l you, Wally," she replied. "You've got to stick to
something. It looks to me as though the winning side was with the
people this time. I don't see how the newspapers can change now after
all they've done. You don't have to advocate public ownership or
anything unfair to the money element, but just the same I'd stick to my
point that the fifty-year franchise is too much. You ought to make
them pay the city something and get their franchise without bribery.
They can't do less than that. I'd stick to the course you've begun on.
You can't get along without the people, Wally. You just must have
them. If you lose their good will the politicians can't help you much,
nor anybody else."

Plainly there were times when the people had to be considered. They
just had to be!

Chapter LX

The Net

The storm which burst in connection with Cowperwood's machinations at
Springfield early in 1897, and continued without abating until the
following fall, attracted such general attention that it was largely
reported in the Eastern papers. F. A. Cowperwood versus the state of
Illinois--thus one New York daily phrased the situation. The
magnetizing power of fame is great. Who can resist utterly the luster
that surrounds the individualities of some men, causing them to glow
with a separate and special effulgence? Even in the case of Berenice
this was not without its value. In a Chicago paper which she found
lying one day on a desk which Cowperwood had occupied was an extended
editorial which interested her greatly. After reciting his various
misdeeds, particularly in connection with the present state
legislature, it went on to say: "He has an innate, chronic,
unconquerable contempt for the rank and file. Men are but slaves and
thralls to draw for him the chariot of his greatness. Never in all his
history has he seen fit to go to the people direct for anything. In
Philadelphia, when he wanted public-franchise control, he sought
privily and by chicane to arrange his affairs with a venal city
treasurer. In Chicago he has uniformly sought to buy and convert to
his own use the splendid privileges of the city, which should really
redound to the benefit of all. Frank Algernon Cowperwood does not
believe in the people; he does not trust them. To him they constitute
no more than a field upon which corn is to be sown, and from which it
is to be reaped. They present but a mass of bent backs, their knees
and faces in the mire