And beyond that was the home of the Warfields, whose fortune came
from great department stores, in which young girls worked for two
dollars and a half a week, and eked out their existence by
prostitution. And this was the summer that Warfield's youngest
daughter was launched, and for her debutante dance they built a
ballroom which cost thirty thousand dollars--and was torn down the
day afterwards!

And beyond this, upon the cliffs, was the castle of the Mayers,
whose fortunes came from coal.--Montague thought of the young man
who had invented the device for the automatic weighing of coal as it
was loaded upon steam-ships. Major Venable had hinted to him that
the reason the Coal Trust would not consider it, was because they
were selling short weight; and since then he had investigated the
story, and learned that this was true, and that it was old Mayer
himself who had devised the system. And here was his palace, and
here were his sons and daughters--among the most haughty and
exclusive of Society's entertainers!

So you might drive down the streets and point out the mansions and
call the roll of the owners--kings of oil and steel and railroads
and mines! Here everything was beauty and splendour. Here were
velvet lawns and gardens of rare flowers, and dancing and feasting
and merriment. It seemed very far from the sordid strife of
commerce, from poverty and toil and death. But Montague carried with
him the sight that he had seen in the plate-mill, the misty blur
about the whirling shaft, and the shrouded form upon the stretcher,
dripping blood.

* * *