r anything save the facts and conditions that
were before him.

His chance came about six months later, when it was found that the State
would have to have much more money. Its quota of troops would have to
be equipped and paid. There were measures of defense to be taken, the
treasury to be replenished. A call for a loan of twenty-three million
dollars was finally authorized by the legislature and issued. There was
great talk in the street as to who was to handle it--Drexel & Co. and
Jay Cooke & Co., of course.

Cowperwood pondered over this. If he could handle a fraction of this
great loan now--he could not possibly handle the whole of it, for he
had not the necessary connections--he could add considerably to his
reputation as a broker while making a tidy sum. How much could he
handle? That was the question. Who would take portions of it? His
father's bank? Probably. Waterman & Co.? A little. Judge Kitchen? A
small fraction. The Mills-David Company? Yes. He thought of different
individuals and concerns who, for one reason and another--personal
friendship, good-nature, gratitude for past favors, and so on--would
take a percentage of the seven-percent. bonds through him. He totaled up
his possibilities, and discovered that in all likelihood, with a little
preliminary missionary work, he could dispose of one million dollars if
personal influence, through local political figures, could bring this
much of the loan his way.

One man in particular had grown strong in his estimation as having some
subtle political connection not visible on the surface, and this
was Edward Malia Butler. Butler was a contractor, undertaking the
construction of sewers, water-mains, foundations for buildings,
street-paving, and the like. In the early days, long before Cowperwood
had known him, he had been a garbage-contractor on his own account. The
city at that time had no extended street-cleaning service, particularly
in its outlying sections and some of the older, poorer regions. Edward
Butler, then a poor young Irishman, had begun by collecting and hauling
away the garbage free of charge, and feeding it to his pigs and cattle.
Later he discovered that some people were willing to pay a small charge
for this service. Then a local political character, a councilman friend
of his--they were both Catholics--saw a new point in the whole thing.
Butler could be made official garbage-collector. The council could
vote an annual appropriation for this