63 pages • 2 hours read
Mark Twain, Charles Dudley WarnerThe Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1873A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 24-37Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 24 Summary: “Washington and Its Sights—The Appropriation Bill Reported From the Committee and Passed”
Chapter 24 provides a second-person account of what the reader might encounter in a visit to the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. This humorous description satirically criticizes the American government.
Washington, however, is enchanted with his life in DC, especially because the city is rife with speculations and schemes, a way of thinking so familiar and dear to him. As a friend to Beriah and Harry, Washington is thrilled to declare victory for their bill for the appropriation to improve the Columbus River, which finally passes after many votes.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Energetic Movements at Stone’s Landing—Everything Booming—A Grand Smash Up”
Washington writes to Louise saying he has an offer on the Tennessee land for $40,000 and plans to accept it so he can marry her. Louise’s father encourages Washington not to speculate with the money.
The appropriation bill Congress passes awards $200,000 to the Columbus River project. In his letter to Beriah about it, Harry gives himself full credit for pushing the vote through. The two men begin work on the river before they actually get the money. After a month, they’re forced to pay the workers with “orders on the Company” managing the appropriation funds (134). The Hawkeye merchants who take these orders—essentially IOU’s—as payment forward them to New York, but never receive any money. Before long, no merchants will accept them, and eventually the workers riot. Beriah is out of town, but Harry is forced to flee on horseback. When Beriah returns, the workers consider hanging him, but his silver tongue convinces them he’ll make them all rich, and he’s spared.
Chapter 26 Summary: “The Boltons—Ruth at Home—Visitors and Speculations”
Between school terms, Ruth comes home to Philadelphia, where her social life stagnates. This leads to a renewed interest in a medical career. Her father continues to invest in various speculations, proving he’s not immune to the dream of easy wealth so common in that era. A colleague of Mr. Bigler begs Eli for $10,000, presenting a sob story Eli can’t resist. Though he’s lent the man money many times already without ever being repaid, he gives in again. The security for Eli’s previous investment with Mr. Bigler includes ownership of a tract of land in Ilium, Pennsylvania. Eli offers Philip a job surveying the land for timber and coal.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Col Sellers Comforts His Wife With His Views on the Prospects”
Beriah tries to convince his wife not to fret about the state of poverty they’re in by painting a picture for her of the riches to come, once the railroad connects them to new towns they can plunder for various natural resources. He assures her the appropriation money will come any day.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Visit to Headquarters in Wall Street—How Appropriations Are Obtained and Their Cost”
Harry visits the New York company in charge of disbursing the appropriation money. The president of the Columbus River Slack-Water Navigation Company gives a convoluted explanation, the gist of which is that Harry and Beriah actually owe the company about $8,000 and their laborers almost $10,000. Harry learns that the company spent a total of $325,000 bribing politicians, advertising their own business, and making influential charitable donations. The company now owes the government $25,000, which they’ll cover with future appropriations, on and on. The congressmen they’ve paid off are now in the company’s pocket, so they won’t have to keep paying them.
At the last minute, Washington refuses to sell the Tennessee land, thinking he could get much more for it and thus losing the opportunity completely. The railroad surveyors change their mind about going through Stone’s Landing, killing Beriah’s dream of the city of Napoleon.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Philip’s Experience With the Rail-Road Conductor—Surveys His Mining Property”
Philip is traveling by train to the land Eli hired him to survey. The train conductor treats a lady cruelly, and Philip stands up for her. He’s thrown off the train in the middle of nowhere. The next day an article in the newspaper carries a false account of the incident that glorifies the train conductor and company.
Philip spends a month surveying Eli’s land near the town of Ilium. He concludes a fine vein of coal likely runs through the mountain and starts a mining operation promptly, despite locals asserting he’ll have no success.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Laura and Col. Sellers Go to Washington on Invitation of Senator Dilworthy”
Washington writes a letter to Louise saying Senator Dilworthy is going to help him sell the Tennessee land to the government. Laura receives Dilworthy’s invitation to spend the winter with his family. Dilworthy also sends her $2,000 for clothes—a loan to be repaid when the family’s land is sold—and train tickets to DC. She bumps into Beriah, who was planning to go to DC to help the Slack-Water Navigation Company put through another appropriation bill. At Laura’s request, he travels with her, and on her dime.
Chapter 31 Summary: “Philip and Harry at the Boltons’—Philip Seriously Injured—Ruth’s First Case of Surgery”
Philip is back in Philadelphia, working with Eli on plans for their mining operation in Ilium. Ruth seems to be attempting to make a match between Philip and Alice. Philip sees Alice as a friend only and talks to her incessantly about his unrequited love for Ruth. They attend the theater one night, where a false fire alarm causes a stampede. Philip gets badly injured protecting the women. Alice is devastated, but Ruth keeps a cool head while helping the surgeon treat Philip’s injuries.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Laura Becomes a Famous Belle at Washington”
Laura is well-received in DC society. She’s a hit at her first big party, once again triggering Harry’s jealousy. Rumors circulate that she’s a charitable Christian who’s sacrificing her land for the noble cause of uplifting African Americans. She later learns the reason: Dilworthy’s proposal for selling the Tennessee land to the government includes the government using that land for a University that will accept African American students. Dilworthy discusses with Laura how she can use this reputation to help him advocate for religion, temperance, and the poor.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Society in Washington—The Antiques, the Parvenus, and the Middle Aristocracy”
Portrayals of Laura’s early social visitors provide examples of the three types of aristocracy in DC and the social values they represent. These include the “Antiques” (old money), the “Parvenus” (new money), and the “Middle Ground” (families of what they call public men, those working for the executive and legislative branches of the government).
Chapter 34 Summary: “Grand Scheme For Disposing of the Tennessee Land—Laura and Washington Hawkins Enjoying the Reputation of Being Millionaires”
Laura becomes quite popular in DC. Many men are enthralled by her. When their flirtations turn to overt declarations and proposals, she tells them she’s vowed never to marry, leaving them bitter toward womankind. Her vow, the narrators remind the reader, was made because Col. Selby “trampled her love and pride in the dust” by his betrayal (185).
Washington’s society is also courted. He doesn’t realize at first that this is due to rumors of his family’s wealth, or at least of their future wealth when their land is sold. When he hears such talk about riches coming his way, he begins feverishly Building Castles in the Sky, planning a life of luxury for himself.
Chapter 35 Summary: “About Senators—Their Privileges and Habits”
Laura reports to Senator Dilworthy on who she’s been to see about the bill for the government’s purchase of the Tennessee land and whether they were convinced to vote in favor of it. Character sketches of the recipients of these visits paint a telling picture of government representatives. Conversations amongst the inhabitants of Newspaper Row humorously portray citizens as openly admiring politicians’ traits of selfishness, greed, and willingness to be bribed.
Chapter 36 Summary: “An Hour in a Book Store”
While waiting to “run into” the Chairman of the House Committee on Benevolent Appropriations, Mr. Buckstone, Laura peruses a bookstore. The clerk tries to suggest what books he thinks she’ll like. In the guise of flattery, Laura castigates him for his ignorant and rude assumptions, which show no regard for her personal intelligence or preferences.
Chapter 37 Summary: “Representative Buckstone and Laura’s Strategic Coquetry”
In her meeting with Mr. Buckstone, Laura employs her powers of fascination, flirting expertly without crossing the line into impropriety. By the end of the meeting, she believes she has Mr. Buckstone wrapped around her finger. Mr. Buckstone’s thoughts reveal that he is more aware of what Laura is trying to do than she thinks, and that he has an agenda of his own.
Chapters 24-37 Analysis
Irony has a significant presence in these chapters, adding humor and thematic relevance to the plot. In one example, Beriah criticizes Washington for being too “visionary”—which in this context means “disposed to reverie or imagining.” Later, Harry labels Beriah with the same criticism. Beriah then turns the same insult on Harry, noting that this quality is “the worst thing in the world for a business man” (161). These three men ironically judge each other for the very trait they all share.
Internal conflicts continue to align with literary conventions of Realism, such as when the narrators reveal Harry’s thought process upon witnessing Laura’s popularity at a party. Harry is described as being “too busy cursing himself inwardly for being an egotistical imbecile” (170), overcome by jealousy and embarrassed by his prior arrogance. Like typical characters in Realism, Harry has conflicting impulses and motivations that closely replicate the true experience of being human.
Perhaps the most effective characterization of Beriah in this chapter involves the scene in which his unpaid workers consider hanging him, but make the mistake of letting him speak first. His silver tongue convinces the workers he’ll make them all rich. Beriah’s ability to influence people with speech greatly shapes his life and the lives of those around him.
Harry, like Beriah, is shown as someone who lies so much he convinces himself of the truth of what he says. Philip even says of Harry, “he believes in more things than any other person I ever saw” (164). This statement portrays Harry’s deceptive nature as unintentional and somewhat benign, making him a more sympathetic character.
Some significant moments in these chapters reveal development in Philip’s character, as he matures beyond the bad habit of Building Castles in the Sky. His survey of the Ilium land demonstrates that his efforts to learn a practical skill have paid off, and that he no longer insists on starting at the top of the ladder. He begins the mining operation even though locals say he’ll fail, suggesting an improved ability to commit to a job. Finally, the stampede at the theater provides an opportunity for Philip to demonstrate the kind of heroism he feels is needed to earn Ruth’s respect and admiration. Meanwhile, Ruth demonstrates the diligence and competence that will lead her to success as a surgeon. By building a profession for herself, she defies the traditional gender limitations that have left other female characters in the story financially dependent on their husbands and subsequently impoverished.
The usually omniscient narrators refrain from revealing Senator Dilworthy’s thoughts. The reader only knows what he says and does, lending some ambiguity to the genuineness of his character. He presents himself as a man of high moral fiber who selflessly advocates for marginalized groups and always puts the good of the country above his own interests. Some plot details suggest a level of hypocrisy, such as when Laura enters his study and finds him holding the bible upside down. The fact that he insists on Laura having expensive clothing and jewelry so she’ll be more influential in DC, but gives them as loans on her future land sale, suggests he’s exploiting her.
Washington DC becomes a central setting in these chapters. Thorough descriptions of the city’s culture, customs, architecture, and populace portray it as a unique location, vastly different from any other US city due to its functional and symbolic roles in American governance. Most notably, political corruption is accepted throughout the city as a fact of life. Congressmen are respected, even idolized, in their home states, but in DC they can’t even get lodging on credit because they’re notorious for skipping out on bills. Schemes and speculations are such a part of the fabric of life in DC that, to the inveterate schemer Washington Hawkins, it feels more like home than Missouri ever did.
The point of view in Chapter 24 deviates significantly from the book’s established narrative approach, adopting a second-person point of view to describe the experience of visiting Washington, DC. Humor and a satirically critical tone define this chapter. The narrators’ voice makes prominent intrusions here and there, such as in this parenthetical note:
[As impossible and exasperating as this conversation may sound to a person who is not an idiot, it is scarcely in any respect an exaggeration of one which one of us actually listened to in an American drawing room—otherwise we could not venture to put such a chapter into a book which, professes to deal with social possibilities.—THE AUTHORS] (181).
This reference to women discussing the ailments of their pets as if they’re talking about their children creates a tone of mocking condescension toward the overprivileged political class.
Humor and absurdism, as forms of satire, are the most noteworthy aspects of the writing style in this section. In a statement that ridicules congressional waste and epitomizes the financial delusions of the era, Beriah says:
[B]less my life, what fortunes are going to be made there when they get that contrivance perfected for extracting olive oil out of turnips—if there’s any in them; and I reckon there is, because Congress has made an appropriation of money to test the thing, and they wouldn’t have done that just on conjecture, of course (143-44).
The authors’ point is just the opposite, that Congress habitually spends money on ludicrous conjectures, and American citizens pay the price.
This section further develops the theme of Political Corruption in the Gilded Age. A town called Corruptionville is said to be named after Congress itself, and a railroad company owns everyone in the towns along its route, including the police and judges. Fraud is the standard of business on Wall Street and bribery is the standard in politics. Corruption and racism collide in men who steal money allocated to Indigenous tribes while propagating racist attitudes toward Indigenous Americans.
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