contrasted with 
 the lean lines of Mrs. Burton, the commonplace pro- 
 portions of Mrs. Bronson, and the too ample dimen- 
 sions of the rector's wife. 
 
 "We're going to have a drizzly night without," Gor- 
 man said, addressing himself to no one in particular, 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 227 
 
 "so I think it would be especially good to have music 
 to add to the comfort indoors. Our stewards are 
 musicians — I picked them on that account — and they 
 will give us a concert after dinner." 
 
 When dinner was over all adjourned to the saloon, 
 where the ladies talked of social affairs, and the men, 
 with their gracious permission, smoked as they chatted 
 with the rector about the new cathedral. Eight stew- 
 ards came in with musical instruments, and played a 
 repertoire of German and French music. A marine 
 march by Thiele, a Wolff mazurka, a fantasie from 
 Gounod's "Faust," and a Strauss waltz enlivened the 
 feelings of every one. 
 
 "Suppose we walk on deck for a while?" Gorman 
 suddenly suggested. "The air is bracing though damp, 
 and these military tunes would make walking a fine 
 exercise." 
 
 The others agreed, and maids and valets brought 
 wraps. They paired off for the promenade, Gorman 
 taking Mercedes, Bronson escorting Mrs. Burton, Mr. 
 Burton walking with the rector's obese wife, and the 
 well fed Squires bringing up the rear with Mrs. Bron- 
 son. A lively march set them to stepping gaily along 
 the polished deck. 
 
 All around them the black waters licked hungrily 
 at the ship, and sometimes the promenaders were wet 
 with spray from the waves that leaped up and, foiled 
 and sputtering, were dashed away by her steel sides. 
 
 The music changed from a German march to selec- 
 tions from "Carmen." Gorman had once possessed a 
 fair baritone voice, and he regularly sang with the 
 congregation of St. Mark's, though he had not caroled 
 alone since the days of his youth. But, as he now heard 
 the strains of the Toreador song, he felt so in harmony 
 
228 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 with its triumphant spirit that he bellowed forth the 
 words. His voice was somewhat cracked from disuse, 
 but the fact was partly concealed by the wash of the 
 waves, the howl of the winds about the deck, and the 
 footsteps of the promenaders. When the song was 
 ended the others stopped to applaud, and there were 
 requests for more. But he modestly declined, and all 
 resumed walking. 
 
 From music to thoughts of poesy was a natural and 
 easy transition. And what particular poem should 
 he now think of but "Conrad?" While he did not 
 voice the words, they sang themselves to him in har- 
 mony with the music, or, when the orchestra was silent, 
 in time with the vibrant throb of the engines, and the 
 swirl of the waves. Again he imagined himself the 
 heroic Corsair : 
 
 "Robust but not Herculean — to the sight 
 No giant frame sets forth his common height; 
 Yet, in the whole, who paused to look again, 
 Saw more than marks the crowd of vulgar men; 
 They gaze and marvel how — and still confess 
 That thus it is, but why they cannot guess. 
 Sunburnt his cheek, his forehead high and pale, 
 The sable curls in wild profusion veil 
 (But not, alas, his forehead high and pale); 
 And oft perforce his rising lip reveals 
 The haughtier thought it curbs but scarce conceals. 
 Though smooth his voice and calm his general mien. 
 Still seems there something he would not have seen: 
 His features' deepening lines and varying hue 
 At times attracted, yet perplexed the view, 
 As if within that murkiness of mind 
 Worked feelings fearful and yet undefined. 
 
 "He knew himself a villain — but he deemed 
 The rest no better than the thing he seemed; 
 And scorned the best as hypocrites who hid 
 Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did. 
 He knew himself detested, but he knew 
 The hearts that loathed him crouched and dreaded too.'* 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 229 
 
 Mercedes now asked to be taken in as she feared the 
 chill air would affect her voice, and as the rest of the 
 party were tired of promenading, all followed her 
 into the saloon. Every one felt better for the exercise, 
 while Mercedes' color was radiant, and her eyes had an 
 added brightness. The musicians had gone through 
 their repertoire by this time, and at a nod from Gor- 
 man they tropped out to join their fellows in the 
 quarters below. 
 
 "Will you sing to us, Mrs. Durkin?" asked Gorman, 
 as soon as all were seated about the cheerful birch log 
 fire that had been lighted on the andirons. 
 
 She sat down before the piano and asked what they 
 would prefer. All waited for Gorman to speak. 
 
 " 'The Rosary,' " he suggested, "or perhaps you 
 would like to sing 'Beyond the Gates of Paradise' ?" 
 
 "An excellent suggestion," said Dr. Squires, while 
 Bronson muttered "Fine," and the ladies chorused, 
 "Yes, do." 
 
 She sang both songs, and then Gorman said, "Now 
 something more lively, please. Say, 'In Old Madrid.' " 
 
 And then, with much more feeling, she rendered the 
 beautiful, tender melody so suggestive of voluptuous, 
 dark-eyed maids, with lips of coral and eyes of light, 
 pining for love amid starlit rose gardens, and kissed 
 only by soft zephyrs from Mediterranean shores. All 
 sat in rapt attention till the last strains had died away. 
 
 Eight resonant strokes of the ship's bell now reminded 
 everyone that the midnight hour had come, and they 
 went below and aft to their staterooms. Gorman bade 
 them good night at their respective doors, and walked 
 on alone to his room, which was in the very end of 
 the boat, and farthest removed from the rumble of 
 machinery in the center. 
 
230 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "How lonely Mr. Gorman must be, and yet he gives 
 so much of his time and money toward making others 
 happy," remarked Mrs. Squires to Mrs. Burton, as 
 their host's back disappeared down the hallway. 
 
 "Yes, but there are compensations," enigmatically 
 responded the wife of his ally. With an exchange of 
 sweet smiles the ladies then followed their husbands 
 into their respective and respectable chambers. 
 
 But there was no compensation on that voyage of the 
 kind that Gorman desired. The secret door between 
 his chamber and that of Mercedes was pressed by him 
 in vain, for it had been fastened on the other side. 
 And so it was the next night, and the next, and the 
 next, and during all the voyage. Often before in the 
 past had she denied him, but always with plausible 
 reasons. It was only, as she assured herself again and 
 again, to escape what to one of her nature was a living 
 death, that she had left her mountain cabin to live in 
 New York. Women far worse than she, as she well 
 knew, and as history frequently showed, had held hon- 
 ored places in the world's greatest society. But even 
 to be the Pompadour of the most powerful man in 
 America no longer had the least attraction for her. 
 Then why had she consented to accompany him on this 
 voyage? She would make no satisfactory answer to 
 
 this question, though he asked it repeatedly. 
 
 ***** 
 
 The voyage was smooth all the way to the Mediter- 
 ranean. The guests walked the decks, or lolled in the 
 sun parlor, or played shuffle-board on the stern deck, 
 or pinochle in the saloon. When tired of these diver- 
 sions the men talked and smoked in Gorman's state- 
 room or in the captain's cabin, and the women chatted 
 in the saloon or in each other's rooms, or read English 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 231 
 
 translations of French novels that they found in the 
 library. The evenings were spent much as the first one 
 was, except that after the fifth evening Mercedes 
 declined to walk on deck, although the few songs she 
 sang were gay and light hearted. 
 
 But she would leave the others soon after singing, 
 and would lock herself in her stateroom. Then she 
 would open a secret slide in her trunk and, taking 
 therefrom a photograph, gaze fondly upon it and kiss 
 it, weeping sometimes the while. Then she would put 
 her hand to her bosom to feel a chamois skin bag 
 that she kept sewed to her corsage. This bag contained 
 her jewels, of which she had bought a large number in 
 the past year, though she wore but few. 
 
 The yacht proceeded leisurely, making less than 
 three hundred and fifty miles a day, while if there had 
 been need she could have done a hundred miles more. 
 There were some beautiful moonlight nights when the 
 placid sea was bathed in a soft radiance, and a brilliant 
 silvery path stretched away from the ship's side, 
 seemingly on into infinity. Had both love and youth 
 been aboard the Buccaneer would have made an ideal 
 floating Elysium. But Mercedes was the only really 
 youthful passenger, and her heart was not with her. 
 
 On the morning of the tenth day, which was Sunday, 
 the yacht steamed into the harbor of Marseilles. All 
 the guests were anxious to go ashore, and two of the 
 large boats were lowered. Gorman himself gave the 
 orders. As he shouted to his hirelings through a trum- 
 pet the only nautical commands he had yet familiarized 
 himself with, he wondered if Mercedes and the others 
 were being impressed by his seamanship and his mas- 
 terful presence. The yacht's real captain, who received 
 
232 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 a salary of twenty-five hundred dollars a year, stood 
 respectfully to one side and remained silent. 
 
 At a signal the second mate jingled a bell for half 
 speed. "Ease her!" shouted Gorman at the pilot house 
 window. "Slow down. Wear away three points north, 
 and choke her !" 
 
 Bells jingled sharply. The wheel spokes spun. The 
 propeller reversed itself and kicked up an angry 
 froth. 
 
 "Man the davits on the weather bow! Look sharp, 
 lads! Stand by the tackles — ease her off. Take 
 charge, Mr. Townley. Let her go !" 
 
 The first mate and four seamen sprang to their 
 places. A boat bearing the Buccaneer's name in golden 
 letters swung free of its davits, and descended with a 
 gentle splash into the sea. The ladder was lowered, 
 and Messrs. Burton and Bronson and their wives 
 stepped gingerly down it and into the boat that was 
 held steady by two stalwart sailors. Gorman then went 
 below and quickly changed his costume. Dr. Squires 
 and his wife and Mercedes were waiting at the rail 
 when he returned. They all got into the next boat, and 
 were rowed rapidly after the other, which was now far 
 in the lead on its way to the quay. 
 
 The day was a chromatic gem of beauty. The sky, a 
 liquid turquoise, dotted with the silvery white of gulls' 
 wings, and the sea, a sapphire mirror flecked with 
 argent foam, framed an opalescent picture. Giant 
 steamers with their flags of many hues, the sails that 
 bellied with the breeze, great wreaths of grayish smoke, 
 the rowboats with their occupants, and quaint buildings 
 on the distant shore — all these were luminous with 
 color, and at times all seemed to dance between the 
 two transparencies of atmosphere and water. And 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 233 
 
 as the natural music for this scene, the countless chimes 
 of Sunday in Marseilles were heard across the gently 
 undulating waves. 
 
 On the quay the party hired carriages for a drive 
 along the Prado. After half an hour Gorman, Bron- 
 son and Burton left the others and went to the main 
 hotel to inquire for cablegrams. Men of affairs like 
 them could not take a long cruise without thus keeping 
 in touch with their country. They were to meet the 
 rest of the party within an hour in front of the Palais 
 de Longchamps, the great structure in Renaissance 
 style that houses the musemus of painting and natural 
 history at the end of the Durance aqueduct. 
 
 After the three men drove away Mercedes insisted 
 on riding by herself in a small trap, leaving the rector 
 and the other ladies in a large carriage which drove 
 ahead. "It reminds me of my favorite trap at home — 
 the one I drove at the horse show," was the only excuse 
 she made. 
 
 In Marseilles are more persons who speak Spanish 
 than anywhere else in France, except along the western 
 border. Mercedes was rejoiced when she learned that 
 her driver knew the language. She engaged him in 
 a long conversation. Her carriage fell further and fur- 
 ther behind the other. Finally, a twenty-dollar gold 
 piece, fresh from the American Treasury, was pressed 
 into the driver's willing palm, and his horse's head was 
 turned down a side street leading to a railway station, 
 from which an express train for Paris was soon to 
 depart. The lash was applied and the horse was foam- 
 ing with perspiration when the trap arrived at the 
 depot with four minutes to spare. 
 
 Three hours later a party of excited sightseers re- 
 turned to the Buccaneer. Frantic inquiries had been 
 
234 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 made of the police for trace of an American woman 
 who had strangely disappeared in broad daylight in the 
 city's streets. But two days and nights passed and the 
 search, though aided by the American Consul and 
 many private detectives, resulted in no definite clue. 
 On the evening of the second day a letter was brought 
 out to the Buccaneer by a special messenger. It was 
 from Paris, and Gorman's hand trembled as he opened 
 it. "I will never return, and you shall never find me," 
 were among the phrases that he read. 
 
 To the others he translated the letter thus : "Mrs. 
 Durkin's absence is explained by a strange and inex- 
 plicable whim to leave suddenly for Paris, where she 
 has some distant relatives. She will visit there for 
 some weeks, and will not rejoin us on the yacht. She 
 wishes us a happy voyage, however, and hopes to see 
 us all again soon." 
 
 Although he smiled as he conveyed this message, 
 the others were puzzled by the pallor of his face. He 
 hastily withdrew to his own stateroom, where he spent 
 a desperate half hour in calming his troubled spirit. 
 
 The plan for a Mediteranean cruise was abandoned 
 by all. It was decided to leave at once for Naples, 
 where berths were to be engaged on the first liner to 
 New York, the Buccaneer's crew to return with her at 
 a more leisurely speed. 
 
 And that night, as the majestic yacht steamed south- 
 ward over a placid sea, leaving a broad wake that 
 foamed and gleamed phosphorescently in the pale light 
 of a waning moon, a solitary figure walked her decks, 
 and at times, with folded arms, stood out upon her 
 bridge. It was the figure of a haggard, gloomy man. 
 
 END OF BOOK FOURTH 
 
BOOK FIFTH 
 THE OLIGARCHY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SOME OPINIONS OF DELAVAL 
 
 "Hear them yell," said Delaval, his patrician lips 
 curving into a cynical smile, as from a gallery seat 
 beside Lyle he watched the cheering thousands in 
 Madison Square Garden. 
 
 "Hear them yell," he repeated, "and yet nine-tenths 
 of them, who have come here to 'rejoice' over the elec- 
 tion of their party's candidate for President, know 
 nothing of the issues of the campaign just ended. 
 They are won by sight and sound, not by reason — by 
 appeals to the eye and ear, rather than to the mind. 
 They are charmed by the waving flags, the band 
 music, the bombastic, meaningless oratory, and by the 
 venerable appearance of those Civil War generals in 
 uniform back there on the platform, those survivors 
 of a war in which none of our oligarchy of traders 
 ever fought." 
 
 "But the reform ticket came near winning," returned 
 Lyle. "And next time it will win, for the forces be- 
 hind it will be better organized, and their cause is fast 
 gaining ground." 
 
 His was the optimism of youth, aided by success in 
 235 
 
236 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 love and in his chosen vocation, and he could not be 
 brought to share in the pessimism of his older friend. 
 
 "The reform party, by whatever name it may be 
 known, cannot triumph," said Delaval ; "or, to put it 
 another way, if it should triumph it would in reality 
 have ceased to be a reform party, for Gorman and his 
 allies would have captured its leaders beforehand. 
 That is what has happened in this election : the methods 
 of the oligarchy wrecked one party, and then the same 
 forces took command of the other, and put it in 
 power." 
 
 "That is true, but in time the majority " 
 
 "Ah, the majority again. My dear boy, the trouble 
 with this republic is that the majority vote rules. We 
 should limit the ballot to include, at most, those who 
 can read the Constitution. Of course, no one can 
 really understand that sacred document but the judges, 
 yet all who vote should at least be able to read it. We 
 are ruled now by the mob or, rather, through the mob, 
 and as usual mob rule is proving the worst kind oi 
 tyranny." 
 "The majority, then, are unfit to govern themselves?" 
 "Always, and especially here, where the dregs of old 
 world society are welcomed by millions and, along with 
 our ignorant negroes, given the rights of free citizen- 
 ship as if those rights were of no value. But the ma- 
 jority are always wrong a majority of the time, and 
 when they happen to be right, a majority of their rep- 
 resentatives can be corrupted a majority of the time 
 'If this be treason, make the most of it.' " 
 "How about educating public opinion ?" 
 "I am reminded of a brilliant English essayist, who 
 defined the moulding of public opinion as organizing 
 the ignorance of a community, and raising it to the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 237 
 
 dignity of physical force. That is even more true of 
 America than of England." 
 
 "What would you have then, a monarchy ?" 
 
 "I am not ready to say. But I can take the multi- 
 plication table, and by it prove that the American 
 republic is a failure — as a republic. I will not bore you 
 with many statistics, but while the mob down there are 
 singing 'The Star Spangled Banner' I will give you a 
 few figures. We pay our President fifty thousand a 
 year. And yet to elect him, the oligarchy has just 
 spent seven to ten millions. Seven millions would pay 
 the President's salary for a hundred and forty years. 
 Ten millions would pay it for two hundred years, and 
 yet his term lasts but four." 
 
 "That is astounding, but " 
 
 "Wait a moment, please. The tariff-created barons 
 are now joined with the railway and banking clique in 
 bleeding the people. A fair rate of interest on the 
 bogus railway bonds alone means that a hundred and 
 fifty millions are being exacted every year above decent 
 profits by the railways alone. You see, then, how 
 much more our rulers cost us than is paid for royalty 
 by the people of the nation against which our ancestors 
 rebelled. The British King gets a paltry four millions 
 a year." 
 
 It was a wintry night, and the vast hall was none too 
 warm, yet Lyle wiped the perspiration from his brow. 
 "Your figures appal me," he said. "I have followed 
 this campaign closely, and have heard much talk of 
 millions, but I never thought of comparing conditions 
 here with those abroad." 
 
 The meeting had ended by this time, and the two 
 friends followed the multitude out of the building and 
 into the brilliantly lighted streets. Lyle had to return 
 
238 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 to the Circle office to write his report. He walked 
 several blocks south with Delaval, whose lodgings were 
 nearby, before leaving him to board an elevated train 
 for Park Row. Delaval had stayed away from a 
 theater that night to attend the meeting because, as he 
 said, it was "more interesting than any play to watch 
 the people make fools of themselves." 
 
 As they walked along they continued talking of the 
 campaign that had kept the country in a turmoil for 
 half a year. 
 
 "You didn't return from Europe in time to report the 
 early features," said Delaval. "By the way, when are 
 you going to introduce me to your wife? Why all this 
 mystery, after a marriage and honeymoon abroad?" 
 
 "In a few weeks I will explain," replied Lyle, 
 evasively. "Believe me, I am simply carrying out the 
 wish of m — m — my wife. I expect to have you come 
 and see us, if you will be so good. But about the early 
 features of the campaign?" 
 
 "Well, there were things that the Evening Hope 
 knew of and didn't print, and which never appeared in 
 the other papers for some reason or other. Maybe the 
 Circle or the Star would have used the facts if they had 
 known, but I doubt it very much. Well, there were 
 mysterious cruises by the private yachts owned by the 
 Wall Street crowd, and on board were the man who has 
 just been elected, and other big politicians, including 
 his manager. This was long before a convention was 
 held to nominate anybody, and the reporters were not 
 on the watch." 
 
 "Where do you suppose all the money went that was 
 used to elect him?" 
 
 "Famous speakers were hired by the dozen, and 
 special trains, and bands and quartette singers, and 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 239 
 
 sometimes whole theatrical troupes. Newspapers 
 printed in every language in the big cities, and country 
 press bureaus that supply the weeklies which tht- 
 farmers read, were also bought rigut and left. An ex- 
 grocervman managed the party in the nation, an ex- 
 bartender in New York City, and an ex-baker in 
 Chicago. Everything was barter and sale, and the 
 whole country was turned into a gigantic market place. 
 Thus is the majority vote influenced. The effect is as 
 demoralizing as ever the distribution of corn and wine 
 was among the populace of Rome." 
 
 "It does seem a terrible travesty of republican 
 institutions. An honest reform candidate has so little 
 chance." 
 
 "No more chance than a — well, than a fox has to 
 escape from a pack of well trained hounds. Did you 
 ever see a fox hunt ?" 
 
 "No, but I have often wanted to see one." 
 
 "Well, it is a picturesque sport. On a frosty morn- 
 ing the hunter's horn sounds its musical call. Im- 
 patient hounds bay deep-mouthed joy as they are un- 
 leashed for the fray. Men and women, red-coated, 
 booted and spurred, cheeks aglow from cool breezes, 
 and eyes a-light with anticipation, assemble on prancing 
 steeds. The captive fox is let loose, the dogs' resound- 
 ing barks awake the echoes, spurs are put to eager 
 steeds, and the chase is on. Across fields and over 
 fences, through brush and bramble, leaping ditches 
 and stone walls, hurtling over quiet pools and roaring 
 brooks, go the pursued and the pursuers. The flying 
 brush of the fox twinkling in and out of coverts as he 
 runs for life rouses the hounds to louder bays, and the 
 hunters to greater efforts. The spurs sink deeper into 
 the horses' flanks as they are guided over yet more 
 
240 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 perilous barriers, while the blood of their riders fires 
 with the lust for victory. At last the fox's dying 
 scream of agony is heard, and to the first man or 
 woman on the scene goes the beautiful brush as a 
 trophy. It is a pitiful triumph, after all. Think of all 
 those people, and all those horses, and all those hounds 
 after one little, defenseless fox ! But no tears are shed, 
 for a fox is but a fox. 
 
 "A big political hunt is not vastly different. A man 
 hostile to lawless corporations and corrupt politicians 
 seeks office. The chase begins, not amid picturesque 
 surroundings, but under the guise of a legitimate cam- 
 paign. Railway trains, newspapers, well paid speakers, 
 and active and well financed party committees are at 
 the beck and call of the powerful interests. A hue and 
 cry against the opposing candidate is raised. The race 
 starts. The hired hounds of the stump and press begin 
 to bay. Their noise drowns the quarry's cries of pro- 
 test. He is in an open field, protected only by the 
 loosest libel laws in the world. The race is so swift that 
 he cannot pause for refuge even under these laws until 
 too late to win the goal. He is misquoted, misinter- 
 preted, misunderstood. He is ridiculed, maligned, 
 vilified. To the wealthy he is branded as dangerous, 
 to the masses as a demagogue. It is he against all the 
 others. The clangor and the clamor increase. His 
 cries of protest grow weaker. The voices of his friends 
 are unheard in the general confusion. He seeks covert 
 after covert, is scented out and made to fly again. The 
 chase grows hotter and fiercer, the hounds bay louder, 
 and they lust terribly for his blood. Over barriers of 
 truth, of honor, of decency they go, and the multitude, 
 too far away to judge well, are thrilled by the spectacle. 
 The pursuers close in. Then comes the death agony, 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 241 
 
 and the mangled remains of a career of public service 
 and honor are held up to view. And there are cheers 
 as at a great victory. But this was a human quarry, 
 my countrymen ! And tears are being shed by those 
 near and dear to him. Should they alone weep?" 
 
 "That is a wonderful picture," commented Lyle, as 
 they paused before an elevated railway entrance. "You 
 talk like one inspired." 
 
 "And yet I haven't had a drink for two whole hours," 
 replied Delaval, as he turned away. "I'll now go into 
 yonder emporium of damp joy and get some liquid 
 inspiration. Then I may think of something more 
 wonderful still." 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 LYLE INTRODUCES HIS WIFE 
 
 All that Mercedes ever told Lyle of her reasons for 
 fearing the enmity of Gorman was this: 
 
 "After the death of my husband, who had been un- 
 fortunately involved in the telephone monopoly, he 
 tried to make me his mistress. And ever since I ran 
 away from his yachting party to join you in Paris, I 
 have feared for both of us. He has such a terrible spy 
 system, you know." 
 
 Her fears for his safety were so great that he yielded 
 to her wishes not to appear with her on the street in 
 daylight for the first year, though he longed to claim 
 her before all the world. She herself went out but lit- 
 tle, and in public always wore a veil. 
 
 They had been married in Paris by the minister of an 
 English church. Then they spent two months there, 
 
242 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 in the season of springtime and love. "Ah, Paris and 
 paradise — they will always mean the same to me !" she 
 said as they drove in the Champs Elysees on a May 
 morning. The horse-chestnut trees were budding, the 
 white magnolias were in flower, and mating birds sang 
 nuptial songs. 
 
 "I was never really happy before," she murmured, 
 dreamily. "I am not really good enough to be happy," 
 she went on. "Suppose I were not good at all. Would 
 you still love me?" And he replied in the words he 
 had once written her: "My darling, if you are not 
 good, then for me there is no goodness." And when 
 she wept, and he asked her why, she responded, "Just 
 from happiness," and then laughed away her tears. 
 Yet she felt that she could never tell him all. 
 
 Upon their return to New York they lived quietly on 
 the West Side, near Central Park. Sometimes in the 
 evening they would go walking in the park, and always 
 they went past the reservoir, for that was where they 
 had first talked to each other. For the social life that 
 was left behind Mercedes felt no regrets. Love alone 
 now sufficed. The faithful Matilda was her only serv- 
 ant, and Mercedes was happier in helping the mulatto 
 maid to keep the six rooms of their apartment in order 
 than she had ever been surrounded by attendants in a 
 home of luxury. 
 
 They had lived in this apartment seven months before 
 she would consent to meet Gordon's closest friend. 
 "Think how much it means to me to keep Delaval's 
 confidence," he argued. "He may already suspect that 
 we are living together unlawfully, since I can't bring 
 him here and can give him no good reason." 
 
 "Must you have him?" she persisted. Besides her 
 fears for his safety, she was as exigent as any young 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 243 
 
 bride ever was, being jealous even of his masculine 
 friends. 
 
 "Well, you know, dear, that without his aid I can 
 never make a success of the magazine I want to start. 
 The Circle is getting more and more friendly to certain 
 big interests, and half the time I can't write the truth 
 for it. I wouldn't even be managing editor of it now 
 if I were offered the place, for I would have to do too 
 many things of a disagreeable nature. Ransom is just 
 a common politician, after all. I already feel that I 
 have to be his intellectual lackey in too many ways." 
 
 "Oh, this terrible game of politics. Can't we leave 
 the country to its troubles and go to Paris and live? 
 You know I have thirty thousand from my jewels, and 
 you have saved several " 
 
 "Would you have me retreat at the beginning of the 
 real battle, Mercedes ?" 
 
 With Latin impetuosity she rose and threw herself 
 in his arms. "No, no!" she cried. "Please forgive 
 me ! It was your beautiful idealism that drew us 
 together. You must live your life as you wish. 
 You " 
 
 At this instant the door bell rang. Matilda went to 
 the door, and returning, announced "Mistah Devilall." 
 
 After Mercedes and Delaval had each learned that 
 the other was born on a Southern plantation and had 
 once possessed a "rebel" father, they at once became 
 friendly. He pleased her with his conversation, and 
 she charmed him with her singing, and both were soon 
 talking of their early associations. He stayed for 
 dinner, and the conversation between them had con- 
 tinued for almost an hour thereafter, when Lyle inter- 
 rupted to say, "We must talk about that magazine 
 
244 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 soon, or the whole evening will be gone," and his friend 
 replied : 
 
 "Yes ; but before we take that up, I want to tell you 
 of how a trust in the telegraphic news of the day has 
 been formed. The knowledge of this will be important 
 to us in planning our magazine. You have been in 
 newspaper work for years, Gordon, and yet you prob- 
 ably know nothing of how this new menace has devel- 
 oped. I learned the circumstances only a few days 
 ago. But it will be necessary to exhibit before your 
 eyes the interior workings of this new monster while I 
 explain. This being your night off, you might spend 
 it this way. May he go ?" turning to Mercedes. 
 
 "Yes," she replied with a smile of confidence, and 
 the two men went out into the December night. 
 
 They went far down town, beyond the newspaper 
 buildings in Park Row, and into lower Broadway. 
 There Delaval showed Lyle the new offices of the Con- 
 federated Press, which occupied two entire floors of a 
 tall granite structure. One of Gorman's aids, an ex- 
 banker, had just been made the general manager. 
 "There is a secret private wire leading from his office 
 to Gorman's," said Delaval. "Over it goes all the finan- 
 cial news to be approved before it is sent out to the 
 nation," and he explained fully the workings of the 
 new organization. 
 
 "And now about our magazine plans," Lyle began, 
 when they had left the building. "There is a more 
 burning need than ever for a great free organ of public 
 opinion — one that will combine the enterprise of the 
 Circle with the dignity of the Atlantic Review." 
 , "Speaking of magazines and the Atlantic Review," 
 was the response, "reminds me that I have something 
 to tell you of the threatened Gormanization of maga- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 245 
 
 zinedom. However, it is rather late to take up that 
 subject now. But come to Glacken Hall, the social set- 
 tlement, on your day off next week, if you possibly 
 can. Try to be there at 3 o'clock, will you ? I promise 
 that you will hear and perhaps see what will surprise 
 you." 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 GLACKEN HALL 
 
 Glacken Hall had become synonymous in America 
 with the work of social settlements. Originally it was 
 the home of a family named Glacken. It was built in 
 the distant days before the Civil War, and long before 
 the hordes of immigrants from Southern Europe had 
 begun to inundate New York's lower East Side. 
 
 It was an old red building, fronted by a tower that 
 had once seemed high, but which now was dwarfed by 
 the five- and six-story tenements that surrounded it. 
 And yet it had a dignity all its own. The dull, time- 
 softened hues of its walls and of the tall brick hedge 
 that encompassed it, the long French windows which 
 opened on its veranda, and the lawn that was nobly 
 spacious in a neighborhood where ground had become 
 immensely valuable, made it stand out like a venerable 
 sentinel at the gateway of the past. 
 
 The original dweller had become rich in trade with 
 the West Indies. After his death a son, who alone sur- 
 vived him, speculated in railway shares, and thus lost 
 all of his patrimony except the Hall and the grounds 
 about it. That was in the late seventies. His fiancee 
 died about the same time, and the double misfortune 
 
246 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 made young Glacken a recluse. He lived alone in the 
 old house for a decade, selling only enough of the 
 grounds in the rear to enable him to exist without labor, 
 and when he died his heirs, in a distant city, were glad 
 enough to dispose of the place at the prevailing market 
 prices. 
 
 Some rich college students were at this time enthused 
 by reports of the work being done by social settlements 
 in Europe, They saw Glacken Hall, and decided that 
 it was an ideal site for such an institution. They raised 
 a fund, bought the house as it stood, endowed it with 
 half a million, and placed it under the direction of their 
 university. Thus Glacken Hall became the first Ameri- 
 can social settlement, to be followed by scores of others 
 in a dozen years. And Ellen Tyler, chosen as its head, 
 became to the East Side what Arnold Toynbee, Oxford 
 graduate and Christ-like worker among the poor, had 
 been a decade earlier to London's VVhitechapel district. 
 
 "It should be called Tyler Hall, just as the first set- 
 tlement in the old world was Toynbee Hall," was often 
 said by her admirers. But the sad eyed, sweet faced 
 woman who was giving her life to the lowly and the 
 oppressed always shook her head at this, and replied 
 that deeds, not names, were important. 
 
 She was dairy and sincerely blessed in more lan- 
 guages than any other woman in the world. Poles and 
 Bohemians, Italians and Greeks, Jews and Irish, Slavs 
 and Hungarians — all these and other races were repre- 
 sented among those who knew and loved her. She and 
 her staff of young women aids shared the daily life of 
 the people, and gave them an understanding of the 
 better things of existence. They softened race hatreds, 
 and harmonized colonies of opposing faiths, taught use- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 247 
 
 ful arts, and instilled a love of the beautiful in thou- 
 sands of minds. 
 
 One of the big rooms at the Hall was a playroom for 
 the children of the neighborhood. Another was a 
 theater where concerts and simple dramas were given. 
 And there were a museum of industries, a co-operative 
 home for working women, a school of manual training, 
 and clubs for women, boys and girls. And more than 
 all, a gallery filled with copies of famous pictures and 
 replicas of great statues brought a new influence into 
 many sordid lives, teaching a reverence for perfection 
 in color and in form. 
 
 Ugliness and discord, hate and strife were all about 
 Qacken Hall. Not far away the unclean streets were 
 made still more repellent by billboards and signs in 
 glaring hues, and by a humanity that was polychro- 
 matic, ragged and unkempt. Clanging street car bells, 
 rattletrap cars and carts, elevated trains that roared 
 past, and shouts and curses in many dialects added 
 inharmony of sound to inharmony of sight. But as one 
 approached the Hall, the dissonance decreased. The 
 billboards and the ugly signs all disappeared. The 
 streets grew cleaner, the faces brighter, the voices 
 softer. And however thickly the crowds might gather, 
 no riots ever marred the vicinage of the Hall. Like a 
 modern tower of Babel it stood among the polyglot 
 peoples clustered about its base, but it was a tower 
 that brought order out of chaos, harmony out of 
 discord. 
 
 It was to this place that Delaval had asked Lyle to 
 come to meet him. Why? Delaval had never been 
 interested in schemes for the uplifting of humanity. 
 Rather, he was always cynical about such things. But 
 he had said that something of interest concerning their 
 
248 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 plans for a new magazine would be disclosed, and Lyle 
 nowadays thought of little else but that subject, and 
 was ready to go almost anywhere to discuss it. Be- 
 sides, Delaval was to find a large part of the financial 
 backing for the venture, and perhaps the philanthro- 
 pists behind Glacken Hall were to help. Thus Lyle 
 reasoned as he passed the aged brick gateway, and 
 walked up the worn stone steps of the veranda. 
 
 When he was shown into the plainly furnished parlor 
 he found his friend there in conversation with a young 
 woman. 
 
 "Miss Hampton is the chief assistant to Miss Tyler," 
 Delaval said after the introduction, "and she is also 
 interested in our magazine-to-be. In fact, she will fur- 
 nish us with some of the sinews of war, though she 
 doesn't wish to be known as having done so." 
 
 Lyle saw a handsome young woman who was per- 
 haps a few years his junior. She was attired simply in 
 dark-blue serge, and her wavy brown hair was parted 
 in the middle, and combed back and caught in a roll at 
 the nape of her neck, in Grecian style. But her com- 
 manding feature was her eyes, which, dark brown and 
 melancholy, like Delaval's, became luminous at times 
 as with an inner fire and, when she grew intensely earn- 
 est, burned with an intensity that could only have been 
 imparted by idealism. 
 
 "Mr. Delaval has told me all about you," she said, 
 smiling upon them both, "and I don't wonder that you 
 have at last overcome even his cynicism." 
 
 "But I never could have induced him to come to a 
 social settlement, so you must have more influence over 
 him than I," and Lyle smiled back at her in genuine 
 admiration. 
 
 "He pretends that he isn't interested in the people we 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 249 
 
 live among, but simply in the dramatic possibilities of 
 the work," she responded. 
 
 "I really think," Delaval interrupted to say, "that to 
 try to uplift these ignorant, brutalized foreigners who 
 are flooding our country is like standing at the shore 
 with a broom and attempting to sweep back the waves 
 of the sea." 
 
 "And I think," she rejoined, her eyes lighting up, 
 "mat we who help the great and good Miss Tyler in 
 her splendid work, can aid in starting ripples of 
 beneficence in the ocean of life, ripples that may go on 
 and on endlessly, and may even develop into waves of 
 reformation in the uttermost parts of the world." 
 
 Delaval was looking at her with a wistful tenderness 
 as she ceased, and Lyle began to wonder just how much 
 his friend was interested in this new acquaintance. 
 
 After a time Miss Hampton served tea, herself pre- 
 paring it on an alcohol stove, and pouring it into fragile 
 china cups that had been painted with flower designs 
 by children of the art class of the Hall. 
 
 "And now let us talk of the magazine," said Delaval. 
 "Miss Hampton, besides pledging ten thousand dollars 
 toward it, can tell us some interesting things about 
 Gorman's imperial moves. He has started in now to 
 rule magazineism as well as journalism." 
 
 "Yes," Miss Hampton added, "and he has already 
 captured the strategic center, as Mr. Delaval says. All 
 that I know is that he has taken a mortgage for a 
 million and a half on Whistler & Company's plant. 
 They have the biggest publishing house in America, 
 and they issue four magazines, besides printing more 
 books of all kinds than any other house. Old Whistler 
 recently died, and the panic hit the concern hard, and 
 his heirs had to raise money by a mortgage." 
 
2 5 o THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "They publish the North Atlantic Review, Whistler's 
 Weekly and Whistler s Monthly, which influence the 
 opinions of millions of thinking people," Delaval re- 
 marked. 
 
 "But they are already conservative ; why should Gor- 
 man seek to control them ?" asked Lyle. 
 
 "It simply means," Delaval explained, "that in place 
 of a temporary and unstable control by the railway 
 and other big interests, Gorman has substituted a 
 scientific and permanent control. He has placed at the 
 head of this concern a man whom he intends to be his 
 chief lieutenant in the literary dictatorship of America 
 — Colonel George Littpap, who once edited a news- 
 paper for him. How did he get the title of colonel? 
 By raising a campaign fund among street railway 
 owners to help elect a governor, who appointed him on 
 his staff." 
 
 "But how can he become a literary dictator? There 
 are many other publishing houses." 
 
 "The Whistler house is greater in influence than 
 any four or five others. Besides, it is the center, and it 
 will be used as the nucleus of a powerful organization. 
 Already it sets the pace in things literary in America, 
 for our most famous novelist and critic and our leading 
 humorist are under contract to the firm. Neither re- 
 fused the increases in royalties offered them, and 
 neither has since written a line against the oligarchy, 
 and probably neither will do so." 
 
 "What — can Gorman buy such men as they?" 
 
 "He not only can — he has. They may not even 
 realize that they are bought, but I'm afraid they do. 
 I know a Stock Exchange broker who tells me that the 
 humorist, who was bankrupt and greatly in debt not so 
 long ago, recently purchased a hundred thousand dol- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 251 
 
 Jars' worth of telephone stock just before it advanced 
 fifty per cent, in value. What more reasonable than 
 to suppose that some one in a position to know told him 
 when to buy it, or even loaned him the money for the 
 purpose? Oh, he's 'an amoosin' cuss,' our great hu- 
 morist is, as Artemus Ward would have said, but like 
 most of the entertaining class, he has no ideals. Re- 
 cently Whistler's Monthly contained a eulogistic article 
 about him by Colonel Littpap, in which it was said that 
 under the surface of his genial humor he had deep 
 convictions. What those convictions are I would like 
 to know." 
 
 "Why, he is just a joke writer for hire," said Lyle, 
 disgustedly. "But William Steen Stalls, the novelist, 
 used to have radical opinions, and he freely expressed 
 them. I remember he denounced the coal trust for its 
 wholesale robbery of the people." 
 
 "I never had any faith in him. His style is so 
 drearily tame. It makes me think of what a clever 
 English essayist said of one of his contemporaries: 
 'He writes fiction as though it were a painful duty.' I 
 fear that no one who lacks red blood in his literary 
 style can have it in his veins. However, he is regarded 
 generally as our most eminent literary person, and so 
 Gorman wants to control him. Augustus Caesar pat- 
 ronized Virgil, James the Second honored Dryden, 
 Louis Fourteenth favored some of the famous writers 
 of his reign, Napoleon exalted Chateaubriand, and 
 Gorman, in his more direct and simple way, has simply 
 bought our most refulgent literary lights— or those 
 who pass for such among us." 
 
 "And he has also taken a mortgage on Peachton & 
 Company, the second largest publishing firm," Miss 
 
252 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Hampton added. "He intends to reorganize both, and 
 sell enough stock to reimburse himself." 
 
 "Surely, that is reducing literature to the level of 
 trade," said Lyle, looking gloomily from one to the 
 other. "Is nothing sacred to him?" 
 
 "Nothing," replied Delaval. "I think that if it were 
 not inconsistent with church doctrine, and would not 
 reflect upon himself, he would organize a company to 
 control collection plates and boxes, and sell the stock 
 on 'Change, manipulating it in his own interest." 
 
 "And yet we must not blame him personally," Miss 
 Hampton hastened to say. "Although I am not a 
 Christian Scientist — I accept no creed — I believe in the 
 doctrine of the impersonality of all eviL We are 
 gripped by good or bad impulses, whose source is 
 unknown to us. Mr. Gorman seems to be completely 
 controlled by a terrible force that is largely evil, and 
 I think it our duty to oppose that force. For all his 
 brilliant mind he is, I fear, a moral idiot, or nearly so. 
 He is now planning the greatest of all trusts, and its 
 success will mean misery and death to many. That is 
 why I want to help you start a magazine to combat 
 him." 
 
 "What new trust is he planning T 1 asked Lyle. 
 
 "A trust in steel, with a billion dollars' capital, more 
 than two-thirds of which will be water." 
 
 "And now," put in Delaval, "you see the imperial 
 nature of his designs. The steel trust plan would be a 
 great expose for our new magazine to start with. But 
 we must hasten our plans." 
 
 Half an hour later, as the two men walked through 
 the crowded streets toward an elevated railway station, 
 Lyle, who had been silent for several blocks, observed, 
 "It seems that we are as pygmies planning to attack a 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 253 
 
 Titan." A moment later his face brightened, and he 
 added, "And yet, we may fashion a dart that will 
 reach a vital spot." 
 
 "We have a powerful aid in Miss Hampton," said 
 Delaval. "She knows some of his most precious 
 secrets. Her personal history is most interesting, even 
 more so than that of Miss Tyler, who gave up a fine 
 home and a possible rich husband to live at Glacken 
 Hall. Miss Hampton gave up a yet richer home and 
 refused a chance to wed a British duke to take a sec- 
 ondary place at the Hall." 
 
 "Did sorrow have anything to do with it? I noticed 
 a band of crape on her arm." 
 
 "No. She grieved much over her mother's death 
 last year, but she was established here before then." 
 
 "It seems strange that I have never heard the name 
 before," said Lyle as he paused at a street corner to 
 take leave of his friend. At the same time he was won- 
 dering why Delaval had just passed, without entering, 
 a well known French cafe, where he usually stopped to 
 get a drink. 
 
 "You have heard her real name often," Delaval as- 
 sured him, "but not in relation to Glacken Hall. She 
 is a saint even more saintly than Miss Tyler, for she 
 hides her good deeds under an alias. I met her while 
 attending an amateur dramatic performance at the 
 Hall. I feel unworthy to touch the hem of her gar- 
 ment. And when such a woman asks me to stop drink- 
 ing and devote my mind to writing a play that will 
 live, don't you think I should make almost any sacri- 
 fice to do either? I am going to do both." 
 
 "I am glad, very glad, to hear it, Del. But her real 
 name — is that a secret?" 
 
 "To the public, yes. But it need not remain one be- 
 
254 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 tween us. You would have to know it soon, anyhow. 
 She is Theodora Gorman." 
 
 "What! The daughter of " 
 
 "The only daughter of C. Jefferson Gorman." 
 
 CHAPTER TV 
 
 VALET AND BUTLER 
 
 "Gawd, but the master's hin a temper this morning,'* 
 said Judkins, the butler, stooping to pick up the frag- 
 ments of a statue. "There goes a big lot of money, 
 and just because 'e's in a hurry to meet some one." 
 
 "His time's worth more than statues — in money," 
 Pelham, the valet, volunteered to say as he appeared on 
 the scene, wearing a large opalescent puff tie that had 
 been discarded by his master. That tie was fresh from 
 London, and it had been thrown aside unused when one 
 end was found slightly ripped, a defect which, strangely 
 enough, did not appear until after the valet opened the 
 box containing it to hand it to his master that morning. 
 However, Pelham felt doubly important as he paraded 
 up and down in his new glory and discussed the 
 affluence of the man he served. He did not even deign 
 to help collect the marble fragments which were the 
 result of Gorman's hasty trip down the stairs. 
 
 "But this statue was by Rodin, and cost ten thousand, 
 and "e brought it hall the way from Paris, 'imself," 
 Judkins averred, as he put the last bit of marble in a 
 large basket, and stood to contemplate the ruin. "And 
 yet after 'e runs up against it 'e don't even stop to look 
 at the pieces. 'E goes hout and jumps into 'is new 
 French hauto, and says to the chauffeur, 'To the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 255 
 
 Himperial Plasteria,' 'e says, 'and be damned quick,' 
 'e says." 
 
 "His new mistress is there, you know," and Pelham 
 looked wise as he uttered this in low tones. 
 
 "What — a new one?" 
 
 "Sure. Haven't you heard of Mrs. Lionel Barton, 
 the woman who had such a sensational divorce case 
 in high society that a theatrical manager trained her 
 for the stage? And she has talent, too, for the pas- 
 sionate plays. Well, the master's got rooms next to 
 hers at the Imperial Plasteria." 
 
 "Hi can 'ardly believe it. And 'im with a new wife 
 that 'e married only a few weeks ago." Judkins fairly 
 whispered these words, looking apprehensively up the 
 stairway the while. "Why, the new Mrs. Gorman 
 would die if she knew it. And think of 'er relatives, 
 the Purdy-'Opkinsons. What did 'e marry for at all — 
 that's what I'd like to know." 
 
 "Respectability. He's got to have some one to go 
 to church with, and sing hymns with, and receive dis- 
 tinguished people with, and all that sort of thing, you 
 see. And the new Mrs. Gorman is a pretty good 
 looker, too, if any one asks you — the stately kind." 
 
 Pelham, who had once been valet to an English earl, 
 prided himself not only on his superior knowledge of 
 the world, but on his ability to talk without misusing 
 the letter h. He had studied some, and he nourished 
 secret aspirations which, had they been discovered, 
 would have surprised some persons — aspirations some- 
 what out of harmony with his small stature and not 
 over handsome face. 
 
 "Hi should think the master would 'ave been all 
 broke hup by losin' his first wife, and 'avin' his daugh- 
 ter leave about the same time. But 'e recovers quick." 
 
256 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "Well, you see, he banks on his son, who since he's 
 back from Heidelberg, has took hold of things like a 
 true heir in his own right to the American kingdom. 
 And say, it is a kingdom for you, all right. Come up to 
 my room as soon as you can, and 1*11 show you some 
 figures to prove it." 
 
 Judkins carried the remains of the statue to the cel- 
 lar, and then joined the valet in his room at the top of 
 the house. Pelham looked up from a pad of paper as he 
 entered. "Here's the figures/' he said. "I read the 
 other day in a magazine I saw in his room that his 
 income is about thirty-two millions a year. Well, that's 
 more than eight times what the British royal family 
 gets, and yet he's scheming to add to it all the time, 
 and from what I've lately heard he's hardly begun to 
 do the things he plans. But take thirty-two millions : 
 That means eighty-seven thousand, nine hundred and 
 forty dollars a day. It's more than sixty-one dollars 
 a minute — a dollar and six cents and a fraction every 
 time that old clock ticks up there on the mantel." 
 
 "My Gawd! — and 'im objecting because 'e thought 
 'e was paying for wine 'e didn't drink, when the last 
 bills come in !" 
 
 "So you see," Pelham continued, "that statue won't 
 be much loss to him. Why, if this house was robbed 
 of all its furniture every night the price of it wouldn't 
 be missed. But what I want to know is, what's he to 
 do with it all?" 
 
 "Well, 'e's buildin' a palace in London, and IVe 
 heard there's to be a new one at Newport." 
 
 "Oh, yes, and his new mistress has a private car as 
 good as his own, and maybe she'll have a yacht and a 
 theater, too." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 257 
 
 "Jove, but that's like the capers the kings cut up in 
 the hold world." 
 
 "Kings? Why, no king has got as much money as 
 he has. But listen : There's one thing I heard the other 
 day that I can't understand. A conference was going 
 on in his room — but you'll keep this quiet, will you ? 
 If you don't, you know, there's some wine bills and 
 other bills that I know about ; but if we work together, 
 we may get rich from stock tips. Well, three or four 
 big guns from Wall Street were there, and I heard a 
 lot of talk about steel and wire and bridges and cor- 
 porations and charters and things, and then New Jersey 
 was mentioned. And then some one says, 'New 
 Jerseyll let you do what you want, Mr. Gorman,' and 
 he replies, 'I know that, and she's real handy.' And 
 some one else puts in : 'Oh, she's a beauty, Jersey is, 
 and she'll be your mistress for the asking — provided 
 you fix it with the Madame Legislature,' and then they 
 all laughed. Now, what did they mean by that?" 
 
 "By Jove, Hi wish Hi knew. Maybe it's a secret 
 about the market." 
 
 "I'm sure it is. Anyhow, you and I must look sharp 
 and know what goes on at the next meeting here. 
 There's big things brewing or I'm a fool. But I can't 
 figure out just how the master can make a mistress 
 out of a State." 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 NEW JERSEY 
 
 "If you would learn of all the ills that your country 
 is heir to, follow me and my legal friend here without 
 flinching." 
 
258 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Delaval's smile as he spoke was in keeping with his 
 words : half humorous, half sadly serious. It was a 
 wintry day in March when he and Lyle, in company 
 with a professor of law from Valehard University, 
 alighted from a train in Trenton, the capital of New 
 Jersey. All wore long overcoats, and high mufflers, 
 and yet they shivered at times as they were being driven 
 about in an open carriage, for the winds from off the 
 Delaware were raw and keen edged from dampness. 
 
 "Yes," Professor Gerald added, "you must not flinch, 
 either at the truth, or at the dry-as-dust legal phrases 
 in which it will sometimes be clothed. And above all 
 things, do not hint at my name or identity in any part 
 of the article ycu write. Gorman has just endowed 
 Valehard's research department with another half 
 million, and my position would be forfeited if I were 
 suspected of aiding you, even with a few legal 
 opinions." 
 
 Lyle pledged secrecy, and then Delaval asked if it 
 was true that Gorman had been given the honorary 
 degree of doctor of laws by Valehard. 
 
 "It is true," replied the professor, and his tones were 
 tinged with bitterness. "And he is truly a doctor of 
 laws, though not in the sense the degree implied. His 
 latest accomplishment is the doctoring of all the im- 
 portant laws of this State. I don't see what the country 
 is coming to when Valehard and other leading universi- 
 ties, which could well afford to be independent, take 
 bribes in the way of donations from the very men whom 
 they should teach their graduates to despise. At Vale- 
 hard we already have what the students call Oil Chapel, 
 Sugar Hall, and Railway Campus, on account of the 
 sources of the gifts. But this honoring of Gorman is 
 our crowning dishonor." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 259 
 
 Professor Gerald was past fifty years of age, and his 
 critics were wont to say that he was old fashioned in 
 his ideas of ethics. But he was still vigorous of mind 
 and body, though his hair and beard were white, and 
 none knew better than he the law as it was, and none 
 had clearer ideas as to the law as it should be. 
 
 "Valehard is under suspicion because of its new pres- 
 ident's attitude toward the railways, isn't it?" asked 
 Delaval, who was one of its graduates. "You remem- 
 ber his book on railways that makes heroes out of 
 Gorman and his allies?" 
 
 "Yes. It was soon after its publication that he was 
 picked as the head of Valehard from some small West- 
 ern college. He brought with him a Gorman endow- 
 ment of half a million, which made most of the trus- 
 tees willing to accept him. I believe there are promises 
 of still greater benefactions, which will in time make 
 Valehard the richest of American universities. He has 
 also just been appointed on a commision to devise new 
 railway laws and report to Congress. You may 
 imagine what kinds of laws he will favor." 
 
 The carriage was driven over miles of fine boule- 
 vards, and past many stately dwellings, in which lived 
 present and former officials of the State. 
 
 "This is the richest State capital in the country, and 
 yet New Jersey is one of the smallest States," said the 
 professor. "She is called 'one of the brightest gems 
 in Columbia's diadem,' but she is really just a prosti- 
 tute. She is, however, a prolific prostitute. And how 
 well bedecked she is ! No courtesan ever sold her 
 charms with more profitable results. See all these 
 macadamized roads. She has one-third of all such 
 roads in the entire country. And observe these fine 
 
260 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 parks, and schools, and public libraries. No other State 
 has their equal. A lawyer whose office is not far from 
 the Wall Street throne and the officials of this State 
 got together, and they devised a wonderful thing called 
 the Corporation Trust Company. See that tall build- 
 ing on the next corner? That is its home. Let us see 
 what we shall find there." 
 
 The marble rotunda of the building was much like 
 that of many a New York "skyscraper." From the 
 rotunda they stepped into one of a half dozen elevators, 
 and were taken to the tenth floor. 
 
 This entire floor and the floor above were used as the 
 "headquarters" of fifteen hundred companies doing an 
 interstate business. A multitude of signs were dis- 
 played — one for each company. The great central 
 company, officered by State officials, furnished to each 
 a resident secretary and a director, whose sole business 
 was to keep the records. A branch office of the head 
 concern was maintained in Wall Street to solicit 
 business. 
 
 After looking into a few of the offices, all of which 
 had a monotonous resemblance to each other, the vis- 
 itors descended to the street, dismissed their carriage, 
 and started to walk toward the Capitol. 
 
 "Just how does the State profit, Professor Gerald?" 
 asked Lyle, as they walked along. "That is one of the 
 main points which I wish to bring out when I write the 
 article for our new magazine on 'The Traitor State.' " 
 
 "She has a scale of prices," was the response. "Any- 
 one may obtain from her a charter to do almost any- 
 thing under heaven by paying a tax of one dollar for 
 each thousand of capital, real or imaginary, up to three 
 millions, and beyond three millions, fifty cents a thou- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 261 
 
 sand. There is no limit. Promoters of all kinds of 
 fraudulent concerns flock here from every part of the 
 country. Soon every floor of that building will be given 
 up to their 'headquarters.' This State's debts have been 
 wiped out, and her citizens no longer have any direct 
 taxes to pay." 
 
 "And now tell us what her charters mean to the rest 
 of the country ?" 
 
 The professor gave him a mass of facts, and then, 
 as they walked up to the State House, he continued: 
 
 "You will want to know in plain language just what 
 all this means. It means that a promoter can form a 
 company with an apparent capital of millions or of 
 even a billion, but with scarcely any real capital ; that 
 he can issue bonds of the nature of a first mortgage 
 on the company's property for as large a sum in addi- 
 tion ; that he can then create preferred stock for as 
 great an amount besides, the common stock repre- 
 senting the original billion. And then he may sell all 
 of these stocks and bonds that the market will take, and 
 still control the company. In yet simpler words, it 
 means that the nation is helpless against the trusts, 
 and that the stockholders are helpless against the 
 promoters." 
 
 "And that," said Delaval, "is how Gorman is 
 planning to organize his steel trust. And when it is 
 launched upon its sea of water it may be compared 
 with an invulnerable battleship which can destroy all 
 other craft, while the crew themselves are at the mercy 
 of its despotic commander." 
 
 "An excellent simile," commented the professor, 
 and continued talking as they stood at the top of the 
 State House steps overlooking the town: "Gorman 
 
262 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 and his allies could never do a respectable fraction of 
 their deeds under any European government. We have 
 eight times as many corporations as Great Britain, 
 France and Germany combined, and our total capital- 
 ization is about thirty-three billions, not including 
 bonds, which represent as much more. Does it make 
 your brain reel? It is making the republic itself reel 
 like a drunkard, with all this poisonous watered stock 
 in her veins. And now another billion or more is to be 
 added by one man at one sweep. It is appalling." 
 
 They entered the gallery of the House, and sat down 
 to rest while they watched the proceedings. In a 
 droning voice the clerk read the bills as they were 
 presented, and the members lolled in their seats, smok- 
 ing cigars, or chatting, or making notes on pads of 
 paper or the margins of newspapers. In the Speaker's 
 chair sat a man whose brow was low, and whose neck 
 was red, and across whose colored waistcoat hung an 
 enormous gold watch chain. 
 
 "See those torn battle flags, and those ancient swords 
 over the Speaker's desk?" Delaval asked. "They were 
 captured by Washington and his troops from the 
 Hessians after crossing the Delaware. At the time the 
 trust laws were passed the Speaker, who had been a 
 starter on a race track, put the bills through so fast 
 that his office was called 'the startership.' The laws 
 were all passed at an eighteen-hour session, and it was 
 midnight when the last one went through with a whoop. 
 Then followed an orgy. Cases of champagne were 
 opened, songs were sung, and female prostitutes sat on 
 the knees of the legislative prostitutes, or danced madly 
 upon their desks. One of them kicked a hole through 
 that largest battle flag." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 263 
 
 Professor Gerald had been sitting in serious medita- 
 tion while E>elaval talked, and now he spoke slowly, 
 and in melancholy tones. "No stronger argument 
 against the weakness of the American system could be 
 imagined than this," he said. "All State lines should 
 be abolished. As a chain is no stronger than its 
 weakest link, so the nation is no stronger than its 
 weakest State. 
 
 "Why are these things possible? Because of court 
 decisions that should never have been rendered. The 
 courts have too much power — power arbitrarily as- 
 sumed. They have decided that Congress, in pro- 
 hibiting trade combinations, meant only the joining 
 of separate and distinct concerns. But these com- 
 panies, the judges hold, may sell their plants, or their 
 railroads, or anything else, to a new corporation, 
 formed in any State, and such sales are not 'interstate 
 commerce.' Oh, the hollow mockery, the hypocrisy of 
 it! There is not a steel mill in New Jersey, yet see 
 what powers she is granting to Gorman over the steel 
 industry of the entire country !" 
 
 "Were you not telling me the other day, professor," 
 Delaval asked, "that one of the federal Supreme Court 
 judges was worth a million and a half, though he was 
 a poor man before his appointment?" 
 
 "Yes, and at least one of the others has become 
 rich in a few years. He has been called 'Private 
 Car Jones,' because the railroads always furnish him 
 with a special car for his pleasure trips." 
 
 "Can this be true?" asked Lyle. "I can hardly be- 
 lieve it. It is terrifying." 
 
 "There are more surprising and terrible things still 
 ahead of us," Delaval reminded him, "for we have 
 yet to explore Wall Street. 
 
264 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PIRATES OF THE SOUTHERN SEAS 
 
 Delaval was leaning against the rail of a steam 
 yacht as he talked to Lyle and his wife, and to Theo- 
 dora Gorman, whose guests they all were. His hearers 
 were seated on the deck before him. It was a per- 
 fect spring morning, and as yet the sun's rays had 
 not become so genial as to force them to retire under 
 the awning that was stretched over the deck's other 
 side. 
 
 The yacht was moving slowly past a palm fringed 
 isle in the Caribbean, and so close to it that the cries 
 of parrakeets could be heard, and at times through 
 the morning mist their brilliant plumage could be 
 glimpsed as they flew from tree to tree. 
 
 This was the Siren's third day out. The yacht had 
 been loaned to "Miss Hampton" for a month by a 
 wealthy young widow, who had gone abroad. Delaval 
 and Lyle had been working so hard in establishing 
 their magazine that when Theodora had offered to 
 take them on a fortnight's cruise they both welcomed 
 the chance for such recreation. Mercedes knew the 
 real name of their hostess, although Theodora had 
 not known her previous to this cruise. 
 
 "Won't you recite us some more of Byron?" asked 
 Theodora, and after Delaval had responded with 
 several stanzas from "The Bride of Abydos," she said : 
 "I could listen to his poems all day. Byron was more 
 Greek than English." 
 
 "I agree with Del that the isles of Greece could 
 hardly be more beautiful than these about us," said 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 265 
 
 Lyle. "And now won't you tell us something of the 
 history of the buccaneers, who cut up capers in this 
 vicinity ?" 
 
 "Yes, do," the ladies pleaded together. Miss Tyler, 
 of Glacken Hall, and Professor Gerald, of Valehard, 
 now came on deck and joined the group. All listened 
 eagerly while Delaval talked, for his conversation was 
 often charming alike to men and to women. 
 
 "In the tropics all life is more colorful," he began ; 
 "and these islands, surrounded as they are by seas of 
 liquid sapphire, and domed by a sky of luminous tur- 
 quoise, surpass in beauty even the mainland. Tropical 
 birds are gayer in plumage, sea shells have more light 
 and variety of hue, ferns grow more riotously, and 
 palms are many times higher than in the colder climes. 
 The tops of those trees on the shores we are leaving 
 must be at least two hundred feet from the ground. 
 In the tropics, too, the stars shine more brightly at 
 night, and by day the kisses of the sun are more 
 amorous, and maids mature more quickly and, like 
 the flowers, bloom more voluptuously than in temper- 
 ate zones. And all human passions — of love, hate, 
 avarice, revenge — are more easily aroused, and are 
 to be regarded with greater tolerance than among us. 
 Thus may be explained many of the vendettas in south- 
 ern countries. And thus also may be explained, and 
 in part excused, the piracy that once flourished on 
 these very seas, where 'all save the spirit of man is 
 divine.' " 
 
 Here Delaval paused to remark that the sun's rays 
 were becoming too amorous for him, and at Theodora's 
 suggestion all moved under the awning, and stewards 
 brought lemonade. When all were comfortably seated 
 the ensemble made a pretty picture : the women in 
 
266 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 white serge, with flaring sailor collars and large blue 
 ties, the men in light flannel suits and white yacht- 
 ing caps. All wore cool looking canvas shoes, and 
 every costume was immaculate. Delaval, after sip- 
 ping his lemonade with as much relish as though it 
 was the finest champagne, resumed: 
 
 "Late in the sixteenth century there were founded 
 in San Domingo and other West Indian islands, 
 colonies of French and English adventurers, whose 
 business was to 'boucaner,' or cure beef by smoking it, 
 and then to sell the meat, or exchange it for other 
 products in the seaport towns. Spain made oppressive 
 rules against them and they combined to oppose her. 
 Beginning as unrestricted traders, they ended as 
 pirates. 
 
 "After several rich prizes had been sailed into San 
 Domingo," he added, after giving the early history 
 of the pirates, "they organized for business on a large 
 scale. They were soon attacking the Spanish galleons. 
 They they fortified seaports and defied governments. 
 They had begun as haphazard plunderers, ragged and 
 desperate, wearing little more than trousers soaked in 
 the blood of cattle, and wielding only crude weapons. 
 But as their rags were replaced by silk and velvet 
 coats and ornamented knee-breeches, they thought 
 more of themselves and of their profession. They 
 formed a government of their own, and adopted rules 
 of conduct, and established a code of ethics — and 
 they lived up to the code, too." 
 
 "They had slaves to wait on them, didn't they?" 
 Lyle inquired. 
 
 "Yes, after they became prosperous, most of them 
 had body servants, distinguished by scarlet scarfs 
 about their heads. Oh, they were a picturesque lot." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 267 
 
 "I have read somewhere that they were chivalrous 
 also," said Mercedes, who was following the story 
 with great interest. 
 
 "That is true. A captain had to be valorous, and 
 when besides he knew how to charm the ladies he 
 was even more respected among his crew. There was 
 a Monsieur Raveneau de Lussan, who retired from 
 buccaneering and wrote a book about it He tells 
 of how he wore a hat with a plume and had a jeweled 
 sword. After looting a Venezuelan port he went to 
 church to give thanks. A Spanish lady, the widow 
 of the town treasurer, who had been killed in the 
 siege, met him there and invited him to her home. 
 She was so charmed with him that she desired to 
 marry him. But he sailed away without her. He 
 could not bear the thought of permitting a refined 
 lady to share the terrors of his life." 
 
 "But to think of his giving thanks in church!" 
 commented Miss Tyler. "It seems grotesque." 
 
 "Oh, that was a custom among them," Delaval as- 
 sured her. "There was a rule that no crew should 
 get drunk after a successful cruise until thanks had 
 been declared for the 'dew of heaven/ And no fleet 
 ever put to sea without church services. A French 
 captain shot one of his men for irreverence at a mass." 
 
 "Religion ! Oh, Religion, what crimes are done in 
 thy name!" from Professor Gerald. 
 
 "Their plunder was often rich and varied," con- 
 tined the historian. "Besides the gold of the Incas, 
 and the Spanish doubloons from treasure ships, there 
 were jars of civet and of ambergris, boxes of marma- 
 lade and spices, sacks of chocolate and vanilla, me- 
 dicinal gums from Nicaragua, and rolls of green 
 
268 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 cloth and pale blue cotton which the Indians wove 
 in Peru ; heavy carved furniture, and paintings by 
 Spanish masters ; casks of rare wine from Andalusia's 
 mellow vineyards, and bottles of cordials in delicately 
 cut green glass ; swords with jeweled handles, silver 
 mounted pistols, daggers chased and inlaid, and 
 watches and ancient necklaces from Spain ; packets of 
 emeralds from Brazil, and bezoar stones from Pata- 
 gonia " 
 
 "If you keep on," interjected the professor, "I'll feel 
 like turning pirate myself. And in the distance yon- 
 der I think I see even now a Spanish galleon. Sup- 
 pose we sail over and attack her? What do you 
 make her out to be, captain ?" to the commander of the 
 yacht, who had just approached. 
 
 "I should say she's a large steam yacht, about 
 twice the size of this one, sir/' replied the captain, 
 after a look through his binoculais. 
 
 "Then I prefer to wait for a smaller boat," said 
 the professor. 
 
 "You would never have qualified as a member of 
 Morgan's crew," Delaval told him, while the others 
 laughed at his change of front. "He and the other 
 chiefs often led their forces against tremendous odds, 
 and if any one showed cowardice he was tied to the 
 mast and shot, or mutilated and put ashore. Bravery 
 was always rewarded, too. Sometimes a prisoner's 
 heart would be cut out and eaten without salt to bind 
 an oath." 
 
 "How terrible!" cried Theodora. "And Morgan, 
 who was afterward knighted — did he do such things, 
 too?" 
 
 "There was hardly anything that he did not do, 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 269 
 
 for he was the greatest buccaneer of them all. He 
 organized the first pirates' trust, and got away with 
 most of the dividends. And after several years, hav- 
 ing all the riches he desired, Morgan sought respect- 
 ability and honor. He settled in Jamaica, where he 
 was made deputy governor, and afterward King 
 Charles made him a knight for helping to put down 
 piracy."' 
 
 "The villain !" said Miss Tyler. "And did he keep 
 his word this time?" 
 
 "Yes, for the fewer pirates remaining the safer was 
 he in his wealth and honors. And after his time the 
 profession rapidly declined." 
 
 "He was certainly a genius in the way he got the 
 promoters' share of the dividends," commented Pro- 
 fessor Gerald, "but he had courage of a higher order 
 than our financial pirates possess." 
 
 All had been so interested in Delaval's discourse 
 that they had not noticed the near approach of the 
 other yacht But now she loomed up plainly less 
 than a mile away. The captain, at the opposite rail, 
 had been observing her through his glasses. 
 
 "Shall I speak her, Miss Hampton?'' he asked, 
 coming up at this moment. "I can make out her 
 name plainly, and besides I recognize her colors. As 
 the owner is now the head of the American Yacht 
 Club we will have to salute if she comes much closer." 
 
 "Who is she T* asked Theodora. 
 
 "The Buccaneer, madam, and it looks like the com- 
 modore himself was aboard. I " 
 
 "By no means speak that craft P* and Theodora rose 
 in her agitation. "Put on full speed and go in any 
 other direction," she added as, accepting Ddaval's 
 arm, she walked toward her stateroom. 
 
270 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE CRUISE OF THE BUCCANEER 
 
 Aboard the Buccaneer that morning was a different 
 kind of company. The majestic yacht had been away 
 from port for more than a week, and now her steel 
 nose was turned homeward again. Both business and 
 pleasure were the objects of this particular cruise, but 
 at this stage of her master's career, pleasure had al- 
 ways to be subordinated. 
 
 He was busy to-day, as he had been every day of 
 the voyage, conferring in his cabin or in his state- 
 room with his aids. His new wife and several of her 
 feminine friends were seated under an awning on the 
 main deck, chatting or sipping cool drinks. The soft- 
 est of Persian rugs were under their feet and they 
 drank from Sevres china cups or from gilded glass- 
 ware. Stewards in livery of blue and gold waited 
 upon them and sailors in natty uniforms holystoned the 
 almost spotless deck some distance away, or polished 
 the already gleaming brass rails, while officers in white 
 duck walked the decks at respectful distances and 
 gave orders in subdued tones. 
 
 The second Mrs. Gorman, who was holding court 
 in the center of an admiring group, was a solid per- 
 son of eminently respectable appearance. "Oh, what 
 a beautiful sight!" she suddenly exclaimed. "See 
 those giant palms, and those gorgeous birds, and that 
 lovely white beach with the perfect blue sky above. 
 What a paradise! Do tell us what island that is," 
 turning to the captain, who had just come from the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 271 
 
 bridge after directing the steersman how to avoid 
 some charted reefs. 
 
 "That? Oh, that's Jamaica," he replied. "And 
 after we go a little to the northeast we'll be in sight 
 of Port Royal, where the buccaneers had a sort of 
 headquarters. Strange that this yacht happens to be 
 named after 'em," and the captain laughed. He was 
 bewhiskered, middle aged and whole souled, though 
 not handsome. Gorman did not choose his officers 
 for their good looks. 
 
 "The buccaneers?" repeated Mrs. Gorman. "Oh, 
 they were the pirates, weren't they?" 
 
 "Yes, and a bloody lot they were, too." 
 
 "Why, did they really kill human bein's?" asked 
 Mrs. Dobbs, of Pittsburgh. Her person glittered with 
 jewels if her speech did not. 
 
 "They surely did, when the people didn't give up 
 their money, and sometimes anyhow." 
 
 "And was they white people — the pirates, I mean?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed, Mrs. Dobbs — most of them, though 
 many of them had negro slaves who were made to 
 help them rob people. Why, it was almost a respect- 
 able business in those days. One of the leaders was 
 afterwards made a knight," and he tipped his cap and 
 walked hurriedly away to give an order. 
 
 Just then Gorman, and the heavy-faced Burton, and 
 the lean and suave Bronson, who had been tempor- 
 arily withdrawn from the President's cabinet, came 
 down from the master's cabin on the upper deck. They 
 were followed by a ponderous, coarse featured man, 
 one August Dobbs, the destined head of the steel 
 trust, and after him came a man with hard, steel-gray 
 eyes and a sparse beard. He was known in New 
 
272 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 York's financial district as "Old Charley" Stine, "the 
 best manipulator in the Street." The five men were 
 still talking earnestly together as they entered the 
 companionway leading to Gorman's stateroom. They 
 seemed to have no eyes for the tropic loveliness that 
 was spread in chromatic splendor before them. 
 
 "I tell you the public are hungry for it," Gorman 
 was saying. "They will grab the common at fifty." 
 
 "I'm afraid we can't sell half of it," Stine demurred, 
 "unless the backing is stiff enough." 
 
 "It'll be the damndest stiffest thing ever known in 
 the Street," was the reply. "Our own pool's money, 
 and the railroad funds, and the biggest banks, and 
 then the insurance companies' reserves, which no other 
 crowd has yet got behind them. It was not for noth- 
 ing that I took Bunkins from the Knickerbocker Life, 
 made him a junior partner in my office, and doubled 
 his income. He's still treasurer of the Knickerbocker 
 and can rule its board of directors, though for the 
 sake of appearance he doesn't have his office there any 
 more." 
 
 "And when we say the word," added Bronson, "it 
 will be announced in Washington that the navy is to be 
 doubled. That will make every one want stock, for 
 the country is navy-mad since the war." 
 
 As they all disappeared down the companionway 
 Mrs. Dobbs looked toward the harbor of Port Royal, 
 now dimly visible to the north. "My, but I'm glad 
 there ain't any pirates these days — such awful peo- 
 ple!" she said, and shuddered, although the tempera- 
 ture was eighty degrees in the awning's shade where 
 she sat. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 273 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FORWARD MAGAZINE IS FOUNDED 
 
 The war with Spain delayed both the schemes of 
 Gorman and the plans of his opponents. Investors 
 would not buy stocks while the drums of battle were 
 sounding, and neither Lyle nor Delaval could stay in 
 New York when there was so much going on in other 
 directions. Lyle went to the front as a correspondent ; 
 his friend served as an officer in a Virginia regiment. 
 And when the "toy war," as they called it, was ended, 
 and the trusts had begun to exploit the new colonies, 
 they returned to their former activities and plans. At 
 the same time Gorman, launching his steel trust on a 
 wave of reawakened national energy such as usually 
 follows a successful war, was about to seize upon the 
 most stupendous golden loot in all the history of finan- 
 cial buccaneering. 
 
 Delaval's estimate of seventy-five thousand dollars 
 as the sum necessary to start the Forward Magazine 
 proved too low, and a year or more passed before the 
 first number was printed. At the end of the maga- 
 zine's first year the receipts were far less than the 
 expenses, although the founders would accept no more 
 than two thousand each in salary. Both had continued 
 working for newspapers until a few weeks before the 
 first copy of the Forward was actually issued, so as not 
 to burden the stockholders with their support sooner 
 than was actually necessary. At the end of the second 
 year the magazine was becoming involved in debt. 
 
 Lyle had put in twenty thousand of his own and 
 
274 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Mercedes' money, Theodora Gorman had contributed 
 ten thousand of the funds left her by her mother's 
 will, and Delaval had raised ten thousand on his 
 family's estate in the South. The balance was fur- 
 nished by Samuel S. Burke, business manager of an 
 evening paper, who had been interested in the scheme 
 by Delaval, and who was appointed manager of adver- 
 tising. 
 
 "Sometimes I think Burke is just an adventurer," 
 Delaval said to Lyle one morning as they sat in their 
 editorial office, which overlooked a pleasant parkway. 
 "He's from Dublin, you know, and he seems to be like 
 many of the Irish journalists and magazineists who 
 have blossomed out in this town. And yet," he added, 
 "there are indications that he is genuinely in favor of 
 reform. He gave up a bigger salary to take his 
 chances with us. He insisted, though, on having en- 
 tire charge of the business office, and I don't like some 
 of the advertising he takes. Gorman's agents, after 
 some of our articles began to appear, offered him a 
 lot of telephone and railway ads., and he refused none. 
 'Let's fight the devil with his own fire/ he said when 
 I remonstrated with him. Of course it's not bribery, 
 and it won't affect our policy, but it looks bad." 
 
 "We must vote at our next stockholders' meeting 
 to stop it," Lyle replied. "And as to more backing, 
 rest easy. I have some thousands left, but we won't 
 need that money, for Professor Gerald writes me that 
 he and several professors at Valehard and other uni- 
 versities have got together secretly and agreed to take 
 twenty thousand in stock among themselves. They 
 will occasionally write articles for us without pay 
 besides." 
 
 "With the funds raised by reform Congressmen, that 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 275 
 
 will make thirty to forty thousand more," said Delaval, 
 hopefully. "Thus we won't have to think of a popular 
 sale of stock. There has been jugglery in such sales 
 by other magazines, and yet Burke says he favors that 
 plan of raising more money for us. We will have to 
 watch him." 
 
 "Fortunately we have the right kind of an editor 
 in Sanford," Lyle rejoined. They were talking in low 
 tones, for Burke and Sanford were in the next room, 
 which was separated from them by only a thin par- 
 tition. "He's had twenty years' experience in news- 
 paper work, and never was there a breath of suspicion 
 against him, so far as I could learn. Besides, he is 
 kindly and considerate of every one, from Burke to 
 the office boy and the janitress, and he seems incapable 
 of using a harsh word even to the lowliest contributor 
 of impossible poems. At Christmas time he receives 
 hundreds of letters from all over the country, written 
 by grateful people to whom he has said kind words, 
 either in correspondence or in person, at different times 
 in the past. And old maids and grandmothers deluge 
 him with sofa pillows and pin cushions made by their 
 own hands. He is a fine old man, besides being an 
 honest editor." 
 
 "Well, he may be, but I can't feel much respect for 
 anyone who could stay in journalism for twenty years 
 and never write his own opinion on anything," and 
 Delaval pursed his lips thoughtfully. "You see, it 
 means that he has been content to be an intellectual 
 nonentity, not to use a harsher term. I've known 
 others who were intellectual lackeys until they got a 
 chance to be profitably corrupt, and almost invariably 
 they accepted such chances. I'm afraid he may have 
 
276 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 the soul of a lackey, and a lackey's soul is an unclean 
 soul in a white man." 
 
 "I fear you're relapsing into cynicism, Del," and 
 Lyle laughed at the other's peculiar reasoning. "It is 
 true that he seems to have no opinions of his own, 
 however, and he appears not to like to discuss vital 
 problems unless they relate to the magazine's policy, 
 and then he talks of them only in that connection. I 
 was told by our stenographer the other day that he 
 referred to me as 'loquacious' because I had sought to 
 exchange views with him about Wall Street." 
 
 "And I don't like the articles he sometimes accepts,'' 
 Delaval went on. "There was one called 'The Many 
 Uses of Steel/ and another entitled 'The Romance of 
 Copper.' Now at this particular time, when steel and 
 copper trusts are being formed, such articles will in- 
 fluence people to buy stocks, and that is precisely what 
 we want to teach the public not to do." 
 
 "I never thought of that. We must take the sub- 
 ject up at our next meeting. Sanford seems to know, 
 though, just what the people want in fiction." 
 
 "Ah, yes, too well ever to make the Forward a great 
 literary magazine," said Delaval gloomily. He was 
 an idealist in art as Lyle was in the affairs of real 
 life, and he hated to see the magazine filled with fic- 
 tion mechanically written to appeal to provincial 
 minds. "But I admit that his policy in fiction should 
 prevail if we are to make the Forward a power among 
 the people. To get the popular support we must 
 pander to their tastes in some ways at least. We must 
 publish fiction by the best known writers, and pay 
 fifty cents a word for it, and advertise it on billboards, 
 no matter how poor the stories may be. All love 
 stories must end happily, and more important still, 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 277 
 
 we must print slushy articles about royal and noble 
 persons, and illustrate them with pictures in colors 
 of knights and ladies and other stately personages in 
 gorgeous palaces. Yes, Sanford knows his business 
 in printing that kind of stuff, but don't tell me that he 
 can have high ideals and be so willing to do it." 
 
 "After we get on a paying basis we will have more 
 time to take direct charge of all manuscripts," Lyle 
 assured him. "Meanwhile you and I are too busily 
 occupied by investigating and writing. And to-mor- 
 row, remember, we are to go to the Stock Exchange." 
 
 "Yes, we must soon attack the greatest dragon of 
 them all. It may be that we will only break our lances 
 against its scales, but the sooner we start the fight the 
 better." 
 
 Lyle left him writing an article about loose bank- 
 ing laws, and went out to a nearby restaurant to lunch. 
 As he walked down the corridor of the office he heard 
 the door of Sanford's room open, and these words, in 
 Burke's voice, though low spoken, came distinctly to 
 his ears, "Oh, we can work it on them, never fear." 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
 
 Delaval, Lyle and a middle aged man stood at the 
 corner of Wall and Broad streets, before the Federal 
 Sub-Treasury, on a spring morning. They were almosl 
 in the shadow of Washington's statue, which marks 
 the center of New York's financial district. Massive 
 buildings towered ten to thirty stories on every side. 
 
278 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Here and there, crowded between these, and seeming 
 to struggle for place, were smaller, older and plainer 
 buildings. The general effect was that of serrated 
 architectural canons, their depths gloomy and sunless, 
 and roaring at times with rivers of traffic. 
 
 "Yes," said the middle aged man in reply to a re- 
 mark by Lyle, "these stock manipulators will kill 
 the country if the country doesn't check them. If you 
 gentlemen could see in one year the things I see in one 
 week you would feel sure of that." 
 
 The man was Henry Jackson, a broker's assistant, 
 and his speech was as plain as his name. His face 
 might once have been plain also, or it might have 
 been handsome, but its early lineaments were gone 
 with its youthful bloom. It was now lined and seared 
 until it resembled a school map made in plastic ma- 
 terial, a map in which were shown many rivers and 
 gullies and mountain ranges, but no fair pampas or 
 smoothly rolling uplands. Twenty years in the scoriae 
 atmosphere of Wall Street had moulded his face to the 
 unbeautiful thing it now was. Even when he smiled 
 Jackson could not look attractive. Rather, his smile 
 was like the grin of a gargoyle. 
 
 "I wish I had got into some other business when 
 I was young," he added. "But now I know nothing 
 else, and I must work on at this. I never speculate my- 
 self, though ; you can bet on that. But in the name 
 of all that's holy, keep me out of your articles, or no 
 one knows what will happen to me. You're my friend, 
 Mr. Delaval, and your father and I were friends, and 
 you have promised secrecy, you know." 
 
 He was assured that the promise would be held 
 sacred, and they walked on. Soon they came to a 
 building whose charming facade arrested their sight 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 279 
 
 Out of a nightmare of architecture it stood forth a 
 thing of beauty. They saw huge granite columns ris- 
 ing a hundred feet above their heads and supporting 
 a pediment in which figures of marbled grace formed 
 a group in allegory. 
 
 "The new Stock Exchange," said Jackson. "Come, 
 and we will see it at its busiest hour." 
 
 They followed him through a side door into a marble 
 corridor. Thence an elevator took them up ten stories. 
 They stepped into another hallway of marble, at the 
 end of which Jackson presented tickets to a door ten- 
 der and they were admitted into a small balcony with 
 bronze railings. From this they overlooked the main 
 hall of the Exchange. Opposite them was another bal- 
 cony of the same kind. It was for the use of the offi- 
 cials of the Exchange, and was seldom occupied, Jack- 
 son explained. 
 
 The interior graces of the building were in harmony 
 with its superb front. Marble walls more than a hun- 
 dred feet in height upheld a gilded ceiling and enclosed 
 a single great hall, on the floor of which two thousand 
 men and boys found ample room to walk about. From 
 the balcony these people looked like pygmies in a Brob- 
 dignagian palace, and the mingled sounds of their 
 voices were as the buzzing of many thousand bees. 
 
 Immense plate glass windows high up in the front 
 and rear walls admitted light over the roofs of ad- 
 joining buildings. At one end of the floor, and along 
 the entire length of one side, little apartments were 
 partitioned off, and these and the railings and tables 
 were all made of carved and polished woods. 
 
 "Those black spaces which have displaced the lower 
 marble panels of the walls on two sides," said Jackson, 
 "are bulletin boards. There, in minute sections, the 
 
28o THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 figures of changing prices are flashed by an electric 
 apparatus." 
 
 The impression to the visitors was that of a huge 
 chess board on which invisible players were making 
 constant moves. 
 
 "What are those dark shafts with bronze tops all 
 about the hall, where the groups of excited men are 
 gathered?" asked Lyle. 
 
 "They are for more extended bulletins of particular 
 stocks. The brokers stay near them to watch the 
 latest changes. The men with pads and pencils m 
 hand are the selling traders, who stand ready to re- 
 ceive orders. The orders are given either by word 
 of mouth or by a code of signals by hand and fingers. 
 All such signals have to be lived up to, even to the 
 minutest detail, or else the offending broker is ex- 
 pelled. That is one of the arguments generally used 
 to prove that Stock Exchange men are honest." 
 
 "Is it not true," inquired Delaval, "that there simply 
 must be an enforcement of such signals, else the ex- 
 change would have to suspend business along present 
 lines?" 
 
 "Yes," Jackson admitted. "The argument I men- 
 tion is not my argument. Those boys in gray uniforms 
 you see threading their way in and out among the 
 brokers are pages," he added. "And that pleasant 
 odor which fills the air comes from the ventilators. 
 The apparatus to operate them cost thirty thousand 
 dollars, and it not only supplies fresh air, but sends 
 a constant supply of delicate perfume through the en- 
 tire building. This building itself cost three millions, 
 and the ground on which it stands is worth that much 
 more." 
 
 "It is quite appropriate," said DelavaL "that this 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 281 
 
 place should excel the people's assembly halls in all 
 the State capitals and in Washington as well. For in 
 those halls only laws are made. Here prices are made, 
 independent of law." 
 
 "That is just what I would like to have you make 
 plain to me," said Lyle. "If the people could only 
 understand — but what is that terrible excitement there 
 in the middle of the floor? It looks like a fight. See, 
 one man is choking another !" 
 
 "Oh, pay no r.ttention to that," Jackson told him. 
 "Wait till you aee a real panic. You'll think they are 
 all insane and trying to murder each other, but they 
 will only be seeking to get their bids in ahead of 
 some one else." 
 
 "Remember, too," added Delaval, "that they are 
 just tradesmen arguing over prices, and I have known 
 of few tradesmen to fight when their lives would be 
 endangered thereby. Take the history of this Ex- 
 change, and I am sure you will find no warrior in 
 the whole list of members from the beginning." 
 
 "By George, I never thought of that," said Jackson, 
 thoughtfully, "but now I recall that in Burton's book, 
 Forty Years on the Stock Exchange — he's just fin- 
 ished an up-to-date edition, you know — in all that 
 book, no soldier figures to any extent save in the story 
 of how General Grant was imposed upon by a swin- 
 dling trader." 
 
 "There was a story about General Lee that Burton 
 did well to leave out of his book," Delaval went on. 
 "Some New York financiers were organizing an insur- 
 ance company, and one of them went to Lee in his 
 Virginia home and asked him to lend his name as a 
 director. The company is one of those whose funds 
 are now juggled by these traders. 'We'll pay you 
 
282 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 ten thousand a year just for the use of your name,' 
 the general was told, and he replied, 'I cannot put a 
 price upon the affection which the people of the South 
 feel for me.' You see a soldier can be above money, 
 but there is nothing on which most of those men down 
 there would not put a price. 
 
 "Talk of chivalry !" and his voice was filled with 
 scorn. "Chivalry is unknown among them. Do they 
 ever hesitate to take advantage of a fallen foe ? Never. 
 Do they not also lure women of every class, from 
 wealthy widows to poor seamstresses, to invest in 
 worthless stocks — lure them by advertisements, by 
 circulars, or by any means that will succeed? And 
 when the tearful victims fill their offices don't they 
 hide from them or coldly order them to be gone?" 
 
 "That's true," replied Jackson. "I've looked upon 
 many a heart-breaking scene. But not all brokers 
 will seek that kind of customers, and I have known 
 one who absolutely refuses to take money from any 
 woman unless she is rich and can afford to lose it. 
 There's some flowers among the nettles, gentlemen, 
 though not many." 
 
 "Speaking of bravery," Lyle interposed, "isn't it 
 true, Mr. Jackson, that when an anarchist tried to 
 blow up Hussle, the veteran trader who's worth eighty 
 millions or more, he hid behind one of his clerks ?" 
 
 "Certainly. And the clerk's arm was blown off, 
 while the old man wasn't hurt a bit. Then the clerk 
 had to sue Hussle before he could get a cent of dam- 
 ages. A jury finally awarded him a few thousands." 
 
 "And you will find, too,'' Delaval added, "that there 
 are few athletes in this Wall Street crowd. Open, 
 manly contests in which the best man wins tend to de- 
 velop men ethically. But I have looked up the personal 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 283 
 
 history of many of the Wall Street financiers, and I 
 find that without an exception the very leaders of 
 them all, whether college men or not, never had a 
 taste for any kind of athletics." 
 
 "Still these men have a certain amount of good 
 fellowship," said Jackson, who did not want to see 
 his associates of twenty years painted wholly black. 
 "They take up big collections for ex-members in need, 
 and for numerous charity affairs. They're playful, 
 too, in off hours. For instance, if any one appears on 
 the floor of the Exchange after the fifteenth of Sep- 
 tember wearing a straw hat the others will bombard 
 him with paper wads and shelled corn, or grab his hat 
 and play football with it. And just before Christmas 
 they cut up high jinks on the floor at closing time and 
 take up collections for messenger boys." 
 
 "The buccaneers had many playful moods," rejoined 
 Delaval, "and they lived up to a higher code of ethics 
 than these men. At least half of those down there 
 are bald, or are becoming bald," he continued, "and 
 many seem prematurely old. And what a large num- 
 ber seem to be Jews." 
 
 "More than a third of the entire membership of 
 eleven hundred are Jews,'' said Jackson. "I think at 
 least two-fifths must belong to that race." 
 
 "A race not noted for the subordination of profit- 
 making to ethics ; but the Jews are no worse than the 
 other traders here. And now we are getting down to 
 cases. There are about a million and a quarter Jews 
 in this country and they comprise less than one-sixtieth 
 of our population. Yet they form two-fifths of the 
 membership of this Stock Exchange, which rules the 
 country — this exchange and the legal fraternity, who 
 are always ready to do its bidding. Oh, the folly of 
 
284 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 the American people to allow themselves to be domi- 
 nated by traders and lawyers ! In all ages these two 
 classes have been the least trustworthy in any civilized 
 society. They are at best a kind of necessary evil. 
 Blackstone tells us of how Pope Urban in the eleventh 
 or twelfth century decreed that no one of either class 
 could be accepted as a Christian without forswearing 
 his calling." 
 
 "And now tell us just how they rule the country," 
 Lyle suggested. 
 
 "Very well. On a spring day in the year 1792 — 
 but what's that fearful excitement about, Mr. Jack- 
 son?" and Delaval rose from his seat and leaned over 
 the railing. "See, it looks as though a real panic may 
 have started this time in the lower end of the hall!" 
 
 "That's the first block of American Steel being of- 
 fered after years of preparation," was the reply. "The 
 rush to buy it is simply a part of the plan of the 
 manipulators. Go ahead with your story and pay no 
 attention to them. As I have explained, there may be 
 much noise about such a matter, but nobody will be 
 hurt — at least nobody down there." 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 "we have exalted trade until it is seated upon 
 
 A THRONE^ 
 
 Delaval then continued his history of the Exchange. 
 He told how, on a spring day in the year 1792, a group 
 of men met under a buttonwood tree not far from 
 where he and his friends now sat, and organized the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 285 
 
 New York Stock Exchange. They were buyers and 
 sellers of bank stocks and government bonds, and they 
 united for the better conduct of their business. One 
 of the rules they made was to accept no less than one- 
 fourth of one per cent, commission from any client, 
 and to give preference to each other in all trades. The 
 things they dealt in represented but a small fraction 
 6f the country's wealth, for stock concerns other than 
 banks were then almost unknown, and the public debt 
 was not great. 
 
 The Constitution had been framed five years earlier 
 by the wise men of the new nation, who thought they 
 had provided against every error possible to organized 
 society. Piracy on the sea had been suppressed, and 
 the rule of corporations on land was not yet dreamed 
 of. The War of the Revolution had ended seven years 
 before, but it was not of record that any of the men 
 under that buttonwood tree had helped to bring about 
 its glorious result. 
 
 And now this Exchange, which had such humble 
 beginnings, had expanded into an association with 
 eleven hundred members who dealt in stocks and bonds 
 representing seventy billions of dollars, or two-thirds 
 of the national wealth, and ninety-five per cent, of 
 their enormous transactions were margin trades, which 
 meant that they were gambling and gambling only. 
 Sixty millions in commissions alone were devoured 
 every year by these greedy traders, but that did not 
 begin to tell the tale. 
 
 "The greatest, the most tragic fact of all," said 
 Delaval, "is that they have the nation by the throat, 
 because the nation has neglected to control them. 
 Tragic ? It is of the very essence of tragedy. Noth- 
 ing: is more pitiful, more terrible in its consequences 
 
286 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 in all American history than this one fact. And no 
 more damning Indictment of the republic could be 
 conceived." 
 
 "How is it that neither the State nor the nation has 
 ever interfered?" Lyle wanted to know. 
 
 "The State of New York did try it twenty or more 
 years ago," Jackson informed him. "A reform Gov- 
 ernor tried it, but the Exchange had too much influence 
 in the Legislature and it made the Governor withdraw 
 his bill. Other measures of the sort are regularly 
 smothered to death in committee rooms. That particu- 
 lar Governor was never heard of in politics again. 
 But see that man down there who is rushing about 
 and waving his arms to a group of followers — the 
 portly man with side whiskers and with tobacco juice 
 running off his chin? That's an ex-Governor who 
 always did the things these fellows wanted, and now 
 he's one of the leaders among them." 
 
 "Oh, that's ex-Governor Blossom," said Lyle. "I've 
 interviewed him often. I've been told that he made a 
 million unloading street railway shares on the public. 
 And how about conditions in other countries, Del?" 
 
 "No other nation in the world is so blameworthy. 
 Our people are seldom allowed even to hear about 
 how the exchanges are regulated abroad. It was 
 Napoleon who decreed laws for the Paris Bourse that 
 have since endured. There even the number of agents 
 de cJiange is regulated by the government, and they all 
 have an official standing. The entire body must make 
 good the debts of individual members." 
 
 "Debts to customers?" Jackson interrupted to ask. 
 
 "Yes, to all creditors alike." 
 
 "How different it is here. Why, do you know that 
 one of the rules of this 'Change is that debts to its own 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 287 
 
 members must first be paid before other creditors of a 
 ruined broker can get a cent? That rule alone might 
 cause a political revolution if it were generally under- 
 stood. It means, for one thing, that if one broker 
 gambles for another and is financially wrecked thereby, 
 the other broker's claims upon him have precedence 
 over all other creditors, though there may be a thou- 
 sand of them. And if the ruined broker has ten thou- 
 sand dollars of assets left, or a hundred thousand, 
 and that represents the total amount of the other 
 broker's claim, the latter can take the entire sum and 
 the other claimants get nothing." 
 
 "That beats any class legislation I ever heard of," 
 Lyle remarked, "and yet it is not legislation, for it 
 is done entirely outside of the law." 
 
 "Another thing which shows the regard of this asso- 
 ciation for its membership," Jackson added, "is a rule 
 that accounts will not be accepted from each other's 
 employees. Now, they all know how great the risks 
 are in margin gambling and how employees are often 
 led to steal in order to recoup their losses, and hence 
 this rule to protect members, while employers in gen- 
 eral are left at the mercy of dishonest workers." 
 
 "How about the bank note trust?" Delaval asked 
 him. "That is of a piece with this favoritism to 
 members." 
 
 "Oh, that is a thing ruled by the inner circle. You 
 see, there are circles within circles of favoritism, and 
 the bank note clique is composed of the leaders of the 
 Exchange. The only certificates accepted for stocks 
 and bonds on the floor are those made by a certain 
 concern whose plant is owned by this inner circle. 
 With so many millions of certificates exchanging here 
 every few weeks, and a clear profit of several cents 
 
288 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 on each one, the yearly profits on this alone amount 
 to millions." 
 
 "Can't this be stopped by a suit in court?" 
 
 "That has been tried more than once, but the inner 
 circle always comes out victorious. It is simply a case 
 of the big fish swallowing the little ones. But please 
 continue your story, Mr. Delaval." 
 
 "Only at the New York and Paris exchanges are 
 seats bought and sold, but a membership at Paris is 
 worth four hundred thousand dollars, which makes 
 a member responsible in case of his failure, for his 
 seat can be sold for the benefit of all creditors. And 
 there no securities can be traded in except for clients, 
 and then only in securities listed there. Both these 
 rules are unheard of here, Mr. Jackson tells me." 
 
 "You'll have to write all those facts in a separate 
 article, Del," Lyle interrupted to remark, "for I can 
 never find room for half of them in my article on 
 'The Cost of Speculation.' " 
 
 "Very well. But now you see what a task we've 
 undertaken. Months of study are needed to write up 
 almost any phase of the subject. And in Paris," 
 he resumed, "no securities can be traded in unless 
 they have been listed, and they cannot be listed with- 
 out a rigid examination. Gorman tried in vain to 
 have his steel stock placed on that Bourse. And there 
 are no stock tickers in France, not even in brokers' 
 offices." 
 
 "What a blessing it would be if they were all 
 abolished in America !" Jackson exclaimed. "They are 
 everywhere among us, it seems — in brokers' offices, 
 and in their branch offices, which are maintained by 
 the dozen in all large cities; in hotel corridors, in 
 saloons, in pool rooms, and in some private clubs, 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 289 
 
 sputtering and humming and inviting people to 
 gamble." 
 
 "And in Vienna," Delaval continued, "no stock 
 tickers are allowed either. More than this, the daily 
 papers cannot print the closing prices until the next 
 day. Other laws there are as strict as those in France, 
 and in one respect more strict. Brokers must give a 
 bond not to trade except for a customer. There is an 
 even better feature of the German Bourse law : only 
 persons of proved financial standing may speculate. 
 Their names must be found in the commercial register, 
 which is an official publication. All hand workers are 
 kept out, and so are owners of small shops, even if 
 their names are registered. In America, of course, 
 this would be regarded as an abridgement of that 
 glorious liberty for which our forefathers fought, et 
 cetera, but it would keep many from the poorhouse 
 or the suicide's grave. And in Germany, too, there is 
 strict inspection of all brokers' books." 
 
 "How about the London exchange ?" Lyle asked. 
 
 "It is a joint stock institution, and therefore a crea- 
 ture of the government. Members may have stock 
 tickers in their own offices, but not elsewhere. They 
 cannot even maintain branch offices, and they are 
 not allowed to advertise or to send circulars to each 
 other's clients. No member can engage in any other 
 business. And outside creditors have an equal chance 
 with the members. The rules requiring only fort- 
 nightly settlements for cash keep out irresponsible 
 persons. A 'contango,' or fee for carrying the stocks 
 until settlement day, is paid, and this has a faint re- 
 semblance to our margin gambling. But only big 
 speculators can be ruined there, or anywhere on the 
 Continent. Of course fraudulent companies are pro- 
 
290 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 moted at times, and their shares are sold outright to 
 many innocent buyers, but it is much harder to do 
 even that abroad than here. The Panama Canal scan- 
 dal showed what could be done in France. However, 
 many prominent men went to prison for that deal, 
 and nothing of that size has been attempted since. But 
 the Stock Exchange leaders here are too powerful even 
 to be interrupted in their plunderings." 
 
 "And this exchange is regulated only by itself," 
 commented Jackson. 
 
 "By itself alone, and what that regulation amounts 
 to, you have already explained to us in part. Before 
 the day is over I hope you will tell us more specifically 
 how legions are lured to ruin by margin gambling. 
 The New York Stock Exchange, it has been said, is 
 governed like a gentlemen's club, but it is a club in 
 which, I fear, there is not a preponderance of gentle- 
 manly members." 
 
 "And so," said Lyle, "the country is at the mercy 
 of this " 
 
 "Band of pirates," finished Delaval. "You re- 
 member that the buccaneers began as traders who, 
 upon organizing to better their condition, made rules 
 for themselves and, being unregulated by any govern- 
 ment, ended as pirates. And in the history of all 
 governments you will find that unless tradesmen are 
 restrained they will rule in accordance with their own 
 sordid ideals. Yet we have exalted trade until it is 
 seated upon a throne, and that throne is here." 
 
 "Perhaps we are destined to travel Rome's road to 
 ruin," said Lyle in melancholy tones. 
 
 "Rome? Ah, no. Our country's condition can be 
 compared neither with the grandeur that was Rome 
 nor the glory that was Greece. Rather, we have be- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 291 
 
 come another Carthage. Like Carthage we are ruled 
 by tradesmen and by judges, and our ideals, like those 
 of Carthage, are the ideals of the market place, and 
 our faith is punic faith, and Gorman is the greatest 
 Carthaginian of us all." 
 
 "Ah, that would be a fine phrase to start my article 
 with," and Lyle looked his admiration. 
 
 "But it would never do for a popular magazine," 
 Delaval assured him, "so please don't think of using 
 it. Besides, I want to put it in the mouth of one 
 of the characters in the drama I am writing." 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 FATHER AND DAUGHTER 
 
 Gorman was not too busy with schemes of con- 
 quest to make a last effort at reconciliation with his 
 daughter. He still dreamed of a ducal alliance for 
 her and was never able to understand her reasons for 
 spurning that kind of greatness. 
 
 He was at times oppressed with a sense of loneli- 
 ness, in spite of the multitudinous activities of his 
 brain. His son was married to an Englishwoman of 
 noble family, and was settled in an establishment far 
 from his own. And Theodora's stepmother, after her 
 first year as his wife, realized that he could never 
 love any one but himself and avoided his society as 
 much as she decently could. They had separate sets 
 of friends, and often she would sail for Europe just 
 as he was returning from abroad, and when he crossed 
 the ocean again, she would come back to America. 
 
292 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 He was sometimes haunted, too, by the memory of 
 his first wife's eyes as she lay upon her death-bed. 
 This was only a few months after Theodora had gone 
 to live at Glacken Hall. And it was the girl's own 
 fault that she had given up the richest home in 
 America for such social experimenting, so why must 
 that final look pursue him so? 
 
 His spies had kept him informed of Theodora's im- 
 portant movements, and when he was told that a cer- 
 tain young man was seen much in her company, he 
 ordered a full report of the man's history. He learned 
 that he was one of a group of writers who were 
 attacking his system, that his name was Arthur Dela- 
 val, and that he was the son of the Senator who had 
 opposed his aggressions in the South. His informers 
 next brought him word that caused him to rage in- 
 wardly. His daughter was believed to be engaged to 
 marry Delaval. It was then that he sent his house- 
 keeper as a special envoy to ask her to come and see 
 him. 
 
 When the large touring car arrived at the Hall 
 "Miss Hampton" was talking with Delaval in the re- 
 ception room. She told him where she was going and 
 he accompanied her as far as the office of the Forward 
 Magazine. The housekeeper, a woman of advanced 
 years, rode on the front seat with the chauffeur. 
 
 As they passed through the dingy streets near the 
 social settlement they talked over the scenario of his 
 play, "The Ruler of America," which he had just 
 been reading to her. "Remember," she said, "you 
 have promised not to attack him as an evil personality, 
 but as one who is in the grip of impulses over which 
 he has no control — just as, for instance, an insane 
 / 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 293 
 
 person is dominated by impulses for which he is not 
 responsible." 
 
 He promised, although he could not accept her 
 views as his own. 
 
 The car left the narrow, poorly lighted streets of 
 the East Side and entered Fifth avenue, where great 
 globes of light lined either side of the broad asphalted 
 way, stretching northward for miles like titanic ropes 
 of pearl. And as they sped noiselessly along he mused 
 upon the strangeness of the fate which had made this 
 woman of all women his fiancee. She was to be his 
 as soon as the play was produced. He longed to de- 
 vote his every waking hour to this work, yet too many 
 other things needed his attention first. "But she is 
 worth waiting years for," he thought, and as he bade 
 her good-night a wave of inexpressible tenderness 
 swept over him at the realization of what her love 
 meant to him. 
 
 Gorman did not intend to try bullying his daughter 
 this time. He knew from experience that it would be 
 futile. He had not seen her for years, and he felt 
 something of pride as she stood before him again, 
 beautiful and smiling, but with an uncompromising air 
 such as he would have her maintain — toward others. 
 He was older in appearance, and balder, and heavier 
 than when she had seen him last, and there were 
 dozens more of little wrinkles about his eyes, but he 
 seemed as vigorous and alert as ever in body as in 
 mind. 
 
 He pointed to a tapestried chair, but himself re- 
 mained standing, and when she had seated herself he 
 began : 
 
 "The Duke of Burlboro will soon visit New York 
 
294 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 again. I sent for you, hoping that you might now 
 think differently about becoming the Duchess." 
 
 "Is that all?" 
 
 "Well, of course I wanted to know how you were 
 getting along with your uplifting." 
 
 "So well that I am happier than I ever have been 
 before." 
 
 He winced, and then his jaws set more tightly. 
 
 "Listen," he said, and now he spoke quickly that 
 she might not interrupt; "the Duke's title goes back 
 to the year one thousand, he has two palaces, his 
 mother is, next to the Queen, the highest social au- 
 thority in Great Britain. He is the friend and asso- 
 ciate of kings, he is still unmarried, and he would 
 marry you." 
 
 "And he wants five million in railway bonds to do 
 it." 
 
 "He wants five million. But you can be richer than 
 he in your own right. You may have two dollars 
 for every one of his. You may have yachts and 
 jewels. At your wedding you may wear upon your 
 head the tiara which Cardinal Wolsey placed upon the 
 brow of the Duchess Octavia. On your bosom you 
 may pin the diamond sunburst that Louis Fourteenth 
 gave to Madame de Maintenon. About your throat 
 you may have the necklace of Pomeranian amber set 
 in Lydian gold that Napoleon presented to Josephine. 
 You " 
 
 "It is useless, father. You and I do not speak the 
 same language." 
 
 "No," and his tones were now tinged with bitter- 
 ness, "yours has become the language of the cheap 
 phrase-makers who stir up the rabble." 
 
 "They are phrase-makers that you cannot buy." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 295 
 
 "There is nothing in America that I cannot buy." 
 
 "Except real honor, real friendship, real love. My 
 friends are real friends." 
 
 "Are you going to marry that fellow Delaval ?" 
 
 "I think so. He is doing grand work. He is seek- 
 ing to lessen suicide, crime, misery, while your 
 methods " 
 
 "Stop! You understand nothing of the humanity 
 that you talk of aiding. If I did not reap profits 
 where I do, others would. Mankind are the victims 
 of their own cupidity or pride in ninety-nine cases 
 out of one hundred that are laid to injustice." 
 
 "And I tell you that your system makes men bad. 
 You use for your purposes all the power of civiliza- 
 tion without its mercy. You create nothing, you ab- 
 sorb everything that others create that is of value. 
 By your Stock Exchange you are now seeking to fan 
 to a white heat the passion for gambling that resides 
 in almost every human breast, and in all your aggres- 
 sions you arouse the worse instead of the better 
 impulses " 
 
 "We will not discuss this further," he interrupted 
 in melancholy tones. "Will you marry the Duke ? You 
 may start in to-morrow at the newly established school 
 near Central Park, where Americans are taught how 
 to bow to the throne." 
 
 "I will not even meet your Duke — not even if you 
 were to give up all your schemes of aggrandizement 
 to work for righteousness, though once I might have 
 married him on that condition." 
 
 "You are insane." 
 
 "You are far worse than insane, and yet I cannot 
 hate you, for you are my father." 
 
 And thus they parted, without a kiss, without a 
 
2g6 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 handclasp, without even a touching - of finger tips upon 
 finger tips. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE STORY OF MAJOR ARMITAGE 
 
 Both books and men were studied by Lyle to learn 
 how Wall street ruled and at times almost ruined the 
 nation. There were times when he found men easier 
 to read than books, and there were some books that 
 were more frank than men. But he was more than 
 surprised when he read, in a public library, a work 
 called Forty Years on the Stock Exchange, by 
 Richard Burton, the friend and ally of Gorman. Dela- 
 val had told him to look up the book, which was an 
 up-to-date revision of a volume issued a score of years 
 earlier under the title of Twenty Years on the Stock 
 Exchange. 
 
 Not in many particulars was the book truthful. 
 Lyle did not expect that. But he did expect to find 
 positive denials of manipulation, such as numerous 
 Wall Street men had made to him, or else vague 
 generalities intended to baffle or confuse readers in 
 search of facts. But this is what he read in a chapter 
 about a group of operators in metals, who were backed 
 by what the author referred to as the "oil crowd": 
 
 "With these operators manipulation has ceased to be 
 speculation. The beauty of their method is its quietness 
 and entire lack of ostentation. There is an utter absence 
 of chance that is terrible to contemplate." 
 
 "Out of the mouth of one of the priests of the 
 temple are all the others condemned," said Lyle to 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 297 
 
 himself, and he resolved to quote the book in his next 
 article. 
 
 On the following day he showed the quotation to 
 Jackson. "But can I get anyone to talk on this sub- 
 ject?" Lyle asked. "I mean that I want to tell of a 
 personal experience to give human interest to mv 
 story. Will anyone who knows talk to the world 
 through the Forward Magazine? Every one who is 
 willing to tell me the truth has thus far been afraid 
 to be quoted, just as you are." 
 
 Then Jackson gave him a note to Major William 
 Armitage. The major lived in a humble apartment 
 near the East River. He was old yet stalwart, 
 wrinkled yet bright eyed, ragged of attire yet noble of 
 bearing. After showing his visitor a chair he sat 
 down opposite him and began stroking a sparse, white 
 beard with a thin, pale hand while he read the note of 
 introduction. 
 
 "What is it you wish me to tell you first?" he in- 
 quired, looking up from the note. 
 
 "How the elevated railways were manipulated by 
 Charley Stine, the 'Old Gray Wolf of Wall Street,' " 
 said Lyle. "He is now selling steel stock for Gorman." 
 "What — that man handling steel?" The major's 
 eyes became brighter and his jaws set with a click. 
 "Then God help the investors !" 
 After a moment he resumed : 
 
 "So you want to know about manipulations? Well, 
 I am a living advertisement of manipulation. This 
 poor dwelling, these ragged clothes, these thinning 
 and whitening hairs upon a head that went unscathed 
 from Antietam to Appomattox, all testify to manipu- 
 lation. I have been through a campaign whose ter- 
 rors are far worse than those of bloody warfare. I 
 
298 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 have been beggared and I have seen hundreds of others 
 beggared, and women and children — the — the — the 
 beloved wife of my bosom went to her grave with a 
 reproachful look that will haunt me — I — I " 
 
 The old man's voice broke and he paused to calm 
 himself. Then he continued: 
 
 "The 'Old Gray Wolf,' eh? He's been in the Street 
 for near a generation now. He is a foreign-born 
 adventurer, like Gluten and Burton and so many 
 others. They come here, you know, looking for op- 
 portunities they'd never find in other countries, and 
 they find them, too. This man Stine has been in every- 
 thing from sugar and whisky to railways and tele- 
 graphs. His last deal was a pool in tobacco, and he 
 sold out ahead of the time agreed on, and five Ex- 
 change firms went to smash. If you could only see 
 his face once — cold and hard and truly wolf-like it is, 
 and his eyes, with their snaky glitter. Why, no one 
 will trust him any more. How is it that Gor- 
 man ?" 
 
 "Nobody dares betray Gorman, I suppose," said 
 Lyle. 
 
 "Ah, yes, I suppose it has come to that. Well, he 
 could have no better aid for his purposes, then, for 
 there is absolutely nothing that Stine would scruple 
 at. But I will tell you what he did in elevated rail- 
 ways. I was secretary of the company, and he tried 
 for months to get me to join the other officers in 
 swindling the public. Finally they ousted me and put 
 in a secretary they could use, and I've been fighting 
 them ever since. I was chosen as the head of the 
 stockholders' committee. And it has been a desperate, 
 thankless task; an unequal battle, too, for we were 
 always in the minority. You see, whenever there was 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 299 
 
 a majority on our side new stock could be voted and 
 issued to the other side until they became the majority 
 holders. Oh, the legal pitfalls and ambuscades before 
 subservient judges, the blows from the dark, the blood- 
 sucking lawyers, the controlled newspapers, or the 
 blackmailing kind that attacked the stock only when 
 their owners had sold their shares and wanted to de- 
 press values for a new killing; the Tammany bosses 
 that had to have their part of the loot, the corrupt 
 district attorneys, the committees of the Legislature 
 that smothered reformatory laws — it is a devious and 
 terrible road I have traveled, and the end is not yet." 
 
 The major talked on for an hour about manipula- 
 tion, about the defrauding of genuine stockholders 
 as well as speculators, about the accidents to over- 
 crowded cars on mismanaged roads and the deaths of 
 hundreds every year. "It is blood money," he cried, 
 "just as is the money made by the railroads of the 
 country that kill their nine or ten thousand a year. 
 No people in the world are so degraded and brutalized 
 and slaughtered, in factories, on railways and in other 
 ways as are those of America. And now that the in- 
 dustries are being consolidated and their shares dealt 
 in on 'Change, the death rate in the mills, which are 
 managed solely for the profits they pay to their ab- 
 sentee owners, is advancing at a terrible rate. Crimes 
 of all kinds increase, too, after every panic. Do you 
 know that there are now more than forty thousand 
 violent deaths every year in this glorious country?" 
 
 "I did not know that the figures had grown to such 
 proportions, but I knew they were increasing at a 
 tremendous rate." 
 
 "Yes, and there is a direct connection between the 
 criminals in this city, at least, and the ruling powers. 
 
3 oo THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 The last election, as you know, was stolen by the aid 
 of gangs of repeaters, made up of crooks and tramps 
 and suspicious characters generally, with no regular 
 abode and no visible means of support. These men 
 were voted in droves, first in one district, then in an- 
 other, and were paid out of a corruption fund con- 
 tributed to by Wall Street interests. Soon after the 
 election there was a city bond issue, and by collusion 
 in bidding the houses of Gorman, Burton and others 
 of the inner circle made a clear profit of two or three 
 millions. Now, is it strange that the Mayor and police 
 are lenient with the crooks who have aided them to 
 power? And now you see almost daily street wars 
 between gangs, in which men are run to their death 
 under the eyes of the corrupt and despised police, and 
 seldom are any of them arrested. Organizations of 
 such denizens of the underworld are warred upon by 
 the police of great European cities, but here they are 
 among our real rulers. Thus it is not strange that 
 New York has more crime than the three or four 
 greatest capitals of Europe combined. 
 
 "Crimes of violence go hand in hand with crimes of 
 cunning. Every time we tried to get decent banking 
 laws in Albany we were blocked by the political ma- 
 chines. Trust companies, you know, do a general 
 banking business, yet they keep only five per cent, of 
 cash in reserve. They hold a billion of the people's 
 money, and widespread ruin may result some day from 
 the loose laws that govern them, for much of their 
 assets is made up of worthless stocks and bonds. Even 
 our national banks maintain but fifteen per cent, of 
 cash in reserve, except in the great cities, where 
 twenty-five per cent, is kept. The Bank of England 
 maintains fifty per cent, of cash. Now, there is an- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 301 
 
 other weakness of our system seldom referred to, and 
 that is the fact that while national banks are forbidden 
 by law to have more than ten per cent, of the stocks 
 of other concerns among their assets, there is no 
 penalty provided. What a travesty! The banking 
 clique will see to it that no penalty is ever provided. 
 The Wall Street system is monstrous in every way, I 
 tell you, sir. It is a monster whose fore paws are in 
 power, and whose hind ones are in crime." 
 
 As Lyle walked away from the house after the ex- 
 change of cordial "good-bys," he thought of the 
 valiant major as a living tragedy — as one whose fate 
 was much sadder than it would have been had he met 
 death upon a battlefield or in any kind of physical 
 combat. 
 
 He returned to Jackson to obtain more specific in- 
 formation about manipulation. 
 
 "Even the brokers who have spent most of their 
 lives here can seldom win when they speculate on their 
 own account," Jackson said, as they sat at luncheon in 
 a quaint old Dutch restaurant in Broad street, near the 
 Exchange. "Statistics show that only one broker in 
 ten does speculate, and that of those who do, but one 
 in ten escapes failure. Now, if those who know the 
 game so well cannot do any better than that, what 
 chance has the outsider?" 
 
 "Is no investment safe?" asked Lyle. 
 
 "I would say that nothing in the way of stocks that 
 you get in Wall Street is very safe, even when bought 
 outright instead of on margin, for any company is at 
 the mercy of the central powers whenever they get 
 ready to manipulate it. Broadly speaking the only 
 people who make profits out of companies are their 
 organizers. You will find that the brokers who get rich 
 
302 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 generally invest their profits in apartment houses or 
 other kinds of real estate. I know a broker named 
 Jake Roseheimer, a clever Jew who made as much as 
 two hundred thousand in one panic by 'scalping the 
 eighths,' and he now owns a block of flats that will 
 make him independent the rest of his life." 
 
 "Tell me what 'scalping the eighths' means," said 
 Lyle. "Has it anything to do with the way groups of 
 brokers who, when they learn that a customer has no 
 more money for margins, get together and depress the 
 value of a certain stock by matching orders until the 
 investor is 'cleaned out'?" 
 
 "No. Scalping is done this way : Suppose Mr. Per- 
 kins of Kansas buys from Burton and Rack one thou- 
 sand shares of Pacific Railway stock at a hundred dol- 
 lars a share. He can buy this much for ten thousand, 
 on a ten per cent, margin. Suppose, however, that 
 Pacific stock was really going up as he was told. A 
 rise is often preceded by a slight drop in a feverish 
 market, and often, by professional manipulators, a drop 
 is the first move in making a bull market. Well, the 
 stock may have fallen off an eighth of a point when 
 the order comes to buy it for Perkins at one hundred. 
 Does the floor trader wait for it to jump back to the 
 hundred mark? How foolish, when he can buy it 
 lower on his own or his firm's account, and immediately 
 fill the customer's order at the higher price! Well, 
 if it drops off only an eighth, he makes a hundred and 
 twenty-five right there. But if it drops a full point, 
 or to ninety-nine a share, and the customer is charged 
 one hundred, the brokers make a thousand. Should 
 it drop after the customer's order is filled, however, our 
 friend Perkins stands the loss. 
 
 "This is called 'scalping the eighths.' Who is there 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 303 
 
 to know for whom an order is filled but the trader 
 himself? The market has to be very quick, though, to 
 make these deals possible. And remember, only the 
 unscrupulous brokers thus take advantage of a cus- 
 tomer. The honest, reputable firms " 
 
 "Now, Jackson," Lyle broke in, "this is sub rosa, 
 you know, and I'm after the whole truth in a good 
 cause." 
 
 Jackson spread his outstretched hand before his face 
 and peered at Lyle between the fingers. "The repu- 
 table firms don't do it," he repeated, shaking his head 
 and grinning like a gargoyle the while. "But remem- 
 ber," he added, still grinning, "that when they do do 
 
 it, the market has to be very quick." 
 
 ********* 
 
 One day Lyle saw a sad eyed, pale faced woman in 
 widow's dress watching the throng of shouting, ges- 
 ticulating brokers in Broad street who composed what 
 was known as the Curb market. When she dropped 
 a large and bulky envelope, and he picked it up and 
 restored it to her, she thanked him with a wistful smile 
 and, liking his earnest and sympathetic face, she spoke 
 to him. 
 
 "There is little of value in those papers," she said, 
 "but once I thought they represented a fortune. That 
 was before I learned that widows are the special prey 
 of some of the 'Napoleons of finance.' Our woe is 
 used as a key to open to them the treasure left to guard 
 us from want." 
 
 Then she told him how, after her husband's death, 
 an agent for a Boston promoter had come to her with 
 a story that her husband had been about to invest in 
 his new manufacturing concern. She had admired 
 the promoter for his attacks, in a series of magazine 
 
304 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 articles, upon the Wall Street system. "Surely," she 
 had thought, "so altruistic and fearless a man must 
 be honest," and she invested twenty thousand dollars, 
 which was nearly all her husband had left. 
 
 "The stock was sold on the Curb," she said, "and 
 thousands were attracted by this man's advertisements. 
 Well, after I had waited vainly for dividends for more 
 than a year, and watched my stock go down and down 
 and down, I became suspicious and asked to see the 
 manufacturing plant. And when the agent took me 
 over to a New Jersey town where it was said to be 
 located, I found an almost hollow shell of a building 
 in which a few men were pounding on pieces of iron, 
 and doing other things to make a noise, but nothing 
 was being manufactured, and I am sure the men had 
 been hired just for that day to make me believe my 
 stock was worth something. Now I'm trying to have 
 the promoter arrested, but friends tell me that he and 
 many of those like him are too powerful to be prose- 
 cuted — that even if they were tried, their trial would 
 be a farce. I have learned that at least a hundred 
 widows have lost their money as I lost mine." 
 
 When Lyle told this story to Jackson, the latter said, 
 "For each person who lost money that way, there will 
 be dozens ruined by Steel." 
 
 "And tell me just how that is being manipulated?" 
 
 "It is done by telephone," said Jackson. "Stine 
 has an office in some obscure place. There is an inner 
 room fitted up with ten, twenty or perhaps thirty tele- 
 phones. He and several assistants, at a signal from 
 Gorman, begin giving orders to one set of brokers to 
 sell so many thousands of shares of Steel at a certain 
 figure, and then immediately they order another set of 
 brokers to buy just as many shares at the same price. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 305 
 
 The brokers themselves seldom know just who is be- 
 hind the operator, nor do they care so long as he is 
 able to pay commissions and margins. Well, when 
 Stine has license to 'burn unlimited powder,' as he 
 doubtless has now, the orders come thick and fast. 
 Suppose fifty thousand shares are to be sold, and the 
 same amount bought upon the first orders, the com- 
 missions amount to twelve thousand, five hundred dol- 
 lars. But this is simply the cost of the first shot in the 
 campaign. The orders increase from hour to hour, 
 from day to day, and the prices rise and rise, until 
 legions of real buyers have been enticed into the game, 
 when the orders from Stine are to sell, and sell, and 
 sell, and when the real buyers have bought, and 
 bought, and bought, why Steel will go down, and 
 down, and down, and when it is at the lowest mark 
 agreed upon, the orders from Stine are to buy, and 
 buy, and buy, and the shares thrown over by the de- 
 spairing investors are bought for the Gorman crew, 
 and then prices are forced up, and up, and up again 
 until more legions are lured into the game, and — 
 and so on as long as there are any victims in sight." 
 
 "Why, that is like baiting a trap for animals," said 
 Lyle. "It is worse than shooting from ambush. It is 
 monstrously cruel and mean. It is a kind of puppet 
 show, in which the real buyers engage in a dance of 
 death." 
 
 "Yes," Jackson agreed, "it is a dance of death, for 
 it means the end of life for many of those who are 
 ruined." 
 
 And the more Lyle thought of it the more it ap- 
 peared to him as a gigantic puppet rhow in which 
 Death led the dance. He decided to write of it as 
 such, not necessarily for publication, but merely for 
 
306 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 the pleasure of literary creation. He called his com- 
 position "The Dance of the Marionettes." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE DANCE OF THE MARIONETTES 
 
 And every day behind the scenes the Old Gray 
 Wolf of Wall Street works upon his wires. One wire 
 he touches, and that gilded hall of trade, the Stock 
 Exchange, is transformed into Bedlam. A hundred 
 men are made to shout and dance and gesture fiercely 
 as they strive to buy at prices that he names, the self 
 same stocks which other puppets sell at his behest. 
 
 And what these traders do and say goes forth on 
 other wires that lead to almost everywhere that people 
 congregate. The flaring sheets of daily papers, some 
 in blood red ink, display the fact that "Steel Is Going 
 Up." Yes, there it is, in figures that convince — 
 for surely figures never lie! Yes, Steel is going up, 
 and those who bought at fifty now lament that they 
 did not buy more, for fifty-one is being offered by the 
 brokers. And soon these prices may go up, and so 
 they rush to buy again, the while new buyers join 
 them in an ever-growing scramble. 
 
 Stock tickers, too, imprini the news on little strips 
 of tape, and click and sputter at their task as though 
 to gain the notice of the passersby, and then they purr 
 like tigers might when luring victims into jungle lairs. 
 Thus in the streets of many cities, in the lobbies of 
 hotels, in clubs, saloons, cafes, in legislative halls, and 
 even in the tea rooms where the women meet to talk 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 307 
 
 of fashion and finance, the humming wires intone their 
 song of growing wealth for all who purchase Steel. 
 
 And all these folk are heard to babble much of 
 bulls and bears, of margins, puts and calls, of slumps 
 and rallies and reactions. All the lingo of the broker 
 seems as easy to their tongues as though each one had 
 spent a lifetime learning it. And yet how few could 
 tell wherein a stock is different from a bond ! Their 
 clinking glasses and their laughter and gay chatter 
 mingle with their boasts of riches made in Wall Street, 
 and their boasts of greater riches yet to come. They 
 dream of pitfalls and of ambuscades no more than do 
 the sheep who follow when the shepherd's horn invites 
 to shambles. 
 
 They do not dream of how the joyous sounds in 
 which they join will soon be changed to doleful har- 
 monies. They do not dream that many lips which 
 now so gaily babble will be heard in mournful lamenta- 
 tions, or be silent in despair or death. They do not 
 dream of how the wails of widows and of orphans 
 will ascend to heaven, nor of how the tears of these 
 will mingle with the blood of husbands and of fathers 
 whom remorse has made to slay themselves. And 
 while the graveyards yawn for many, prison doors 
 and almshouse gateways will swing inward for a 
 greater host, and rapine will join hands with murder 
 in the making of a hideous carnival. But not of these 
 things do the babblers dream. 
 
 The dance of speculation grows apace. New buyers 
 hourly join the masquerade, and these are quickly 
 furnished partners who instruct them in the mazes of 
 a strange and wondrous waltz. And in their madness 
 these new dancers cannot tell the painted marionettes 
 from beings of flesh and blood — from beings with 
 
308 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 hearts and souls. The wires hum on, and sweeter 
 their orchestral music seems, for "Steel Is Going Up" 
 is still their theme. 
 
 Of many kinds the throng of dancers is made up. 
 There goes an office-holder who is gambling with the 
 people's gold, and after him a bank clerk who has 
 robbed the vaults. And here's a widow still attired 
 in weeds of woe, who risks her children's future to 
 pursue the lure of speedy wealth. Behind her, leaning 
 in sweet confidence upon a puppet's arm, we see a 
 staid and sober business man among the dizzy 
 waltzers. And next there comes the judge of some 
 provincial court — provincial surely, he must be, else he 
 would never join in such a dance. And now we see — 
 can this be true, or do our eyes deceive us? — no, it is, 
 it is, a bishop of the church, in holy vestments, in- 
 dulging here a passion which in others he decries. 
 And next, with painted face, and eyes that glitter with 
 a new-found vice, a prostitute comes dancing madly 
 with a marionette to whom she gives the proceeds of 
 her life of shame. 
 
 Ah, yes, it is a strange and wondrous company, and 
 hourly grows the throng. And 'round and 'round they 
 waltz, and 'round and 'round. If some grow weary 
 and drop out, their pockets filled with money by their 
 kindly partners, many new recruits are there to take 
 their places. 
 
 And 'round and 'round they waltz, and 'round and 
 'round, and 'round and 'round and 'round. And every 
 one is going to be rich, and every one is buying, save 
 a few of course who sell. And so the siren wires hum 
 on, and Steel goes up, and Steel goes up, and Steel goes 
 up, and Steel seems never coming down. 
 
 But now, just when the most ecstatic harmonies 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 309 
 
 swell forth, and joy is unconfined, the music changes. 
 The long reaches of the peaks of bliss have been 
 ascended, and the downward slopes have come in view. 
 And yet the dancers are so blinded with delight they 
 cannot see these slopes until too late. And suddenly 
 the master's wrist is twisted and, obedient to his will, 
 the marionettes all turn in unison upon their partners,' 
 seize them in a hard, metallic grip, and ravish them 
 of all their money, then with ruthless hands they fling 
 them down the heights to ruin, despair and death. 
 The dance is over. 
 
 END OF BOOK FIFTH 
 
BOOK SIXTH 
 THE EMPEROR 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE PATRON OF ART 
 
 Art now became the object of C. Jefferson Gorman's 
 most devoted attention. Like Napoleon who, after his 
 successful Italian campaigns, ravaged the galleries of 
 Italy for the enrichment of France, he traveled abroad 
 to gather paintings and statuary to add to the artistic 
 wealth of his country. 
 
 He, too, went to Italy, for there, he had heard, were 
 still to be found many of the rarest treasures of art. 
 First he visited Rome, and called upon the American 
 Ambassador, who had once been counsel for one of his 
 railways. 
 
 "See here, John," he said, "I must have some of 
 the best pictures and statues in this whole country, 
 no matter what they cost — understand? You must 
 help me out in this thing. I'll send agents scouting 
 everywhere, and I want you to take charge of those 
 in Italy, and send me the bills for whatever expense 
 you are put to. I'm going to see the Pope in a few 
 days, and perhaps I can get some of the Vatican 
 statues." 
 
 He visited the Vatican, and the Pope, who had 
 3" 
 
312 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 heard much of the great American financier, received 
 him pleasantly, and showed him about his wonderful 
 gardens and galleries. But His Holiness would not 
 part with one of his treasures in marble or on canvas 
 for any consideration. His fine, thin, spiritual visage 
 was filled with horror at the suggestion. Had the 
 spirits of Comus and of Momus, or any of the several 
 fauns and satyrs whose marble forms were in view 
 possessed the power to tenant and enliven those like- 
 nesses, there must have been some twistings of mar- 
 morean lips when the proposition was made. 
 
 No, the financier could not buy the Vatican treas- 
 ures, but his agents made great inroads upon the gal- 
 leries in other parts of the kingdom. More than two 
 millions were thus spent in a few months. The Italian 
 government was aroused, and it hastily passed a law 
 against the exportation of art works except those by 
 modern artists. Gorman next proceeded to France 
 and England, and so many real treasures did he and his 
 trained aids acquire, along with the scores of spurious 
 works that they were induced to buy, that leagues of 
 wealthy art lovers were formed to outbid his agents 
 whenever the work of any old master was put on sale. 
 His opponents were not often successful, for his share 
 of the Steel manipulation pool was some thirty millions, 
 which did not include the many more millions he had 
 acquired in promoter's shares. And he was bent on 
 becoming known as a patron of art, even if he had to 
 spend a hundred millions. 
 
 From Europe he went to Egypt. He stood before 
 the Sphinx. And then he gazed upon the Pyramids, 
 and saw forty centuries looking down upon him. From 
 there he went to Memphis and to Thebes, and before 
 he left he had hired agents to buy and ship to America 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 313 
 
 two hundred packing cases of relics of the Pharaohs. 
 Four funeral offering chambers of sculptured lime- 
 stone from the Matasaba tombs, and the ante-rooms to 
 the resting places of Rameses and his son, built two 
 thousand, seven hundred years before Christ, were 
 shipped entire. All this cost another million. 
 
 The choicest treasures he placed in a marble gal- 
 lery which he built for himself adjoining his new 
 palace overlooking the Hudson. The other art works 
 he presented to the American Museum of Art. The 
 grateful directors made him honorary president of 
 their institution, and they hung in the main gallery 
 the flattering portrait of himself painted fifteen years 
 before by a famous French artist, the portrait which 
 showed the forelock hanging over his brow. 
 
 At the same time he engaged the cleverest wigmaker 
 of Paris to create a work of art which he did not 
 intend to exhibit as such. His hair had vanished 
 rapidly in the past few years, until there was but a 
 narrow fringe at the back of his head. The wigmaker 
 was told to restore the forelock, and the rest of the 
 missing hair, by degrees. He created a series of wigs, 
 of increasing thickness, and as these were donned 
 from time to time, it appeared to the public that the 
 great Mr. Gorman's hair was growing in again. Oc- 
 casionally there were rumors to the contrary, but so 
 deftly had the wigmaker done his work that no one 
 except his wife and valet knew the truth. 
 
 A few years after he had begun his tremendous 
 
 purchases of art works one of his literary aids wrote 
 
 of him • 
 
 "America's debt to this great patron of art can scarcely 
 be estimated. The pictures and statues, the rare books 
 and manuscripts he has collected show him to be a real 
 connoisseur, and not a mere dilettante. His genius 
 
314 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 created a network of information reaching from Great 
 Britain to Greece, and even to Egypt. His possessions 
 are the most wonderful of all collections, formed by the 
 most wonderful collector of our time or, it may be, of any 
 time. There is no one with whom we can compare him 
 except, perhaps, Lorenzo de Medici, and he surpasses 
 even that prince in the catholicity of his taste. But he is 
 like "II Magnifico" in the knowledge he possesses of 
 books, and pictures, and prints, and faience, and tapes- 
 tries; indeed of every object he collects. Among the 
 rarest treasures of his own library are the Golden Gospels 
 of the seventh century." 
 
 To be sure, at times there were other things of quite 
 a different nature whispered about him. Among cer- 
 tain circles shoulders would be shrugged when his 
 philanthropy was mentioned, and tales would be told 
 in bated breath of his buying a yacht for an actress, 
 or of an endowment for a hospital upon the condition 
 that the physician in charge, who had a fascinating 
 wife, should take a year's trip abroad. But who would 
 dare to give publicity to scandalous things about so 
 great, and so religious — and so powerful, a person- 
 ality ? Even when the possibility of his wearing a wig 
 was mentioned in an important literary journal there 
 were many papers like the Evening Hope to brand 
 the writer as a vulgar person, unfit to associate with 
 
 people of the least refinement. 
 
 ********* 
 
 Mrs. Lionel Barton, noted for her impassioned im- 
 personation of Madame de Pompadour in the play of 
 that name, happened to be cruising in the Mediter- 
 ranean on the occasion of one of Gorman's visits to 
 Egypt. Her yacht, the d'Aulnay, so called after one 
 of the chateaus of the Pompadour, had been finished 
 that spring at a cost of more than half a million, and 
 had been appropriately furnished in the style of Louis 
 XV. Gorman had left his wife in Naples, and at 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 31 5 
 
 Cairo he chanced to learn that the d'Aulnay was in 
 port. The noted actress had a party of very select 
 friends on board, but it happened that the stateroom 
 next to hers was not occupied, and her good friend 
 Mr. Gorman consented to occupy it from Cairo to 
 Rome. There was a handsome and youthful steward 
 who waited on the other guests, and an old and rheu- 
 matic steward who served Gorman and Mrs. Barton. 
 
 "The most enjoyable voyage in my recollection, dear 
 Mrs. Barton," said Gorman in sincere tones as he 
 stepped over the d'Aulnay's side to board a launch 
 that was to take him to the seaport of Rome. And 
 her musical laugh, displaying her red lips and pearly 
 teeth, and the half closing of her languorous eyes as 
 though in ecstatic memory, and the quickened rise and 
 fall of her bosom beneath its thin covering of chiffon 
 were her only reply. Mrs. Barton was a really clever 
 actress. 
 
 And as soon as Gorman's launch was well on its 
 way to shore she turned to the handsome young 
 steward, who had made so bold as to stand beside 
 her, and said to him with a yet more ravishing smile, 
 
 "Now dear, since I've earned this yacht and more 
 too on this one trip, come and console me. Take off 
 that livery and put on your charming yachtsman's 
 suit. Let us sail back to Egypt, oh, my Anthony, and 
 I'll be your Cleopatra and yours only !" 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE FATE OF REFORM MAGAZINES 
 
 "It is like having horses shot out from under you 
 in battle," remarked Delaval. 
 
316 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "What?" Lyle asked. "The way in which maga- 
 zines are bought from under us, and we are left 'in 
 the air' ?" 
 
 "Yes, and the worst feature of it to my mind is that 
 we are placed in the light of blackmailers, and classed 
 with that agitator who is now taking a trip around 
 the world with the proceeds of his latest scheme, the 
 attack on the meat trust in Bunson's Magazine. I see 
 that some of the Gorman papers have begun to charge 
 that every reform magazine is started with the object 
 of being bought off. The trouble is that we haven't 
 enough funds of our own to establish a magazine. 
 We must get others to take a majority of the stock, 
 and the majority of holders, no matter how sincere 
 they seem to be in the beginning, are always purchas- 
 able in the end." 
 
 "That appears to be a confirmation of your favorite 
 maxim, Del. The majority, even among our chosen 
 associates, seem untrustworthy. The Fonvard Maga- 
 zine was sold out after a year and a half by our 
 friends Burke and Sanford. Toward the last, I found 
 old Sanford reading the stock market news more regu- 
 larly than manuscripts. Then we started Holton's, 
 naming it for the publisher upon condition that he 
 would raise a majority of the funds, and he sold us 
 out within a year. And now the Advocate is about 
 to be surrendered to Gorman's agents. I suppose that 
 if we were to lecture on ethics at religious meetings, 
 and grow rich on Wall Street advertisements and 
 stocks, and keep silent on really vital questions like 
 Dr. Tyson Gabbitt, the pharisee who edits the Uplift, 
 we would be much more generally respected." 
 
 "The cleverness of the last move is what confounds 
 me," said Delaval. "You see, Gorman is spiking our 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 317 
 
 batteries by a flank movement. This time we are 
 to be 'consolidated' with another periodical, and that 
 other is the Advance, recently started with a name like 
 ours to confuse the public mind. After the consoli- 
 dation the name Advocate will be dropped, and the 
 new company will be listed on the Stock Exchange. 
 Thus you will behold the spectacle of the monster 
 swallowing its enemy. Many people think that the 
 Advance is reformatory because it exposes evils such 
 as the traffic in young girls for prostitution, but the 
 worst kind of prostitution, that of the minds of our 
 leaders of thought and action, will go unexposed." 
 
 The years that had passed since they began their 
 magazine campaign had left its mark upon the two 
 friends. Although he was still much under forty 
 years of age, Delaval's brown hair and mustache were 
 gray streaked, and in addition to the lines of cynicism 
 which had hardened about his mouth there were deep- 
 ened furrows in his forehead. Lyle had a few gray 
 hairs, too, though these could not be detected save 
 by close inspection of his blond head. But about the 
 corners of his eyes several little wrinkles had gathered, 
 and on his brow were impressed the first faint mark- 
 ings of the stern lines of care. 
 
 Besides attacking the many evils of the Stock Ex- 
 change, Lyle and Delaval had traveled all over the 
 country, and had ruthlessly exposed corruption wher- 
 ever they found it. And nearly every time that their 
 investigations went far enough, the trail led to the 
 Wall Street throne. They fearlessly published all the 
 facts, although they could not charge Gorman with 
 personal knowledge of the money spent in his interest 
 except the large contributions to political parties which 
 they proved that he and his friends had given. Their 
 
318 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 exposures, which were supplemented at times by simi- 
 lar articles in other magazines, and by news items which 
 even the most conservative journals had to print, over- 
 turned half a dozen States and helped to drive from 
 the Presidency one of Gorman's favorite aids. It 
 was after this feat that the Advocate's purchase was 
 decided on by "the throne." 
 
 The two friends were now seated in their private 
 editorial office. In an adjoining room directors rep- 
 resenting the majority stockholders were voting to sell 
 out to the Advance Publishing Company. After 
 speeches of protest Delaval and Lyle had retired to 
 await the inevitable, and to plan still another 
 magazine. 
 
 "I feel more like taking to drink again than I have 
 for years," Delaval said moodily, as he gazed with 
 unseeing eyes at the throngs in the square below. 
 "Here are all the magazines going the way of the 
 newspapers, which find it more profitable to serve 
 Gorman and his allies than to serve the public. And 
 the people — what are they but a polyglot collection 
 of " 
 
 "Ah, but think of the ruin prevented, the lives 
 saved, the seeds of reform sown for future harvest- 
 ing," protested Lyle, whose soul still burned with un- 
 quenchable idealism. 
 
 "The lives saved!" repeated Delaval. "Why, man, 
 do you know that there were two hundred murders 
 in New York the year following the Steel and Copper 
 manipulations and the hard times resulting there- 
 from? Belgium, Scotland and Holland together have 
 but few more murders in a year than that. And the 
 mysterious disappearances — there must be a surpris- 
 ing total of those, if we could only know." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 3 X 9 
 
 "Things would be even worse if we had not done 
 what we have done. But speaking of mysterious 
 disappearances," and Lyle's voice was lowered, as 
 there was only a thin partition between their room and 
 the next ; "I would not be greatly surprised if I were 
 some day among the missing or the 'accidentally 
 killed.' You know that Mercedes and I live in the 
 Noble Arms apartment house — but believe me, I did 
 not select the place on account of its name, but in 
 spite of it. Well, sometimes I go home very late. 
 One night two weeks ago I had just passed under the 
 big stone archway of the entrance when a large stone 
 from the arch fell, grazing my heel. The building is 
 new, and there is no good reason why the stone should 
 have become loosened, in the natural order of events, 
 for a century. The room just over the archway had 
 recently been engaged for six months by a mysterious 
 person, but the next day it was vacated without 
 notice." 
 
 "I, too, have had my experience," said Delaval. "It 
 was different from yours, but I think the same motive 
 may have been behind it. It was on the night of the 
 Fourth of July, and there was much noise from fire- 
 works, so that no one in the street up Harlem way, 
 along which I was walking home, noticed a revolver 
 shot that cut a hole through the top of my hat. I 
 have said nothing to anyone about this, for I have 
 thought that some of the patriotic noise makers in the 
 crowded street may have been using real bullets with 
 no evil intent. Now I think differently. 
 
 " 'These be days that try men's souls,' " he went on, 
 "and yet you want to keep on fighting for the better- 
 ment of things under a republican form of govern- 
 ment. I tell you the time has come to circulate 
 
320 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 pamphlets advocating a monarchy. You doubt it? 
 Well, come with me to Newport, and if you are still 
 unconvinced after what we see there, then I will 
 abandon all hope of converting you." 
 
 "To Newport? I didn't know you had any friends 
 there." 
 
 "I know one family. They are from Virginia, and 
 their parents were friends of my parents. They have 
 a villa in the social colony, but they care little for 
 the other residents, and stay there only two or three 
 weeks each summer. After this year they will give up 
 their villa and spend their summers abroad. But they 
 have been invited to the opening of Gorman's new 
 summer palace next week, and they say they will take 
 me along. Would you like to go?" 
 
 "How could either of us ever be admitted to Gor- 
 man's palace?" 
 
 "I've been pondering that, and I have a plan which 
 I think is worth trying. The John Lamars — that's the 
 name of my friends — really have no use for Gorman, 
 and I think they'll approve of it. We can darken our 
 faces and pretend to be Italian gentlemen of leisure, 
 and let it be suspected that we are titled persons 
 incogniti. This will assure us of deferential treatment 
 and a good time." 
 
 "It would be quite a diversion," said Lyle, "but I 
 fear that I couldn't disguise myself well enough, or 
 live up to the disguise if I did." 
 
 "Nothing easier," declared his friend, taking a book- 
 let from an inside pocket. "Here I have the secret 
 formulae of numerous disguises, which I obtained in 
 a way I'll not mention just now. Let us see," read- 
 ing from the booklet : " 'Quills in nostrils change the 
 shape of the nose. Wax behind the ears will hold 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 321 
 
 them back and give the face a new appearance. Paraf- 
 fine injected under the skin gives fulness to any de- 
 sired part. The mouth can be changed in shape by 
 rubber bands along the gums. The hands or face may 
 be given the look of age by an application of a solu- 
 tion of henna, alum and sulphuric acid, which will not 
 harm, though giving a temporary yellow hue to the 
 skin.' But that isn't just what we want. Ah, here 
 is is," and he read a recipe for merely darkening the 
 skin. 
 
 Three days later, the Lamars having approved the 
 plan and added a cordial invitation to Lyle, the two 
 friends boarded a steamer for Newport, disguised as 
 Italian gentlemen. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 NEWPORT 
 
 Newport, approached by water from the east, 
 seems to be nothing more than a sleepy old seaport, 
 like many another along the New England coast. 
 About the wharves are a mass of dingy stores, in the 
 background a little hillside city of gray and white 
 buildings, set among clustering trees, and here and 
 there, rising above all, a slender church spire. 
 
 On any bright summer morning may be seen tanned 
 old sea dogs pottering about catboats and launches 
 which have been drawn out of the water for repairs. 
 There is no hint anywhere that this quiet little town 
 was once a port with maritime commerce rivaling that 
 of Boston and New York. Yet such it was before 
 the blockades of the British fleets in the Revolutionary 
 
322 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 War. And in the walls of mouldy cellars along its 
 wharves may still be found the heavy iron rings and 
 chains that secured slaves newly brought from Africa 
 while their importers and prospective masters bar- 
 gained in the rooms above. 
 
 Except for the sight of an occasional splendid 
 yacht with a famous name gilded across its stern 
 there is no hint, either, of the real character of the 
 Newport of to-day, until your boat passes the broken 
 lines of warehouses, stoop-shouldered shops, and 
 gambrel-roofed houses, and sails on toward the south 
 and west. Then there come into view great rugged 
 cliffs and outreaching points that challenge the sea. 
 Cattle once grazed in the sun upon those heights, but 
 there was little vegetation, for only the hardy pine 
 could endure in that unsheltered waste through all the 
 year. And in a simple garden bordering the cliffs 
 George Bancroft, historian, diplomat, linguist and 
 philosopher, worked lovingly among his roses and 
 mused upon the republic's future. 
 
 But what a wonderful transformation has since 
 been wrought! As you approach closer you see that 
 wealth has claimed these shores for its own, and, as 
 with a magic wand, has touched cliffs and plateaus 
 and undulating plains, and beautified them with 
 princely villas, smiling gardens and lovely landscapes. 
 Flowers from almost every clime now bloom among 
 the gray crags, and riot among the statuary of the 
 gardens, and trees of tender habit and shrubs and 
 palms from the tropics surround stately mansions and 
 towering palaces. 
 
 It was upon this scene and not upon the ancient 
 town that Lyle gazed first, for the steamer that he 
 and Delaval were on came from a southwesterly di- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 323 
 
 rection. "And there," said Delaval as they sailed 
 past, "is the summer capital of American society." 
 
 At the wharves they hired a one-horse carriage 
 driven by a negro in nondescript livery, and were 
 taken through the narrow, winding streets toward the 
 new residential section. They passed an aged dwelling 
 on a point overlooking the sea, the cellar of which was 
 one of the many reputed burying places of Captain 
 Kidd's treasure. The ground has been dug up many 
 times, but nothing was ever found. Further ahead, 
 where gambrel-roofed houses were surrounded by 
 hedged gardens, was Coddington Point. The Marquis 
 de Lafayette and the Count de Rochambeau and the 
 Vicomte de Noailles used to frequent the pleasures of 
 the point, which in Revolutionary days was the court 
 end of town. 
 
 They came to a place where high white stucco walls 
 partly hidden behind trees and overgrown with trail- 
 ing vines marked the dividing line between some of 
 the big estates and the old town, whose bustling life 
 was thus shut out from view. 
 
 As they drove on, their surroundings became more 
 and more magnificent. They saw French chateaux, 
 Italian and Spanish villas, English manor houses in 
 Elizabethan, Queen Anne and Georgian styles, and 
 Gothic castles, set amid lawns enriched by all the art 
 of the landscape gardener. Most of these estates were 
 approached by long driveways, at the entrances to 
 which were keepers' lodges, and these were as com- 
 modious as the dwellings of many well-to-do persons. 
 
 Numerous automobiles and carriages were adorned 
 with crests, and many were the liveried coachmen and 
 footmen. Lyle also observed several uniformed naval 
 officers. 
 
324 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "Is there some official function going on, do you 
 suppose?" he asked. 
 
 "Not necessarily. Those officers are here all the 
 time simply for decorative purposes. The govern- 
 ment, to please the society leaders, maintains a squad- 
 ron in this vicinity during the season, for the officers" 
 uniforms look well as a background for the ladies' 
 costumes. It is said that the officers are sometimes 
 put to other uses, such as recommending certain kinds 
 of steel, or of oil, or of ammunition in their official 
 reports as members of boards for the purchase of 
 supplies." 
 
 They observed that there were more French cha- 
 teaux than any other kinds of houses. Many of them 
 were palatial ; all were at least worthy of being called 
 mansions. But this society, some of whom had been 
 accustomed to regal or ducal revenues for as long 
 as one generation — more or less — liked to show its 
 familiarity with and disregard of magnificence by re- 
 ferring to its summer homes as cottages. 
 
 "You will observe," said Delaval, "that there is but 
 one house in colonial style in all this vicinity. It is the 
 one to which we are going, the house of our friends, 
 the Lamars. Ah, I think that is Mrs. Lamar on the 
 lawn near that marble statue. Remember now, that 
 while she knows our identity, to others we are the 
 Signores Roderigo and Guido Bellucci of Milan. We 
 understand English perfectly, though we speak it 
 hesitatingly, and with a very slight accent. I don't 
 think we shall meet any one who uses Italian, but if 
 somebody should begin to talk it to you, and I am 
 not near enough to interfere in the conversation, get 
 away from the person at once, even if you should have 
 to feign illness." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 325 
 
 They alighted at the entrance to the driveway, dis- 
 missed the carriage, and walked toward the house. 
 Mrs. Lamar came down the driveway to meet them. 
 She was tall, and dark eyed, and beautifully formed, 
 and her complexion was so soft and satiny that it 
 seemed that only the gentlest of southern zephyrs 
 had ever blown against her cheeks. In a simple gown 
 of pink muslin she made an alluring picture, and when 
 she spoke her voice was so low and sweet that Lyle 
 was reminded of Mercedes. 
 
 "Good afternoon, Signores Bellucci," she said, with 
 a twinkle in her eyes. "Welcome to Fairfield, as we 
 call our home. After you have been shown to your 
 rooms we will go for a drive. 
 
 "I have received permission to bring my two Italian 
 friends in place of my husband," she informed them 
 as they came down stairs. "The manager of affairs, 
 after consulting with the Emperor, said that any 
 friends of mine would be welcome," 
 
 "The Emperor?" repeated Lyle. T>o they call him 
 that already ?" 
 
 "Yes, quite a number of them do. I don't mean, 
 though, that his manager of affairs called him that. I 
 was just using the title I've often heard given him by 
 others. They say it's on account of his autocratic 
 temper. My husband tells me that he is often referred 
 to that way in Wall Street, too. By the way, I re- 
 ceived a telegram from Mr. Lamar this morning which 
 worries me a little. He was suddenly called to Rich- 
 mond yesterday to attend a directors' meeting at the 
 Virginia Central offices. He's vice-president, you 
 know. But there was no real business for directors 
 to transact, and he can't understand whv he was sum- 
 
326 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 moned down there. He adds that I am to be careful 
 of C. J. G." 
 
 "Why, has Gorman paid you any attentions ?" asked 
 Del aval. 
 
 "He has invited us to his New York home oftener 
 than we have gone, and he has looked at me intently 
 and insinuatingly at times. He has even offered my 
 husband the presidency of one of his Northern roads 
 at a salary advance of ten thousand. But an accept- 
 ance would mean that we would have to live in New 
 York." 
 
 The ride, in a simple two-seated carriage, ever after- 
 ward formed one of the most vivid memories of Lyle's 
 kaleidoscopic career. First they drove along by the 
 sea, and saw a fleet of yachts riding at anchor. These 
 were of all sizes, from the cockle-shells in the sheltered 
 bay to the stately seagoing craft far out upon the 
 white-capped waves, and they numbered near two hun- 
 dred. 
 
 "The fleet of the American Yacht Club here to 
 honor its Commodore," explained Mrs. Lamar. 
 "When he returned in his own yacht last evening 
 there was a great demonstration — the firing of salutes, 
 dipping of flags, and so on. A great banquet was ten- 
 dered him on the Gotell yacht, and many other dinners 
 were given afloat and ashore." 
 
 "I have heard that thirty millions are represented 
 in that fleet,'' remarked Lyle. "It certainly looks like 
 a costly aggregation." 
 
 "I would say it was nearer fifty millions," she said. 
 "And every half dozen years or so that much more 
 is spent upon the yachts, for they have to be rebuilt 
 or entirely overhauled that often. And yet none of 
 the owners were admitted to the hospitalities at Cowes 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 3 2 7 
 
 during regatta week this year, except Gorman him- 
 self." 
 
 "How do you account for that?" 
 
 "Well, the Royal Yacht Squadron is terribly ex- 
 clusive, and no Americans belong to it, although some 
 other foreigners are members, and without the favor 
 of royalty itself visitors are made to feel that they 
 are outsiders. Americans have been so persistently 
 turned down that they all decided to stay away this 
 year, except the Commodore." 
 
 "Is he then in the royal good graces? How does 
 that happen?" Delaval wanted to know. 
 
 Mrs. Lamar merely shook her head negatively as if 
 to indicate that here was a secret of state beyond her. 
 
 "I think I can answer that," said Lyle. "In Wall 
 Street it is rumored that the King knew when to buy 
 and when to sell Steel stocks, and that he cleaned up a 
 million. Naturally he feels grateful to his fellow 
 monarch." 
 
 They drove along a high road overlooking a bath- 
 ing beach. Many persons were disporting themselves 
 on the sands, but few were in the water. Two games 
 of tennis were in progress, the players attired in bath- 
 ing suits. The legs of some of the men were almost 
 entirely bare, their exertions having worked up their 
 tight-fitting nether garments to the thighs. In the 
 silken stocking of one of the feminine players there 
 was a hole above the knee, but she continued playing 
 until a mosquito bit her in the exposed place, when she 
 stopped to scratch the wound. "I don't blame the 
 mosquito, by Jove," remarked her partner, and she 
 joined in the general laughter. 
 
 Other bathers, still in their beach costumes, were 
 walking in the streets far above the sands. This was 
 
328 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 not the public beach. Only the summer colony could 
 bathe here, and only here was there any surf bathing. 
 The public beach for the villagers and the ordinary 
 visitors was some distance east. 
 
 In the streets they noticed a number of richly 
 dressed women walking about with their hair flowing 
 down their backs. Mrs. Lamar explained that it was 
 a new custom among the exclusive set. A few weeks 
 earlier the fad was to play golf wearing veils like 
 Mohammedan women. "Another diversion," she said, 
 "is to give imitation rural fairs, so the society girls 
 can dress as dairy maids. I understand that is be- 
 cause the same thing used to be done by Marie An- 
 toinette at the Little Trianon. 
 
 "But when it comes to imitating the days of the old 
 French monarchy," she continued as they drove along, 
 "the Plaster chateau over there, that enormous house 
 in the Renaissance style, beats them all. The regimen 
 of Versailles in the time of Louis Sixteenth is their 
 guide. Mrs. Plaster has copied it out of an old book. 
 As she employs two hundred servants she can make 
 things look like the original, too. She has a dame 
 d'atours to put on her petticoat, a dame d'honneur to 
 prepare the water to wash her hands and assist her on 
 with her linen, a fcmme de chambre who supervises 
 her wardrobe, and so on. Sometimes she breakfasts in 
 her bath, as Marie Antoinette did, with the tray ar- 
 ranged on the edge of the tub. Her bath, like that of 
 the queen, is scented with serpolet, laurel leaves, wild 
 thyme and marjoram. 
 
 "After the bath, attired in a silk gown trimmed with 
 lace, and wearing dimity slippers, she returns to bed, 
 to read a book or do tapestry work, as the Queen did. 
 Nothing is presented directly to her. Her handker- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 329 
 
 chief or gloves are handed her on a long salver of 
 gold or gilt. When she dresses her chief tirewoman 
 holds up a cloth to conceal her entirely from the sight 
 of the other women. This chief tirewoman is charged 
 with the care and examination of all her diamonds, 
 while the one next in rank attends to all her dresses. 
 She is attended and pampered in every way like the 
 Queen was at Versailles, and among her most prized 
 jewels were some worn by the Princess de Lamballe 
 and other close friends of the consort of Louis Six- 
 teenth. What makes the affair more grotesque is the 
 fact that the lady in yonder castle weighs about two 
 hundred pounds, and when she talks French she can 
 hardly be understood by her own servants, who are 
 mostly of that nationality. Her maitre de hotel is 
 furnished with a large staff, which is his badge of 
 office for announcing that dinner is served. Instead 
 of the golden fleur-de-lis as an ornament it has the 
 heraldic decoration of the Duke of Oxbury, for whom, 
 as a husband for her daughter, she paid several mil- 
 lions in railway bonds." 
 
 "And what is this place surrounded by the marble 
 wall ?" Lyle asked. 
 
 "It is the De Blick marble palace, built ten years 
 ago for the marriage of Cleopatra De Blick with the 
 Duke of Burlboro. But it has never been occupied 
 since. After the Duke got hold of his wife's dowry of 
 three millions in railway bonds, he took his wife 
 abroad, repaired his own castles, and then set to pur- 
 suing other women, leaving her to be snubbed by her 
 new acquaintances. She recently divorced him and 
 returned a broken-hearted woman. That is the mar- 
 riage Gorman wanted his daughter to make, so we 
 hear, but I think she was lucky in escaping it.'' 
 
330 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 A few minutes later they came in sight of the 
 largest palace of all. It was a splendid marble pile 
 which fronted upon the sea, and yet so magnificent 
 was it on the other sides that any of them might 
 have been taken for the front. Both massive and 
 ornate it was, and in pure French Renaissance style, 
 with flying buttresses, pinnacles, clustered columns and 
 deeply recessed portals decorated like those of Louis 
 XIV's chateau at Marly. Its topmost towers now 
 glistened in the afternoon sun far above the tall trees. 
 
 "The Gorman cottage," said Mrs. Lamar. "It has 
 been five years in building and it cost more than the 
 palace of Versailles." 
 
 "Well, he made enough out of Steel alone to pay for 
 several such palaces," Delaval said. "And his income 
 is now greater than the combined income of all the 
 sovereigns of Europe." 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 INSIDE THE PALACE 
 
 "It seems like another country — almost like another 
 planet," said Lyle as they were motored along the 
 boulevard overlooking the sea. In the distance across 
 the rippling waters that were now being turned to sil- 
 ver by a rising moon, twinkled the lights of the great 
 fleet of yachts at anchor. On the landward side, in 
 the soft radiance, there stood forth the towers and 
 pinnacles of many stately mansions. 
 
 "So far as the public knows, it is another country," 
 Mrs. Lamar rejoined. "The garbled reports some- 
 times printed in newspapers of the doings here give 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 33 1 
 
 little idea of what goes on. Some of the new arrivals 
 in the colony like to be written up, but the leaders 
 really don't want the masses to know about their en- 
 tertainments." 
 
 Then she told of a gardenia dinner given in honor 
 of a Russian Grand Duke. The flower markets of three 
 cities were ravished, and the walls and ceilings of the 
 dining room and ballroom were covered with the beau- 
 tiful wax-like blooms. Ten thousand dollars' worth 
 at least were crushed beneath the dancers' feet. To 
 add to the glorious effect, a huge globe suspended over- 
 head suddenly burst and showered American Beauty 
 roses upon everyone. 
 
 At another affair, which was in honor of the Mar- 
 quis de Neufchatel, an entire theatrical troupe, with 
 scenery and costumes, was imported from New York. 
 A stage was erected on the lawn and a comic opera 
 was produced by a hundred players. 
 
 "Here we are at last," Lyle interrupted to say, r.s 
 the palace gateway loomed ahead. Then the buzzing of 
 the scores of automobiles which crowded the drive- 
 way drowned all conversation for a while. "Every 
 one comes in some kind of a carriage," Mrs. Lamar 
 whispered after a time. "To go anywhere on foot in 
 Newport means to lose your social reputation." 
 
 Arrived at the entrance, they alighted and were 
 ushered between rows of lackeys under a grand arch 
 on which was sculptured Danae being showered by 
 the gold of Zeus. They entered the main hallway, 
 which was done in yellow marble brought from Africa, 
 and hung with Gobelin tapestries made in the factory 
 founded by Louis XIV. This fact was explained by 
 a Mrs. Twarlton, a loquacious blonde, who had joined 
 them at the entrance, and who talked to Mrs. Lamar 
 
332 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 and the "Signores Bellucci" as all were swept along 
 by the river of guests. 
 
 Up a broad stairway of solid bronze they went, and 
 Mrs. Twarlton said the panels contained trophies from 
 the palace of Versailles, taken by special permission of 
 certain powerful officials. And at the top, against the 
 wall at the right, was a large clock supported by gold 
 nymphs. It was once in the Trianon. Opposite the 
 clock was a pastorale by Francois Boucher, which was 
 owned by a Marquise who was an intimate friend of 
 Marie Antoinette. A large mirror along the hallway, 
 bordered by hippogriffs of gold, once hung in the 
 Tuileries. 
 
 Many lackeys clad in the Gorman livery of blue and 
 gold were waiting at the top of the stairs to escort 
 the guests severally to apartments where they could 
 lay off their wraps. Friends rejoined friends in the 
 hallways, whence they proceeded to the grand salon, 
 where the host and hostess were receiving in state. 
 
 The salon's ornate ceiling was partly hidden by Vir- 
 ginia ivy and orchids, among which sparkled electric 
 lights in flower shapes. Under these lights stood 
 Gorman and his wife. "How tired and aged she 
 looks, compared with a year ago," whispered Mrs. 
 Lamar, who was on Delaval's arm. Lyle was just 
 behind them with Mrs. Twarlton, who had agreed to 
 be his partner for the evening, her husband having 
 been unable to attend. The ladies wore decollette 
 gowns of mousseline, and the men were attired in 
 light flannels, for it was a midsummer night, and the 
 air was balmy. 
 
 "But he looks no older," replied Delaval, and an 
 instant later their turn came to be presented. A 
 lackey called out the names whispered to him by the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 333 
 
 guests as they advanced, and there was a simple hand- 
 shake from the host and hostess, who murmured a 
 conventional "Pleased to meet you," and then the 
 guests moved on to make room for those crowding 
 behind. 
 
 Gorman did not glance a second time at either 
 Lyle or Delaval, but his face lighted up with some- 
 thing more than pleasure when he saw Mrs. Lamar. 
 He clung to her hand and bent toward her as though 
 for a whispered conference, but she merely bowed 
 and smiled, then dexterously slipped her hand from 
 his, and walked on. 
 
 The guests passed from the grand salon into an 
 "orangerie" patterned after that at Versailles. It 
 was filled with palms and rare orchids and other 
 tropic flowers. From here the line of visitors wended 
 its way into an apartment finished in carved wood. 
 The ceiling was painted by Tintoretto, and had been 
 ravished from some Italian palace. It showed Diana 
 and her huntresses lounging about in half nude aban- 
 don after a chase. Men of bronze and children of 
 marble supported the ponderous mantelpiece, and here 
 and there were carved gods and goddesses of old 
 Greece reclining against the walls in gilded grace. 
 The feet of the guests left their impress on a Savon- 
 nerie rug bearing the arms of "Le Grande Monarque" 
 for whom it was specially woven. The tapestried 
 chairs had once been sat upon by lords and ladies in 
 some ducal palace. 
 
 "He must have made wrecks of several French 
 chateaux in getting all these things," muttered 
 Delaval. 
 
 "He probably got all that was left after the De 
 Blicks and others had been there," amended Mrs. 
 
334 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Lamar. "Hardly a cottage in Newport but boasts 
 some relic of pre-Revolution days. He seems to have 
 outdone all of them, though." 
 
 They next entered a Gothic room. Through stained 
 glass windows that had once graced some ancient 
 cathedral a dim light was shed from lamps cleverly 
 arranged on the outer sides to give the impression of 
 daytime. From the wall Lucca della Robbia's "Virgin 
 and Child" gazed upon the visitors. There was much 
 antique bric-a-brac, every article of which, Mrs. 
 Twarlton said, antedated the discovery of America. 
 
 "Here is a room given over to a display of por- 
 celain, jewels and objects of vertu — not necessarily 
 meaning virtue," said Delaval as they stepped into 
 another apartment. "It reminds me of a similar room 
 in the Kaiser's palace in Berlin. Can you tell us, Mrs. 
 Twarlton, where some of these things came from?" 
 
 "In some cases, perhaps, but not many," she re- 
 plied. "But yonder is Morrison, who is a kind of 
 lord high steward. If I can get him away from those 
 women — ah, here he comes. Morrison, where did this 
 set of Sevres before us come from?" 
 
 "Oh, that, ma'am," and the steward's plump, smooth 
 face lightened up with the pleased vanity he felt at 
 being able to give information on such a subject; 
 "that whole set of a hundred pieces is decorated as 
 you see with gold ivy leaves and bears the ciphers of 
 Louis Philippe, having been made for his special use 
 at the Tuileries. This other set of thirty pieces, bear- 
 ing the eagles, was made for Napoleon when he was 
 First Consul. And here's seven platters and twelve 
 plates of old Wedgewood that were part of a set be- 
 longing to William Henry, Duke of Clarence, after- 
 ward King William the Fourth. Now, these dozen 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 335 
 
 of Sevres cups and saucers, as you observe, have por- 
 traits in miniature by Perier of Napoleon and his 
 family. Here's the Emperor, and this lady is Josephine, 
 and then there is Hortense, and then Prince Eugene, 
 and next is the little King of Rome, then Marie Louise, 
 and the others have the pictures of the Emperor's 
 brothers." 
 
 "I can tell you about some of these things," said 
 Mrs. Twarlton, as Morrison was seized upon by other 
 visitors. "Here is a Louis Fifteenth snuff box, this 
 oval piece made of gold. It is enameled en plein, 
 with subjects, as you see, of pastoral lovers, and chil- 
 dren, and landscapes. It cost ten thousand at an auc- 
 tion at Christie's. Gorman's agents, you know, are 
 everywhere in the old world, looking for bargains and 
 ready to overbid all others when they see what he 
 wants. I think this one still prettier — this gold tablet 
 case, enameled en plein, with four oval panels of 
 domestic scenes after Chardin, with still life in smaller 
 panels. The ground is chased with fluting and foliage 
 in gold of two colors, and with laurel wreaths around 
 the borders. I've heard that this belonged to Marie 
 Antoinette. The price, I was told, was twenty-two 
 thousand dollars — just think ! I would prefer for my 
 own use the one next to it, done by a Dutch artist 
 of Rembrandt's time. It is much prettier and yet it 
 cost only half as much. 
 
 "And this music room/' she continued as they 
 passed into the adjoining apartment, "is largely deco- 
 rated with things taken from the chateau of Louis 
 Fourteenth at Marly." 
 
 Just as they were passing from this apartment to 
 the grand ballroom, the gilded ceiling of which was 
 
336 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 fully thirty feet high, dinner was announced, and all 
 began retracing their steps toward the dining room. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE DINNER 
 
 Through a long, dimly lighted hall whose tall win- 
 dows overlooked a moonlit terrace and the sea, the 
 gay company strolled toward the dining room. The 
 women, with coiffures lavishly bedizened, and their 
 gleaming white shoulders pearl hung or diamonded, 
 were as gorgeous silver pheasants floating along to 
 the strains of music, their mousselines and laces and 
 chiffons and jeweled fans shimmering in the pale 
 radiance like fluttering wings. Whence came this 
 music ? No one seemed to know, and yet it called out 
 an insistent and alluring welcome, now loudly, now 
 softly, as though from an indefinable distance. The 
 very air pulsated with harmony and the guests, as if 
 fearing to disturb it, talked in low tones as they were 
 buoyed along on the waves of sound. 
 
 The violins throbbed and sobbed, and the piccolos 
 quavered a querulous wail. Then all the flutes and 
 stringed instruments joined in, and the far reaches 
 of the peaks of harmony were scaled. The soul of a 
 long dead genius communed with the listeners, and in 
 their souls hidden and unguessed beauties bloomed. 
 They felt remorse for crimes they had never com- 
 mitted, and joy for victories they had never won. 
 They glimpsed beautiful and terrible fantasies, and 
 were borne on wings of music to other lands and 
 climes and times. Birds of brilliant plumage sang to 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 337 
 
 them in tropic gardens, and Elysian waterfalls 
 gurgled, and nymphs and satyrs frolicked on the 
 green. 
 
 And now suddenly, as they stepped from the long 
 corridor into a grand apartment, their music-inspired 
 visions seemed about to be realized. The great dining 
 hall was like an enchanted land. It had been made 
 into a garden of palms and flowers, in the center of 
 which a fountain tossed luminous spray almost to the 
 ceiling. A soft blue radiance was over all, and when 
 their eyes became accustomed to this they saw that 
 thousands of electric bulbs had been tinted to produce 
 a twilight effect. And when they had been seated 
 about the long tables, one end of the room was lighted 
 up with an immense transparency depicting a street in 
 Venice. Between that and the first row of tables 
 was a canal filled with water, upon which floated a 
 gondola containing a party of troubadours. This 
 scene had scarcely burst upon the view when the or- 
 chestral music ceased, and the playing of guitars and 
 mandolins was heard, and then a soulful tenor voice 
 sang an Italian melody, while gondoliers plied the 
 craft backward and forward. 
 
 There was a buzz of pleased comment, out of which 
 Lyle caught the words, "Well, he's got 'em all beaten. 
 This is better than that dinner to the Russian Grand 
 Duke. It must have cost twice as much." 
 
 Mrs. Lamar and her friends were seated near the 
 head of the central table, but not until several mo- 
 ments had elapsed did she realize that she was next 
 to Gorman himself. And when he bent down so that 
 his face was in the light of the shaded imitation 
 candle between them, and smiled at her, she felt a 
 strange terror such as a child might feel if confronted 
 
338 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 by an orgre in an enchanted forest. Only by a great 
 effort did she refrain from screaming. But after a 
 merely formal greeting she turned to Delaval with a 
 calm face, whispered her discovery, and moved her 
 chair a little nearer to his. 
 
 "You will notice," said Delaval to Lyle, "that the 
 filet d'anchois a V huile is served a la Pompadour, 
 and the chicken patties are a la reine, but the lobster 
 is a I' americaine. 
 
 "Just listen to the conversation about you for a 
 while," he added. "You will not hear American poli- 
 tics or American books being discussed, or any such 
 ordinary topics. Those are left to rural debating 
 societies, and to the simple minded generally. But 
 in this company you will hear — what you will hear." 
 
 Just then the troubadour ceased singing, and the 
 orchestra began an accompaniment to a soprano voice 
 that sang "I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls." 
 The diners looked up and saw the singer in a Vene- 
 tian balcony on one side of the wall. The troubadour 
 sang the responsive part from the gondola. 
 
 "That must have cost our host three or four thou- 
 sand," Lyle heard some one say. "Those singers are 
 the highest-priced grand opera stars." 
 
 Conversation continued unabated during the sing- 
 ing. Lyle heard : 
 
 "I like Corot's landscapes because his trees are so — 
 uh — uh — so majestic, you know." ("That is Mrs. 
 Pillbridge Perry," whispered Mrs. Twarlton.) 
 
 "Oh, yes, I love Corot. We have ten of them." 
 ("Mrs. Gotell, who bought the Marquis of Osleigh 
 for her daughter," whispered Mrs. Twarlton.) 
 
 "Ah, Corot? Yes, I have hear zat he ees ver-ry 
 populaire in America," said a foreign voice. ("A Bel- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 339 
 
 gian count," whispered Mrs. Twarlton.) "I hear zat 
 ten thousand Corot have been sold in America." 
 
 "Well, I knew he was a great painter — I've got 
 some of his highest-priced pictures myself, but I 
 never heard that he had turned out so many as that." 
 ("That's Bryson, the tobacco and street railway king," 
 whispered Mrs. Twarlton. "He knows a great deal 
 more about the Stock Exchange than he does about 
 art") 
 
 Lyle glanced at the count, whose expression was 
 inscrutable. 
 
 "I read the most beautiful story by Alfred de Mus- 
 set the other day," said a feminine voice back of Lyle. 
 "It told of an affaire a" amour at Versailles in the reign 
 of Louis Quinzc. After she was firmly established in 
 the King's affections, it seems that the Pompadour met 
 a young poet, whose verses had won him recognition 
 by the beau monde. He had been sent to a ball at 
 the palace by his friend, the Due d'Alencon, who was 
 just then suffering under the displeasure of Louis. He 
 was to deliver a message to a certain marquis, a femme 
 galante of the court. This marquis was to procure 
 the aid of the Pompadour in returning an answer to 
 the Due. So the poet was summoned to the apart- 
 ments of the King's favorite after the ball. She had 
 told him of a secret entrance, known only to herself 
 and the King, and entering long after midnight, our 
 poet found her en deshabille. 'Ah, now you have seen 
 this mole under my left shoulder,' she said. 'Only my 
 husband, the King, and you know that I have this.' 
 And pledging him to secrecy " 
 
 A general burst of laughter at the table before him 
 over a joke being told by the Belgian Count drowned 
 out the rest of this interesting narrative. "That is 
 
34Q THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Geraldine De BHck," Mrs. Twarlton had whispered. 
 "She is to marry a Polish Count. Her sister's unhappy 
 union with the Duke of Burlboro does not discourage 
 her." 
 
 Another feminine voice, two chairs to Lyle's right, 
 was saying: 
 
 "One of the best books I have read lately is The 
 Fascinating Due de Richelieu. It tells of the amours 
 of this gallant man in such an interesting period of 
 history. Having met so many of the descendants of 
 the persons mentioned, it was particularly interesting 
 to me. The Memoirs of Madame de Maintenon is 
 scarcely its equal. ("That's the Countess de Cambe- 
 foy, who's just been divorced," whispered Mrs. Twarl- 
 ton. "Her husband took a million of her money and 
 built a Petit Trianon for his mistress in imitation of 
 the one that Louis Sixteenth built for Marie An- 
 toinette. But her experience hasn't kept her from be- 
 coming engaged to the Marquis de Gorlona, who is 
 after the rest of her fortune. She's Gluten's daughter, 
 you know.") 
 
 "I've read that book," a man's voice responded, 
 "and what struck me as most interesting was the 
 Duke's way of winning the ladies. Now, how do you 
 suppose he did it?" 
 
 "How?" inquired a woman. 
 
 "By despising them," was the reply. "He showed 
 that he cared nothing for them, and that made them 
 throw themselves in his way, and yield to him all the 
 quicker." 
 
 "What a terrible reflection on our sex," commented 
 the woman playfully. 
 
 The relative merits of the Decameron and the Hep- 
 tameron were being debated at still another table, and 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 341 
 
 directly across from Lyle an elderly woman ablaze 
 with diamonds was saying, "Poor little Prince Louis 
 — how his jailers did mistreat him!" (That's Mrs. 
 Stellmount," whispered Mrs. Twarlton.) 
 
 "Yes, indeed, it was pitiful," replied a woman next 
 to her. "Not only did they make him drunk and teach 
 him ribald songs, but they forced him to sign state- 
 ments against the Queen Mother herself. I suppose 
 you refer to Madame Campans Memoirs?" 
 
 "Yes, the book by the lady-in-waiting to Marie An- 
 toinette." ("It's the second Mrs. De Blick the 
 younger that she's talking to," whispered Mrs. Twarl- 
 ton. "Mrs. Stellmount was herself the first Mrs. De 
 Blick, until she found her husband in a room with an- 
 other woman. After the divorce she married again, 
 and so did her ex-husband, and now the two families 
 are all on good terms. Right next to her is the junior 
 Mr. Plaster, who has just bought a law for fifty thou- 
 sand from the New York Legislature that will give 
 him a secret trial of his divorce suit, so that the scan- 
 dalous part of it will never be known.") 
 
 The table back of them was now convulsed with 
 laughter, and when it had subsided somewhat, a 
 masculine guest cried in maudlin tones, "That was a 
 bong mo for you — about the Pompadour's lanzheray," 
 and a young woman, pretending to be shocked, turned 
 to a neighbor and said, "I don't like these stories of 
 doobl ongtond, do you?" The reply was, "Non, non. 
 It is too boorzhwazay." 
 
 A convivial young man opposite Mrs. Lamar leaned 
 toward her, and lifting his champagne glass, recited: 
 
 "Drink t' me only wiz zine eyes, 
 An' I'll pledge you wiz mine, 
 Or leave a kissh 'r two in your cup 
 An' I'll not ask for — for — an' 111 not ask — for a drink." 
 
342 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Lyle noticed him shrink back as he finished the 
 stanza, and to learn the cause looked first at Mrs. 
 Lamar, and then at Gorman. In the latter's eyes he 
 saw such an expression of baleful fury that he felt 
 this must have produced the shrinking sensation in 
 the vis-a-vis. 
 
 A moment later Mrs. Lamar leaned toward Delaval, 
 and as he turned to look at her he observed that the 
 delicate pink had gone from her cheeks, which were 
 now as white as the mousseline of her gown. Her 
 bosom was rising and falling tumultously. "What do 
 you suppose has happened?" she whispered. "He — 
 he — Mr. Gorman has just been taking liberties with 
 my person ! If the dinner were not nearly over I 
 would leave at once. But I feel strangely weak and 
 excited. I — I '' 
 
 "Let us go out on the terrace," said Delaval. "I 
 suppose the Emperor is affected by the two quarts of 
 champagne he has drunk. They say he is seldom 
 satisfied nowadays with one quart." 
 
 They were starting to rise, when at the same instant 
 it was announced that coffee would be served in the 
 garden. All the guests then rose and sauntered out 
 through the loggias, and down the marble steps to 
 the moonlit lawn. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE PURSUIT 
 
 The rays of the moon made silvern the leaves of 
 the oaks and bays, and gave an added whiteness to the 
 graceful statuary, which in places was brought into 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 343 
 
 strong relief by the somber cedars. And there was 
 mystery and charm in the dim distances, where faintly 
 gleamed a plashing fountain, and where stood marble 
 pergolas through which vines intertwined. Still fur- 
 ther off the waves sparkled phosphorescently as the 
 sea's surface was caressed by the softest of breezes. 
 
 The throbbing notes of an orchestra that seemed 
 now near, now far away, pulsated through the summer 
 air, and mild breezes wafted to grateful nostrils the 
 mingled sweetnesses of a thousand flowers. Sounds 
 of laughter and gay chatter, subdued by distance, 
 struck mellowly upon the ear as little groups began to 
 seat themselves in the white chairs about the tables, 
 while other groups strolled among the flowers and * 
 statues. 
 
 So balmy was the air that the women did not need 
 even the diaphanous shawls upon their shoulders. And 
 after a few minutes some of them, with careless grace, 
 allowed these to slip off and dangle from chair backs, 
 so that their shoulders and arms gleamed in the pale 
 radiance in rivalry with the marble beauties on pedes- 
 tals about them. 
 
 It was a veritable garden of mystery, in which no 
 one's identity was clear until almost within touching 
 distance. Perfectly trained lackeys went noiselessly 
 about serving little cups of cafe diabolique. This con- 
 coction, made of rum, spices and sugar, with coffee 
 in the bean, all heated together, was brought from 
 the palace kitchens. It was a liquid to please almost 
 any taste and, coming after the champagne and the 
 liqueurs, was well designed, amid such surroundings, 
 to put good humor into anyone who might thus far 
 have escaped it — into even the devil himself, had he 
 been there. 
 
344 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 After a period of languorous ambrosial sippings, in- 
 terspersed with quip and jest and laughter, lackeys 
 threaded their way among the vaguely limned groups, 
 and in low tones announced that which made all pay 
 interested heed. There was to be yet another affair 
 before the evening's pleasures were ended. "You will 
 kindly come down to the beach, where all are invited 
 to wade for pearl oysters in a pool." 
 
 Ejaculations of surprise, gurgles of delight, mutter- 
 ings of disbelief, and here and there a rebellious phrase 
 were heard. 
 
 "What? Why, we'll have to take off our shoes and 
 stockings !" in feminine tones. 
 
 "How perfectly startling!" cried another woman. 
 "And delightful," was added in a masculine voice. 
 
 "Well, this is the limit," from another of the sterner 
 sex, though he offered no objection. 
 
 "Oh, well, it's a warm night, anyhow," in soprano 
 phrases. 
 
 "And I feel ready for anything, don't you?" in 
 mezzo soprano, followed by a hiccough and a giggle. 
 
 "And just think — we may find pearls ! You know 
 how generous Mr. Gorman is," in tones also feminine. 
 
 But whether willingly or unwillingly, nearly all of 
 the company rose and began strolling toward the 
 beach. 
 
 "We may as well see this thing out," said Delaval 
 to Lyle, and Mrs. Lamar, much to the former's sur- 
 prise, rejoined, "Certainly; I feel ready for something 
 unusual." Then she smiled and leaned more heavily 
 on his arm. 
 
 He saw that her eyes were unusually bright. And 
 then he remembered that he had seen Gorman in the 
 shadow of a cedar tree, and that a lackey with a cup 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 345 
 
 of cafe didbolique had come from that shadow directly 
 to Mrs. Lamar, and had insisted that the cup was for 
 her only. 
 
 The guests proceeded over the green sward, or 
 along flower-bordered walks in the wake of several 
 liveried guides. After a time they crossed a rustic 
 bridge connecting with a wild path that led to a cliff, 
 and down its sides they followed until suddenly they 
 came upon a smooth, sandy beach upon which silvery 
 ripples were breaking gently into tiny bubbles of 
 liquid light. 
 
 A circular pool about fifty feet in diameter was 
 pointed out some yards from the shore. It was joined 
 to the sea by a miniature canal. Around the edges 
 of the pool were rows of camp stools, and the com- 
 pany were told to take seats and prepare for the wad- 
 ing. And now were repeated the comments that had 
 been heard in the garden. But some of those who 
 were saying that they could never consent to such a 
 thing were by their very actions consenting. And they 
 who refrained from removing their shoes and stock- 
 ings, remained to observe those who did. 
 
 "Where is Mrs. Gorman?" some one asked in low 
 tones, and the reply was, "She and several of her 
 friends did not leave the house." Lyle, who was 
 among those who decided to stay upon this scene 
 merely as a spectator, heard both query and answer. 
 He had asked himself the same question a moment 
 before when he saw Gorman furtively watching Mrs. 
 Lamar from a distance. 
 
 The hour, the wine, the witchery of the moon, the 
 contagion of example — all made their appeal to the 
 revelers. "Besides, it's no worse than bathing," said 
 Mrs. Twarlton to Mrs. Lamar. "And it's so delight- 
 
346 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 fully unique," she added. "They say the pearls among 
 the oysters are worth a fortune." 
 
 The eyes of Mrs. Lamar were still shining with a 
 strange brightness, and even in the soft light a flush 
 might be seen on her cheek as she lifted a small foot, 
 put it across her knee, removed her slipper, and then 
 deftly loosened her stocking. Both slippers and stock- 
 ings were soon off, and she leaned upon Delaval's arm 
 as he guided her toward the middle of the pool. 
 
 Now, the water was as warm as the balmy air, and 
 at no place was it more than eighteen inches deep. 
 But eighteen inches are quite a distance toward the 
 knee — in fact, that depth might go beyond many a 
 feminine knee. And when an inch or two were added 
 to allow for the height at which skirts had to be held 
 to avoid the water, and then, when a form was bent 
 far over in the search for oysters 
 
 But of course the skirts were only gradually raised, 
 and the ankles and then the legs were covered by 
 water as the waders stepped further and further into 
 the pool — they were covered, that is, except for a more 
 or less narrow rim of flesh, while beneath the surface, 
 though the water was clear, only vague blurs of legs 
 could be seen. Besides, everything was softened to 
 the view by the mild radiance of the moon. The 
 feminine arms and shoulders were mostly bare, but 
 these had been exposed all the evening. Still, they 
 seemed more alluring here. 
 
 "I've got one." 
 
 "So've I — a beauty." 
 
 "Oh, why can't I find any?" 
 
 "I wonder if there's a pearl in mine?" 
 
 "O-o-o-ouch !" 
 
 "What's the matter — a crab?" 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 347 
 
 "No-o-o. I thought it was, but it's only a pebble." 
 
 And so the search went on. 
 
 Mrs. Lamar was among the first to find an oyster, 
 and she hurried to the shore. Lyle, who was half a 
 dozen seats away, saw her first look guiltily about, as 
 though a reaction in her feelings had set in, and then 
 hastily put on her stockings and slippers. She then 
 began to examine her oyster, and had just learned 
 that it contained no pearl, when a lackey approached 
 and said in low tones, "Mr. Gorman would like to see 
 you for a moment up the path. It is a matter, he 
 says, of great importance to yourself and Mr. Lamar." 
 
 Half in dread, yet half believing that something of 
 grave import had happened, she rose and followed. 
 The lackey led her to the shadow of a pine beside the 
 path leading back to the palace, and then quickly 
 departed. 
 
 She saw a shadowy form standing under the tree, 
 and she knew it could be none other than Gorman. 
 Yet she felt a sudden terror when he stepped toward 
 her, and she realized that he was between her and the 
 beach. 
 
 "Mrs. Lamar, I love you," he said, and as she 
 caught her breath he went on rapidly, "I am the 
 busiest of mortals, and I have no time to make love. 
 There is hardly anything I would not or could not do 
 for you. Name whatever you desire " 
 
 "Stop!" she cried. "I must not listen to you, and 
 I will not." 
 
 She turned away, and began to walk up the path, 
 and he followed. He pleaded with her to be calm, 
 to listen, to let him be her friend, her husband's 
 friend. She only walked the faster. He walked faster 
 still. 
 
348 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 "My dear Mrs. Lamar, just one kiss," he begged 
 as he approached her again. His voice was now 
 hoarse with passion. She felt like crying out in ter- 
 ror, but decided to save her strength instead, and 
 broke into a run. The effect of the cafe diabolique 
 was past, and the reaction, added to the coolness of a 
 northerly breeze which had just sprung up, chilled her, 
 but her fears were more chilling still. 
 
 The path led over hillocks and around boulders on 
 its way to the top of the cliff, and had it not been 
 for the moon, now blazing in passionate, vibrating 
 intensity overhead, she would surely have stumbled. 
 Gorman was hoping for this, so that he might pick her 
 up in his arms. He could have rushed forward and 
 seized her at any time, but refrained only because he 
 feared the result of her screams. 
 
 When she arrived panting at the top she found the 
 path still tortuous. It wound in and out among sturdy 
 pines and scrub oak trees, and thence on to a rustic 
 bridge. Crossing the bridge she saw, a hundred yards 
 beyond, a grove of larger trees which she would have 
 to pass before she reached the garden. Gorman was 
 half-minded to lay hold of her here, so mad with 
 desire had he become. The grove was midway of 
 the palace and the beach, and far enough from either 
 to make ordinary cries carry faintly, if at all. 
 
 He bounded forward, but with new fears born of 
 the gloom she anticipated him, sped under the trees 
 with all her strength, and was running in the moon- 
 light ahead ere he was half way through the grove. 
 
 Her mantilla caught on a branch, and was torn 
 from her shoulders, but not a fraction of a second 
 could she pause to regain it. With her left hand she 
 carried her train, and in her excitement at times she 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 349 
 
 lifted it almost to her knees. She seemed much like 
 an animated statue, a veritable Diana, with her grace- 
 ful form gleaming marble-like in the moon's rays, and 
 her shimmering gown clinging in fairy-like folds about 
 her. 
 
 Lured on by the sight, Gorman's passion grew with 
 every stride. His quarry, entering the shades of the 
 garden, was confused by a network of paths, and his 
 hopes rose as he saw her hesitate. She knew the 
 palace was to one side of the garden, but which side 
 she could not recall. She heard her pursuer's heavy 
 breathing once more, and plunged blindly along a path 
 to the right. She soon found herself in a gloomy re- 
 treat, lined with tall cedars set closely together. Run- 
 ning on, she saw that the path led only to a grassy 
 terrace dotted with wild flowers and shrubs. 
 
 She looked desperately about for the palace, but saw 
 instead, dimly outlined a hundred yards onward, the 
 high, vine-covered wall that shut out the life of the 
 town. At that instant she felt a hot breath upon her 
 cheek, and turned to behold the passion-distorted face 
 of Gorman. In the center of his forehead was an 
 amorphous spot that glowed like a carbuncle. 
 
 "My darling," he began. 
 
 "Wh — why this outrage, sir ?" she demanded between 
 gasps for breath. 
 
 "I love you, and can make you the most envied " 
 
 "Stand back or I'll scream!" 
 
 She retreated behind a rustic bench and confronted 
 him with blazing eyes, holding up her hands to ward 
 him off. 
 
 "Good evening, Mrs. Lamar," said Lyle at that 
 moment, stepping out of the shadows. 
 
35o THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Mrs. Lamar began to sob hysterically, and this gave 
 Gorman a cue for an explanation. 
 
 "Ah, I am so glad you came along," he said, stifling 
 his rage and speaking with forced calmness. "You 
 are Mr. " 
 
 "Bellucci, of Milan, at your service, sir," was the 
 response. In the pale light, and with hair and skin 
 darkened, Lyle felt sure he would not be recognized, 
 but now that affairs had come to such a crisis, he 
 cared little. 
 
 "Well, Signor Bellucci, you see Mrs. Lamar got 
 lost on her way back from the beach, and she called 
 for help, and when I appeared suddenly, thought I 
 was a robber — or — or — or a ghost, maybe. She be- 
 came hysterical then, you know. I wish there was a 
 lady present to comfort her." 
 
 As he was speaking two forms were seen approach- 
 ing from thick shrubbery, near the vine-covered wall. 
 One was a feminine figure, the other masculine. Gor- 
 man recognized them both. The woman was Mrs. 
 Stokeham, a widow of forty who was commonly 
 reputed to be fond of young men. Her escort was 
 Reggy Plaster, one of the fastest of the younger set. 
 
 In time of trouble, women of all kinds are apt to 
 feel drawn to each other and to give sympathy to, or 
 receive it from those whom at other times they would 
 avoid. And now Mrs. Lamar felt grateful as Mrs. 
 Stokeham threw her arms about her and spoke com- 
 forting words in her ear, while Gorman continued his 
 explanation to the men. 
 
 All walked back to the palace, where Mrs. Lamar's 
 automobile was called. Lyle, pretending to accept 
 Gorman's version, bade him good-night, and accom- 
 panied her home. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 351 
 
 "I shall always be grateful to you," she said, as 
 soon as they had left the grounds. "But how did 
 you happen to be right there ?" 
 
 And then he told her that he had overheard the 
 lackey's message. Suspecting the truth, he had called 
 Delaval to his side, told him to watch the beach end 
 of the path, and then had hurried past the spot where 
 Gorman was in waiting, and had kept far ahead of 
 the pursuer and the pursued to the end of the chase, 
 but near enough to be on hand at the crisis. 
 
 "But I fear there will be other developments to this 
 affair," he concluded. 
 
 "I fear so, too, from what I have heard of Gorman," 
 she replied, and both were silent during the rest of 
 the ride. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 IMPERIAL REVENGE 
 
 Several months passed before Lyle heard of the 
 Lamars again. Delaval had gone to his old home in 
 Virginia to try to raise, by another mortgage, addi- 
 tional funds with which to start a new magazine, and 
 it was in a letter from him that Lyle read the story 
 that is here appended. The letter was dated at Pine- 
 ville, and after telling of success in obtaining money, 
 it continued : 
 
 "I came over here from my home in the next county to see 
 for myself the havoc wrought by imperial revenge. Pine- 
 ville, you know, is one of the oldest towns in the State, 
 and it had been for generations the home of the Lamar 
 family. Not only was it a beautiful little residence city, 
 but there were thriving tobacco factories and other indus- 
 tries along the river front. Now it is like a deserted 
 village. 
 
 "It reminds me of the situation in the Japanese comic 
 
352 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 opera when, by order of the Emperor, a city is reduced to 
 the rank of a village because no executions have taken 
 place there in a year. But by the American imperial 
 decree a town is made into a village, and no explanation 
 is given. It is all a hideous farce. lohn Lamar is one of 
 the finest men this State has ever produced, and he has 
 hosts of powerful friends — powerful as power is under- 
 stood in a provincial sense. But we provincial Americans 
 do not know what imperial power means, though we are 
 ruled by it every day. Well, this imperial power collided 
 with provincial power here, and now this town is prostrate, 
 and none except the Lamars know why. 
 
 ''After their hurried return from Newport, where they 
 declined all invitations from the palace following the 
 opening orgy, the Lamars were invited to visit the Gor- 
 mans in New York. This was early in the Autumn. 
 Instead of accepting, Lamar sent in his resignation as 
 vice-president of the Virginia Central. He thought that 
 the surrendering up of his official head would satisfy the 
 Emperor, but not so. A little later he was appointed 
 manager of an interurban trolley system. Gorman bought 
 that, and again he resigned. 
 
 "Then came the railway rate discriminations that killed 
 the prosperity of the town. The citizens appealed to the 
 State Railway Commission, and then to the National 
 Commission. Their protests went for naught. Always 
 there was a majority of officialdom against them. The 
 factories had to close, for they were compelled to pay 
 twice as much to ship their goods to New York as the 
 factories of South Carolina, twice as far away. Isn't it 
 almost beyond belief, in this day and age, that the func- 
 tions of government can be so distorted, while the people 
 remain asleep? But official records contain chis and other 
 instances of towns being ruined in a similar way. 
 
 "Fortunately, most of the Lamars' money was invested 
 outside of Pineville, and they will lose only the value of 
 their home. Lamar is coming to New York to buy a 
 third interest in the Atlantic Trust Company. Some 
 financial enemies of Gorman will aid him to become 
 president of it. And there is good news for us in this 
 move: Lamar will help us start the Progress Magazine, 
 and together we three will own ninety per cent, of the 
 stock, so there will be no selling out by the majority this 
 time. 
 
 "But daily grows the Gorman power, until the very name 
 of Gorman has become a synonym for gormand. One day 
 he seizes the telegraphs, the next the insurance compa- 
 nies, the next, a dozen steamship lines, and then follow 
 the electric industries, and the automobile factories. The 
 nation cannot even start to build a canal to unite the 
 oceans but his sinister figure darkens the horizon with a 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 353 
 
 gigantic scheme for loot. President and Congress are 
 forced to abandon the chosen route, and pay him forty 
 millions for stock he secretly bought for six from the 
 swindled Panama investors of France. And they call him 
 our greatest 'Napoleon of finance!' An eagle symbolized 
 the courage of the Corsican. A vulture stands for Gor- 
 man's. Gorged with everything worth while in America 
 he now turns his attention to the Orient, and loans China 
 a hundred millions for national railroads and telephones. 
 Think of it! The Chinese nation may own such things, 
 but not the American, and yet we Americans pay for all. 
 
 "Perhaps we had better change the country's name to 
 Gormania at once, and give him the crown. It would be 
 immensely cheaper. But I cannot help fighting his system, 
 futile though it may be, when I think of how my father 
 was hounded to the grave, and when I see my friends 
 ruined, provinces plundered, and the nation's very existence 
 threatened by a 'self-made' beast, drunk with wealth and 
 power, who bawls his orders to courts, commissions, stock 
 markets and governments — not even when I am to marry 
 his daughter. s 
 
 "Is this last surprising? Well, Theodora has promised to 
 marry me as soon as my new play is produced, and it is 
 shortly to be tried out at the National, the new endowed 
 theater. Filbin, the literary director, has been my friend 
 for years, and he has accepted 'The Ruler of America.' 
 It is to appear right after the opening play's run is ended. 
 
 "And now I have some more news pertinent to the 
 hour: Gorman has built a new library and art gallery 
 adjoining his latest palace overlooking the Hudson, and 
 he wants people interested in art and literature to see it, 
 so that his reputation as a connoisseur will grow. Special 
 tickets have been issued, and I have obtained a half dozen 
 from a friend on Whistler's Magazine. While Gorman is in 
 Europe we can go safely enough, and I suggest that you 
 and Mercedes, Theodora and I go next week, and take 
 the Lamars, who will be in New York then. I expect to 
 get some ideas for my play, as the new temple is said to 
 be the apple of the imperial eye, and a scene located in 
 such a setting should make an impressive feature," 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE MARBLE LIBRARY 
 
 The building was of white marble, in the style of 
 the Parthenon at Athens. Sculptures in the pediment 
 
354 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 facing the street represented Athena aiding Perseus 
 to slay the Gorgon Medusa. In the rear pediment was 
 a group showing the goddess overcoming the sea god 
 Poseidon. 
 
 The six visitors alighted from an automobile and 
 entered through great bronze doors into a vaulted 
 marble hall paved with Roman mosaic. On either 
 side they saw a pair of greenish marble columns. 
 These were originally from some Italian quarry, but 
 lately taken from the hotel of the Comte d'Evreux 
 in the Faubourg St. Honore in Paris. So explained 
 one of the liveried guides. There were two other 
 guides, each with a party of visitors, in other parts 
 of the building. 
 
 "That place you mention in the Faubourg St. Hon- 
 ore was one of the homes of the Marquise de Pom- 
 padour, was it not?" asked Mrs. Lamar. 
 
 "Yes, madame/' answered the guide. 
 
 Illumination for the hall came from a central double 
 skylight of plate glass, of such wonderful transparency 
 that the sky was seen as if through empty air. The 
 ceiling was a groined vault, square in plan, and resting 
 upon three sides and an arch. In each of the lunettes 
 of the three sides were decorations in figure subjects 
 illustrating stories from the Grecian mythology. 
 
 Proceeding into the main hall, which was filled with 
 statuary and paintings, the visitors saw an apartment 
 with walls thirty feet high, lighted through double 
 plate glass in octagonal form. 
 
 The ceiling around the skylight, as the guide 
 pointed out, was separated into panels by mouldings 
 in color, on a gold background. In the first panel, 
 the seated female figure in full relief was Clio, the 
 Muse of History, and the eight other Muses were in 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 355 
 
 the other panels. In the angles, on rectangular panels, 
 were painted groups illustrating the chief stories in the 
 Scriptures, and several in allegory. The backgrounds 
 in the painted panels were mosaic gold, and the gen- 
 eral background of the whole ceiling was gold, with 
 arabesque decorations in various mediums. 
 
 In the great semi-circular lunettes above the cornice 
 on the opposite wall were represented the gods of 
 Olympus throned in the center, and the Iliad and the 
 Aneid were personified in groups on either side. On 
 the wall to the right was shown a tabernacle or shrine 
 of the Muses, rich in carving and gold, with support- 
 ing winged figures on either side. On the left, in full 
 relief, was a sculpture of Venus rising from the sea. 
 
 "Now in the next room is the library," said the 
 guide, "and if you will kindly follow me " 
 
 "But I'd rather see these statues and pictures first, 
 wouldn't you?" asked Theodora, who was looking 
 nearer happy than ever before as she leaned on Dela- 
 val's arm. He and the others agreed with her, and 
 the guide was excused. 
 
 There were subdued exclamations of surprise and 
 delight as they passed from statue to statue, from 
 painting to painting. Among the first of the marbles 
 was a broken dream of exquisite beauty handed down 
 from the young days of old Greece, a Ganymede with 
 one ami gone. In the ruins of Delphi, oft ravished in 
 olden days to enrich the palaces of Roman imperators, 
 it had been lately unearthed to adorn the temple of 
 this modern emperor on the far shores of America, in 
 a land beyond even the "ultimate dim Thule" of the 
 ancients. Perhaps Praxiteles himself had chiseled this 
 figure. The arm and hand remaining still held out the 
 
356 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 empty cup made to contain nectar for the gods, and 
 the marble lips still smiled their immortal smile. 
 
 Beside it stood the figure of a Greek slave fashioned 
 by one of the earliest Italian masters. The delicate 
 lines of the face seemed almost to speak with the 
 woman's intense longing to be free — the woman's 
 longing, for surely there was a woman's spirit im- 
 prisoned in that stone, else it could not be so express- 
 ive of feminine feeling. This feeling was shown in 
 every lineament of the face, in the very tension of 
 the beautiful limbs which appeared yet to quiver from 
 the humiliation of the lash, and in the heave of the 
 rounded bosom that seemed still vibrant with emotion. 
 
 And there were Donatellos and Verrochios, Thor- 
 waldens and Flanxmans, and others from every prin- 
 cipal country where sculpture had flourished, all 
 grouped in perfect taste, and ranging from the earliest 
 marbles instinct with Hellenic grace down to the latest 
 block of stone into which the great, rugged, masterful 
 Rodin had flung a soul. 
 
 The pictures were next viewed. Here was a Corot 
 that had cost a hundred thousand dollars, and beside 
 it was a Rembrandt for which two hundred thousand 
 had been paid. The prices were mentioned by the 
 guide, who had returned to enlighten the beholders as 
 to the worth of what they gazed on. "A French so- 
 ciety was organized to save the Corots still in that 
 country," he said, "but Mr. Gorman outbid them on 
 this and half a dozen others. The rest of them are 
 in the American Museum of Art, but his favorite pic- 
 tures he keeps here." 
 
 "How much does he spend in a year on art works ?" 
 Lyle asked. 
 
 "I heard him tell some one lately that it's now about 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 357 
 
 three millions," replied the guide, and there was a 
 tinge of pride in his tones. "He also said," continued 
 the man, seeing that he had interested auditors, "that 
 this sum was twenty or thirty times what the German 
 government expended on the imperial galleries." 
 
 "Mr. Gorman has been decorated by several Eu- 
 ropean sovereigns, hasn't he, because of the works of 
 art he has presented to them?" Delaval inquired. 
 
 "Oh, yes, by most of them, I think. The latest 
 decoration is from China. It's the order of the Four- 
 Eyed Dragon, or something like that. But the Ger- 
 man Kaiser won't honor him any more now, I'm 
 afraid, on account of the ship trust." 
 
 "And there's not a picture here by an American 
 artist, is there?" asked Lamar. "We have produced 
 some great landscape painters. Surely, they are 
 worthy of patronage." 
 
 "Well, you see, sir, Mr. Gorman pays the best prices 
 for everything, and wants only the most famous. 
 American painters are not yet famous enough, I 
 imagine." 
 
 They were walking toward the library, and at that 
 moment were before a masterpiece by Zorolla, the 
 newest genius of old Spain. Next to it was Velas- 
 quez' "Spanish Statesman," for which three hundred 
 thousand had been paid. Altogether, there were fifty 
 paintings by ancient and modern European artists be- 
 fore their eyes, and together these must have cost five 
 millions. 
 
 "The best foreign artists decorated these walls," 
 said the guide, as they proceeded into the library 
 proper. "On those semi-circular lunettes up there you 
 see paintings illustrative of great scenes in literature. 
 One shows the rape of Lucrece, another the death of 
 
358 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 King Arthur, another Virgil's meeting with Dante in 
 hell, and so on. In the octagonal panels separating 
 the lunettes are medallion portraits of Homer and 
 Virgil, Tasso and Dante, Shakespeare and Milton. 
 
 "And in these bookshelves, which are made of Cir- 
 cassian walnut," he rambled on, "you may find the 
 choicest collection of books in the world. Here are 
 Gutenbergs and Caxtons, Aldines and Elzevirs, a 
 series of the Golden Gospels of the seventh century, 
 and whole series from the presses of Venice, of Flor- 
 ence, and of Augsburg. And the finest missals are 
 here, and autographs of hundreds of famous writers." 
 
 "Any Americans ?" asked Delaval. 
 
 "No, sir, except Poe, and maybe Hawthorne, too. 
 He doesn't think much of modern American writers, 
 I suppose." 
 
 "Naturally," remarked Delaval in low tones to the 
 others. "He has too many of them on his pay roll." 
 
 There were beautiful rugs on the floor, and tapes- 
 tries of exquisite workmanship on the walls. The 
 silken strands of one rug had been dyed by Oriental 
 hands and woven into a gorgeous semblance of the 
 regal gardens of Persia ; the lithe, yellow fingers of 
 Japan, with their pointed nails, had made the white 
 satin screen with its delicately enameled peacocks, and 
 some lean Italian hand, with long and supple fingers, 
 had carved a beautiful ebony cabinet that stood in one 
 corner. 
 
 Upon the cabinet was the copy of a recent American 
 magazine. Lyle and Mercedes opened it together, and 
 he pointed out to her that the leading article was a 
 eulogy entitled "Gorman the Great." The opening 
 paragraph compared him with Lorenzo the Magnifi- 
 cent, and with several famous rulers of the past who 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 359 
 
 were noted for their love of art. At that instant the 
 guide, who seemed to have taken a fancy to these par- 
 ticular visitors, and who had been showing Delaval 
 and Mrs. Lamar some rare treasures, announced that 
 he had an original Byron manuscript. 
 
 "An agent was two years searching Greece for this," 
 he said, and they all gathered about him to see the 
 chirography of the great poet. They looked over his 
 shoulder and read these lines, to which his ringer 
 pointed as the most legible : 
 
 "Nor all that heralds rake from coffined clay, 
 Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme 
 Can blazon evil deeds, or consecrate a crime." 
 
 "How strange that we should read those words 
 here," remarked Delaval as they all turned to go. 
 "What a fine protest by a great soul against the per- 
 version of language by prostituted minds ! It is in- 
 spiring just to read them. 
 
 "And by the way," he added, as they rode away in 
 the automobile, "if you will all come to the National 
 Theater to-morrow evening, I will tell you about the 
 protest against prostituted minds contained in my 
 new play, 'The Ruler of America,' which will be the 
 next production there." 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 AT THE ENDOWED THEATER 
 
 There was a Grecian simplicity about the new 
 National Theater which soothed and charmed an eye 
 
360 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 accustomed to the inharmonies of New York archi- 
 tecture. The facade was of pure white marble, and 
 it rose no higher above the pavement than one of 
 those Attic temples in which the characters of ^schy- 
 lus once trod the boards. The pediment, overlooking 
 a pleasant parkway, was upheld by Ionic columns of 
 chastest stone. 
 
 The Delaval party arrived early and strolled about 
 the lobbies for a while before entering the auditorium. 
 
 "How beautiful it is, dear, and how proud I shall 
 be to witness your play in such a setting!" said Theo- 
 dora, as she and Delaval stood apart from the others 
 in one end of the grand lobby. "You knew all the 
 time that I loved you well enough to marry you, but 
 I did so want to encourage you to do something fine 
 and big." 
 
 Her eyes that were wont to be filled with melancholy 
 now shone brightly with love and pride. He, too, 
 looked anything but pessimistic, as he allowed his 
 spirit to bathe in anticipatory joys, and he smiled 
 happily as he led the way into the box which the 
 literary director had reserved for him. Lyle and 
 Mercedes followed just behind them, and Mr. and 
 Mrs. Lamar, who had met some Southern friends in 
 the lobby, entered the box last. 
 
 It would have been hard to say which of the ladies 
 looked the most beautiful in evening attire. All were 
 dark eyed, and similar in height and form and com- 
 plexion, all were gracefully gowned, and their coif- 
 fures were by some chance so nearly alike that the 
 trio might have been taken for sisters. Mrs. Lamar 
 was the youngest, but only at close range could this 
 have been told. 
 
 The new playhouse had been open for only a few 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 361 
 
 days, so that most of the audience came to see the 
 theater itself as much as the play. "Henry V." was 
 the bill for the first two months, after which "The 
 Ruler of America," by Arthur Delaval, was to be 
 given a trial. 
 
 "You must be careful, Del, or these decorations will 
 outshine your play," said Lyle, as he and the others 
 looked about them. 
 
 And so it seemed. Those who might have lamented 
 the lack of outer decoration here found no cause for 
 complaint. They saw marbles of many hues, plush 
 and velvet hangings, and paint and gold and gilt in 
 great profusion. Before them rose an immense pros- 
 cenium arch to the height of a hundred feet or more. 
 This was topped by a gigantic shield of gold, and 
 upon either side of this leaned golden angels in full 
 relief. Above the shield was a marble panel, and upon 
 it in bas-relief was a double mask of Comedy and 
 Tragedy, and this was flanked on either side by clus- 
 ters of golden grapes. Nude nymphs of gold hovered 
 near, and Cupids of the same substance were flying 
 about. 
 
 On either side of the proscenium rose three Corin- 
 thian pillars of white marble, resting upon breccia 
 marble bases. Between the first two pillars were 
 golden shields and Cupids, and between the second 
 and third pillars were two tiers of boxes overhung 
 with gilded canopies. The names of great dramatists 
 of ancient and modern times were inscribed on marble 
 panels in a row all around the walls just beneath the 
 ceiling, and upon these panels leaned partly draped 
 marble figures of the Muses in bas-relief. 
 
 Over all was a ceiling ablaze with golden glory. 
 From the center hung a massive cone shaped chan- 
 
362 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 delier, surmounted by a crown of gold. This crown 
 was bordered by eight pairs of aureate nymphs. Be- 
 tween each pair were arabesques, quirls and other fan- 
 ciful designs upon shields, all in gold and all in full 
 relief. The rest of the ceiling was covered with stars 
 and bars of gold, and with golden Cupids, and clusters 
 of auriferous grapes, and besides all this many gilded 
 shields were strewn about promiscuously as though 
 flung there by despairing angels fleeing from the 
 hosts of Satan. 
 
 "Why, this theater must have cost millions," said 
 Mrs. Lamar. "I wonder who gave the money. They 
 must have had gold to throw away, since they scat- 
 tered it about like this." 
 
 "I have heard that ten millionaires gave the bulk 
 of it," replied her husband. "But the fund was started 
 by a group of comparatively poor men, including sev- 
 eral dramatists, and authors of books and reformatory 
 magazine articles — say, you two gentlemen must have 
 been among those interested in the beginning, weren't 
 you?" 
 
 "Yes," Delaval admitted. "Lyle and I gave a hun- 
 dred dollars each, but that was not enough to have our 
 names included in the list of names on a marble tablet 
 out in the lobby. However, we did not expect that. We 
 wanted to help along a movement for pure drama, 
 and such drama must be independent of the support 
 of the majority of playgoers. We aided the plan more 
 by magazine articles than by money. The Theatre 
 Franchise in Paris was our model. We finally got a 
 large part of the press interested, and then the million- 
 aires were enticed into the scheme — men who have 
 become rich in railways, or sugar, or pork, or depart- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 363 
 
 ment stores, and so on — and the chance to be known 
 as patrons of pure drama appealed to them." 
 
 "But it puzzles me," said Lyle, "to understand how 
 Gorman overlooked the chance to get the glory, or 
 the main share of it. He has given only a hundred 
 thousand, which is equivalent to a contribution of 
 about fifty cents from one of us. He must have been 
 too busy to think of the matter." 
 
 "It is puzzling," Delaval agreed, "and it is the more 
 so, since he has not left the theatrical field alone in 
 other directions. He has built the Colosseum, you 
 know — although the masses don't know it. There the 
 great spectacular shows are given with elephants and 
 horses and other animals on the stage, and sometimes 
 ships are floated in huge tanks, and naval battles re- 
 produced. I think his plan is like that of the Roman 
 emperors who delighted the populace with arena dis- 
 plays and thus kept their minds off their own degra- 
 dation. But he, of course, makes them pay good 
 prices to see the shows." 
 
 "Do you mean that he owns the Colosseum?" asked 
 Lamar. 
 
 "Not precisely, but his allies, acting under his di- 
 rection, built it with money made in steel." 
 
 "Next, he will probably be organizing a theater 
 trust," remarked Mrs. Lamar. 
 
 "There is one already," Lyle explained. "We will 
 have an article about it in one of the early numbers 
 of the Progress. Jews are the controlling factors in it. 
 They make the leading actors play on their terms, or 
 keep them out of the best theaters. A famous English 
 actor had to appear for two weeks in a tent out West 
 because he declined to give them more than a fair 
 share of the profits. But I don't think Gorman will 
 
364 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 try to rule in this field further than to see that his 
 critics discourage reformatory plays." 
 
 After the first act they all strolled in the lobby again, 
 and when they had returned to their box, Theodora 
 asked Delaval who the gentleman was that he had 
 talked with in front of the tablet of names. 
 
 "Oh, that was a dramatic critic on the one remain- 
 ing newspaper in this town that criticises the 'Em- 
 peror' in any way. He was telling me a story that is 
 very interesting, but which no one will dare to print. 
 It has to do with Mr. Gorman's personal interest in 
 theatrical life. It involves the name of a professional 
 actress. Shall I tell it ?" 
 
 "Yes, do," said Mrs. Lamar and Mercedes together. 
 Theodora looked indifferent. She had long since 
 ceased to regard Gorman as her father, and felt only 
 an impersonal concern in what was said of him. 
 
 "Well," said Delaval, "it explains the mystery of 
 the Myrtle Belden Theater. You know that many 
 people have wondered how a young and beautiful but 
 not especially clever actress could be the first woman 
 in America to have a theater of her own. Her new 
 playhouse is a marble gem. It is not large, but in 
 every way it is a perfect theater. Her husband, whom 
 she has recently divorced, is an actor who was never 
 known to possess a fortune. A year ago he was bank- 
 rupt, and now he is a Wall Street financier, promot- 
 ing companies of large capital. But the Belden Thea- 
 ter was still more of a mystery than that, for it cost 
 something near half a million, and there is no mort- 
 gage on it. The mystery now seems explained by 
 the fact that Myrtle Belden and the 'Emperor' have 
 frequently been seen together at foreign watering 
 places, besides traveling to and from Europe on the 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 3 6 5 
 
 same steamer — the Jupiter, the most palatial of the 
 Gorman boats." 
 
 "But didn't he think a great deal of another actress, 
 Mrs. Lionel Barton ?" Lyle asked. 
 
 "He did, until she ran off and married a young 
 actor. About this time Myrtle Belden took her first 
 trip abroad, on the Jupiter, which is the 'Emperor's' 
 favorite steamer. The critic tells me he heard that 
 she deliberately sought to attract his notice by engag- 
 ing a stateroom near his, and throwing herself in his 
 way during the trip. If that is so, hers was much 
 like the method of Madame de Pompadour, who fre- 
 quently went driving in the park at Versailles until 
 she attracted the attention of Louis." 
 
 "And Gorman is past three score years of age !" re- 
 marked Lamar. "In fact, he is very near seventy 
 now. His vitality, mental and physical, is a cause of 
 never ceasing wonder to me." 
 
 There was an expression of relief on his face, and 
 on that of his wife, when Delaval's story was finished. 
 
 Mercedes also was not sorry to hear of the episode. 
 She had never ceased to fear Gorman, although her 
 trepidation had become less and less as the years 
 passed. How long ago it now seemed that she had 
 been — had been — no, she could not finish that phrase, 
 even in her own mind. And she was still youthful 
 and beautiful. What would she have been by this 
 time if Lyle had not come into her life! Some day 
 she meant to tell him everything, for she knew that 
 he would be great enough to understand. Together 
 they had grown to a higher plane, and they should 
 have no secrets from each other, and yet 
 
 She debated with herself through the entire play, 
 watching Lyle's handsome face as he drank in the 
 
366 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 poetic beauty of the lines recited by the actors, but 
 she could come to no conclusion. 
 
 The last act was nearing its close when an usher 
 entered the box with a sealed envelope in his hand. 
 "For Mr. Delaval," he said, "from the literary direc- 
 tor." Delaval, who was smiling happily with Theodora 
 over some bit of dialogue, turned to receive the 
 message. 
 
 "Probably wants to see me about my play," he mut- 
 tered, as he opened the envelope. He read the enclo- 
 sure, and then turned a blanched face toward his 
 friends. 
 
 "Read it," he said, in a hoarse voice, handing the 
 paper to Lyle, and Lyle read in low tones, while the 
 others bent their heads to listen : 
 
 "Dear Mr. Delaval: I must resign to-morrow as lit- 
 erary director of this theater, and one of the consequences 
 will be that your play cannot be produced here. Mr. C. 
 Jefferson Gorman, as a condition to an additional donation 
 of $1,000,000 to the National Theater, has insisted upon the 
 appointment of the majority of the board of directors, 
 who will name his choice for literary director. His is by 
 far the largest individual gift, and was too great a bait 
 to be refused, as it puts the theater entirely out of debt. 
 My successor is to be Fullerton, ex-dramatic critic on 
 Gorman's Luminary, as you know. He came in to-night, 
 and announced that he would take charge in the morning. 
 One of the first things he said was that your play would 
 be returned to you at once as unavailable. I have a 
 suggestion to make concerning its possible appearance 
 elsewhere, but so far as this theater is concerned, the case 
 is now hopeless. Meet me at the Fine Arts Club to- 
 morrow at 2, and I will give you further details. Sympa- 
 thetically and cordially yours, Horace Filbin." 
 
 "So much for pure drama in America," remarked 
 Delaval bitterly, as, with a bloodless face, but smiling 
 cynically, he led the way slowly out of the box. 
 
 Theodora clung to his arm, and, leaning close to him 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 367 
 
 as they passed through the lobby, whispered in his ear, 
 "Never mind, dear. I'll marry you anyhow. I love 
 you now more than ever, because you need me more." 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE PEOPLE NEED A LESSON 
 
 "Blood will be spilt — I feel it in the very air," 
 said Lamar, one morning, a month later, as he entered 
 the office of the Progress Magazine. He was pale 
 and worn, and his eyes looked as though he had tossed 
 upon a sleepless bed. He seemed to have aged a decade 
 in a month. 
 
 "Do you mean a panic?" asked Delaval, laying aside 
 a pencil with which he had just finished an unusually 
 bitter editorial against a general advance in railway 
 rates. One of the strongest arguments he had urged 
 was that the railroads entering the metropolis were 
 making the legions of commuters from the suburbs pay 
 higher prices for tickets in order to build two hand- 
 some new stations which the railroad would, of course, 
 continue to own. Each station would cost at least 
 five million dollars. This method of forcing the public 
 to pay for these accommodations in advance, even 
 granting that private ownership was just, was a rever- 
 sal of an established economic principle. 
 
 "Yes, a panic," replied Lamar. "The word has 
 gone forth. I get it from underground sources which 
 I cannot doubt. The throne has decreed that the 
 President and the people need a lesson. Oh, that 
 such things can be, in this day and age and country, 
 
368 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 with no earthly power to prevent ! We shall be ruined, 
 my wife and I, but that will be only incidental. We 
 will be but two in the multitude. Think of the general 
 havoc that must be wrought !" 
 
 "How do you know he still seeks your ruin?" 
 
 "Through purchased directors he has loaded up 
 the Atlantic Trust with questionable securities. Be- 
 sides the Alabama Coal and Iron stock, he has unloaded 
 on us, in exchange for gold, a large block of old Char- 
 ley Stine's Monongahela Valley Coal stock. Horton, 
 the head of Horton's bank, who is one of my closest 
 friends, and has been one of our directors, opposed 
 this deal so strongly that the Gorman directors have 
 forced him to resign from the board. And now a 
 receiver has been named for the Monongahela com- 
 pany, and it has been shown that its stock is worth 
 but twenty dollars a share, instead of the ninety we 
 were forced to pay. 
 
 "But that is mere business detail," he continued. 
 "What makes me certain that he is deliberately striking 
 at me is another attempt to get Mrs. Lamar to visit 
 him. It was this way: Two weeks ago a society 
 woman called on her, and after a lot of inconsequen- 
 tial talk asked her, in a seemingly casual manner, why 
 she didn't accept any invitations to the Gormans', and 
 always avoided affairs which they attended. My wife 
 said she preferred her own friends. 'Well/ her visitor 
 replied, 'it would certainly be to the interest of both 
 yourself and your husband to be more friendly in that 
 direction.' " 
 
 "Why, he must be an insatiable beast in love — or lust 
 — as well as in vengeance," said Delaval. "And to 
 think that there is no way you can strike at him. If 
 you were to send him a challenge to a duel you would 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 369 
 
 be arrested. If you were to slap his face publicly 
 you would be branded as a maniac, and perhaps con- 
 fined for the rest of your natural life." 
 
 "Yes, I feel like a man being condemned to death 
 without a trial, for having offended some invisible 
 and terrible monster, against whom all weapons are 
 powerless. I " 
 
 Mrs. Lamar, with a white and haggard face, entered 
 the office at this instant. 
 
 "They told me at the trust company that I would 
 find you here," she said, after asking Delaval's pardon 
 for her interruption. "That woman has been to see 
 me again, John," she continued. "She repeated what 
 she said the last time. She made no threats, and de- 
 clared, when I asked her what her motives were, that 
 she only wanted to see us friendly with her great and 
 good friend, and so I could not order her to leave 
 my house. But, oh ! John, I do think we ought to go 
 away somewhere— to our friends in England, or to 
 France, or anywhere away from America. We have 
 yet money enough to live comfortably upon for some 
 years if " 
 
 "No! no!" And Lamar rose, and began to pace 
 the office floor. "That would be desertion under fire. 
 You see, many of my friends are interested in the 
 Atlantic Trust, and if I were to run away now they 
 would all be ruined, I fear. Come, dear, and let me 
 take you to a carriage. As soon as I am through 
 talking to Mr. Delaval I will return home at once. 
 But please calm yourself. There is no immediate 
 danger." 
 
 They went out together, and five minutes later 
 Lamar re-entered the office. "It is through women 
 
370 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 that he strikes his deadliest blows," he remarked as 
 he sat down. 
 
 "He is still hitting - at us, too," said Delaval. "Every- 
 day or so we lose a big advertiser, or we are hampered 
 in some other way, such as by the loss of a contributor 
 who is paid higher prices to leave us, and write for 
 one of the conservative magazines. We have begun 
 to lose money, but we will sink our craft, if necessary, 
 with all the colors flying, before we surrender." 
 
 "Are you going to try to produce your play again?" 
 
 "Yes, but not in New York. The only theater we 
 could get here was a secondary one, and, as you know, 
 the performance was ignored or condemned by those 
 critics who did not seek to damn it with faint praise. 
 There was one exception — Summers of the Forum, the 
 oldest and ablest dramatic critic in America. He 
 praised it, and a week later he was forced to resign 
 on some flimsy pretext. After four nights the play 
 was taken off. We shall next try some big Western 
 city, like Chicago or San Francisco, where the spirit 
 of freedom is still strong." 
 
 "Ah, yes, the West seems to be the only hope of 
 the republic," mused Lamar, thoughtfully. "That is 
 where the new President is from — the first President 
 in a generation to oppose Gorman and his crowd." 
 
 "And the first President since the first few decades 
 of the nation's existence who was not a self-made man 
 or a lawyer," added Delaval. "He was elected to the 
 presidency as a conservative. But it seems that was 
 only a mask. Just as before the Civil War no man 
 could become President against the wishes of the slave 
 power, so now none can gain that office against the 
 desires of Gorman." 
 
 "But even this one is only relatively against him." 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 371 
 
 said Lamar. "He doesn't dare go so far as to favor 
 regulation of the Stock Exchange, or government 
 ownership of railways. But do you know that not 
 one thing has been accomplished in the way of reform, 
 even by this President? When he forces a reluctant 
 Congress to pass an occasional law, the courts kill it. 
 The courts — oh, the courts — what a mockery they have 
 become ! Have you seen a picture of the new Federal 
 Supreme Court's chief justice, appointed before this 
 President took office? God, but what a face he has! 
 It is like that of a successful Bowery ward heeler : 
 fat, large-jowled, sordid, coarse and terrible. Bloody 
 Jeffreys would have been fair to look upon compared 
 with him." 
 
 "But if this panic takes place," Delaval said, after 
 a time, "I'm afraid it will ruin us all. If we survive, 
 however, I want to write the history of it, with all 
 the whys and wherefores. Will you enlighten me 
 on one point ? Just how can the thing be precipitated ?" 
 
 Lyle entered at this moment, and awaited with 
 interest the answer to this question. 
 
 Lamar walked up and down for a while to steady 
 his nerves. He was about to begin his explanation 
 when a street piano in the parkway below started the 
 miserere from "II Trovatore." When the music ceased 
 he remarked, "The poor man who turned that crank, 
 and the people who listened, little think how appro- 
 priate to the hour the music is. 
 
 "But I will try to answer your question," he went 
 on. "I think I can demonstrate with mathematical 
 exactness how the panic can be brought on, though 
 the details as to when, and in what particular, certain 
 things may be expedited are, of course, beyond me. 
 Gorman and his allies, you know, now control ninety 
 
372 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 per cent, of the banking strength of the metropolis, 
 and the banks here handle two-thirds of the nation's 
 finances. He and those who usually act with him 
 in big deals control, besides, hundreds of millions of 
 insurance funds, and a hundred millions or more that 
 several big railway systems keep ready for speculative 
 uses. This group of men thus have at their command 
 most of the three billions of dollars in actual cash in 
 the entire country. This three billions represent but 
 two per cent, of the country's business, the rest being 
 done on credit. When credit is good three billions 
 is enough cash. With a strong, reliable government 
 in control of all money, there would never be any 
 doubt of credit in times of peace and plenty. But 
 with the immense preponderance of the medium of 
 circulation in the hands of a few men, with contempt 
 for a feeble government, the temptation to punish that 
 government when it interferes with them, to their great 
 loss, is irresistible. 
 
 "Now as to method: They will probably withdraw 
 the money they control from general circulation at a 
 certain hour; sap, as it were, the veins of commerce 
 of its life blood until the body politic staggers from 
 weakness, and then give back that blood upon their 
 own terms. Silently the pipes which connect with all 
 the money vaults will be operated until all the gold 
 and silver and bank notes have been transferred to 
 the banks of the clique. Stocks of seeming value in 
 steel and coal and railway and iron and other com- 
 panies will be left in the hands of the investors, or 
 in the vaults of banks not favored by the inner circle, 
 in place of the cash ; and then a bank failure here and 
 there, or a gloomy crop report, or rumors of war, or 
 something else that sounds plausible, will be used 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 373 
 
 to start the machinery of the Stock Exchange in 
 motion to destroy values " 
 
 "But that would be fiendish— it would amount to 
 wholesale murder!" cried Lyle. 
 
 "Can you doubt that the men who have separately 
 manipulated steel and copper and railways and the 
 other things— can you doubt that these men would 
 manipulate everything at once if they saw enough gain 
 in prospect?" inquired Lamar. 
 
 "No — and yet— and yet it is playing with dynamite, 
 which might easily explode too soon, and destroy the 
 users," said Lyle. 
 
 "It might," replied Lamar, "if the users were not 
 so expert. But these men of banded infamies are 
 master hands at this gruesome game." 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE PRELUDE 
 
 In a large gray stone temple in the city of Charleston, 
 on an autumn morning in the year of our Lord 1907, 
 the Episcopal Church of the United States began its 
 triennial convention. The town from which, in olden 
 times, pirates exacted tribute, and where the Civil 
 War opened with the firing upon Fort Sumter, had 
 been chosen as the meeting place mainly because of 
 the atmosphere of restful quiet that had descended 
 upon it in these latter days. This atmosphere, so 
 free of the commercialism rampant in other cities, 
 was in keeping with the spirit of religion itself, and 
 tended to promote contemplation of the inner beauties 
 
374 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 of life as opposed to the outward forms. Thus had 
 Mr. C. Jefferson Gorman reasoned in urging upon his 
 fellow religious workers the selection of the Southern 
 city. 
 
 And among all the somberly clad gentlemen who 
 had come this morning down the broad, sycamore-lined 
 avenue that led to the ivy-hung church, none was more 
 grave and reverential of mien than he. For he was 
 there, burdened in the interest of morality and religion, 
 with a plan for stricter divorce laws throughout the 
 country. Under arched and groined ceilings, in the 
 mellow light that came through stained glass windows, 
 he walked among the delegates, holding personal con- 
 fabs before the meeting opened. He placed fraternal 
 hands upon priestly forms encased in buttonless vests, 
 and into ears that protruded above sacerdotal collars 
 he poured earnest pleas. Among the lay brothers, too, 
 he circulated, talking in low tones while the droning 
 voice of the secretary read formal announcements or 
 called the roll. 
 
 And with all these men, who knew him for his 
 piety and his philanthropy, his word had great weight. 
 Often before had his voice been raised in protest 
 against the alarming growth of divorce, and at his 
 behest resolutions had been passed by various church 
 conventions. But now he had a more definite plan. 
 He proposed that all the States be represented in a 
 conference, where a uniform divorce law should be 
 drafted. The New York statute making adultery the 
 sole cause was his model. He did not suggest a 
 national law. No, he was in favor of preserving as 
 sacred all the rights of the States just as they were 
 handed down by the fathers of the republic. 
 
 "Just think, gentlemen," he said, "one home in every 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 375 
 
 seven or eight is wrecked by the severing of matri- 
 mony's holy ties. The divorce evil has doubled in 
 less than a generation, and this in spite of the excellent 
 laws in several States. The weak point of our system 
 is the ease with which a married person may step 
 from one State having strict laws into another with 
 loose laws, and be quickly freed from all of his or her 
 sacred obligations." 
 
 "Hear ! hear !" cried the pious assemblage, and with- 
 out a dissenting vote they passed his resolution. Of 
 course, this meeting, in which clerics and laymen 
 had an equal voice, was only the lower house of the 
 church congress. The bishops, who met separately, 
 constituted a kind of senate, which could nullify any 
 of its acts. But also, of course, the bishops would 
 not oppose so good a measure as this, when championed 
 by so worthy a lay brother. Was not Brother Gorman 
 always keenly interested in everything pertaining to the 
 welfare of the church, giving freely of his invaluable 
 time, and bestowing princely sums in a way that ce- 
 mented more and more the bonds between him and 
 his life-long associates in the cause of Christ? 
 
 Moreover, the worthy brother was kindness and 
 hospitality itself on such occasions as this. All the 
 bishops from his State were his personal guests at this 
 convention. He had brought them in a special train 
 made up of luxurious sleeping and dining cars, with 
 the finest chefs to prepare their food, and the most 
 obedient servants to wait upon them, and all without 
 a cent of cost to any of them. And his good wife — 
 she of the aging face and the melancholy mien — she 
 was so gracious and hospitable to them all in the 
 Gorman private car where she and her husband stayed 
 during the convention week, instead of at a hotel. 
 
376 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 On the fourth morning, as he was rising in his place 
 to speak upon a matter of diocesan government, in 
 support of a motion by his beloved pastor, a messenger 
 boy entered the wide-arched central doorway, and, 
 guided by softly spoken words of direction, made his 
 way down the carpeted aisle to his side. Gorman took 
 the yellow envelope, opened it, and in the light that 
 poured on him like a halo, through an angel's amber 
 wing in a stained glass window, read the message : 
 
 "Things have begun to happen. 
 Come and join us. Burton." 
 
 It was the signal agreed upon. But Gorman's face 
 betrayed no sign of agitation as he made the little 
 speech he had intended, in support of his pastor's 
 motion, and then asked to be excused, as urgent busi- 
 ness called him away from the convention. His plea 
 reluctantly granted, he walked quickly down the aisle, 
 shook hands with several regretful brethren near the 
 door, and stepped into a waiting carriage. Half an 
 hour later his private car was speeding northward 
 behind a special engine. The next morning he was 
 in panic-crazed New York. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE PANIC 
 
 If airships had been in such safe and general use 
 as automobiles, Gorman might have got aboard one 
 that day and, like the lordly condor of the Andes 
 scenting prey, winged his course above the turbulent 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 377 
 
 canons of the financial district. Instead, he assumed 
 a character more like that of the stormy petrel, which 
 is said to walk the water as it rejoices in the familiar 
 fury of the maelstrom. He was driven about in his 
 closed touring car, the shades of which were carefully 
 drawn, while through tiny holes he looked out upon 
 the scenes of disorder and despair. 
 
 There had been panics before, but none to equal 
 this. Rivers of people, of both sexes and of all ages, 
 flowed noisily about the feet of the towering archi- 
 tectural crags that lined the narrow thoroughfares. 
 Some of the men were hatless, and some were coatless, 
 though the winds from off the bay were cold, and keen- 
 edged from dampness. Squads of mounted police rode 
 among the crowds, trying to keep them in a semblance 
 of order, but, like boulders flung in a torrent, only 
 added to the turbulence. 
 
 The Gorman car was well known to the police, and 
 they were at special pains to make a passage for it, 
 although they could not see its occupant. And so 
 by their aid he skimmed along untouched by the tu- 
 multuous waves of humanity. These waves were lit- 
 tered with the wreckage of ruined lives, and were 
 vocal with sobs and oaths and shrieks of despair. 
 Mingled with these sounds were the cries of newsboys, 
 telling tales of falling values, of crumbling banks, and 
 of the suicides of their officers and depositors. 
 
 At times he heard, rising above the general roar, 
 strident voices that cursed the President This was 
 music to his ears. It was the responsive part of the 
 battle fugue which he had started by ordering his 
 soldiery of printer's ink to charge the panic to the 
 man whom it had been brought about to discredit 
 and punish. 
 
378 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 Before the doors of many banks and trust com- 
 panies were long lines of people, for desperate "runs" 
 on these institutions had begun. And there, in the 
 block ahead, he beheld a scene that made his pulses 
 beat quicker and drew from his lips a sigh of satisfac- 
 tion. Beginning at the gray marble pillars of the 
 Atlantic Trust Company was the longest line of all. 
 It extended an entire block before it was lost to view 
 around a corner. Some of these people had been up 
 all night, and friends had brought them chairs and 
 campstools to relieve their weariness. Others, in their 
 weakness, leaned against buildings or upon each other. 
 Many were thinly clad, and these the raw winds 
 scourged and set a-shuddering at times, as though from 
 the lash of whips. In this line the night before there 
 had been young faces and middle-aged faces, and faces 
 of the aged, but now all were old faces, and some were 
 like the faces of the dead. 
 
 A woman, tottering from age and weakness, was 
 carried from the line to an ambulance as Gorman 
 passed. ''She's been here eighteen hours, and she 
 must have caught her death o' cold," the man behind 
 her said in chattering tones, as he stepped forward to 
 fill the gap her absence made. 
 
 The crowd was thickest here, eddying and surging 
 like a whirlpool about the line of depositors, the 
 somber hued hats of the men giving to the topmost 
 waves the appearance of black foam. A fog settled 
 down over the scene, and strangely distorted shapes 
 loomed through it. Occasionally a man would break 
 away from the mass of people, and, seemingly crazed 
 by his losses or by the general excitement, go up a 
 side street alone, talking and gesticulating to himself, 
 like some monstrous chimpanzee. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 379 
 
 On the East Side, among the poor and lowly, the 
 scenes were yet more desperate. A score of savings 
 banks, besieged by their polyglot depositors, each be- 
 came a Babel, with a horde of shrieking, wailing men 
 and women thronging about. Some of the women 
 came with breasts bared to suckling babes, who added 
 their feeble cries to the general din. These banks, 
 when the drain upon their funds grew alarming, 
 promptly closed their doors for sixty days, as the 
 law allowed ; and the baffled crowds, fearing what 
 often proved true, that their doors would never open 
 more, threw sticks and stones through window panes, 
 and sometimes fought with the police before they were 
 driven off". 
 
 The trouble had all begun when it was discovered 
 that the pieces of paper with which every one was 
 doing business had suddenly lost their value. The 
 gold and silver they represented had vanished into 
 bank vaults, and the banks, upon which the people 
 had so fondly relied, would not give back the cash. 
 The men they had voted into office to serve as a gov- 
 ernment could not help them. The banking power 
 was the real government, although they knew it not 
 And it was a false, a traitorous government. Like a 
 confidence man, it had taken the people's money, leav- 
 ing only a stack of worthless paper behind. And now, 
 deluded and desperate, many of those who had any 
 funds at all remaining, were turning to that shadow 
 of the government which they thought real, but which, 
 shadowy as it was, was yet more to be trusted than 
 the real, and taking out postal money orders. Instead 
 of receiving interest upon this money, as they would 
 have received from postal savings banks in Europe, 
 
380 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 they paid fees to have their cash kept safe from the 
 banks, and were glad to do it. 
 
 Those national banks and trust companies not owned 
 by the inner circle were paying their clamorous depos- 
 itors with clearing house certificates. But it was neces- 
 sary to have the confidence of the inner circle before 
 even this refuge could be seized upon. And such 
 refuge was now denied many a tottering concern 
 which in prosperous times had offended the central 
 power, and these concerns were falling upon every 
 hand — falling by the weight of securities from which 
 the water had been squeezed through stock market 
 manipulations. With this water went the blood of 
 many victims, for prices had dropped ten billions in 
 a week, and many fortunes, great and small, vanished 
 into nothingness by this wondrous legerdemain which 
 so few could understand. 
 
 It was all like some great and sudden upheaval of 
 nature, causeless so far as mortal eye could see, con- 
 trary to all known laws, and as widespread in the 
 destruction wrought as though it were a deliberate 
 visitation sent by a revengeful and terrible deity. While 
 New York was the storm center, the entire country 
 was swept by the cataclysmal breath. From North 
 and South and West came appeals for money to keep 
 turning the wheels of industry, and these appeals were 
 being made in vain. The golden grain harvested by 
 happy workers to the music of clicking scythes and 
 humming reapers now rotted in the fields, and the 
 song of the machinery in many a mill and factory was 
 stilled. Millions denied themselves amusement, and 
 theaters closed by the score. Other people added 
 travel and new clothes, books and pictures, wine and 
 choice foods to the luxuries they must forego. Rail- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 381 
 
 roads ceased to lay new tracks, and ran fewer trains, 
 and the blight on all business spread, and yet more 
 legions joined the hungry and idle throngs in city 
 streets and swelled the chorus of suffering to a mighty 
 miserere. 
 
 For more than an hour Gorman's car was driven 
 about among such scenes before he directed its 
 course toward his own office. As he neared the 
 familiar corner he saw crowds of pale and haggard 
 brokers running hither and thither, and shoals of dis- 
 charged and aimless clerks filling the street from curb 
 to curb. When his car was recognized, many paused 
 to watch it, and a few started to cheer and clap their 
 hands. But before any demonstration so suggestive 
 of the Juggernaut could gain headway, the car halted, 
 and his well known face and form emerged, and then 
 quickly vanished into a side entrance of the building. 
 Lackeys were waiting there to usher him into his 
 private office. 
 
 "The Secretary of the Treasury would like to talk 
 with you on the telephone," a clerk told him, and he 
 smiled a grim smile. "They're coming to time down 
 in Washington," he remarked to Bronson and Burton, 
 who were among the first to bring him news of how 
 the battle was going. 
 
 When he came out of the telephone booth three 
 minutes later he said: "The Secretary wants to know 
 if I'll co-operate in stopping the panic. I told him to 
 come down here and talk it over, if he wants to, damn 
 him !" The others asked no questions. 
 
 He had just sat down to listen to a plea for funds 
 from an opposing banker, whom he had brought to 
 his knees, when, above the sullen roar of the streets, 
 sounded a shrill voice, crying, "Latest noos ! All about 
 
382 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 th' anarchist tryin' to explode a bomb in th' Stock 
 Exchange !" 
 
 "By God, this is serious !" Gorman declared, his 
 eyes narrowing, while the color left his cheeks. He 
 dismissed the banker with a curt half promise, and 
 went into an inner room to talk with the governors 
 of the Exchange, who had hurried over to see him. 
 And a rule was there made that no visitors were 
 thenceforth to be allowed within the walls of that 
 gilded mart unless taken in personally by a member. 
 
 As soon as they heard of the master's return, many 
 men of power, each in his own circle, hastened to 
 his side to plead for his aid. There were terrified 
 bankers and traders and manufacturers, and there 
 were politicians, including several Senators, and the 
 Governor, and finally the Secretary of the Treasury 
 came to sue for peace in the name of the President. 
 To no one else could they look for the exercise of 
 that supreme power which in any country must reside 
 in some one place. 
 
 And so on through that day and the next day, and 
 the next, and the next, and the next, like a master 
 musician at a great organ, he played upon the keys 
 of the wonderful instrument he had built for the ruling 
 of a nation. He touched a key, and in trumpet tones 
 the stock market was told that the shares of the 
 Alabama Coal and Iron Company had dropped thirty 
 points, and a hundred men fought for a chance to 
 sell these shares at whatever price the buyers offered. 
 
 He touched another key, and in a thousand cities 
 the clarion notes of newsboys' voices cried the doleful 
 fact that all building on a dozen railway lines had 
 ceased, and half a million men laid down their tools 
 to join the army of the unemployed. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 383 
 
 He opened a new stop, and pressed a row of keys, 
 and "No help for Horton's bank!" was the blast that 
 thundered forth, to be echoed by ten thousand mouths. 
 Then came the fall of the rebellious house, and, as a 
 reverberation, the trial of its chief for making false 
 entries in its books. This had become a common 
 crime in American finance, but not every banker who 
 thus sinned was owner of a steamship line competing 
 with a Gorman railroad. And so against this man the 
 law's machinery was allowed to run its remorseless 
 course, and prison gates swung inward to receive 
 him. 
 
 The pipes that ran to the Clearing House were next 
 played upon, and "Cease to clear for the Atlantic 
 Trust" was the message they gave out. The com- 
 pany's doors clanged shut in the face of unpaid, 
 clamorous thousands, and were never opened more. 
 And the reverberation to that was the suicide of John 
 Lamar. 
 
 And now another stop was opened, and Gorman 
 swept his hand across the lower keys, when, like the 
 crash of cymbals, came the edict that the industry 
 which upheld a State should cease to be unless the 
 Steel Trust could absorb its only rival. While all 
 America stood dumb, to await the answer from the 
 White House, discerning ears could tell that the pipes 
 of this wondrous organ stretched across the sea, for 
 notes in harmony were now heard in cabled plaints 
 from foreign papers that the panic was the fruit of 
 presidential folly. 
 
 But soon the soft pedal was used, and then, with 
 modulated accent, tidings were sent out that the gloomy 
 skies seemed clearing, as the President was not inclined 
 to halt the nuptial rites in Steel. Then came, in joyous, 
 
384 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 flute-like tones, the news that the Treasury's head had 
 come to aid the tottering banks, and would open the 
 national vaults, and lend to them ten millions without 
 interest. And strange — yea, passing strange to tell — 
 the very banks that had most need of these funds now 
 were the banks of Gorman and his allies. The cash 
 was lent, and quickly was exchanged for Gorman stocks 
 and bonds. 
 
 And then the violin stop was pulled, and next, in 
 sweet, caressing strains, came forth a plea that twenty 
 millions more were needed — and twenty millions more 
 were lent. And few who heard that plea suspected 
 for a moment the great suction pipe concealed beneath 
 the marvelous organ to exhaust the bank vaults of 
 these federal funds as fast they were put there. 
 
 And so the frightful symphony played on, and still 
 the blind and helpless people sat as spellbound, or they 
 sang and danced to all its music as their master willed 
 they should, and all the while were led to greater and 
 yet greater ruin, much as sheep by shepherd's horn are 
 led to shambles. 
 
 It was from Washington that the plea for truce 
 had come at last. And Gorman sent his envoys to the 
 lesser capital to meet the President, since it would 
 not have been well so to humiliate him in the people's 
 eyes as to make him come crawling openly to the Wall 
 Street throne. There was still some fight left in this 
 presidential person, and he would not yield all things 
 demanded. But with the roll of ruined banks and 
 trust concerns above the hundred mark, suicides num- 
 bering a hundred and fifty, and many scores of other 
 victims started on the way to prison, with crime and 
 misery daily growing, and popular clamor against him 
 hourly rising, he yielded the main demands. 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 385 
 
 By this time the panic had reached and passed the 
 height of frenzy, and had been succeeded by a dull 
 despair. The market had fallen to a point whence 
 it could go no lower. The Stock Exchange was about 
 to close. All sales had stopped, for no one could borrow 
 the money with which to bind a bargain. Interest 
 rates had mounted to a hundred per cent., to a hun- 
 dred and fifty, and then to two hundred per cent. 
 One might have offered a thousand per cent, for a 
 large sum and have failed to get it. 
 
 The hour for Gorman's crowning humiliation of 
 the republic he had overthrown had now arrived, and 
 with it came the easiest and most profitable coup of 
 his long career. When the terrified supplicants for 
 his aid again crowded his office he announced that 
 he would lend thirty millions at ten per cent. At the 
 same time he said, "The crisis has passed. Business 
 will recover." 
 
 Cheers rang through the streets, and on the floor 
 of the Stock Exchange men wept for joy. In front 
 of Gorman's office there formed a mob which sang 
 a chorus of adulation, and a thousand daily papers 
 praised him as the nation's savior. 
 
 And yet this giant usury, which netted him three 
 millions at one sweep, was practiced with the nation's 
 funds, while his own reservoirs of gold remained un- 
 touched, waiting to be used for stock market bargains 
 that were to bring him many millions more. His 
 allies profited, too, by loaning plundered gold at the 
 same rate, but their gains were fewer, as they were 
 allowed to absorb less of the loot from the national 
 treasury. 
 
 The chief looters had hardly gathered in their spoils 
 when, as a postlude to it all, came the camp followers 
 
386 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 on the scene — those who fight in no war, not even 
 in one like this, but wait for the conflict to end and the 
 twilight to fall, that they may ply their trade in safety. 
 They were of various names and forms and colors, 
 but they were harpies all, and they had but a single 
 motive. Some of them were, to the public view, most 
 grave and reverend seigniors of the law, who, ap- 
 pointed by those of their profession who sat in judicial 
 seats, were permitted to pick clean the bones of the 
 dead and rotting institutions, whose remains they put 
 in order as receivers, or masters-in-chancery, or as legal 
 aids of such court officers. The receiver of the Atlan- 
 tic Trust alone plucked off a hundred thousand, or 
 more than a tenth of its remaining funds, for a few 
 weeks of procrastinating work, and his helpers took 
 forty thousand more. Widows and orphans and other 
 robbed depositors bore this extra loss. And so it 
 went with many another wrecked concern, and some- 
 times the cries of the vultures fighting over the carrion 
 resounded through the city, in disputes among officials 
 as to who had the better right there. Other birds of 
 prey, too, were seen, including now and then one of 
 yellow plumage : a daily newspaper of the sensational 
 sort, which threatened exposure of dark and bloody 
 secrets unless allowed a share of booty. And among 
 the flock, with talons wide outstretched, was the owner 
 of the country's most popular magazine, who, in return 
 for a series of articles about Gorman's greatness, was 
 told when to buy Steel stock, and thus he tore a million 
 in profits from the putrid flesh of Wall Street victims. 
 And so sounded the republic's dirge while the great- 
 est vulture of them all, glutted with the nation's choicest 
 carrion, and his beak dripping blood, flew away to 
 rest amid the palatial splendors of his British eyrie, 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 387 
 
 and there brood upon yet other conquests which were 
 to make him admired, hated and feared around the 
 world. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 the bal de tete 
 
 "Why is the 'Emperor' so pensive to-night?" asked 
 the Count of Chambord of the Prince of Joinville. 
 
 "Perhaps because his Pompadour is not here to 
 amuse him." 
 
 "Ah, that is one of the penalties of having an 
 actress for a mistress. I remember now that she is 
 touring somewhere in the western provinces. But 
 would she be admitted to this ball if she were here?" 
 
 "Most certainly, if he desired it, as he probably 
 would. Why, they travel openly together in going 
 to and from Europe nowadays, and often he takes 
 her cruising on his yacht. No one in society would 
 dare to shut the door in Myrtle Belden's face. Sturte- 
 vant's wife ignored her in Newport— and now there 
 is a new president of the Transcontinental road, and 
 the Sturtevants find themselves on the ragged edge 
 of society." 
 
 The two noble gentlemen— noble in appearance if 
 not in blood— were lounging in the smoking-room of 
 the new Gorman palace on the banks of the Hudson. 
 Their silken coats and kneebreeches, their flowered 
 waistcoats, and powdered wigs, and lace wristlets, and 
 their jeweled swords and shoe buckles were as perfect 
 an imitation as money could buy of the costumes of 
 the time of Louis XV. They were enjoying a smoke 
 
388 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 and chat while waiting for the bed de tete, the social 
 event of the year, to begin. 
 
 "And the old man is a grandfather, too, isn't he?" 
 resumed the first speaker. 
 
 "Oh, yes," returned the counterfeit Prince of Join- 
 ville. "He has four or five grandchildren now, but 
 that makes no difference. He has no hair, he has no 
 teeth of his own, but he has outlived or outmaneuvered 
 all his enemies and all his rivals, and is still going 
 strong. They say he's got his eye on one of the 
 Countesses here to-night, though there's no one who 
 suits him quite so well as Myrtle." 
 
 "Which countess is he after?" 
 
 "I heard, but I've forgotten. You see, there are 
 thirty members of the real nobility of Europe here 
 right now, and I can't remember names very well. 
 It's the largest representation of the peerage ever 
 assembled under one American roof, and yet it's only 
 a fifth or a sixth of the total number of titled Ameri- 
 cans. We have already bought a hundred in Britain 
 alone. As there are but six hundred members of the 
 House of Lords, you see it won't be long before we are 
 supporting the entire British nobility. The interna- 
 tional marriage market is booming, you know, as never 
 before." 
 
 "Well, the 'Emperor' has got 'em all beaten in wealth 
 and power, even if he couldn't get a title in his family. 
 And the whole country kow tows to him, all right. 
 There's nothing he doesn't dare to do. Why, to make 
 room for this palace he had a statue of Lincoln torn 
 down, and paid no attention to protests, and — but there 
 goes the music for the grand march !" 
 
 They hurried to the ballroom, arriving just in time 
 to be spectators of the initial scene, but too late to par- 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 389 
 
 ticipate in it What appeared to be an enormous 
 dragon with multitudinous feet was entering the great 
 room from one side, while from the other a mail-clad 
 knight advanced on horseback to meet it. He held 
 aloft a banner emblazoned with a cross, and brandished 
 a jeweled sword at the monster's head. The feet of his 
 white horse were padded so as to make no mark upon 
 the gleaming floor. 
 
 "Saint George slaying the dragon — what a clever 
 idea!" remarked one of the spectators. "And that's 
 Gorman, Junior, on the horse. Watch him !" 
 
 The dragon paused as the horseman approached, 
 and waited quietly to receive a mortal blow from him. 
 Then it laid its tinsel head obediently on the floor, and 
 opened its monstrous mouth as though in a death 
 agony. And immediately there came out of the mouth 
 a gorgeously costumed company of men and women, 
 and the grand march was begun, while the horseman 
 rode off in triumph. 
 
 With firm tread and stately mien, C. Jefferson Gor- 
 man, garbed as Louis XV., led the march, on his arm 
 the Duchess of Montpensier. Behind them came the 
 Duke of Orleans and Queen Margaret of Valois, and 
 then followed scores of others in glittering array. 
 The ladies wore the high, elaborate coiffures which 
 gave the ball its name in the days of "Le Bien-Aime," 
 and the jewels that adorned their necks and arms 
 gleamed and scintillated at times with an almost blind- 
 ing radiance. 
 
 And so, in regal and noble attire, and to the 
 sound of exquisite orchestral harmonies, they danced 
 away the hours of night — danced, as it were, upon 
 the republic's grave in honor of the first American 
 Emperor. 
 
3SK) THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 In the storm-swept street without two figures paused, 
 and, turning their backs for a time to the boreal blasts 
 that drove the snow in drifts against the palace gates, 
 gazed at the brilliantly lighted pile. After a moment, 
 one of them laughed, and there was a bitter intonation 
 to his voice as he recited : 
 
 "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 
 A stately pleasure dome decree 
 Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 
 Through caverns measureless to man, 
 Down to a sunless sea." 
 
 "It is not so far fetched, either," he commented, 
 "except that the Hudson does not run through caverns, 
 but flows majestically toward the open sea. Gorman, 
 however, comes pretty near to being the Emperor of 
 China as well as of America; and besides American- 
 izing China he has also just about Asiaticized America, 
 so the verses should apply either way." 
 
 "What's going on there to-night?" asked the other. 
 "Some grand ball?" 
 
 "Yes; the inaugural ball of the new empire. The 
 so-called inauguration dance in Washington, when a 
 puppet President is put into office, is but a pale reflec- 
 tion of this. Anyone can attend that ball by paying 
 five dollars for a ticket. But to be admitted to this is a 
 distinction vastly different The President himself 
 cannot come here." 
 
 "Just what kind of a ball is it, Del?" inquired the 
 other. 
 
 "Why, haven't you heard of the great preparations — 
 but no, you have been too busy traveling about and 
 making plans for our new magazine in the West. Ah, 
 I'm dubious of that magazine's fate, Lyle, since the 
 Progress was wrecked by the withdrawal of our credit 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 39* 
 
 through the banks in panic times. Yet it's our only 
 chance, and will die, if need be, with our face to 
 the front. But about this ball-it's a bal de tete the 
 kind that came into vogue in the sad-bad-mad-glad 
 days of Louis Fifteenth and the Pompadour— After 
 us the deluge,' vou know, and all that-though it 
 seems that our people are a long way from starting a 
 
 deluge." , 
 
 "But the work we have started must go on, averred 
 Lyle "Have you noticed the last census report on 
 casualties? Near fifty thousand violent deaths a year 
 now happen regularly in this country. The slaughter 
 in mills, in railway wrecks, in mines, in fires, and by 
 murder, now totals more in twelve months than were 
 slain at the battle of Waterloo. Only to-day forty-nine 
 people were killed in a train wreck directly traceable 
 to stock jobbery." 
 
 "Yes, yes, you are right. The work must go on, 
 even though only the Socialists will help us." 
 
 "Only the Socialists," repeated Lyle, and in the dim 
 Light from the distant street lamp Delaval could see 
 that his fine eyes still burned with idealism. "Don t 
 vou realize what a power the Socialist party is becom- 
 ing? I teU vou it is advancing like a rising tide. Out 
 oAhe depths it is coming to overturn an old and cor- 
 rupt civilization to make room for a new and better 
 one No political movement in history compares with 
 it. In a decade its vote among us has grown tenfold. 
 A million Americans now vote its ticket. In less 
 than a decade more, at this rate, it will grapple with 
 this oligarchy and overthrow it Here, at last, we 
 have an economic philosophy which will keep the 
 majority from going wrong a majority of the time. 
 We should have begun to work with the Socialists 
 
392 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 years ago. All the way from Finland to New Zealand 
 they are playing havoc with the old order, and they 
 are doing it with the indomitable force of reason. The 
 age-long fight will soon be won, and the Rights of 
 Man will be a realized dream." 
 
 "It is a wonderful movement, in more ways than 
 one," said Delaval. "It is wonderful, apart from the 
 principles and growth of the movement, that we are 
 indebted to the German mind for this most stupendous 
 and at the same time most practical dream in human 
 history. It is also wonderful that Germany, which 
 gave us the Reformation, and modern Judaism, and the 
 best of modern science, and the greatest of the pessi- 
 mistic philosophers, has now given Carl Marx and 
 Socialism to the world." 
 
 "And Socialism is needed more in America than in 
 any other part of Christendom," added Lyle. "Once 
 the people understand it, I think it is as certain to 
 triumph as the earth is to revolve." 
 
 "Perhaps — perhaps. We live to learn. But look at 
 that spectacle before us, and study its meaning well 
 before you prophesy with too great enthusiasm. Titles 
 cannot be legislated out of the human heart. If we 
 are to have a Socialism that will endure, it must be 
 in a state which has the form if not the substance of 
 a monarchy. A Socialistic monarchy, I would say, 
 would be nearest to the ideal state that can be realized 
 in human government. A king as a social head, with 
 power to bestow titles for exceptional achievements 
 in the arts and sciences, and an aristocracy of intel- 
 lectual rather than of monied persons — that should be 
 our real aim. Meanwhile, Gorman is Caesar, or rather, 
 as I have said before, this country has become another 
 Carthage, and he is the greatest tradesman of us all— 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 393 
 
 a terrible warning to nations that would seek to be 
 great without a king. Above the chaos of laws, the 
 wreck of parties, the smoke of fires, the wails of the 
 plundered, the shrieks of the dying — above the rivers 
 of blood from the slain, he sits enthroned, unscathed, 
 almost unsuspected, supreme." 
 
 They turned to walk on, and after a time Lyle 
 said, 
 
 "Poor Lamar. His broken-hearted widow has gone 
 to spend the rest of her life in England. That is 
 one of the many deaths that our 'Emperor' should have 
 to answer for some time, somewhere. But with you 
 and me, Del, things could be much worse than they 
 are, though they could hardly be much worse with 
 the country. We are both happily married, and while 
 we are temporarily bankrupt, we are rich in love and 
 friendship. And we have yet another chance to achieve 
 things for the greatest of all causes — humanity." 
 
 "All, yes. Theodora is worth fighting an endless 
 battle for. And your friendship alone is enough to 
 balance the enmity of the world. Come. Our wives 
 are waiting for us in your apartment, where we will 
 dine while we discuss our new home in the West, 
 and our plans for spreading the greatest of all philoso- 
 phies — the philosophy of human brotherhood." 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE GREATEST OF THEM ALL 
 
 Yes, Gorman was the greatest tradesman of them 
 all, as Delaval had said. But he was more, far more 
 
394 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 than this. Though never seeking, never wanting for 
 himself official place, he ruled the richest of republics. 
 He had never in his own name championed a public 
 policy, nor with forensic eloquence exhorted men to 
 vote, nor ever felt the thrill of open, manly conflict 
 in the people's cause. And yet he put in office whom 
 he chose, in city, state or nation. When his pup- 
 pets disobeyed he snatched them ruthlessly from power 
 and put others in their places, until none were left who 
 dared oppose him. Thus was he the greatest politician 
 of them all. 
 
 He had never penned a line of purely literary worth, 
 and never could his soul respond to lofty thoughts, 
 though these were put in burning words of prose or 
 rhyme. And yet he held within his grasp the nation's 
 literary center, while he told the people what they 
 might or might not read. Ten thousand scribblers of 
 the current press were now his hirelings, though many 
 were but vaguely conscious that they served his throne. 
 These formed his loyal legion. They hid his acts in 
 vaporous clouds of misinforming phrases, or even lav- 
 ished on him praise for deeds most odious. They 
 lauded books his puppets wrote, and sometimes, too, 
 the works of others, but condemned with bitter words, 
 or damned with faintest praise, or else ignored with 
 chilling silence every work which threatened trouble 
 to his reign. The most ambitious things he ever wrote 
 were circulars to syndicates, all couched in common 
 phrases. But these were chapters in a wondrous tale 
 of empire building, and they brought him endless 
 golden royalties, and made him liege lord all the way 
 from Arctic shores to Far Cathay. And thus was he 
 the greatest writer of them all. 
 
 He had never played a part upon the stage, nor 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 395 
 
 had he yearned to do so. Neither muse of Tragedy 
 nor Comedy had tempted him, and he cared nothing 
 for the world of masks and make-believe, of tinsel and 
 of imitative pageantry, of mimic joys and griefs and 
 mimic glories. Yet he held within his comprehensive 
 grasp the center of dramatic as of literary art, dic- 
 tating to the nation as to plays it should or should 
 not see. And he could make or unmake, as he wished, 
 the fame of almost any actor, or of almost any play 
 or playwright. And from off the stage he chose its 
 fairest women as his mistresses, and added to their 
 fame, and gave them private cars and yachts and 
 jewels beyond their dreams, and for his favorite Pom- 
 padour he built a theater of marbled beauty. He him- 
 self had lived a life as wondrous as, if not more 
 wonderful, than any drama ever penned, so why should 
 he care greatly for the tinseled counterfeit of life, 
 the players in which were but his puppets, in a double 
 sense, when he so willed ? He wore a thousand masks, 
 and he could be, and often was, in many places at a 
 time by aid of those in every calling who were glad 
 to serve him. All the world had now become his stage. 
 And thus was he the greatest actor of them all. 
 
 He had never touched a canvas with a brush, nor 
 moulded clay, nor put a chisel to a marble block, nor 
 ever felt the rapture which exalts an artist's soul as in 
 his hands a thing of beauty to perfection grows, nor 
 his despair as his Ideal, with elusive witchery, evades 
 his grasp. No work of art, not even inspired music, 
 ever wooed his sordid soul from earthly thoughts to 
 higher things. And yet he ruled a nation's art. His 
 galleries set the standard, and his critics praised as 
 he directed, or condemned at his behest. And more, 
 the people learned to look upon him as a high-souled 
 
396 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 patron of the arts, this man who, by his hellish art 
 of piracy disguised as trade, took from them scores 
 of millions, and gave back a scanty few in public 
 benefits. The churches sang his praises, seats of 
 learning showered him with degrees, academies of 
 science named new jewels in his honor, sculptors carved 
 ideal statues of his form, and sycophantic wielders of 
 the brush belibeled Art to image him as handsome 
 rather than repellent to the general view. In ways 
 like this he made himself a nation's idol. Thus was he 
 the greatest artist of them all. 
 
 He had never known the joy of the inventor in 
 creating something new for human use. And he 
 had only vague ideas of the ways in which electric 
 power and steam were made to turn the wheels of 
 industry. Of how great engines pulled long trains 
 across the continent, or of the many processes of 
 making steel, or how machinery sowed and reaped 
 the golden grain, or how the shades of night were 
 banished with electric splendor, or of how great 
 steamers were propelled across the seas, he knew but 
 little, or perhaps knew nothing. And yet he ruled 
 the nation's railways and its steamship lines, and all its 
 steel mills, and the factories wherein were made ma- 
 chines to seize electric power from the elements. And 
 even on far Alaska's shores men toiled in boreal cold 
 to coax from out the frozen breast of earth her golden 
 streams of wealth, or over polar seas they chased the 
 slippery seal, or they enmeshed the silvery salmon for 
 his gain, the while, in Oriental lands, unnumbered slant- 
 eyed millions slaved to pay him tribute. "What hath 
 God wrought ?" asked Morse, inventor of the telegraph, 
 in his first message over wires. And now one 
 man, who knew but little of the science of telegraphy, 
 
THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 397 
 
 and cared still less, had seized in his titanic grip three 
 million miles of telegraphic wires, besides twelve mil- 
 lion miles of telephonic wires, the nation's all. And 
 this had Gorman wrought. Yes. this and other won- 
 ders had he wrought in Wall Street by the system 
 his creative brain had built to make himself the master 
 spirit of his time. And thus was he the chief inventor 
 of them all. 
 
 He had never dreamt the dream of alchemists, who 
 hope to change the baser metals into gold. He never 
 yearned to find the fabled stone of the philosopher, of 
 old believed to be the key to this most subtle and elusive 
 art. Nor had the ancient tales of magic ever lured 
 his mind from sordid thoughts. And yet, compared 
 with things that he achieved, the fantasies of alchemy 
 seemed tame, and many of the weirdest tales of Araby 
 took on the hue of truth. For he transmuted into gold 
 the coal and iron from scores of mines, and steel and 
 other metals which he never touched or saw, and with 
 this gold formed syndicates that issued stocks and 
 bonds of little worth, and these, likewise, he changed 
 to gold at highest prices. And by the Stock Exchange's 
 magic art he forced the buyers of these things to sell 
 them back again at lesser values, and again, and yet 
 again, and so on endlessly, he sold at highest rates 
 and bought back at the lowest, till his vaults were 
 reservoirs that held a nation's gold. And then in 
 various bewildering ways he juggled all this aureate 
 wealth, and while the fascinated people looked he made 
 it grow to even greater bulk, enlarging it by streams 
 from out of their own pockets, though they knew it 
 not. Nor could they see that underneath his throne 
 there flowed a river filled with blood and tears. 
 
 They marveled at his necromancy, and suspected 
 
398 THE AMERICAN EMPEROR 
 
 not how many genii of the lamp were slaving for him 
 on the press, as well as in the darksome caverns under- 
 ground, nor how so many more than forty thieves 
 were serving him within the portals of the Stock 
 Exchange. But greater far than other wonders was 
 his feat in changing the republic to an empire, and 
 concealing this from all except a chosen few. His was 
 the subtlest alchemy, and his the blackest of black arts 
 in all the world. And thus was he the greatest alchem- 
 ist, the chief magician of them all. 
 
 THE END