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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IS 132.2
Story of an Emigrant.
vnte office in Philadelphia in August, one of his bookkeepers
handed him a card from a prominent moneyed man in
Philadelphia who wished to see him, and the following
conversation took place between the two:
" What can I do for you, my friend ? " Jay Cooke said.
"We begin," said the capitalist, "to lose confidence in your
railroad schemes. I have bought $20,000 worth of bonds,
but I am getting a little afraid, and came to ask your
advice."
"My dear sir, the Northern Pacific Railroad bonds are just
as safe as United States bonds,"
" If this is your conviction, will you please exchange them
for my bonds ?"
"Certainly. Ilerc; give this"—he handed him a slip of
paper with a few lines on it—"to my cashicr, and he will give
you United States bonds in exchange."
The gentleman withdrew perfectly satisfied, and Jay
Cooke turned to me with the following explanation: "I
have seen the Northern Pacific country; that’s the reason I
am so confident in the success of this railroad enterprise. If
we only succeed in accomplishing the work, I shall certainly
prove that I was right; but if we fail, our antagonists will
get a grist to their mill. But, whatever the result may be,
no one shall have a right to say that I did not stake my
fortune on my conviction."
The same day I left Philadelphia for Europe, but I had
scarcely reached Sweden when the great crisis came. Jav
Cooke, whose fortune was estimated at twenty million
dollars, was a ruined man. The work on the Northern Pacific
railroad was suddenly stopped, and the obligations of the
company depreciated to almost nothing. We all remember
the terrible crisis that followed. Thousands of people were
ruined, and the whole country suffered one of the most
disastrous financial criscs of modern times. Mv own loss was
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