the addressee? This
would cut out any possibility of difficulty from the moratorium.

This also was a new method. But it seemed reasonable. We tried it. And
it worked. A visiting committee of New York bankers to whom I related
this experience later laughed immensely. They also made some remarks
about "amateurs" and "audacity" which I would rather not repeat. But
upon the whole they did not seem shocked beyond recovery.

So it happened, by good fortune, that there was never a day in The Hague
when an American fugitive from the war, homeward bound, could not obtain
what cash he needed for him to live and to get to the United States. But
not money to buy souvenir spoons, or old furniture and pictures. "Very
sorry," we explained, "but our Government is not dealing in antiquities
at present. It is simply helping you to get home as quickly and
comfortably as possible. Please tell us how much money you need for
board and passage-money and you shall have it."

Except three or four chronic growlers and a few passionate antiquarian
ladies, everybody took it good-humoredly and cheerfully. I think they
understood, though not always clearly, that our Government was doing
more for its citizens caught out in a tempest than any other government
in the world would have done.

When the Tennessee arrived in the latter part of August with $2,500,000
in gold for the same purpose, it was another illustration of our
Government's parental care and forethought. We received our share of
this gold at The Hague. The first use we made of part of it was to take
up the American checks and drafts on which the Bank of the Netherlands
had advanced the money. Then we sent the paper to America for collection
and repayment to the National Treasury. I have not the accounts here and
cannot speak by the book, but I think I am not far out in saying that
our loss on these transactions was less than five per cent of the total
amount handled. And we banked for some very poor people, too!

I never had any idea, before the war broke out, how many of our
countrymen and countrywomen there are roaming about Europe every summer,
and with what a cheerful trust in Providence and utter disregard of
needful papers and precautions some of them roam! There were young women
travelling alone or in groups of two or three. There were old men so
feeble that one's first thought on seeing them was: "How did you get
away from your nurse?" There were people with superfluous funds