A Little Journey in the WorldWarner, Charles Dudley
General
A Little Journey in the World
Warner, Charles Dudley
American fiction -- 19th century
But the Chamber, the creator of low-pressure and high-pressure, the
inspirer of the “ticker,” is the great generator of business. Here I
found Henderson in the morning hour, and he came up to me on the call of
a messenger. He approached, nonchalant and smiling as usual. “Do you see
that man,” he said, as we stood a moment looking down, “sitting there
on a side bench--big body, small head, hair grayish, long beard
parted--apparently taking no interest in anything?
“That's Flink, who made the corner in O. B.--one of the longest-headed
operators in the Chamber. He is about the only man who dare try a
hold with Jay Hawker. And for some reason or another, though they have
apparent tussles, Hawker rather favors him. Five years ago he could
just raise money enough to get into the Chamber. Now he is reckoned at
anywhere from five to ten millions. I was at his home the other night.
Everybody was there. I had a queer feeling, in all the magnificence,
that the sheriff might be in there in ten days. Yet he may own a good
slice of the island in ten years. His wife, whom I complimented, and who
thanked me for coming, said she had invited none but the reshershy.”
“He looks like a rascal,” I ventured to remark.
“Oh, that is not a word used in the Chamber. He is called a 'daisy.'
I was put into his pew in church the other Sunday, and the preacher
described him and his methods so exactly that I didn't dare look at him.
When we came out he whispered, 'That was rather hard on Slack; he must
have felt it.' These men rather like that sort of preaching.”
“I don't come here often,” Henderson resumed, as we walked away. “The
market is flat today. There promised to be a little flurry in L. and P.,
and I looked in for a customer.”
We walked to his down-town club to lunch. Everybody, I noticed, seemed
to know Henderson, and his presence was hailed with a cordial smile,
a good-humored nod, or a hearty grasp of the hand. I never knew a more
prepossessing man; his bonhomie was infectious. Though his demeanor was
perfectly quiet and modest, he carried the air of good-fellowship. He
was entirely frank, cordial, and had that sort of sincerity which one
can afford to have who does not take life too seriously. Tall--at least
six feet-with a well-shaped head set on square shoulders, brown hair
inclined to curl, large blue eyes which could be merry or exceedingly
grave, I thought him a picture of manly beauty. Good-natured, clever,
prosperous, and not yet thirty. What a dower!
After we had disposed of our little matter of business, which I confess
was not exactly satisfactory to me, although when I was told that “the
first bondholders will be obliged to come in,” he added that “of course
we shall take care of our friends,” we went to his bachelor quarters
uptown. “I want you to see,” he said, “how a hermit lives.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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