The Confidence-Man Chapter 9 Summary

Two Business Men Transact a Little Business

  • We're back outside on the railing with our college kid.
  • A man wearing a travelling cap with a perky little tassel on top asks the kid if he's seen the man with a weed on his hat.
  • Oh, man, has college kid seen him? Yeah. And he's none too pleased about it, either.
  • Tassel figures Weeds must have disembarked. College kid figures it's good riddance.
  • Tassel wishes he could have caught Weeds before he left. His company—the Black Rapids Coal Company, to be exact—made a lot of money recently, and he wants to pay it forward.
  • Hold the phone. College kid's interest is piqued. If Tassel is selling, he's buying.
  • There's a lot of back and forth here that basically amounts to this: Buying; really? Yes; gimmie.
  • The two also talk about gloomy philosophers ruining everything with their downer attitudes. Tassel blames them for the fact that popular opinion has lost confidence in the stock market.
  • Eventually, Tassel and the college kid go into a side room, then come back ostensibly having struck a deal. All we can say is, secrets don't make friends.
  • When they come back, Tassel tries to get the college kid to invest in a new development called "New Jerusalem." College kid is not interested.
  • Tassel brings up Weeds again. College kid says shut it about that guy. Tassel ends with a comment about how as the college kid hardens his heart against others like Weeds, his brain softens.