Chương Chương 50 · 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.

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.

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.