latter could be obtained.

"Peeble are not ferry much indrested in tees short-time frangizes,"
observed Mr. Gotloeb once, when Cowperwood was talking the matter over
with him. He wanted Haeckelheimer & Co. to underwrite the whole issue.
"Dey are so insigure. Now if you couldt get, say, a frangize for fifty
or one hunnert years or something like dot your stocks wouldt go off
like hot cakes. I know where I couldt dispose of fifty million dollars
off dem in Cermany alone."

He was most unctuous and pleading.

Cowperwood understood this quite as well as Gotloeb, if not better. He
was not at all satisfied with the thought of obtaining a beggarly
twenty-year extension for his giant schemes when cities like
Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Pittsburg were apparently glad to
grant their corporations franchises which would not expire for
ninety-nine years at the earliest, and in most cases were given in
perpetuity. This was the kind of franchise favored by the great
moneyed houses of New York and Europe, and which Gotloeb, and even
Addison, locally, were demanding.

"It is certainly important that we get these franchises renewed for
fifty years," Addison used to say to him, and it was seriously and
disagreeably true.

The various lights of Cowperwood's legal department, constantly on the
search for new legislative devices, were not slow to grasp the import
of the situation. It was not long before the resourceful Mr. Joel
Avery appeared with a suggestion.

"Did you notice what the state legislature of New York is doing in
connection with the various local transit problems down there?" asked
this honorable gentleman of Cowperwood, one morning, ambling in when
announced and seating himself in the great presence. A half-burned
cigar was between his fingers, and a little round felt hat looked
peculiarly rakish above his sinister, intellectual, constructive face
and eyes.

"No, I didn't," replied Cowperwood, who had actually noted and pondered
upon the item in question, but who did not care to say so. "I saw
something about it, but I didn't pay much attention to it. What of it?"

"Well, it plans to authorize a body of four or five men--one branch in
New York, one in Buffalo, I presume--to grant all new franchises and
extend old ones with the consent of the various local communities
involved. They are to fix the rate of compensation to be paid to the
state or the city, and the rates of fare. They can regulate tra