Distant Dreams (7 page)

“No, Mother, I remember,” said James quickly.

Edith brightened. “I do so want this to be special for you, dear. I’ve put a lot of thought into the guest list.”

“I’m sure the company will be delightful.”

“I hope it will be more than that.”

“What do you mean?” James cocked a perplexed brow.

“Can’t we discuss this over lunch?” asked Leland.

“It will only take a minute, Mr. Baldwin,” said Edith. “And it is perhaps too delicate a subject to be discussed in public.”

Leland gave a noisy sigh, clearly registering his disapproval. Nevertheless, as hard a man as he might be, he did know when to appease his delicate wife. “Well, then, let’s get it over with.”

“I wanted to discuss the guest list. There are several young ladies—”

“Mother . . .”

“James, your father and I feel it is high time you settled down and stopped flitting about the country. Now that your education is complete, it is time you start a family and take up the banking business.”

James rolled his eyes.

“Don’t be disrespectful of your mother, boy!” growled Leland.

“I’m sorry.” James seemed contrite enough. “But I’ve hardly been ‘flitting around the country.’ A few trips—”

“Every holiday from school you are off somewhere,” countered Edith. “Your father has had precious little time to teach you the business. And as far as courtship goes—well, many of the families in the area hardly even know we have an eligible son. Sometimes I think there ought to be coming-out parties for young men as well as girls.”

“How positively ridiculous,” said Leland.

“Well . . . what else can we do?”

“And that’s what this dinner party is all about?” James asked warily.

“I have invited a handful of the best families, all of whom have perfectly delightful daughters of the marrying age. You may have your pick. See, I am willing to be flexible in this matter.”

“Do we need to discuss this now?” asked James. “The dust is still clinging to my traveling cloak.”

“No time like the present,” said Leland, moderating his impatience. He was no less anxious than his wife to have James settled and married, preferably to a wealthy debutante. It was a closely guarded secret—even James was unaware of it—but the Baldwin personal financial situation was even more precarious than the bank’s. For years Leland had been living way beyond his means, and it was now beginning to catch up to him. “Tell James about these families, wife.”

“There is the Milford girl, Kate,” said Edith, a hint of triumph in her eyes. “She’s seventeen and quite accomplished. True, her waist is a bit thick, but that could be remedied with a better corset. The family’s fortune easily makes one forget her minor imperfections. Next is Sarah Armstrong. She lacks a bit in refinement because the family money is rather new, but again there is enough of it so as to cause other considerations to dim.” Edith counted the young women off on her hand as she spoke. She was clearly in her element. “The secretary of the treasury has a charming ward, his niece, or is it cousin? I forget and it doesn’t matter. The girl is absolutely lovely and has the social standing and financial security to make a good wife. And lastly, but certainly far from being least worthy, is Virginia Adams of Oakbridge. Her credentials are impeccable, and though I mention her last, she is my first choice. As you well know, the family is old and well established, the fortune is old and sizable, and in spite of the distant ties to the presidential Adams, they are in quite tight with the present administration. The fact that they were close friends and neighbors before we moved to the capital makes them that much more appealing.”

“My, my, Mother,” James said in sarcastic wonder. His father threw him a cautionary glance, but James continued anyway. “Have you picked us a house, as well, and named our children?”

Leland wasn’t surprised when his wife went on, undaunted. “Dear James, do be sensible. A good wife is an important asset.”

“You’ve been around banking too much,” said James.

“Would you rather make a poor choice you would regret the rest of your days?”

“I’m not looking for a wife at all right now,” said James. “And I have no desire to settle down.”

“You will have to settle down in order to properly run the bank,” said Edith.

“I don’t plan on running the bank,” James said in an even, barely controlled tone.

Leland scowled. This wasn’t the first time he’d heard this. James had been scoffing at the banking business for years. Yet it was the first time Leland heard it declared with such assertive resolve.

“Don’t talk nonsense, young man,” said Leland. “What other means of support do you have? You wasted your college on ridiculous courses in science and history.”

“Because I have no interest in business and banking.”

“Pray tell, what
do
you have an interest in?” asked Edith, horrified at the turn of the conversation.

“Railroads,” said James flatly, but with assurance.

“Railroads!” mother and father exclaimed in unison.

“Yes.” James smiled almost defiantly. “I had the opportunity to spend time with the president of the B&O—that’s Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. I learned a great deal about their operations and found it quite fascinating. Mr. Thomas is looking for good engineers to help design the rail line. And he believes my science courses, far from being frivolous, are perfectly tailored for his needs.”

“Oh, James . . .” Edith laid a hand weakly across her forehead. “We had such high hopes for you. I do believe I’m feeling faint.”

“Mother, the railroad business is quite respectable.”

“Bah!” spat Leland. “It’s filled with risks and pitfalls. And I have no doubt half those railroad people are criminals to boot. They’ve approached me for loans—which I’ve refused handily. I’ve read their financial reports and can only say the entire venture is pure madness.”

“Perhaps it is risky, but only those willing to risk greatly will reap in kind,” James countered with a determined set to his jaw. His blue eyes burned with conviction. “You took a few risks yourself, Father, when you opened this bank.”

“Banking is a reputable business.”

James chuckled. “Half the people in this country won’t put their money in a bank. I believe even the President keeps his personal income tucked under his mattress.”

“But, son,” said Edith, “the railroad is so dirty and noisy.”

“Mother, can’t you see all the promise it holds? I have seen the plans for a rail line from Baltimore to Ohio. Imagine that!” His excitement grew, oblivious of his parents’ clear disapproval. “And from Ohio it could well stretch the distance to Chicago.”

“Chicago?” smirked Leland. “Who cares about that mudhole except the three thousand people who live there?”

“Why don’t you just open your mind for a minute, Father?”

“So you can drive a locomotive through it?” Leland’s jowls shook in his fury as he continued. “My mind is open, James, and I’m tired of your insolence. I’ve paid for your education, and I will dictate how it is used. You are going into the banking business, and you are going to marry well. I’ll hear no more of it. It is about time you acted like a man instead of an irresponsible boy.”

Leland pushed back his chair and lurched angrily to his feet. Lunch, of course, was ruined now, but for Edith’s sake they would have to muddle through.

7

Railroad Man

James walked along the banks of the Potomac. It was enough away from the hubbub of the capital to allow him a small respite. The waters were sluggish now as summer drew to a close. He paused, stooped down, and picked up a small flat rock, which he flung mightily into the water. The rock skimmed the surface. But it hardly reached the other side as George Washington’s famed toss was reputed to have done.

James stripped off his jacket and slung it over his shoulder. His mother would chide him for looking like a vagabond, but he didn’t care. The afternoon was stifling. The thought of his mother made him recall the events earlier in the day—not that they had been very far from him since leaving his parents after lunch. The meal had been terribly stilted and awkward. His father was unbending in his demands on James. His mother, in her sweet delicate way, was also quite inflexible.

Sometimes James wanted desperately to throw aside all the family constraints. They weighed him down like chains. He longed to break free, perhaps be a real vagabond, or a mountain man, or an explorer. But duty and responsibility held him back. His father called him irresponsible, and maybe he was to some extent, but where his family was concerned, he felt the weight of his sense of duty could almost break him. Perhaps if he were truly a man he’d throw aside those bonds entirely. Maybe it would have been different if his parents had had other children, other sons. But he was alone, and all the family hopes were pinned on him. His father was overbearing, his mother overprotective, yet they had only him to carry on the name and all the things his father had worked so hard to build.

But what of his own dreams? It was hardly fair that he should be expected to sacrifice those for a life he disdained. But his mother would weep and his father would bellow. James didn’t want to hurt his mother or disappoint his father.

His father . . .

It seemed James had already spent two lifetimes trying to please the man and make him proud. However, he had started to give up on that nearly futile task even before he’d finished college. His growing unrest and sense of rebellion began to rear up with his very choice of colleges. Instead of attending his father’s alma mater, Franklin and Marshall, James had chosen another Pennsylvania college, Moravian, in Bethlehem. The innovative liberal college, founded in the middle half of the previous century, had opened James’ eyes to much. The college supported not only education for all—poor as well as rich—but the administration and faculty followed the philosophy of John Amos Comenius. This seventeenth-century bishop of the Moravian Church was often frowned upon for his spirited ideas in regard to education. Not only were men encouraged to study a variety of subjects, but there was a firm belief in education through experience. Comenius even went so far as to advocate the education of women.

James enjoyed the approach and found the proposal of women students to be questionable in worth, but not totally out of consideration. It would never have met with his parents’ ideas for genteel society, but he could see the possibilities.

At first, to appease his parents’ disappointment, James had taken the courses prescribed by his father, all geared toward business and banking. But such courses proved boring to James’ active and creative mind. Thus, encouraged by the college’s philosophy of broad course study, he had added science and history. But unable to completely defy his father, he ended up with a double load. Luckily he was intelligent enough and hardworking enough to successfully master it all.

But how far would he go trying to live a double life to please his father? And would it ever please the man? When James graduated fifth in his class with two degrees, one in business and one in engineering, Leland had only commented that James could have been
first
if he had stuck with business alone. James rebelled further against his parents’ wishes when he decided to stay a few weeks longer in Bethlehem to meet Philip E. Thomas, the president of the B&O Railroad. Thomas, there to meet with an ironworks owner, had cordially received James and encouraged him to come to Baltimore. Given the chance to observe the workings of the railroad, James had followed eagerly. It had proved to be the most exciting three weeks of his life, but had also thrown his life into a spin.

Though he’d always known he didn’t want to be a banker, it had seemed a more reasonable prospect at one time. It had even seemed acceptable for his parents to arrange a suitable match for him in marriage. All that had changed after he went north to school. He had seen too much and learned that beyond the political scraping and social frivolity of Washington there lay an entirely new world—a world James wanted to be a part of.

Now the very thought of sitting behind his father’s desk shuffling papers and hefting ledgers horrified him. In the past he’d never had any clear focus about what he did want, thus he had easily placated his father these last few years. But that, too, was changed now. The railroad had at last lent focus to his life.

He recalled how that passion had begun to take root in him when he had stood in the railroad office looking over plans for a new engine. The plans were intricate, almost artistic in his perception. They had placed one fundamental piece upon another. A spring here, a metal bar there, a cylinder, an axle—it had all pulled at James as nothing ever had before. And his engineering training and his natural aptitude combined so that he actually understood many of the fine nuances of the detailed blueprints. Closing his eyes now, he could still picture the sketch before him. Two sets of lead wheels, two large sets of drive wheels, and no trail wheels. A 440, he remembered, each number representing the wheels on the engine. The most powerful locomotive yet to be made.

And somehow James knew he must be part of it!

The only question now was if he was strong enough to stand up to his father and devastate his mother. He just wasn’t sure.

James picked up another rock but gave it only a halfhearted toss into the water. He really wasn’t in the mood for this solitary walk, nor for the miserable process of self-debate. He was a man of action, not one of great introspection. He headed back to town seeking some diversion.

He wasn’t surprised when his footsteps led him to the rail yard. The big locomotive he had come into town on was there, and men were busily working around it. He ambled into the yard, watching the men’s labors.

A big fellow with red hair and a freckled ruddy face was railing at the men. “This ain’t never gonna get done for the early morning run. Edwards, Collins, can’t you two move a little faster?”

“You want speed or precision, boss?”

“Don’t get smart with me, Edwards. I expect the job to get done, that’s all!” The red-haired boss stalked away.