Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford: A Cheerful Account of the Rise and Fall of an American Business BuccaneerChester, George Randolph
General
Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford: A Cheerful Account of the Rise and Fall of an American Business Buccaneer
Chester, George Randolph
Businessmen -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Swindlers and swindling -- Fiction
"Let's get off then and look at the burg," suggested J. Rufus.
It was Mr. Daw's turn to yawn. He looked out on one side of the
manufacturing portion of Battlesburg, and on the other side at the
mercantile and residence portion.
"I think I can see all I want to remember of it from here," he objected;
"but anything's better than nothing. Shall we go, Vi?"
"That's us," replied the vivacious bride, who was already beginning to
respond to all Mr. Wallingford's suggestions with more alacrity than
either Mrs. Wallingford or Mr. Daw quite approved. "Let's go wake 'em
up, Jimmy. Ring for a carriage."
The invaluable porter was already exchanging his white coat and apron
for his dark-blue coat and derby, and, in another moment, that dusky
autocrat, his face calm with the calmness of them who dwell near to much
money, had asked the crowd outside the way to a livery stable.
Billy Ricks projected himself instantly through the assemblage. "I'll
show you," he said eagerly.
The autocrat surveyed Billy Ricks briefly and gauged him accurately.
"Suppose you go get the best two-horse carriage, to seat four, that you
can find in town," and in Billy's palm he pressed a half dollar.
The excitement grew intense! The millionaires were positively to appear!
Doc Gunther's best "rig," his rubber-tired one, came rolling down Main
Street, turned, and drew up near the car. The porter, now wearing his
official cap, jumped down with his stepping box. Ah-h-h! Here they came!
First emerged huge, sleek Mr. Wallingford, looking more like a million
cleverly won dollars than the money itself. Mr. Daw stepped down upon
the gravel, tall and slender, clad in glove-fitting "Prince Albert," his
black mustache curled tightly, his black eyes glittering. Descended the
beautiful, brown-haired Mrs. Wallingford, brave in dark-green
broadcloth. Descended the golden-haired Mrs. Daw, stunning in violet
from hat to silken hose. Perfectly satisfactory, all of them; perfectly
adapted to fill the ideal of what a quartette of genuine nabobs should
look like! Under the skillful guidance of Mr. Wallingford they pranced
up Main Street, of fully as much interest and importance as any circus
parade that had ever wended its way along that thoroughfare.
The town of Battlesburg, converting a level, dusty country road into
"Main Street" for a space, lay across the railroad like a huge tennis
racquet, its hand grip being the manufacturing district, its handle the
business quarter, its net the residence section; and here were the first
cross streets, little, short byways, the longest of them ten or twelve
blocks in extent, and all ending against the fences of level fields. As
they rode through the town, however, its pavements stirred to unusual
liveliness by the great event, the impression that here was a place of
merely sleeping money grew and grew upon J. Rufus Wallingford and
appealed to his professional instincts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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