by Frank Norris
But at the same time the low price of grain kept the farmers poor. New mortgages were added to farms already heavily “papered”; even the crops were mortgaged in advance. No new farm implements were bought. Throughout the farming communities of the “Middle West” there were no longer purchases of buggies and parlour organs. Somewhere in other remoter corners of the world the cheap wheat, that meant cheap bread, made living easy and induced prosperity, but in the United States the poverty of the farmer worked upward through the cogs and wheels of the whole great machine of business. It was as though a lubricant had dried up. The cogs and wheels worked slowly and with dislocations. Things were a little out of joint. Wall Street stocks were down. In a word, “times were bad.” Thus for three years. It became a proverb on the Chicago Board of Trade that the quickest way to make money was to sell wheat short. One could with almost absolute certainty be sure of buying cheaper than one had sold. And that peculiar, indefinite thing known — among the most unsentimental men in the world — as “sentiment,” prevailed more and more strongly in favour of low prices. “The ‘sentiment,’” said the market reports, “was bearish”; and the traders, speculators, eighth-chasers, scalpers, brokers, bucket-shop men, and the like — all the world of La Salle Street — had become so accustomed to these “Bear conditions,” that it was hard to believe that they would not continue indefinitely.
Jadwin, inevitably, had been again drawn into the troubled waters of the Pit. Always, as from the very first, a Bear, he had once more raided the market, and had once more been successful. Two months after this raid he and Gretry planned still another coup, a deal of greater magnitude than any they had previously hazarded. Laura, who knew very little of her husband’s affairs — to which he seldom alluded — saw by the daily papers that at one stage of the affair the “deal” trembled to its base.
But Jadwin was by now “blooded to the game.” He no longer needed Gretry’s urging to spur him. He had developed into a strategist, bold, of inconceivable effrontery, delighting in the shock of battle, never more jovial, more daring than when under stress of the most merciless attack. On this occasion, when the “other side” resorted to the usual tactics to drive him from the Pit, he led on his enemies to make one single false step. Instantly — disregarding Gretry’s entreaties as to caution — Jadwin had brought the vast bulk of his entire fortune to bear, in the manner of a general concentrating his heavy artillery, and crushed the opposition with appalling swiftness.
He issued from the grapple triumphantly, and it was not till long afterward that Laura knew how near, for a few hours, he had been to defeat.
And again the price of wheat declined. In the first week in April, at the end of the third winter of Jadwin’s married life, May wheat was selling on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade at sixty-four, the July option at sixty-five, the September at sixty-six and an eighth. During February of the same year Jadwin had sold short five hundred thousand bushels of May. He believed with Gretry and with the majority of the professional traders that the price would go to sixty.
March passed without any further decline. All through this month and through the first days of April Jadwin was unusually thoughtful. His short wheat gave him no concern. He was now so rich that a mere half-million bushels was not a matter for anxiety. It was the “situation” that arrested his attention.
In some indefinable way, warned by that blessed sixth sense that had made him the successful speculator he was, he felt that somewhere, at some time during the course of the winter, a change had quietly, gradually come about, that it was even then operating. The conditions that had prevailed so consistently for three years, were they now to be shifted a little? He did not know, he could not say. But in the plexus of financial affairs in which he moved and lived he felt — a difference.
For one thing “times” were better, business was better. He could not fail to see that trade was picking up. In dry goods, in hardware, in manufactures there seemed to be a different spirit, and he could imagine that it was a spirit of optimism. There, in that great city where the Heart of the Nation beat, where the diseases of the times, or the times’ healthful activities were instantly reflected, Jadwin sensed a more rapid, an easier, more untroubled run of life blood. All through the Body of Things, money, the vital fluid, seemed to be flowing more easily. People seemed richer, the banks were lending more, securities seemed stable, solid. In New York, stocks were booming. Men were making money — were making it, spending it, lending it, exchanging it. Instead of being congested in vaults, safes, and cash boxes, tight, hard, congealed, it was loosening, and, as it were, liquefying, so that it spread and spread and permeated the entire community. The People had money. They were willing to take chances.
So much for the financial conditions.
The spring had been backward, cold, bitter, inhospitable, and Jadwin began to suspect that the wheat crop of his native country, that for so long had been generous, and of excellent quality, was now to prove — it seemed quite possible — scant and of poor condition. He began to watch the weather, and to keep an eye upon the reports from the little county seats and “centres” in the winter wheat States. These, in part, seemed to confirm his suspicions.
From Keokuk, in Iowa, came the news that winter wheat was suffering from want of moisture. Benedict, Yates’ Centre, and Douglass, in southeastern Kansas, sent in reports of dry, windy weather that was killing the young grain in every direction, and the same conditions seemed to prevail in the central counties. In Illinois, from Quincy and Waterloo in the west, and from Ridgway in the south, reports came steadily to hand of freezing weather and bitter winds. All through the lower portions of the State the snowfall during the winter had not been heavy enough to protect the seeded grain. But the Ohio crop, it would appear, was promising enough, as was also that of Missouri. In Indiana, however, Jadwin could guess that the hopes of even a moderate yield were fated to be disappointed; persistent cold weather, winter continuing almost up to the first of April, seemed to have definitely settled the question.
But more especially Jadwin watched Nebraska, that State which is one single vast wheat field. How would Nebraska do, Nebraska which alone might feed an entire nation? County seat after county seat began to send in its reports. All over the State the grip of winter held firm even yet. The wheat had been battered by incessant gales, had been nipped and harried by frost; everywhere the young half-grown grain seemed to be perishing. It was a massacre, a veritable slaughter.
But, for all this, nothing could be decided as yet. Other winter wheat States, from which returns were as yet only partial, might easily compensate for the failures elsewhere, and besides all that, the Bears of the Board of Trade might keep the price inert even in face of the news of short yields. As a matter of fact, the more important and stronger Bear traders were already piping their usual strain. Prices were bound to decline, the three years, sagging was not over yet. They, the Bears, were too strong; no Bull news could frighten them. Somehow there was bound to be plenty of wheat. In face of the rumours of a short crop they kept the price inert, weak.
On the tenth of April came the Government report on the condition of winter wheat. It announced an average far below any known for ten years past. On March tenth the same bulletin had shown a moderate supply in farmers’ hands, less than one hundred million bushels in fact, and a visible supply of less than forty millions.
The Bear leaders promptly set to work to discount this news. They showed how certain foreign conditions would more than offset the effect of a poor American harvest. They pointed out the fact that the Government report on condition was brought up only to the first of April, and that since that time the weather in the wheat belt had been favorable beyond the wildest hopes.
The April report was made public on the afternoon of the tenth of the month. That same evening Jadwin invited Gretry and his wife to dine at the new house on North Avenue; and after dinner, leaving Mrs. Gretry and Laura in the drawing-room, he brought the broker up to t
he billiard-room for a game of pool.
But when Gretry had put the balls in the triangle, the two men did not begin to play at once. Jadwin had asked the question that had been uppermost in the minds of each during dinner.
“Well, Sam,” he had said, by way of a beginning, “what do you think of this Government report?”
The broker chalked his cue placidly.
“I expect there’ll be a bit of reaction on the strength of it, but the market will go off again. I said wheat would go to sixty, and I still say it. It’s a long time between now and May.”
“I wasn’t thinking of crop conditions only,” observed Jadwin. “Sam, we’re going to have better times and higher prices this summer.”
Gretry shook his head and entered into a long argument to show that Jadwin was wrong.
But Jadwin refused to be convinced. All at once he laid the flat of his hand upon the table.
“Sam, we’ve touched bottom,” he declared, “touched bottom all along the line. It’s a paper dime to the Sub-Treasury.”
“I don’t care about the rest of the line,” said the broker doggedly, sitting on the edge of the table, “wheat will go to sixty.” He indicated the nest of balls with a movement of his chin. “Will you break?”
Jadwin broke and scored, leaving one ball three inches in front of a corner pocket. He called the shot, and as he drew back his cue he said, deliberately:
“Just as sure as I make this pocket wheat will — not go — off — another — cent.”
With the last word he drove the ball home and straightened up. Gretry laid down his cue and looked at him quickly. But he did not speak. Jadwin sat down on one of the straight-backed chairs upon the raised platform against the wall and rested his elbows upon his knees.
“Sam,” he said, “the time is come for a great big change.” He emphasised the word with a tap of his cue upon the floor. “We can’t play our game the way we’ve been playing it the last three years. We’ve been hammering wheat down and down and down, till we’ve got it below the cost of production; and now she won’t go any further with all the hammering in the world. The other fellows, the rest of this Bear crowd, don’t seem to see it, but I see it. Before fall we’re going to have higher prices. Wheat is going up, and when it does I mean to be right there.”
“We’re going to have a dull market right up to the beginning of winter,” persisted the other.
“Come and say that to me at the beginning of winter, then,” Jadwin retorted. “Look here, Sam, I’m short of May five hundred thousand bushels, and to-morrow morning you are going to send your boys on the floor for me and close that trade.”
“You’re crazy, J.,” protested the broker. “Hold on another month, and I promise you, you’ll thank me.”
“Not another day, not another hour. This Bear campaign of ours has come to an end. That’s said and signed.”
“Why, it’s just in its prime,” protested the broker. “Great heavens, you mustn’t get out of the game now, after hanging on for three years.”
“I’m not going to get out of it.”
“Why, good Lord!” said Gretry, “you don’t mean to say that—”
“That I’m going over. That’s exactly what I do mean. I’m going to change over so quick to the other side that I’ll be there before you can take off your hat. I’m done with a Bear game. It was good while it lasted, but we’ve worked it for all there was in it. I’m not only going to cover my May shorts and get out of that trade, but” — Jadwin leaned forward and struck his hand upon his knee— “but I’m going to buy. I’m going to buy September wheat, and I’m going to buy it to-morrow, five hundred thousand bushels of it, and if the market goes as I think it will later on, I’m going to buy more. I’m no Bear any longer. I’m going to boost this market right through till the last bell rings; and from now on Curtis Jadwin spells B-u-double l — Bull.”
“They’ll slaughter you,” said Gretry, “slaughter you in cold blood. You’re just one man against a gang — a gang of cutthroats. Those Bears have got millions and millions back of them. You don’t suppose, do you, that old man Crookes, or Kenniston, or little Sweeny, or all that lot would give you one little bit of a chance for your life if they got a grip on you. Cover your shorts if you want to, but, for God’s sake, don’t begin to buy in the same breath. You wait a while. If this market has touched bottom, we’ll be able to tell in a few days. I’ll admit, for the sake of argument, that just now there’s a pause. But nobody can tell whether it will turn up or down yet. Now’s the time to be conservative, to play it cautious.”
“If I was conservative and cautious,” answered Jadwin, “I wouldn’t be in this game at all. I’d be buying U.S. four percents. That’s the big mistake so many of these fellows down here make. They go into a game where the only ones who can possibly win are the ones who take big chances, and then they try to play the thing cautiously. If I wait a while till the market turns up and everybody is buying, how am I any the better off? No, sir, you buy the September option for me to-morrow — five hundred thousand bushels. I deposited the margin to your credit in the Illinois Trust this afternoon.”
There was a long silence. Gretry spun a ball between his fingers, top-fashion.
“Well,” he said at last, hesitatingly, “well — I don’t know, J. — you are either Napoleonic — or — or a colossal idiot.”
“Neither one nor the other, Samuel. I’m just using a little common sense.... Is it your shot?”
“I’m blessed if I know.”
“Well, we’ll start a new game. Sam, I’ll give you six balls and beat you in” — he looked at his watch— “beat you before half-past nine.”
“For a dollar?”
“I never bet, Sam, and you know it.”
Half an hour later Jadwin said:
“Shall we go down and join the ladies? Don’t put out your cigar. That’s one bargain I made with Laura before we moved in here — that smoking was allowable everywhere.”
“Room enough, I guess,” observed the broker, as the two stepped into the elevator. “How many rooms have you got here, by the way?”
“Upon my word, I don’t know,” answered Jadwin. “I discovered a new one yesterday. Fact. I was having a look around, and I came out into a little kind of smoking-room or other that, I swear, I’d never seen before. I had to get Laura to tell me about it.”
The elevator sank to the lower floor, and Jadwin and the broker stepped out into the main hallway. From the drawing-room near by came the sound of women’s voices.
“Before we go in,” said Jadwin, “I want you to see our art gallery and the organ. Last time you were up, remember, the men were still at work in here.”
They passed down a broad corridor, and at the end, just before parting the heavy, sombre curtains, Jadwin pressed a couple of electric buttons, and in the open space above the curtain sprang up a lambent, steady glow.
The broker, as he entered, gave a long whistle. The art gallery took in the height of two of the stories of the house. It was shaped like a rotunda, and topped with a vast airy dome of coloured glass. Here and there about the room were glass cabinets full of bibelots, ivory statuettes, old snuff boxes, fans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The walls themselves were covered with a multitude of pictures, oils, water-colours, with one or two pastels.
But to the left of the entrance, let into the frame of the building, stood a great organ, large enough for a cathedral, and giving to view, in the dulled incandescence of the electrics, its sheaves of mighty pipes.
“Well, this is something like,” exclaimed the broker.
“I don’t know much about ’em myself,” hazarded Jadwin, looking at the pictures, “but Laura can tell you. We bought most of ’em while we were abroad, year before last. Laura says this is the best.” He indicated a large “Bougereau” that represented a group of nymphs bathing in a woodland pool.
“H’m!” said the broker, “you wouldn’t want some of your Sunday-school superintenden
ts to see this now. This is what the boys down on the Board would call a bar-room picture.”
But Jadwin did not laugh.
“It never struck me in just that way,” he said, gravely.
“It’s a fine piece of work, though,” Gretry hastened to add. “Fine, great colouring.”
“I like this one pretty well,” continued Jadwin, moving to a canvas by Detaille. It was one of the inevitable studies of a cuirassier; in this case a trumpeter, one arm high in the air, the hand clutching the trumpet, the horse, foam-flecked, at a furious gallop. In the rear, through clouds of dust, the rest of the squadron was indicated by a few points of colour.
“Yes, that’s pretty neat,” concurred Gretry. “He’s sure got a gait on. Lord, what a lot of accoutrements those French fellows stick on. Now our boys would chuck about three-fourths of that truck before going into action.... Queer way these artists work,” he went on, peering close to the canvas. “Look at it close up and it’s just a lot of little daubs, but you get off a distance” — he drew back, cocking his head to one side— “and you see now. Hey — see how the thing bunches up. Pretty neat, isn’t it?” He turned from the picture and rolled his eyes about the room.