official position in connection with
it. Anyhow, think of a rising income from $250,000! Think of the
independence, the freedom! Surely then he could paint or travel, or do
as he pleased.

As a matter of fact, after two automobile rides to the nearest available
position on the site of the future resort and a careful study of the
islands and the beach, Eugene devised a scheme which included four
hotels of varying sizes, one dining and dancing casino, one gambling
resort after the pattern of Monte Carlo, a summer theatre, a music
pavilion, three lovely piers, motor and yacht club houses, a park with
radiating streets, and other streets arranged in concentric rings to
cross them. There was a grand plaza about which the four hotels were
ranged, a noble promenade, three miles in length, to begin with, a
handsome railway station, plots for five thousand summer homes, ranging
from five to fifteen thousand in price. There were islands for
residences, islands for clubs, islands for parks. One of the hotels sat
close to an inlet over which a dining veranda was to be built--stairs
were to be laid down to the water so that one could step into gondolas
or launches and be carried quickly to one of the music pavilions on one
of the islands. Everything that money wanted was to be eventually
available here, and all was to be gone about slowly but beautifully, so
that each step would only make more sure each additional step.

Eugene did not enter on this grand scheme until ten men, himself
included, had pledged themselves to take stock up to $50,000 each.
Included in these were Mr. Wiltsie, President of the Long Island;
Mr. Kenyon C. Winfield, and Milton Willebrand, the very wealthy society
man at whose home he had originally met Winfield. The Sea Island Company
was then incorporated, and on a series of dates agreed upon between them
and which were dependent upon a certain amount of work being
accomplished by each date, the stock was issued to them in
ten-thousand-dollar lots and then cash taken and deposited in the
treasury. By the end of two years after Eugene had first been approached
by Winfield he had a choice collection of gold-colored certificates in
the Sea Island Realty and Construction Company, which was building the
now widely heralded seaside resort--"Blue Sea"--which, according to
those interested, was to be the most perfect resort of its kind in the
world. His certificates stated that they were worth $250,000, and
potent