Some asked for
information about the shortest route to the new goldfields.
In a little while several additional reports came, some via New
Zealand, others via South America, and all confirming in every respect
what had been sent before. Then a New York newspaper sent a swift
steamer to the Antarctic, and when this enterprising journal published
a four-page cable describing the discoveries in detail, all doubt
vanished and the rush began.
Some time I may undertake a description of the wild scenes that
occurred when, at last, the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere
were convinced that boundless stores of gold existed in the unclaimed
and uninhabited wastes surrounding the south pole. But at present I
have something more wonderful to relate.
Let me briefly depict the situation.
For many years silver had been absent from the coinage of the
world. Its increasing abundance rendered it unsuitable for money,
especially when contrasted with gold. The "silver craze," which had
raged in the closing decade of the nineteenth century, was already a
forgotten incident of financial history.
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