Early Growing Pains.
Keen to maximize excitement for the Connecticut Republican Party, Henry T. Sperry and the other Pearl Street Church boys are elated by news of their club’s spread. However, James Chalker grows upset that kids in distant towns are evidently making their own black capes rather than buying from him. Personifying the corrupting influence of power and money, James Chalker is a classic selfish nemesis to the selfless hero. With a textile salesman’s talent for self-aggrandizement, Chalker demands that a crew of Wide Awake volunteers toil -unpaid- on his textile assembly line selling Wide Awake uniforms. A mix of family pressure, desperation, and greed, Chalker’s unscrupulous business instincts attract other nefarious influences that glom onto him and the Wide Awakes as they grow into the muscle of the Connecticut Republican Party.