would consent to return to duty.

It is stated that the sum of $50,000,000 is needed for the payment of
the soldiers, and that there is little hope of getting it from Spain,
because the Rothschilds will not lend the Government any more money
unless Spain sacrifices the income of the famous Almaden quicksilver
mines for twenty years.

The Rothschilds are the greatest and richest bankers in the world.

This firm has branch houses in all the great capitals in Europe, and has
probably lent money to every government on the continent.

If a war is contemplated, and a nation needs a large sum of ready money
to make preparations, it is to the Rothschilds that its government
generally turns.

When good security is offered there is never any trouble in getting
money from them, but if the security is not of the best they never find
themselves in a position to lend the money.

In 1870, Spain, needing money, applied to the Rothschilds and obtained
what she needed because she offered as security for the repayment of the
loan a lease of the Almaden mines for a term of thirty years.

These mines are said to be the greatest quicksilver mines in the world,
and yield an immense profit.

The Rothschilds worked the mines and realized their profits, the Spanish
Government receiving a royalty of so much money for each flask of
quicksilver sold.

This royalty, in the twenty-six years the bankers have been working the
mines, has amounted to thirty-six millions of dollars.

The contract with the Spanish Government expires in 1900, and so when
Spain needed money for the Cuban war and applied to the Rothschilds for
it, the bankers were very willing to lend it, asking in return that
their lease of the mines be extended for another term of twenty years.

This, Spain was unwilling to do.

She had been informed by her engineers that if she could get the control
of the mines into her own hands, she could realize a yearly income from
them of $6,000,000.

The Government therefore decided that the lease could not be granted,
and the Rothschilds on their part said that they could not accommodate
Spain with the required money, and so the last loan for the Cuban war
had to be obtained from other sources.

Spain is again in need of money. If she decides to grant a new lease of
the mines she can obtain it readily.

If she does not make this arrangement, it is said that she will be
obliged to come to terms with Cuba for lack of funds to fight