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pointing out subtle ways by which the city's money could be made profitable for both; but when I
hear Mr. Cowperwood described as I have just heard him described, as a nice, mild, innocent
agent, my gorge rises. Why, gentlemen, if you want to get a right point of view on this whole
proposition you will have to go back about ten or twelve years and see Mr. George W. Stener as
he was then, a rather poverty-stricken beginner in politics, and before this very subtle and
capable broker and agent came along and pointed out ways and means by which the city's
money could be made profitable; George W. Stener wasn't very much of a personage then, and
neither was Frank A. Cowperwood when he found Stener newly elected to the office of city
treasurer. Can't you see him arriving at that time nice and fresh and young and well dressed, as
shrewd as a fox, and saying: 'Come to me. Let me handle city loan. Loan me the city's money at
two per cent. or less.' Can't you hear him suggesting this? Can't you see him?
"George W. Stener was a poor man, comparatively a very poor man, when he first became city
treasurer. All he had was a small real-estate and insurance business which brought him in, say,
twenty-five hundred dollars a year. He had a wife and four children to support, and he had never
had the slightest taste of what for him might be called luxury or comfort. Then comes Mr.
Cowperwood--at his request, to be sure, but on an errand which held no theory of evil gains in
Mr. Stener's mind at the time--and proposes his grand scheme of manipulating all the city loan
to their mutual advantage. Do you yourselves think, gentlemen, from what you have seen of
George W. Stener here on the witness-stand, that it was he who proposed this plan of ill-gotten
wealth to that gentleman over there?"
He pointed to Cowperwood.
"Does he look to you like a man who would be able to tell that gentleman anything about finance
or this wonderful manipulation that followed? I ask you, does he look clever enough to suggest
all the subtleties by which these two subsequently made so much money? Why, the statement
of this man Cowperwood made to his creditors at the time of his failure here a few weeks ago
showed that he considered himself to be worth over one million two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars, and he is only a little over thirty-four years old to-day. How much was he worth at the
time he first entered business relations with the ex-city treasurer? Have you any idea? I can tell.
I had the matter looked up almost a month ago on my accession to office. Just a little over two
hundred thousand dollars, gentlemen--just a little over two hundred thousand dollars. Here is an
abstract from the files of Dun & Company for that year. Now you can see how rapidly our
Caesar has grown in wealth since then. You can see how profitable these few short years have
been to him. Was George W. Stener worth any such sum up to the time he was removed from
his office and indicted for embezzlement? Was he? I have here a schedule of his liabilities and
assets made out at the time. You can see it for yourselves, gentlemen. Just two hundred and
twenty thousand dollars measured the sum of all his property three weeks ago; and it is an
accurate estimate, as I have reason to know. Why was it, do you suppose, that Mr.
Cowperwood grew so fast in wealth and Mr. Stener so slowly? They were partners in crime. Mr.
Stener was loaning Mr. Cowperwood vast sums of the city's money at two per cent. when call-
rates for money in Third Street were sometimes as high as sixteen and seventeen per cent.
Don't you suppose that Mr. Cowperwood sitting there knew how to use this very cheaply come-
by money to the very best advantage? Does he look to you as though he didn't? You have seen
him on the witness-stand. You have heard him testify. Very suave, very straightforward-
seeming, very innocent, doing everything as a favor to Mr. Stener and his friends, of course,
and yet making a million in a little over six years and allowing Mr. Stener to make one hundred
and sixty thousand dollars or less, for Mr. Stener had some little money at the time this
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