ceivable schemes to undermine the
confidence of the public in the Northern Pacific road and its promoters.
Many of those who had furnished money began to feel uneasy, but Jay
Cooke went ahead, full of hope and confidence in its final success. Just
as I called at his private 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. Here; give this"--he handed him a slip of paper with a few
lines on it--"to my cashier, 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. Jay 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 crises of modern
times. My own loss was 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 al