perhaps be
such a strong body (she said this because she saw that I was thinking of
the old and infirm-looking folks whom I had seen in the bank), but it
must be in perfect health; in this case, the less active strength it had
the more free would be the working of the intellect, and therefore the
sounder the conclusion. The people, then, whom I had seen at the bank
were in reality the very ones whose opinions were most worth having; they
declared its advantages to be incalculable, and even professed to
consider the immediate return to be far larger than they were entitled
to; and so she ran on, nor did she leave off till we had got back to the
house.

She might say what she pleased, but her manner carried no conviction, and
later on I saw signs of general indifference to these banks that were not
to be mistaken. Their supporters often denied it, but the denial was
generally so couched as to add another proof of its existence. In
commercial panics, and in times of general distress, the people as a mass
did not so much as even think of turning to these banks. A few might do
so, some from habit and early training, some from the instinct that
prompts us to catch at any straw when we think ourselves drowning, but
few from a genuine belief that the Musical Banks could save them from
financial ruin, if they were unable to meet their engagements in the
other kind of currency.

In conversation with one of the Musical Bank managers I ventured to hint
this as plainly as politeness would allow. He said that it had been more
or less true till lately; but that now they had put fresh stained glass
windows into all the banks in the country, and repaired the buildings,
and enlarged the organs; the presidents, moreover, had taken to riding in
omnibuses and talking nicely to people in the streets, and to remembering
the ages of their children, and giving them things when they were
naughty, so that all would henceforth go smoothly.

"But haven't you done anything to the money itself?" said I, timidly.

"It is not necessary," he rejoined; "not in the least necessary, I assure
you."

And yet any one could see that the money given out at these banks was not
that with which people bought their bread, meat, and clothing. It was
like it at a first glance, and was stamped with designs that were often
of great beauty; it was not, again, a spurious coinage, made with the
intention that it should be mistaken for the money in actual use; i