invisible
ether-waves, the news seemed to spread through the financial district.
Every bank president seemed to know at once. Then it spread throughout the
city, and the greater city.

So began what has been called the October panic of last year, which
quickly spread through the land, and then throughout the world until every
country bank here, and every capital city abroad, felt the sharp
tightening of the money-bag strings.

It was a strange panic. You couldn't just tell what was responsible for
it. The very variety of explanations, editorial and other, told of the
lack of a common understanding of what caused it. There had been no famine
or drought. The crops, the chief financial barometer of the country's
condition, had been remarkably abundant. There had been no overproduction
or glutting of the industrial world. Indeed, great numbers of concerns had
been embarrassed by orders that they couldn't fill fast enough. The cause
seemed to be wholly in people's <i>minds</i>. A spirit of distrust of some of
the great money leaders and of their methods was abroad. That feeling of
fear sent a few men, by an unplanned concert of action, to a certain bank
before ten o'clock one morning.

The unusual sight of a few men standing in line waiting for the opening of
that bank door was like a lighted match to a barn full of dry hay. At the
first inkling of a suggestion of a financial panic money began to
disappear. Nothing is so cowardly in its cautiousness as money.
Scholarship comes next to it. The savings of years have the tightest grip
on most human hands. As though by magic, money began hunting dark holes in
stockings and cellars and safety-deposit boxes. And the hard grip of the
panic was quickly felt everywhere. It was a fear panic. A terrible danger
was at hand.

At once the regular habit of life was disturbed for great numbers of men.
The Secretary of the Treasury quit his Washington desk and spent several
days in New York so as to be able to give the help of the Government's
funds and enormous prestige where they would count for most, and to give
promptly. Bank officials and other financial leaders cut social
engagements and everything else that could be cut, and devoted themselves
to meeting the sudden emergency. They ate scantily, both to save time and
for lack of appetite, and to help keep their heads clear for quick
decisive thinking and action. The tension was intense. Men sat up all
night conferring on best measu