I intended to present, and I have presented, simply certain types produced by our civilization and working in the media of our economic system. I spent considerable time in New York last winter to procure certain data; I found the data, selected what was typical as I saw it, and made my story. "The Spider's Web," whether well done or ill, has been done by my own imagination.

Help I have had and eagerly sought. An historian always cites his authorities and acknowledges his assistants; I could never see why a novelist should be less honest or less courteous, since every realist must delegate some of his research-work, and even the writer of that fiction farthest from life must take something from the fancy of his acquaintances. I know, and I shall not soon forget, how much "The House of Bondage" owes to the encouragement given my work by its publishers. During the latter part of the actual writing of "The Spider's Web," it was impossible for either my wife or me to be in New York, and I taxed the generous patience of many a friend by inquiries. I exacted tribute from Max Eastman's editorials in "The Masses," Walter Lippmann's papers in "The Forum," and C. P. Connolly's in "Everybody's Magazine" as expressing three current phases of American opinion; I even seized a picture from Mary Macdonald Brown's accounts of New York and secured from an editorial in "The Nation" my reference to the past of the Astor House. Molière took his own where he found it; I have taken other men's at my need. To all of these my score is long; to those few and fine newspaper and magazine critics and reviewers who have seen my purpose and helped it—who, when they have differed or blamed, blamed or differed honestly—to them, from whom I have learned so much, my obligation is still greater.

No opinions that are worth while are unalterable; only the insincere have fixed convictions: my cycle of four books expresses an attitude toward life that I may some day very well change. This series completed, I am left with my conscience free and my brain at liberty to turn toward work that I may try to design only by the more lasting standards of Art, but no change of belief or work will make me regret having expressed what I believed. I am thoroughly aware of how, if they understood it, the condemners of "The Sentence of Silence" and "Running Sands" would condemn this book. I am equally aware of how many persons that are my comrades, friends, and well-wishers will alter their relations toward me when they have read "The Spider's Web"; but, though I shall be sorry to lose these, I shall not be sorry for the reason of their loss. Horace Traubel, who puts most things well, has put this well:

"I have tried to stay in the house of comfort,

to sleep in my bed of ease,

But something not outside of me, something inside of me says:

This will not do....

I have tried the easy way: it was hard:

Now I will try the hard way: I guess it will be easier."

REGINALD WRIGHT KAUFFMAN.

POSCHIAVO, SWITZERLAND,
8th September, 1913.

CHARACTERS

A MAN,
the head of a group of men virtually controlling industrial,
financial, and political America.
GEORGE J. HALLETT, one of his associates.
L. BERGEN RIVINGTON, another.
*Politicians*.
THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
THE MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY.
HON. G. W. HUBER, U. S. Congressman, from
Doncaster County, Pennsylvania,
HON. JESSE KINZER, his successor.
SENATOR SCUDDER, the MAN'S lieutenant in the
Albany legislature,
HON. JARED SPARKS, his lieutenant in the Connecticut
legislature.
BRINLEY, commander of his lobby at
Washington.
KILGOUR, City Chamberlain of New York.
TIM HENEY, Leader of Tammany Hall.
SEELEY, an anti-Tammany Democratic
leader.
ELLISON, another.
THE POLICE-COMMISSIONER OF NEW YORK CITY.
GEORGE KAINDIAC, a U. S. Post-Office Inspector.
VENABLE, ) leaders of the Municipal
NELSON, ) Reform League.
YEATES, )
JARVIE, a Municipal Reform League
"worker."
*Lawyers*.
BROUWER LEIGHTON, District-Attorney of New
York. A Republican.
LARRY O'MARA, a member of his staff,
UHLER, another member of Leighton's
staff.
EX-JUDGE MARCUS F. STEIN, of the firm of Stein, Falconridge,
Falconridge & Perry,
corporation-lawyers.
IRWIN, a member of Stein's staff.
ANSON QUIRK, an underworld lawyer.
LUKE HUBER, a young lawyer.
*Businessmen*.
ROBERT M. DOHAN, president of the M. & N. R. R.
HENRY G. McKAY, his successor.
B. FRANK OSSERMAN, president of the East County
National Bank.
WALLACE K. FORBES, head of the firm of R. H.
Forbes & Son, manufacturers
of ready-made clothing,
ALEXANDER TITUS, financial-inquiry agent.
JAMES T. ROLLINS, the MAN'S secretary.
ATWOOD, his chief broker.
SIMPSON, his almoner.
CONOVER, one of his confidential clerks.
HERBERT CROY, manager of the Ruysdael estate.
WHITAKER, superintendent of the Forbes
factory.
THE DESK-CLERK, in the Arapahoe Apartment house.
CHARLEY, a clerk in the M. R. L. offices,
REV. PINKNEY NICHOLSON, rector of Church of St. Athanasius.
*Miscellaneous Persons*.
THE MAN'S NIECE.
CORNELIUS RUYSDAEL, a wealthy New Yorker of
good family.
MRS. RUYSDAEL, his wife.
TOMMY HALLETT, son of George J.
JOHN JAY PORCELLIS, a young man of leisure.
BETTY FORBES, daughter of Wallace K. Forbes.
MRS. HUBER, mother of Luke and wife of
G. W. Huber.
JANE HUBER, her daughter.
JAMES, the Forbes chauffeur.
MISS WESTON, a telephone operator.
BREIL, a strike-breaker.
AN I.W.W. ORGANIZER.
*Policeman*.
HUGH DONOVAN, a police-lieutenant
MITCHELL, )
ANDERSON, ) patrolmen.
GUTH, )
*Militiamen*.
CAPTAIN ANTONIO FACCIOLATI, of the New York N. G.
TERRY, first-lieutenant under Facciolati.
SCHMIDT, a sergeant.
*Citizens of the Underworld*.
A BUM.
GACE, an assassin.
A DISORDERLY WOMAN.
A WOMAN-RIOTER.
A DRUNKEN WOMAN.
REDDY RAWN, leader of an East Side "gang."
REDDY'S "GIRL."
THE KID, one of his associates,
CRAB ROTELLO. head of a rival gang.
ZANTZINGER, a gunman.
BUTCH DELLITT, another gunman.
*Other Persons*.
Women of the street, the brothel, the world.
Clothing-factory workers.
A mob.
Waiters in saloons.
Clerks and foremen in the Forbes factory.
Stenographers and typists.
Gamblers.
Other gangmen.
Other policemen.
Various minor Republican, Democratic, Reform, and Progressive
politicians.
Newspaper-reporters.
Some newspaper-editors.
A corps of strike-breakers.
Scabs.
Soldiers of the New York National Guard.

THE SPIDER'S WEB

CHAPTER I