The next day the cabinet decision was published, and quiet was restored; but the day after the krone suffered a thirty per cent fall on the Zurich exchange. And the _Neue Zuricher Zeitung_ printed an article which proved statistically that slowly but surely Vienna was forfeiting all significance in Central-European trade, and losing in its competition with Prague and Budapest. “The business men of Hungary were as crafty as those of Prague. They received with open arms certain classes of decent Viennese Jews, who brought trade with them. Besides, the buyers of the world, being mostly Jews, cannot go to Vienna any more, and therefore go to Prague, Brünn, Budapest, and, particularly, Berlin; the Christian buyers follow their example, so that the Austrian manufacturers of finished products such as fancy leather goods, shoes, pottery, and the like, must travel abroad with their sample trunks instead of receiving their customers at home. In short, no business worth mentioning is carried on in Vienna, in spite of the unprecedented low status of the krone. This has of course put an end to foreign exchange speculation in Vienna--but, it seems, at the expense of the Austrian organism. Instead of accomplishing a great work with his law, the gifted Chancellor, Dr. Schwertfeger, seems to have started something he cannot finish.” As if in substantiation of the truth of this article the banking world of Vienna became completely disorganized. The hopes of the foreign syndicates that had taken over the great Viennese banks met with bitter disappointment. Their turnover grew less and less, and the departure of the Jews had also caused a considerable decrease in activity on the stock exchange. To avoid a deficit, therefore, the banks were forced to give up one after the other of the thousands of branches with which Vienna was dotted. The bank clerks’ organization protested in vain against this deprivation of some of its members of their livelihood. Then the banks claimed the protection of their embassies, and there was some painful diplomatic intervention that resulted in the Austrian government being forced to take into its service the unemployed bank clerks, when it really needed to diminish its own staff. And the krone fell to the thousandth part of a centime. CHAPTER V. HENRY DUFRESNE