第100章

THE KINGDOM OF GREATNESS--THE PILGRIM A DREAM

Whatever a man like Hurstwood could be in Chicago, it is very evident that he would be but an inconspicuous drop in an ocean like New York.In Chicago, whose population still ranged about 500,000, millionaires were not numerous.The rich had not become so conspicuously rich as to drown all moderate incomes in obscurity.The attention of the inhabitants was not so distracted by local celebrities in the dramatic, artistic, social, and religious fields as to shut the well-positioned man from view.In Chicago the two roads to distinction were politics and trade.In New York the roads were any one of a half-hundred, and each had been diligently pursued by hundreds, so that celebrities were numerous.The sea was already full of whales.

A common fish must needs disappear wholly from view--remain unseen.In other words, Hurstwood was nothing.

There is a more subtle result of such a situation as this, which, though not always taken into account, produces the tragedies of the world.The great create an atmosphere which reacts badly upon the small.This atmosphere is easily and quickly felt.

Walk among the magnificent residences, the splendid equipages, the gilded shops, restaurants, resorts of all kinds; scent the flowers, the silks, the wines; drink of the laughter springing from the soul of luxurious content, of the glances which gleam like light from defiant spears; feel the quality of the smiles which cut like glistening swords and of strides born of place, and you shall know of what is the atmosphere of the high and mighty.Little use to argue that of such is not the kingdom of greatness, but so long as the world is attracted by this and the human heart views this as the one desirable realm which it must attain, so long, to that heart, will this remain the realm of greatness.So long, also, will the atmosphere of this realm work its desperate results in the soul of man.It is like a chemical reagent.One day of it, like one drop of the other, will so affect and discolour the views, the aims, the desire of the mind, that it will thereafter remain forever dyed.A day of it to the untried mind is like opium to the untried body.A craving is set up which, if gratified, shall eternally result in dreams and death.Aye! dreams unfulfilled--gnawing, luring, idle phantoms which beckon and lead, beckon and lead, until death and dissolution dissolve their power and restore us blind to nature's heart.

A man of Hurstwood's age and temperament is not subject to the illusions and burning desires of youth, but neither has he the strength of hope which gushes as a fountain in the heart of youth.Such an atmosphere could not incite in him the cravings of a boy of eighteen, but in so far as they were excited, the lack of hope made them proportionately bitter.He could not fail to notice the signs of affluence and luxury on every hand.He had been to New York before and knew the resources of its folly.

In part it was an awesome place to him, for here gathered all that he most respected on this earth--wealth, place, and fame.

The majority of the celebrities with whom he had tipped glasses in his day as manager hailed from this self-centred and populous spot.The most inviting stories of pleasure and luxury had been told of places and individuals here.He knew it to be true that unconsciously he was brushing elbows with fortune the livelong day; that a hundred or five hundred thousand gave no one the privilege of living more than comfortably in so wealthy a place.

Fashion and pomp required more ample sums, so that the poor man was nowhere.All this he realised, now quite sharply, as he faced the city, cut off from his friends, despoiled of his modest fortune, and even his name, and forced to begin the battle for place and comfort all over again.He was not old, but he was not so dull but that he could feel he soon would be.Of a sudden, then, this show of fine clothes, place, and power took on peculiar significance.It was emphasised by contrast with his own distressing state.

And it was distressing.He soon found that freedom from fear of arrest was not the sine qua non of his existence.That danger dissolved, the next necessity became the grievous thing.The paltry sum of thirteen hundred and some odd dollars set against the need of rent, clothing, food, and pleasure for years to come was a spectacle little calculated to induce peace of mind in one who had been accustomed to spend five times that sum in the course of a year.He thought upon the subject rather actively the first few days he was in New York, and decided that he must act quickly.As a consequence, he consulted the business opportunities advertised in the morning papers and began investigations on his own account.

That was not before he had become settled, however.Carrie and he went looking for a flat, as arranged, and found one in Seventy-eighth Street near Amsterdam Avenue.It was a five-story building, and their flat was on the third floor.Owing to the fact that the street was not yet built up solidly, it was possible to see east to the green tops of the trees in Central Park and west to the broad waters of the Hudson, a glimpse of which was to be had out of the west windows.For the privilege of six rooms and a bath, running in a straight line, they were compelled to pay thirty-five dollars a month--an average, and yet exorbitant, rent for a home at the time.Carrie noticed the difference between the size of the rooms here and in Chicago and mentioned it.

"You'll not find anything better, dear," said Hurstwood, "unless you go into one of the old-fashioned houses, and then you won't have any of these conveniences."