The first six or seven years I spent in the office of Wading,Fowndes and Ripon were of importance to my future career,but there is little to relate of them.I was absorbed not only in learning law,but in acquiring that esoteric knowledge at which I have hinted--not to be had from my seniors and which I was convinced was indispensable to a successful and lucrative practice.My former comparison of the organization of our city to a picture puzzle wherein the dominating figures become visible only after long study is rather inadequate.Abetter analogy would be the human anatomy:we lawyers,of course,were the brains;the financial and industrial interests the body,helpless without us;the City Hall politicians,the stomach that must continually be fed.All three,law,politics and business,were interdependent,united by a nervous system too complex to be developed here.In these years,though I worked hard and often late,I still found time for convivialities,for social gaieties,yet little by little without realizing the fact,I was losing zest for the companionship of my former intimates.My mind was becoming polarized by the contemplation of one object,success,and to it human ties were unconsciously being sacrificed.
Tom Peters began to feel this,even at a time when I believed myself still to be genuinely fond of him.Considering our respective temperaments in youth,it is curious that he should have been the first to fall in love and marry.One day he astonished me by announcing his engagement to Susan Blackwood.
"That ends the liquor,Hughie,"he told me,beamingly."I promised her I'd eliminate it."He did eliminate it,save for mild relapses on festive occasions.A more seemingly incongruous marriage could scarcely be imagined,and yet it was a success from the start.From a slim,silent,self-willed girl Susan had grown up into a tall,rather rawboned and energetic young woman.She was what we called in those days "intellectual,"and had gone in for kindergartens,and after her marriage she turned out to be excessively domestic;practising her theories,with entire success,upon a family that showed a tendency to increase at an alarming rate.Tom,needless to say,did not become intellectual.He settled down--prematurely,Ithought--into what is known as a family man,curiously content with the income he derived from the commission business and with life in general;and he developed a somewhat critical view of the tendencies of the civilization by which he was surrounded.Susan held it also,but she said less about it.In the comfortable but unpretentious house they rented on Cedar Street we had many discussions,after the babies had been put to bed and the door of the living-room closed,in order that our voices might not reach the nursery.Perry Blackwood,now Tom's brother-in-law,was often there.He,too,had lapsed into what I thought was an odd conservatism.Old Josiah,his father,being dead,he occupied himself mainly with looking after certain family interests,among which was the Boyne Street car line.Among "business men"he was already getting the reputation of being a little difficult to deal with.I was often the subject of their banter,and presently I began to suspect that they regarded my career and beliefs with some concern.This gave me no uneasiness,though at limes I lost my temper.I realized their affection for me;but privately I regarded them as lacking in ambition,in force,in the fighting qualities necessary for achievement in this modern age.
Perhaps,unconsciously,I pitied them a little.
"How is Judah B.to-day,Hughie?"Tom would inquire."I hear you've put him up for the Boyne Club,now that Mr.Watling has got him out of that libel suit.""Carter Ives is dead,"Perry would add,sarcastically,"let bygones be bygones."It was well known that Mr.Tallant,in the early days of his newspaper,had blackmailed Mr.Ives out of some hundred thousand dollars.And that this,more than any other act,stood in the way,with certain recalcitrant gentlemen,of his highest ambition,membership in the Boyne.
"The trouble with you fellows is that you refuse to deal with conditions as you find them,"I retorted."We didn't make them,and we can't change them.Tallant's a factor in the business life of this city,and he has to be counted with."Tom would shake his head exasperatingly.
"Why don't you get after Ralph?"I demanded."He doesn't antagonize Tallant,either.""Ralph's hopeless,"said Tom."He was born a pirate,you weren't,Hughie.We think there's a chance for his salvation,don't we,Perry?"I refused to accept the remark as flattering.
Another object of their assaults was Frederick Grierson,who by this time had emerged from obscurity as a small dealer in real estate into a manipulator of blocks and corners.
"I suppose you think it's a lawyer's business to demand an ethical bill of health of every client,"I said."I won't stand up for all of Tallant's career,of course,but Mr.Wading has a clear right to take his cases.As for Grierson,it seems to me that's a matter of giving a dog a bad name.Just because his people weren't known here,and because he has worked up from small beginnings.To get down to hard-pan,you fellows don't believe in democracy,--in giving every man a chance to show what's in him.""Democracy is good!"exclaimed Perry."If the kind of thing we're coming to is democracy,God save the state!"...
On the other hand I found myself drawing closer to Ralph Hambleton,sometimes present at these debates,as the only one of my boyhood friends who seemed to be able to "deal with conditions as he found them."Indeed,he gave one the impression that,if he had had the making of them,he would not have changed them.
"What the deuce do you expect?"I once heard him inquire with good-natured contempt."Business isn't charity,it's war.
