The Financier a novel by Theodore Dreiser

 
 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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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.