The Studs Lonigan Trilogy - James T. Farrell [273]
“I know, but there must be something else besides gambling for a boy with as educated a girl as Loretta for his wife,” she said wistfully.
“He’s making good,” Studs said, yawning, getting up. “I guess I’ll go take a nap.”
“Yes, do, son, it will be good for you,” she said, peeling away at the potatoes.
II
“Well, Dad,” Studs said. looking to his left at his father, who sat at the head of the supper table, “I’m getting to feel pretty good these days.”
“That’s fine, Bill,” Lonigan said, the worried absorption seeming to lift from his ruddy face. “And I’m only sorry that I won’t be able to be giving you as much steady work to do as I used to. The deal on that apartment hotel job flopped. The fellow who was going to supply the fresh capital got cold feet. So we don’t get our contract, and it’s going to put quite a crimp in our style. I had counted a lot on getting it.”
“That’s a shame, Patrick. But you mustn’t worry. The Lord will provide for his own,” Mrs. Lonigan said.
“I hope so,” Lonigan said lifelessly, applying a knife and fork to his pork chop.
“Things will have to get better. That’s just what Mrs. Schwartz and I were saying to each other in the hall this morning,” she said.
“Maybe if we get a man in like Al Smith next year, and kick out Hoover, who’s only a tool of the Jew international bankers, we’ll turn the corner. This country is too great and too rich to be going to the dogs the way it seems to be these days. And you know, I was speaking to a fellow today who seems to know what he’s talking about, and that’s just what he was saying. But we got to get a strong man in the White House, a man like Al Smith or Mussolini, to kick out the bankers and grafting politicians and racketeers, and that’ll make America a country for Americans only. If we don’t do that, we give arguments right into the hands of the Reds who want anarchy here like they got in Russia,” Lonigan said, and Studs nodded.
“Oh, Patrick, I meant to tell you, Frances telephoned today, and they’re getting a new automobile.”
“Fine! Fine! I’m glad to hear it,” he listlessly said with a mouthful of food.
“What kind?” asked Martin, a tall, thin and gawky young man in his early twenties.
“She told me the make, but I forgot it now. You know, it’s such a comfort to know that Carroll and Phillip are so good to my girls. Only it would be so much nicer if Phillip could get into a more refined business.”
“Well, Mary, all business is much the same these days, dog eat dog, and when everything is said and done, the thing that counts is getting ahead. The boy’s doing that.”
“That’s true, Dad,” Studs said reflectively.
“And once you get the money, sock it, hang on to it! Don’t invest in anything. I met another fellow today who’s a good friend of Tam Gregory’s, the chain-store man who made such a profit a year or two ago when he sold out his Peoples Stores. I don’t know Tom personally, myself, but he’s an old-timer who knows the business of making money forward and backward and sidewise. He started with a little store over in back of the yards, and today, according to what this fellow says, he’s an insurance man, Tom Gregory is worth a cool twenty million. He was saying he was out to see Tom the other night, and they were talking about stocks and investments, and Tom said to him, and as I was saying, Tom would know about the matter if anybody would, well, anyway, Tom told him that there’s not a stock on the market today that’s safe.”
“William, don’t eat so fast,” Mrs. Lonigan said, noticing that Studs had lowered his head and was bolting down his food.
“Isn’t a stock like, well, say, Imbray stock with public utilities all over the Middle West to back it up, and directed by a man with the brain of Solomon Imbray, isn’t that stock safe?”
“Well, Bill, I was only saying what I had heard from this insurance man what Tom Gregory had told him. But I’m inclined, personally, to agree with Tom. The stock markets are manipulated by the Jew international bankers, and those are fellows I don’t trust.”
Should he sell his stock and take a small loss? Should he ask his old man