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 all the merits which Jay Cooke claimed for it. Its obligations are again above par. Jay Cooke has paid every dollar of his debt, with interest, and again lives in affluence and luxury, respected and honored by the whole country. Returning to Sweden I passed through Holland, which country I had visited a couple of times before, as already mentioned. I carried important business letters from the leading men of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company, now known as the Great Northern Railroad Company. Dutch capitalists had advanced the money--about twenty million dollars--for building this road. The company had received very extensive land grants from the United States government; but during the first few years after the construction of the road to Breckenridge the country through which it passed was so sparsely settled that the traffic of the road was insufficient to pay its running expenses, hence their stocks and obligations depreciated very much in value. But the American railroad officials with whom I had been connected in the capacity of land agent were firmly convinced that if this road could be extended about thirty miles to the Northern Pacific railroad, and a little more time allowed for the settlement of the country along the line, the enterprise would pay a handsome dividend. It was my task to explain this to the Dutch capitalists, and persuade them to advance another $150,000--a mere trifle compared with what they had invested already--to build said extension, which was to pass through a perfectly level country. The president of the company, George L. Becker, and its land commissioner, Herman E. Trott, had previously visited Holland on the same business. But all our representations were in vain. The Dutch were stubborn, and would not give out another dollar. "It is of no use," they said, "to throw away a small sum of good money after a large sum of bad money, for it is all lost, anyway." The crisis of 1873 aggravated the situation still more, for this company, and its bonds were continually depreciating. The St.