Chapter 23 artistic conscience
"I could never ask my partner Andy Tucker to follow the ethics of the fraud business," Jeff Peters told me the other day.
"Andy's fertile imagination can't make him be honest at least. The tricks he came up with were so clever and profitable that they didn't even have a precedent in the 'railway tax system'."
"As for myself, it's my practice that when I get someone's money, I always give someone something in return—gold-plated jewelry, flower seeds, painkillers, stock bonds, stove cleaning powder, etc. Etc. I suppose some of my ancestors must have been New Englanders, and I have inherited their uneasy fear of the police."
"However, Andy's family is very different from mine. If he had a family history, it would be as short-lived as a limited company."
"One summer, the two of us were doing business in Ohio in the Midwest, selling family albums, headache powders, and cockroach remedies, and Andy hit upon a great idea that would work and make a lot of money."
"'Jeff,' said he, 'I'm thinking we shouldn't be fooling around with the rednecks all the time, and turn our attention to things with high returns. If we're always content to plunder the peasants Small money, and people will be classified as low-level liars. Shall we go out to the tall buildings and bite on the breast of a big buck?'”
"'Come on,' said I, 'you know my temper. I'd rather we do business as fair and lawful as we do now. When I take money from people, I always want to leave something solid--even if These things are worth nothing, so they can see and touch them, so that they don't keep chasing them. But since you have a new idea now, Andy, let's hear it. I don't have to It is impossible to do these small businesses, and if there is a better way to make money, I will not refuse.'”
"'What I'm thinking of,' said Andy, 'is a hunt in the middle of that horde of American Midas—those who are commonly called Pittsburgh millionaires—without horn and without hounds. , and without a camera.'”
"'To New York?' I asked."
"'No,' says Andy, 'to Pittsburgh. Because Pittsburgh is where they live. They don't like New York. They only go there when they're invited.'"
"A Pittsburgh millionaire in New York is like a fly in hot coffee—"
He attracted attention and comments from others, but he was uncomfortable himself.In New York, a city full of sneaky snobs, Pittsburgh millionaires would be teased by them for spending "magnificently" here.In fact, rich people from Pittsburgh don't spend much when they stop in New York.I saw a bill from a Pittsburgh man worth fifteen million who stayed in downtown New York for ten days.The accounts read as follows:
"'That's the way New York is,' Andy continued. 'The whole city is like a head waiter. If you tip him too much, he'll run to the door and make fun of you with the coat keeper. .When a Pittsburgh guy wants to spend money and have a good time, he has to stay in Pittsburgh. That's where we can find them.'”
"Oh, let me cut the long story short. Andy and I stashed our Paris greens, antipyrene powder, and family photo album in a friend's basement, and headed for Pittsburgh. Andy didn't make any plans. Whether by deceit or violence was not said. But he always had the confidence that his wicked inspiration would lead him to take advantage of any opportunity that came his way."
"This time, he gave in to my insistence that people should have some self-respect and some morals. He promised that as long as I put my heart and soul into the business we were going to cooperate in Pittsburgh, after getting the money, he would There must be something tangible, something to touch, smell, and see, so that my conscience doesn't get too much of me. When he said that, I felt better and happily participated. "
"'Andy,' I said, as we wandered down a foggy cinder road called Smithfield Avenue, 'you figured out how we could get to know the coal magnates and the pig iron magnates? It wasn't me Belittle yourself, be shy, but it's harder than you think to get into the salons of people who smoke fancy cigars, right?'”
"'If there's a problem, it's the culture we're born with. Pittsburgh millionaires are down-to-earth, warm, unassuming, democratic people.'"
"'They are rude and go their own way, and though their manners are jovial and not very particular, in their core they lack manners and proper decorum. Almost every one of them has risen from obscurity to commoners ',' said Andy, 'until the city cleans up the smog and pollution, they'll live comfortably and securely. As long as our words are plain and unaffected, we don't stray too far from the salons they're in. Say it out loud to draw their attention, and it will be easier for us to get acquainted with some of them.'”
"Well, Andy and I just wandered the streets like this for three or four days, collecting information. We've been able to recognize a few millionaires."
"One of them used to stop his car in front of the hotel where we were staying and ask for a quart of champagne. When the waiter uncapped him, he took the bottle and poured it into his mouth, which probably indicated that he was on the rise. Before, I was a glass blower."
"Andy didn't come back to the hotel for dinner one night. He didn't come back to my room until eleven o'clock at night."
"'Got a target, Jeff,' he said. 'Worth twelve million. Oil fields, rolling mills, real estate, and natural gas. Nice guy, no airs. His fortune is all in the nearest Earned it in five years. He hired professors to tutor him in art, literature, and dress.'”
"'When I saw him today, he was making a bet with a mill owner that four men in the Allegor mill would commit suicide today, and he won a thousand dollars. I took him to the bar and asked him to buy drinks. He was very fond of me and invited me to dinner with him. We went to a restaurant in Diamond Lane and sat on stools and drank sparkling Moselle wine. , had clam chowder and fried apple pie.'”
"'After dinner, he wanted me to visit his bachelor's apartment on Liberty Road. There were ten rooms in that apartment, it was upstairs from the seafood market, and there was a bathing place on the third floor. He told me it cost him eighteen thousand dollars just to renovate the house, furnish it, etc., and I don't think he's bragging.'”
"'He has $40,000 worth of paintings in one room, and $20,000 in antiques in another. His name is Scudder, he's forty-five years old, he's learning the piano, and from his Fifteen thousand barrels of crude oil are pumped out of our wells every day.'”
"'Very well,' I said, 'this first step is going well. But what's the use of it? What do we have to do with his art and crude oil?'"
"Andy sat on the edge of the bed and thought for a while and said, 'This man is not the arty person we usually call him. When he took me into his room to see his collection of art, he was very excited. There was a gleam on it, like the door of a coke oven being opened. He said that if some of his big sales were done, whether he had a tapestry collection in J. P. Morgan or owned it in Augusta, Maine, Jewelry, will not compare with his collection.'”
"'Then he showed me a carving,' continued Andy, 'and anyone who looked at it would say it was a treasure. It was about two thousand years old, he said, and it was A lotus carved from a single piece of ivory, with a woman's head in the center of the lotus.'”
"'Scudder found a description of it in the catalog of his collection. In ancient Egypt, a sculptor named Khafre made a pair of such carvings and dedicated them to King Ramses II. One of It's gone. Junk dealers and antique dealers have scoured all over Europe and can't find it. Now Scudder bought it for two thousand dollars.'"
"'Oh, that's enough,' I said, 'you're talking like a brook, and it doesn't make sense to me. I thought we came here to teach these millionaires something. , instead of learning art from them, no?'"
"'Just be patient,' said Andy kindly, 'and maybe we'll get our chance before long.'"
"The next day, Andy went out all morning. He didn't return to the hotel until noon. He called me across the hall to his room. He took out a package the size of a goose egg from his pocket, opened it , it turned out to be a carved piece of ivory, exactly like the millionaire's collection he told me about."
"'I went to a thrift store and a pawn shop,' said Andy, 'and I saw this thing squeezed under a lot of old swords and junk. The store owner said it had been there for several years, probably foreigners living down the river. They may be Arabs, Turks, or some other country. Because they are not redeemed at the due date, they are dead.'”
"'I offered two dollars for it. Maybe I acted too eager to get it. The boss said thirty-five dollars short was like taking bread from his sons and daughters. He would never Fuck it. In the end, I got it for twenty-five bucks.'”
"'Jeff,' Andy went on, 'this one just happened to be a pair in Scudder's collection. He'd buy it without saying a word. It's definitely the original match for his one. Scudder wouldn't hesitate to buy it for two thousand dollars. Who's to say it wasn't the real thing that the old gypsy carved?'"
"'Of course, no one can,' I said, 'and how do we get him to buy it voluntarily?'"
"Andy already has a plan in mind, let me tell you how we proceed."
"I found a pair of blue glasses, put on a black dress, rumpled my hair, and dressed up as a professor named Pickleman. I checked in at another hotel. room, sent a telegram to Scudder asking him to come and see me immediately about an important art sale. In less than an hour he was on the hotel elevator and at my door. The room. He's plain, with a booming voice, and he smells of Connecticut cigars and naphtha."
"'Hi, Professor!' he called, 'How are you?'"
"I scratched my tousled hair and stared at him from behind the lenses of my blue glasses."
"'Sir,' I asked, 'are you Cornelius T. Scudder of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?'"
"'Yes,' he replied, 'shall we go out for a drink?'"
"'I have neither the time nor the interest,' said I. Drinking is no good for health, nor is it a good pastime. I'm from New York, and I want to talk to you about art—a business."
"'I hear you have an Egyptian ivory carving from the time of Ramesses II, which shows a lotus flower with the head of Queen Isis in it. There are only two such works in the world. One of these has been lost for years. Recently I found it at a pawn shop in Vienna - oh, a less famous museum - and bought it. I want to buy the one you have in your collection too Come down and make an offer, please.'”
"'Oh, my God!' exclaimed Scudder, 'you found the other one, Professor? Want to buy mine? No, I, Cornelius Scudder, don't Need to sell anything I want in my collection. Have you brought yours, Professor?'”
"I showed it to Scudder. Scudder looked it over carefully."
"'That's right,' he said, 'exactly like mine, every line, every curve, exactly the same. I'll tell you the truth,' he said, 'not only would I not sell it, but I would sell you I'll buy this one for you. I'll give you two thousand and five hundred dollars.'"
"'If you don't want to sell, I'll sell,' I said, 'pay for it and deliver. I don't like chatter. I have to get back to New York tonight. I have class at the aquarium tomorrow morning. .'"
"Scudder sent a check, and I asked the hotel to change it into cash. Scudder took the things and left, and I hurried back to the hotel where Andy was staying as agreed."
"Andy was pacing up and down the room, looking at his watch."
"'How is it?' he asked."
"'Two thousand five hundred dollars,' I said, 'all in cash.'"
"'Now, we only have eleven minutes left,' said Andy, 'to catch that train from Baltimore to Ohio. Go get your bags.'"
"'What's the rush?' I said. 'It's a fair deal. Even if it's just a copy, it'll take him a while to discover that. Scudder seems pretty sure it's a The real thing.'”
"'Yes,' said Andy. 'Because it's his own. When I was looking at his curios yesterday, I put it in my pocket the moment he left the room. Now, do you Why don't you pack your suitcase and run away?'"
"'Then,' I asked, 'why do you say it's another one you found in the pawn shop—'"
"'Oh,' said Andy, 'I do it out of respect for your conscience. Come on, Jeff.'"
Notes:
Notes: