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Financier
The
Philadelphia
into
which
Frank
Algernon
Cowperwood
was
born
was
a
city
of
two
hundred
and
fifty
thousand
and
more
.
It
was
set
with
handsome
parks
,
notable
buildings
,
and
crowded
with
historic
memories
.
Many
of
the
things
that
we
and
he
knew
later
were
not
then
in
existence
--
the
telegraph
,
telephone
,
express
company
,
ocean
steamer
,
city
delivery
of
mails
.
There
were
no
postage-stamps
or
registered
letters
.
The
street
car
had
not
arrived
.
In
its
place
were
hosts
of
omnibuses
,
and
for
longer
travel
the
slowly
developing
railroad
system
still
largely
connected
by
canals
.
Cowperwood
's
father
was
a
bank
clerk
at
the
time
of
Frank
's
birth
,
but
ten
years
later
,
when
the
boy
was
already
beginning
to
turn
a
very
sensible
,
vigorous
eye
on
the
world
,
Mr.
Henry
Worthington
Cowperwood
,
because
of
the
death
of
the
bank
's
president
and
the
consequent
moving
ahead
of
the
other
officers
,
fell
heir
to
the
place
vacated
by
the
promoted
teller
,
at
the
,
to
him
,
munificent
salary
of
thirty-five
hundred
dollars
a
year
.
At
once
he
decided
,
as
he
told
his
wife
joyously
,
to
remove
his
family
from
21
Buttonwood
Street
to
124
New
Market
Street
,
a
much
better
neighborhood
,
where
there
was
a
nice
brick
house
of
three
stories
in
height
as
opposed
to
their
present
two-storied
domicile
.
There
was
the
probability
that
some
day
they
would
come
into
something
even
better
,
but
for
the
present
this
was
sufficient
.
He
was
exceedingly
grateful
.
Henry
Worthington
Cowperwood
was
a
man
who
believed
only
what
he
saw
and
was
content
to
be
what
he
was
--
a
banker
,
or
a
prospective
one
.
He
was
at
this
time
a
significant
figure
--
tall
,
lean
,
inquisitorial
,
clerkly
--
with
nice
,
smooth
,
closely-cropped
side
whiskers
coming
to
almost
the
lower
lobes
of
his
ears
.
His
upper
lip
was
smooth
and
curiously
long
,
and
he
had
a
long
,
straight
nose
and
a
chin
that
tended
to
be
pointed
.
His
eyebrows
were
bushy
,
emphasizing
vague
,
grayish-green
eyes
,
and
his
hair
was
short
and
smooth
and
nicely
parted
.
He
wore
a
frock-coat
always
--
it
was
quite
the
thing
in
financial
circles
in
those
days
--
and
a
high
hat
.
And
he
kept
his
hands
and
nails
immaculately
clean
.
His
manner
might
have
been
called
severe
,
though
really
it
was
more
cultivated
than
austere
.
Being
ambitious
to
get
ahead
socially
and
financially
,
he
was
very
careful
of
whom
or
with
whom
he
talked
.
He
was
as
much
afraid
of
expressing
a
rabid
or
unpopular
political
or
social
opinion
as
he
was
of
being
seen
with
an
evil
character
,
though
he
had
really
no
opinion
of
great
political
significance
to
express
.
He
was
neither
anti
--
nor
pro-slavery
,
though
the
air
was
stormy
with
abolition
sentiment
and
its
opposition
.
He
believed
sincerely
that
vast
fortunes
were
to
be
made
out
of
railroads
if
one
only
had
the
capital
and
that
curious
thing
,
a
magnetic
personality
--
the
ability
to
win
the
confidence
of
others
.
He
was
sure
that
Andrew
Jackson
was
all
wrong
in
his
opposition
to
Nicholas
Biddle
and
the
United
States
Bank
,
one
of
the
great
issues
of
the
day
;
and
he
was
worried
,
as
he
might
well
be
,
by
the
perfect
storm
of
wildcat
money
which
was
floating
about
and
which
was
constantly
coming
to
his
bank
--
discounted
,
of
course
,
and
handed
out
again
to
anxious
borrowers
at
a
profit
.
His
bank
was
the
Third
National
of
Philadelphia
,
located
in
that
center
of
all
Philadelphia
and
indeed
,
at
that
time
,
of
practically
all
national
finance
--
Third
Street
--
and
its
owners
conducted
a
brokerage
business
as
a
side
line
.
There
was
a
perfect
plague
of
State
banks
,
great
and
small
,
in
those
days
,
issuing
notes
practically
without
regulation
upon
insecure
and
unknown
assets
and
failing
and
suspending
with
astonishing
rapidity
;
and
a
knowledge
of
all
these
was
an
important
requirement
of
Mr.
Cowperwood
's
position
.
As
a
result
,
he
had
become
the
soul
of
caution
.
Unfortunately
,
for
him
,
he
lacked
in
a
great
measure
the
two
things
that
are
necessary
for
distinction
in
any
field
--
magnetism
and
vision
.
He
was
not
destined
to
be
a
great
financier
,
though
he
was
marked
out
to
be
a
moderately
successful
one
.
Mrs.
Cowperwood
was
of
a
religious
temperament
--
a
small
woman
,
with
light-brown
hair
and
clear
,
brown
eyes
,
who
had
been
very
attractive
in
her
day
,
but
had
become
rather
prim
and
matter-of-fact
and
inclined
to
take
very
seriously
the
maternal
care
of
her
three
sons
and
one
daughter
.
The
former
,
captained
by
Frank
,
the
eldest
,
were
a
source
of
considerable
annoyance
to
her
,
for
they
were
forever
making
expeditions
to
different
parts
of
the
city
,
getting
in
with
bad
boys
,
probably
,
and
seeing
and
hearing
things
they
should
neither
see
nor
hear
.
Frank
Cowperwood
,
even
at
ten
,
was
a
natural-born
leader
.
At
the
day
school
he
attended
,
and
later
at
the
Central
High
School
,
he
was
looked
upon
as
one
whose
common
sense
could
unquestionably
be
trusted
in
all
cases
.
He
was
a
sturdy
youth
,
courageous
and
defiant
.
From
the
very
start
of
his
life
,
he
wanted
to
know
about
economics
and
politics
.
He
cared
nothing
for
books
.
He
was
a
clean
,
stalky
,
shapely
boy
,
with
a
bright
,
clean-cut
,
incisive
face
;
large
,
clear
,
gray
eyes
;
a
wide
forehead
;
short
,
bristly
,
dark-brown
hair
.
He
had
an
incisive
,
quick-motioned
,
self-sufficient
manner
,
and
was
forever
asking
questions
with
a
keen
desire
for
an
intelligent
reply
.
He
never
had
an
ache
or
pain
,
ate
his
food
with
gusto
,
and
ruled
his
brothers
with
a
rod
of
iron
.
"
Come
on
,
Joe
!
"
"
Hurry
,
Ed
!
"
These
commands
were
issued
in
no
rough
but
always
a
sure
way
,
and
Joe
and
Ed
came
.
They
looked
up
to
Frank
from
the
first
as
a
master
,
and
what
he
had
to
say
was
listened
to
eagerly
.
He
was
forever
pondering
,
pondering
--
one
fact
astonishing
him
quite
as
much
as
another
--
for
he
could
not
figure
out
how
this
thing
he
had
come
into
--
this
life
--
was
organized
.
How
did
all
these
people
get
into
the
world
?
What
were
they
doing
here
?
Who
started
things
,
anyhow
?
His
mother
told
him
the
story
of
Adam
and
Eve
,
but
he
did
n't
believe
it
.
There
was
a
fish-market
not
so
very
far
from
his
home
,
and
there
,
on
his
way
to
see
his
father
at
the
bank
,
or
conducting
his
brothers
on
after-school
expeditions
,
he
liked
to
look
at
a
certain
tank
in
front
of
one
store
where
were
kept
odd
specimens
of
sea-life
brought
in
by
the
Delaware
Bay
fishermen
.
He
saw
once
there
a
sea-horse
--
just
a
queer
little
sea-animal
that
looked
somewhat
like
a
horse
--
and
another
time
he
saw
an
electric
eel
which
Benjamin
Franklin
's
discovery
had
explained
.
One
day
he
saw
a
squid
and
a
lobster
put
in
the
tank
,
and
in
connection
with
them
was
witness
to
a
tragedy
which
stayed
with
him
all
his
life
and
cleared
things
up
considerably
intellectually
.
The
lobster
,
it
appeared
from
the
talk
of
the
idle
bystanders
,
was
offered
no
food
,
as
the
squid
was
considered
his
rightful
prey
.
He
lay
at
the
bottom
of
the
clear
glass
tank
on
the
yellow
sand
,
apparently
seeing
nothing
--
you
could
not
tell
in
which
way
his
beady
,
black
buttons
of
eyes
were
looking
--
but
apparently
they
were
never
off
the
body
of
the
squid
.
The
latter
,
pale
and
waxy
in
texture
,
looking
very
much
like
pork
fat
or
jade
,
moved
about
in
torpedo
fashion
;
but
his
movements
were
apparently
never
out
of
the
eyes
of
his
enemy
,
for
by
degrees
small
portions
of
his
body
began
to
disappear
,
snapped
off
by
the
relentless
claws
of
his
pursuer
.
