Jennie Gerhardt

 
 
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CHAPTER XLIX 
The peculiarity of this particular proposition was that it had the basic 
elements of success. Mr. Ross had the experience and the judgment which 
were quite capable of making a success of almost anything he undertook. He 
was in a field which was entirely familiar. He could convince almost any able 
man if he could get his ear sufficiently long to lay his facts before him. 
Lester was not convinced at first, although, generally speaking, he was 
interested in real estate propositions. He liked land. He considered it a 
sound investment providing you did not get too much of it. He had never 
invested in any, or scarcely any, solely because he had not been in a realm 
where real estate propositions were talked of. As it was he was landless and, 
in a way, jobless. 
He rather liked Mr. Ross and his way of doing business. It was easy to verify 
his statements, and he did verify them in several particulars. There were his 
signs out on the prairie stretches, and here were his ads in the daily papers. 
It seemed not a bad way at all in his idleness to start and make some 
money. 
The trouble with Lester was that he had reached the time where he was not 
as keen for details as he had formerly been. All his work in recent years—in 
fact, from the very beginning—had been with large propositions, the 
purchasing of great quantities of supplies, the placing of large orders, the 
discussion of things which were wholesale and which had very little to do 
with the minor details which make up the special interests of the smaller 
traders of the world. In the factory his brother Robert had figured the 
pennies and nickels of labor-cost, had seen to it that all the little leaks were 
shut off. Lester had been left to deal with larger things, and he had 
consistently done so. When it came to this particular proposition his interest 
was in the wholesale phases of it, not the petty details of selling. He could 
not help seeing that Chicago was a growing city, and that land values must 
rise. What was now far-out prairie property would soon, in the course of a 
few years, be well built-up suburban residence territory. Scarcely any land 
that could be purchased now would fall in value. It might drag in sales or 
increase, but it couldn't fall. Ross convinced him of this. He knew it of his 
own judgment to be true. 
The several things on which he did not speculate sufficiently were the life or 
health of Mr. Ross; the chance that some obnoxious neighborhood growth 
would affect the territory he had selected as residence territory; the fact that 
difficult money situations might reduce real estate values—in fact, bring 
about a flurry of real estate liquidation which would send prices crashing 
down and cause the failure of strong promoters, even such promoters for 
instance, as Mr. Samuel E. Ross. 
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For several months he studied the situation as presented by his new guide 
and mentor, and then, having satisfied himself that he was reasonably safe, 
decided to sell some of the holdings which were netting him a beggarly six 
per cent, and invest in this new proposition. The first cash outlay was 
twenty thousand dollars for the land, which was taken over under an 
operative agreement between himself and Ross; this was run indefinitely—so 
long as there was any of this land left to sell. The next thing was to raise 
twelve thousand five hundred dollars for improvements, which he did, and 
then to furnish some twenty-five hundred dollars more for taxes and 
unconsidered expenses, items which had come up in carrying out the 
improvement work which had been planned. It seemed that hard and soft 
earth made a difference in grading costs, that trees would not always 
flourish as expected, that certain members of the city water and gas 
departments had to be "seen" and "fixed" before certain other improvements 
could be effected. Mr. Ross attended to all this, but the cost of the 
proceedings was something which had to be discussed, and Lester heard it 
all. 
After the land was put in shape, about a year after the original conversation, 
it was necessary to wait until spring for the proper advertising and booming 
of the new section; and this advertising began to call at once for the third 
payment. Lester disposed of an additional fifteen thousand dollars worth of 
securities in order to follow this venture to its logical and profitable 
conclusion. 
Up to this time he was rather pleased with his venture. Ross had certainly 
been thorough and business-like in his handling of the various details. The 
land was put in excellent shape. It was given a rather attractive title—
"Inwood," although, as Lester noted, there was precious little wood anywhere 
around there. But Ross assured him that people looking for a suburban 
residence would be attracted by the name; seeing the vigorous efforts in 
tree-planting that had been made to provide for shade in the future, they 
would take the will for the deed. Lester smiled. 
The first chill wind that blew upon the infant project came in the form of a 
rumor that the International Packing Company, one of the big constituent 
members of the packing house combination at Halstead and Thirty-ninth 
streets, had determined to desert the old group and lay out a new packing 
area for itself. The papers explained that the company intended to go farther 
south, probably below Fifty-fifth Street and west of Ashland Avenue. This 
was the territory that was located due west of Lester's property, and the 
mere suspicion that the packing company might invade the territory was 
sufficient to blight the prospects of any budding real estate deal. 
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Ross was beside himself with rage. He decided, after quick deliberation, that 
the best thing to do would be to boom the property heavily, by means of 
newspaper advertising, and see if it could not be disposed of before any 
additional damage was likely to be done to it. He laid the matter before 
Lester, who agreed that this would be advisable. They had already expended 
six thousand dollars in advertising, and now the additional sum of three 
thousand dollars was spent in ten days, to make it appear that In wood was 
an ideal residence section, equipped with every modern convenience for the 
home-lover, and destined to be one of the most exclusive and beautiful 
suburbs of the city. It was "no go." A few lots were sold, but the rumor that 
the International Packing Company might come was persistent and deadly; 
from any point of view, save that of a foreign population neighborhood, the 
enterprise was a failure. 
To say that Lester was greatly disheartened by this blow is to put it mildly. 
Practically fifty thousand dollars, two-thirds of all his earthly possessions, 
outside of his stipulated annual income, was tied up here; and there were 
taxes to pay, repairs to maintain, actual depreciation in value to face. He 
suggested to Ross that the area might be sold at its cost value, or a loan 
raised on it, and the whole enterprise abandoned; but that experienced real 
estate dealer was not so sanguine. He had had one or two failures of this 
kind before. He was superstitious about anything which did not go smoothly 
from the beginning. If it didn't go it was a hoodoo—a black shadow—and he 
wanted no more to do with it. Other real estate men, as he knew to his cost, 
were of the same opinion. 
Some three years later the property was sold under the sheriff's hammer. 
Lester, having put in fifty thousand dollars all told, recovered a trifle more 
than eighteen thousand; and some of his wise friends assured him that he 
was lucky in getting off so easily.