A Captain of Industry
BEING
The Story of a Civilized Man
BY
UPTON SINCLAIR
AUTHOR OF "THE JUNGLE," ETC.
GIRARD, KANSAS
THE APPEAL TO REASON
1906
[2]Copyright, 1906,
By J. A. WAYLAND.
All rights reserved.
A CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY
PREFACE
This little story was written nearly five years ago. The verdict upon itwas that it was "unpublishable," and so I put it away until I should bein position to publish it myself.
Recently I read it over, and got an interesting vision of how the timeshave changed in five years. I put it away a revolutionary document; Itook it out a quiet and rather obvious statement of generally acceptedviews. In reading the story, one should bear in mind that it was writtenbefore any of the "literature of exposure" had appeared; that its writerdrew nothing from Mr. Steffens' probing of political corruption, norfrom Miss Tarbell's analysis of the railroad rebate, nor from Mr.Lawson's exposé of the inner life of "Frenzied Finance."
U.S.
A CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY
I
I purpose in this chronicle to tell the story of A Civilized Man:casting aside all Dreams and Airy Imaginations, and dealing with thathumble Reality which lies at our doorsteps.
II
Every proverb, every slang phrase and colloquialism, is what one mightcall a petrified inspiration. Once upon a time it was a living thing, alightning flash in some man's soul; and now it glides off our tonguewithout our ever thinking of its meaning. So, when the event transpiredwhich marks the beginning of my story, the newspapers one and allremarked that Robert van Rensselaer was born with a silver spoon in hismouth.
Into the particular circumstances of the event it is not necessary togo, furthermore than to say that the arrival occasioned considerablediscomfort, to the annoyance of my hero's mother, who had neverexperienced any discomfort before. His father, Mr. Chauncey vanRensselaer, was a respected member of our metropolitan high society,combining the major and minor desiderata[9] of wealth and good-breeding,and residing in a twentieth-century palace at number four thousandeleven hundred and forty-four Fifth Avenue.