Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XII. Visit in Minnesota and Philadelphia—Conversation with Jay Cooke—The Crisis of 1873—Negotiations in Holland—Draining of a Lake in Skåne—Icelandic Colony in Manitoba—Return to America
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Story of an Emigrant.
3 35
a very hard blow to me, not merely because I lost my
position, but because my property in Minnesota, which consisted
exclusively of real estate, stock and farm products, lost its
value. This catastrophe was chiefly due to business jealousy,
and there was no real cause for the panic, which was also
clearly proven afterward. The Northern Pacific railroad
has now been completed, and has proven to possess all the
merits which Jay Cooke claimed for it. Its obligations are
again above par. Jay Cooke has paid every dollar of his
debt, with interest, and again lives in affluence and luxury,
respected and honored by the whole country.
Returning to Sweden I passed through Holland, which
country I had visited a couple of times before, as alread}r
mentioned. I carried important business letters from the
leading men of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company,
now known as the Great Northern Railroad Company. Dutch
capitalists had advanced the money—about twenty million
dollars—for building this road. The company had received
very extensive land grants from the United States
government; but during the first few years after the construction
of the road to Breckenridge the country through which it
passed was so sparsely settled that the traffic of the road
was insufficient topavits running expenses, hence their stocks
and obligations depreciated very much in value. But the
American railroad officials with whom I had been connected
in the capacity of land agent were firmly convinced that if
this road could be extended about thirty miles to the
Northern Pacific railroad, and a little more time allowed lor
the settlement of the country along the line, the enterprise
would pay a handsome dividend. It was my task to explain
this to the Dutch capitalists, and persuade them to advance
another $150,000—a mere trifle compared with what they
had invested already—to build said extension, which was to
pass through a perfectly level country. The president of the
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