by Theodore Dreiser 30 страница

appear that Cowperwood was invariably the disinterested agent--not the

ringleader in a subtle, really criminal adventure. It was hard to do,

but he made a fine impression. Still the jury listened with skeptical

minds. It might not be fair to punish Cowperwood for seizing with

avidity upon a splendid chance to get rich quick, they thought; but it

certainly was not worth while to throw a veil of innocence over such

palpable human cupidity. Finally, both lawyers were through with Stener

for the time being, anyhow, and then Albert Stires was called to the

stand.

He was the same thin, pleasant, alert, rather agreeable soul that he had

been in the heyday of his clerkly prosperity--a little paler now, but

not otherwise changed. His small property had been saved for him by

Cowperwood, who had advised Steger to inform the Municipal Reform

Association that Stires' bondsmen were attempting to sequestrate it for

their own benefit, when actually it should go to the city if there

were any real claim against him--which there was not. That watchful

organization had issued one of its numerous reports covering this

point, and Albert had had the pleasure of seeing Strobik and the others

withdraw in haste. Naturally he was grateful to Cowperwood, even though

once he had been compelled to cry in vain in his presence. He was

anxious now to do anything he could to help the banker, but his

naturally truthful disposition prevented him from telling anything

except the plain facts, which were partly beneficial and partly not.

Stires testified that he recalled Cowperwood's saying that he had

purchased the certificates, that he was entitled to the money, that

Stener was unduly frightened, and that no harm would come to him,

Albert. He identified certain memoranda in the city treasurer's books,

which were produced, as being accurate, and others in Cowperwood's

books, which were also produced, as being corroborative. His testimony

as to Stener's astonishment on discovering that his chief clerk had

given Cowperwood a check was against the latter; but Cowperwood hoped to

overcome the effect of this by his own testimony later.

Up to now both Steger and Cowperwood felt that they were doing fairly

well, and that they need not be surprised if they won their case.

Chapter XLII

The trial moved on. One witness for the prosecution after another

followed until the State had built up an arraignment that satisfied

Shannon that he had established Cowperwood's guilt, whereupon he

announced that he rested. Steger at once arose and began a long argument

for the dismissal of the case on the ground that there was no evidence

to show this, that and the other, but Judge Payderson would have none of

it. He knew how important the matter was in the local political world.

"I don't think you had better go into all that now, Mr. Steger," he

said, wearily, after allowing him to proceed a reasonable distance. "I

am familiar with the custom of the city, and the indictment as here made

does not concern the custom of the city. Your argument is with the jury,

not with me. I couldn't enter into that now. You may renew your motion

at the close of the defendants' case. Motion denied."

District-Attorney Shannon, who had been listening attentively, sat down.

Steger, seeing there was no chance to soften the judge's mind by any

subtlety of argument, returned to Cowperwood, who smiled at the result.

"We'll just have to take our chances with the jury," he announced.

"I was sure of it," replied Cowperwood.

Steger then approached the jury, and, having outlined the case briefly

from his angle of observation, continued by telling them what he was

sure the evidence would show from his point of view.

"As a matter of fact, gentlemen, there is no essential difference in

the evidence which the prosecution can present and that which we, the

defense, can present. We are not going to dispute that Mr. Cowperwood

received a check from Mr. Stener for sixty thousand dollars, or that

he failed to put the certificate of city loan which that sum of money

represented, and to which he was entitled in payment as agent, in the

sinking-fund, as the prosecution now claims he should have done; but

we are going to claim and prove also beyond the shadow of a reasonable

doubt that he had a right, as the agent of the city, doing business with

the city through its treasury department for four years, to withhold,

under an agreement which he had with the city treasurer, all payments

of money and all deposits of certificates in the sinking-fund until the

first day of each succeeding month--the first month following any given

transaction. As a matter of fact we can and will bring many traders and

bankers who have had dealings with the city treasury in the past in just

this way to prove this. The prosecution is going to ask you to believe

that Mr. Cowperwood knew at the time he received this check that he was

going to fail; that he did not buy the certificates, as he claimed, with

the view of placing them in the sinking-fund; and that, knowing he

was going to fail, and that he could not subsequently deposit them, he

deliberately went to Mr. Albert Stires, Mr. Stener's secretary, told

him that he had purchased such certificates, and on the strength of a

falsehood, implied if not actually spoken, secured the check, and walked

away.

"Now, gentlemen, I am not going to enter into a long-winded discussion

of these points at this time, since the testimony is going to show very

rapidly what the facts are. We have a number of witnesses here, and

we are all anxious to have them heard. What I am going to ask you to

remember is that there is not one scintilla of testimony outside of that

which may possibly be given by Mr. George W. Stener, which will show

either that Mr. Cowperwood knew, at the time he called on the city

treasurer, that he was going to fail, or that he had not purchased the

certificates in question, or that he had not the right to withhold

them from the sinking-fund as long as he pleased up to the first of

the month, the time he invariably struck a balance with the city.

Mr. Stener, the ex-city treasurer, may possibly testify one way. Mr.

Cowperwood, on his own behalf, will testify another. It will then be for

you gentlemen to decide between them, to decide which one you prefer

to believe--Mr. George W. Stener, the ex-city treasurer, the former

commercial associate of Mr. Cowperwood, who, after years and years of

profit, solely because of conditions of financial stress, fire, and

panic, preferred to turn on his one-time associate from whose labors he

had reaped so much profit, or Mr. Frank A. Cowperwood, the well-known

banker and financier, who did his best to weather the storm alone, who

fulfilled to the letter every agreement he ever had with the city, who

has even until this hour been busy trying to remedy the unfair financial

difficulties forced upon him by fire and panic, and who only yesterday

made an offer to the city that, if he were allowed to continue in

uninterrupted control of his affairs he would gladly repay as quickly as

possible every dollar of his indebtedness (which is really not all his),

including the five hundred thousand dollars under discussion between him

and Mr. Stener and the city, and so prove by his works, not talk, that

there was no basis for this unfair suspicion of his motives. As you

perhaps surmise, the city has not chosen to accept his offer, and I

shall try and tell you why later, gentlemen. For the present we will

proceed with the testimony, and for the defense all I ask is that you

give very close attention to all that is testified to here to-day.

Listen very carefully to Mr. W. C. Davison when he is put on the stand.

Listen equally carefully to Mr. Cowperwood when we call him to testify.

Follow the other testimony closely, and then you will be able to judge

for yourselves. See if you can distinguish a just motive for this

prosecution. I can't. I am very much obliged to you for listening to me,

gentlemen, so attentively."

He then put on Arthur Rivers, who had acted for Cowperwood on 'change

as special agent during the panic, to testify to the large quantities

of city loan he had purchased to stay the market; and then after him,

Cowperwood's brothers, Edward and Joseph, who testified to instructions

received from Rivers as to buying and selling city loan on that

occasion--principally buying.

The next witness was President W. C. Davison of the Girard National

Bank. He was a large man physically, not so round of body as full and

broad. His shoulders and chest were ample. He had a big blond head, with

an ample breadth of forehead, which was high and sane-looking. He had

a thick, squat nose, which, however, was forceful, and thin, firm, even

lips. There was the faintest touch of cynical humor in his hard blue

eyes at times; but mostly he was friendly, alert, placid-looking,

without seeming in the least sentimental or even kindly. His business,

as one could see plainly, was to insist on hard financial facts, and

one could see also how he would naturally be drawn to Frank Algernon

Cowperwood without being mentally dominated or upset by him. As he took

the chair very quietly, and yet one might say significantly, it was

obvious that he felt that this sort of legal-financial palaver was above

the average man and beneath the dignity of a true financier--in other

words, a bother. The drowsy Sparkheaver holding up a Bible beside him

for him to swear by might as well have been a block of wood. His oath

was a personal matter with him. It was good business to tell the truth

at times. His testimony was very direct and very simple.

He had known Mr. Frank Algernon Cowperwood for nearly ten years. He

had done business with or through him nearly all of that time. He knew

nothing of his personal relations with Mr. Stener, and did not know

Mr. Stener personally. As for the particular check of sixty thousand

dollars--yes, he had seen it before. It had come into the bank on

October 10th along with other collateral to offset an overdraft on the

part of Cowperwood & Co. It was placed to the credit of Cowperwood &

Co. on the books of the bank, and the bank secured the cash through the

clearing-house. No money was drawn out of the bank by Cowperwood & Co.

after that to create an overdraft. The bank's account with Cowperwood

was squared.

Nevertheless, Mr. Cowperwood might have drawn heavily, and nothing would

have been thought of it. Mr. Davison did not know that Mr. Cowperwood

was going to fail--did not suppose that he could, so quickly. He had

frequently overdrawn his account with the bank; as a matter of fact,

it was the regular course of his business to overdraw it. It kept his

assets actively in use, which was the height of good business. His

overdrafts were protected by collateral, however, and it was his custom

to send bundles of collateral or checks, or both, which were variously

distributed to keep things straight. Mr. Cowperwood's account was the

largest and most active in the bank, Mr. Davison kindly volunteered.

When Mr. Cowperwood had failed there had been over ninety thousand

dollars' worth of certificates of city loan in the bank's possession

which Mr Cowperwood had sent there as collateral. Shannon, on

cross-examination, tried to find out for the sake of the effect on the

jury, whether Mr. Davison was not for some ulterior motive especially

favorable to Cowperwood. It was not possible for him to do that. Steger

followed, and did his best to render the favorable points made by Mr.

Davison in Cowperwood's behalf perfectly clear to the jury by having him

repeat them. Shannon objected, of course, but it was of no use. Steger

managed to make his point.

He now decided to have Cowperwood take the stand, and at the mention of

his name in this connection the whole courtroom bristled.

Cowperwood came forward briskly and quickly. He was so calm, so jaunty,

so defiant of life, and yet so courteous to it. These lawyers, this

jury, this straw-and-water judge, these machinations of fate, did not

basically disturb or humble or weaken him. He saw through the mental

equipment of the jury at once. He wanted to assist his counsel in

disturbing and confusing Shannon, but his reason told him that only an

indestructible fabric of fact or seeming would do it. He believed in the

financial rightness of the thing he had done. He was entitled to do it.

Life was war--particularly financial life; and strategy was its keynote,

its duty, its necessity. Why should he bother about petty, picayune

minds which could not understand this? He went over his history for

Steger and the jury, and put the sanest, most comfortable light on it

that he could. He had not gone to Mr. Stener in the first place, he

said--he had been called. He had not urged Mr. Stener to anything. He

had merely shown him and his friends financial possibilities which they

were only too eager to seize upon. And they had seized upon them. (It

was not possible for Shannon to discover at this period how subtly he

had organized his street-car companies so that he could have "shaken

out" Stener and his friends without their being able to voice a single

protest, so he talked of these things as opportunities which he had made

for Stener and others. Shannon was not a financier, neither was

Steger. They had to believe in a way, though they doubted it,

partly--particularly Shannon.) He was not responsible for the custom

prevailing in the office of the city treasurer, he said. He was a banker

and broker.

The jury looked at him, and believed all except this matter of the

sixty-thousand-dollar check. When it came to that he explained it all

plausibly enough. When he had gone to see Stener those several last

days, he had not fancied that he was really going to fail. He had

asked Stener for some money, it is true--not so very much, all things

considered--one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; but, as Stener

should have testified, he (Cowperwood) was not disturbed in his manner.

Stener had merely been one resource of his. He was satisfied at that

time that he had many others. He had not used the forceful language or

made the urgent appeal which Stener said he had, although he had pointed

out to Stener that it was a mistake to become panic-stricken, also to

withhold further credit. It was true that Stener was his easiest, his

quickest resource, but not his only one. He thought, as a matter of

fact, that his credit would be greatly extended by his principal money

friends if necessary, and that he would have ample time to patch up his

affairs and keep things going until the storm should blow over. He had

told Stener of his extended purchase of city loan to stay the market on

the first day of the panic, and of the fact that sixty thousand dollars

was due him. Stener had made no objection. It was just possible that

he was too mentally disturbed at the time to pay close attention. After

that, to his, Cowperwood's, surprise, unexpected pressure on great

financial houses from unexpected directions had caused them to be not

willingly but unfortunately severe with him. This pressure, coming

collectively the next day, had compelled him to close his doors, though

he had not really expected to up to the last moment. His call for the

sixty-thousand-dollar check at the time had been purely fortuitous. He

needed the money, of course, but it was due him, and his clerks were

all very busy. He merely asked for and took it personally to save time.

Stener knew if it had been refused him he would have brought suit. The

matter of depositing city loan certificates in the sinking-fund,

when purchased for the city, was something to which he never gave any

personal attention whatsoever. His bookkeeper, Mr. Stapley, attended to

all that. He did not know, as a matter of fact, that they had not been

deposited. (This was a barefaced lie. He did know.) As for the check

being turned over to the Girard National Bank, that was fortuitous.

It might just as well have been turned over to some other bank if the

conditions had been different.

Thus on and on he went, answering all of Steger's and Shannon's

searching questions with the most engaging frankness, and you could have

sworn from the solemnity with which he took it all--the serious business

attention--that he was the soul of so-called commercial honor. And to

say truly, he did believe in the justice as well as the necessity and

the importance of all that he had done and now described. He wanted the

jury to see it as he saw it--put itself in his place and sympathize with

him.

He was through finally, and the effect on the jury of his testimony and

his personality was peculiar. Philip Moultrie, juror No. 1, decided that

Cowperwood was lying. He could not see how it was possible that he could

not know the day before that he was going to fail. He must have known,

he thought. Anyhow, the whole series of transactions between him

and Stener seemed deserving of some punishment, and all during this

testimony he was thinking how, when he got in the jury-room, he would

vote guilty. He even thought of some of the arguments he would use to

convince the others that Cowperwood was guilty. Juror No. 2, on the

contrary, Simon Glassberg, a clothier, thought he understood how it

all came about, and decided to vote for acquittal. He did not think

Cowperwood was innocent, but he did not think he deserved to be

punished. Juror No. 3, Fletcher Norton, an architect, thought Cowperwood

was guilty, but at the same time that he was too talented to be sent to

prison. Juror No. 4, Charles Hillegan, an Irishman, a contractor, and

a somewhat religious-minded person, thought Cowperwood was guilty and

ought to be punished. Juror No. 5, Philip Lukash, a coal merchant,

thought he was guilty. Juror No. 6, Benjamin Fraser, a mining expert,

thought he was probably guilty, but he could not be sure. Uncertain

what he would do, juror No. 7, J. J. Bridges, a broker in Third Street,

small, practical, narrow, thought Cowperwood was shrewd and guilty and

deserved to be punished. He would vote for his punishment. Juror No.

8, Guy E. Tripp, general manager of a small steamboat company, was

uncertain. Juror No. 9, Joseph Tisdale, a retired glue manufacturer,

thought Cowperwood was probably guilty as charged, but to Tisdale it

was no crime. Cowperwood was entitled to do as he had done under the

circumstances. Tisdale would vote for his acquittal. Juror No. 10,

Richard Marsh, a young florist, was for Cowperwood in a sentimental way.

He had, as a matter of fact, no real convictions. Juror No. 11, Richard

Webber, a grocer, small financially, but heavy physically, was for

Cowperwood's conviction. He thought him guilty. Juror No. 12, Washington

B. Thomas, a wholesale flour merchant, thought Cowperwood was guilty,

but believed in a recommendation to mercy after pronouncing him so. Men

ought to be reformed, was his slogan.

So they stood, and so Cowperwood left them, wondering whether any of his

testimony had had a favorable effect.

Chapter XLIII

Since it is the privilege of the lawyer for the defense to address the

jury first, Steger bowed politely to his colleague and came forward.

Putting his hands on the jury-box rail, he began in a very quiet,

modest, but impressive way:

"Gentlemen of the jury, my client, Mr. Frank Algernon Cowperwood, a

well-known banker and financier of this city, doing business in Third

Street, is charged by the State of Pennsylvania, represented by the

district attorney of this district, with fraudulently transferring from

the treasury of the city of Philadelphia to his own purse the sum of

sixty thousand dollars, in the form of a check made out to his order,

dated October 9, 1871, and by him received from one Albert Stires, the

private secretary and head bookkeeper of the treasurer of this city,

at the time in question. Now, gentlemen, what are the facts in this

connection? You have heard the various witnesses and know the general

outlines of the story. Take the testimony of George W. Stener, to begin

with. He tells you that sometime back in the year 1866 he was greatly in

need of some one, some banker or broker, who would tell him how to bring

city loan, which was selling very low at the time, to par--who would not

only tell him this, but proceed to demonstrate that his knowledge was

accurate by doing it. Mr. Stener was an inexperienced man at the time

in the matter of finance. Mr. Cowperwood was an active young man with

an enviable record as a broker and a trader on 'change. He proceeded

to demonstrate to Mr. Stener not only in theory, but in fact, how this

thing of bringing city loan to par could be done. He made an arrangement

at that time with Mr. Stener, the details of which you have heard from

Mr. Stener himself, the result of which was that a large amount of city

loan was turned over to Mr. Cowperwood by Mr. Stener for sale, and by

adroit manipulation--methods of buying and selling which need not be

gone into here, but which are perfectly sane and legitimate in the world

in which Mr. Cowperwood operated, did bring that loan to par, and kept

it there year after year as you have all heard here testified to.

"Now what is the bone of contention here, gentlemen, the significant

fact which brings Mr. Stener into this court at this time charging his

old-time agent and broker with larceny and embezzlement, and alleging

that he has transferred to his own use without a shadow of return sixty

thousand dollars of the money which belongs to the city treasury? What

is it? Is it that Mr. Cowperwood secretly, with great stealth, as it

were, at some time or other, unknown to Mr. Stener or to his assistants,

entered the office of the treasurer and forcibly, and with criminal

intent, carried away sixty thousand dollars' worth of the city's money?

Not at all. The charge is, as you have heard the district attorney

explain, that Mr. Cowperwood came in broad daylight at between four and

five o'clock of the afternoon preceeding the day of his assignment; was

closeted with Mr. Stener for a half or three-quarters of an hour; came

out; explained to Mr. Albert Stires that he had recently bought sixty

thousand dollars' worth of city loan for the city sinking-fund, for

which he had not been paid; asked that the amount be credited on the

city's books to him, and that he be given a check, which was his due,

and walked out. Anything very remarkable about that, gentlemen? Anything

very strange? Has it been testified here to-day that Mr. Cowperwood was

not the agent of the city for the transaction of just such business as

he said on that occasion that he had transacted? Did any one say here on

the witness-stand that he had not bought city loan as he said he had?

"Why is it then that Mr. Stener charges Mr. Cowperwood with larcenously

securing and feloniously disposing of a check for sixty thousand dollars

for certificates which he had a right to buy, and which it has not been

contested here that he did buy? The reason lies just here--listen--just

here. At the time my client asked for the check and took it away with

him and deposited it in his own bank to his own account, he failed, so

the prosecution insists, to put the sixty thousand dollars' worth of

certificates for which he had received the check, in the sinking-fund;

and having failed to do that, and being compelled by the pressure of

financial events the same day to suspend payment generally, he thereby,

according to the prosecution and the anxious leaders of the

Republican party in the city, became an embezzler, a thief, a this or

that--anything you please so long as you find a substitute for George W.

Stener and the indifferent leaders of the Republican party in the eyes

of the people."

And here Mr. Steger proceeded boldly and defiantly to outline the entire

political situation as it had manifested itself in connection with the

Chicago fire, the subsequent panic and its political consequences, and

to picture Cowperwood as the unjustly maligned agent, who before the

fire was valuable and honorable enough to suit any of the political

leaders of Philadelphia, but afterward, and when political defeat

threatened, was picked upon as the most available scapegoat anywhere

within reach.

And it took him a half hour to do that. And afterward but only after he

had pointed to Stener as the true henchman and stalking horse, who had,

in turn, been used by political forces above him to accomplish certain

financial results, which they were not willing to have ascribed to

themselves, he continued with:

"But now, in the light of all this, only see how ridiculous all this is!

How silly! Frank A. Cowperwood had always been the agent of the city in

these matters for years and years. He worked under certain rules

which he and Mr. Stener had agreed upon in the first place, and which

obviously came from others, who were above Mr. Stener, since they were

hold-over customs and rules from administrations, which had been long

before Mr. Stener ever appeared on the scene as city treasurer. One of

them was that he could carry all transactions over until the first of

the month following before he struck a balance. That is, he need not pay

any money over for anything to the city treasurer, need not send him any

checks or deposit any money or certificates in the sinking-fund until

the first of the month because--now listen to this carefully, gentlemen;

it is important--because his transactions in connection with city loan

and everything else that he dealt in for the city treasurer were so

numerous, so swift, so uncalculated beforehand, that he had to have a

loose, easy system of this kind in order to do his work properly--to

do business at all. Otherwise he could not very well have worked to the

best advantage for Mr. Stener, or for any one else. It would have meant

too much bookkeeping for him--too much for the city treasurer. Mr.

Stener has testified to that in the early part of his story. Albert

Stires has indicated that that was his understanding of it. Well, then

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