McIlhenny's Gold by Rothfeder Jeffrey

Author:Rothfeder, Jeffrey [Rothfeder, Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

NIRVANA

On Avery Island, Edward McIlhenny determined the tone, style, landscape, pace and tasks of the closed world his employees inhabited. He was at his desk in McIlhenny Co.’s executive office, up the stairs from the Tabasco factory he built, by four o’clock every morning. He left work at six in the evening and was in bed at ten. McIlhenny expected the same punctuality, though not the same hours, from every worker.

E.A. had lunch each day promptly at noon. So did everyone on Avery Island. When McIlhenny walked out of his office to go home and eat, triangles sounded and the entire business shut down for an hour. Even the switchboard closed. The factory workers ate at their houses in Tango Village. The black pepper pickers and maintenance staff, and anyone else who didn’t live on the island, bought food at one of the island’s general stores and ate in the dining hall or outside. By one o’clock, everybody, including E.A., was back at work.

McIlhenny’s handiwork was visible everywhere on the island. His magnetism, bonhomie and vitality fashioned an uncommon rapport with the residents of Tango Village, who enjoyed the intoxicating privilege of being in E.A.’s indefatigable orbit; his passion for nature produced a backdrop of wild landscapes, lavish wildlife and an odd but treasured religious icon, most of which had not been seen before in Louisiana or anywhere in North America.

Yet, evident from time to time was a somewhat less attractive side of Edward McIlhenny. Eager to repeat the commercial success of the Tabasco company with unrelated projects that, like the pepper sauce business, would take advantage of Avery Island’s plentiful resources, E.A., perhaps naively, ventured into ill-chosen efforts that led to disturbing or at best embarrassing results.

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