Otway and Apperson boys got in on, and then all these here
street-railways. Why, I'm the feller that told Eddie Parkinson
what a fine thing he could make out of it if he would go and
organize that North State Street line. He promised me a bunch of
sheers if he ever worked it out, but he never give 'em to me. I
didn't expect him to, though," he added, wisely, and with a glint.
"I'm too old a trader for that. He's out of it now, anyway. That
Michaels-Kennelly crowd skinned him. Yep, if you'd 'a' been here
ten or fifteen years ago you might 'a' got in on that. 'Tain't
no use a-thinkin' about that, though, any more. Them sheers is
sellin' fer clost onto a hundred and sixty."

Cowperwood smiled. "Well, Mr. Laughlin," he observed, "you must
have been on 'change a long time here. You seem to know a good
deal of what has gone on in the past."

Yep, ever since 1852," replied the old man. He had a thick growth
of upstanding hair looking not unlike a rooster's comb, a long and
what threatened eventually to become a Punch-and-Judy chin, a
slightly aquiline nose, high cheek-bones, and hollow, brown-skinned
cheeks. His eyes were as clear and sharp as those of a lynx.

"To tell you the truth, Mr. Laughlin," went on Cowperwood, "what
I'm really out here in Chicago for is to find a man with whom I
can go into partnership in the brokerage business. Now I'm in the
banking and brokerage business myself in the East. I have a firm
in Philadelphia and a seat on both the New York and Philadelphia
exchanges. I have some affairs in Fargo also. Any trade agency
can tell you about me. You have a Board of Trade seat here, and
no doubt you do some New York and Philadelphia exchange business.