Even our own banks had to beg us not to draw upon our balances.

One incident will shed some light upon the currency situation.

One of our pay-days was approaching.

One hundred thousand dollars in small notes were absolutely necessary, and to obtain these we paid a premium of twenty-four hundred dollars in New York and had them expressed to Pittsburgh.

It was impossible to borrow money, even upon the best collaterals; but by selling securities, which I had in reserve, considerable sums were realized--the company undertaking to replace them later.
It happened that some of the railway companies whose lines centered in Pittsburgh owed us large sums for material furnished--the Fort Wayne road being the largest debtor.