During the first days of mobilization they could not realize on their checks or letters.

American bank-notes and Bank of England notes were refused.

Save gold, nothing was of value, and every one who possessed a gold piece, especially if he happened to be a banker, was clinging to it with the desperation of a dope fiend clutching his last pill of cocaine.

We can imagine what it was like in Europe when we recall the conditions at home.
In New York, when I started for the seat of war, three banks in which for years I had kept a modest balance refused me a hundred dollars in gold, or a check, or a letter of credit.

They simply put up the shutters and crawled under the bed.