“The quantity of gold which was added to the world’s monetary supply during the first nine months of 1895, in addition to the normal output of the mines, was no less a sum than five hundred millions of dollars, one hundred million pounds sterling. This was native gold, all coming from a single source. The owner of this metal has since withdrawn from circulation about one half this sum either in gold or legal tender. This action partly accounts for the checking of the financial disturbance in the United States. The danger which we have already faced is bad enough, but it is insignificant in comparison with that which I have to reveal to you. It is this: “_There remains in the same vault from which these millions have been taken, the equivalent of nearly three billion dollars, six hundred millions sterling, in the crude gold of nature._” The effect of this announcement upon his hearers was so great that the secretary of the treasury stopped speaking for a moment. Some faces were pale, others flushed, all bore evidence of intensest feeling. All the dignity of a great international court vanished. They needed no explanation to carry to their minds the full significance of the speaker’s words. The personal application of the sudden news came home first to some of them. One man of many millions, who a few minutes before had appeared the embodiment of the conscious power of wealth, seemed stricken with an agony almost of death. His face turned haggard with sudden age. Unconsciously, he wiped away the cold drops that gathered upon his forehead, muttering aloud: “It is ruin, ruin for us all!” A great French banker sitting next him heard the words and sprang to his feet in sudden passion. “It is not ruin,” he cried hotly. “Who is this man that threatens the world with his gold? Let him be seized. Let the gold be taken from him. Let it be destroyed. No man can crush us all in this fashion. Desperate conditions demand desperate remedies. It is a case for a _coup d’état_.” The outburst evidently found sympathetic listeners. The looks of dismay, of terror even, began to give place to returning self-possession after the first shock of surprise was over. The president himself, almost as much overcome at first as any of his associates, rose to his feet, and in rather unsteady voice begged the conference to listen further to the American representative. The secretary of the treasury had remained standing, watching with keen solicitude the effect of his revelation. Every man turned instantly to him and gave to his following words most intense attention.