The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-03-08
A WONDERFUL AGE.

fathers are looked upon as tile play OF child
rem. The mind of the average speculator OF
the day is keyed up to the heroic pitch, and
enterprises that in olden times demanded the
energies of a kingdom to ~inaugurate anu sue
c~essfully carry out, are now entered into sin
gle-handed and forced to a triumphant con-
clusion. Ventures that involve the invest
ment of a few hundred thousand dollars on
ly are considered small, and are left to be
dealt with by suburban. or village capitalists.
Nothing shCrt of projects that call for an out
lay of millions of dollars will command The
attention of the modern ClGsus, and cause
him to unlock the vaults in which his dorm
ant capital lays awaiting the touch that will
give it the voice of thunder and the strength
of the gods. A Canadian Pacific railroad
company wants $685. 900, 900, A half dozen
men step forward and ADVANCE it, with less
drain upon their resources than the capital
lists of our grandfathers' time experienced
upon theirs in purchasing a half dozen bar
rels of pork. Tie Northern Pacific called for
$4,000, 600. Three times the amount was
offered to it within a week after the call was
made. Two or three telegraph companies
recently consolidated, and now foot up the
value of their property at $S0,O0O,OO0 An
air line broad gauge railroad from New York
to Chicago a narrow gauge from New York
to the CITY Of Mexico: a ship canal across
the Isthmus of Panama, and a ship railroad
across the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, are all
contemplated being built in the near future.
Each of these enterprises will absorb mil
| lions of doll as in its construction, yet our
modern capitalists enter into them with less
trepilation and less fear of disastrous results
than the monied men of fifty years ago We're
wont to show in the building OF toll roads to
market towns or necessary bridges across
trout streams.
Our Nanderbilts. our Gouljs aud the other
moneyed kings of the east are, by their grand
projects, directing the attention of the nation
towards them. We admit their power is
great and their ambition boundless; that
they are able by concentrating the immense
sums of money at their command to crafty
both their ambition and their love of power,
but all they have done or all they can do or
contemplate doing sink into insignificance
when viewed in the light of the towering am
bition of the almost unknown Claus Spreck-
les, of San Francisco. Claus, Or King
Spreckles, as he should be called, according
to the following statement of supposed facts,
aims at nothing less than the possession Of a
kingdom. The little railroads and telegraph
l;nop tLst nro Tho ntto,tinn IF Ec,}d nnl
Vanderbilt are mere ~infantile playthings in
the eyes of the doughty Claus. He seeks a
kingdom, and that kingdom is The beautiful
Sandwich Islands with their 6 800 square
miles of prolific soil and $4,000 inhabitants.
But we will let the correspondent of an east
ern exchange tell the story.
"kalakaua, king Of the Sandwich Islands, is
registered at the Palace hotel under the title
of Prince Kalakaua. The programme and
object announced by this party is that they
will sail on the next China steamer, which
leaves here on the 9Th, on a long-projected
foreign tour to Japan, then to China and the
Straits settlements in Calcutta, overland to
Bombay, thence by way of the Suez canal
across the Mediterranean to Italy, France
and England, after which they will return
home by way OF the United States.
at is said that the king desires to see a
little of the world, recuperate his health, and,
at the same time examine thoroughly, OH the
spot, the possibil ty and ACCESSIBILITY of pro-
curing Immigrants from Asia or Maylaya; and
for this purpose Atty.-Gen. Armstrong re-
SiuDGl his DOSitipn tn aprST>>,lonU Tho E,pn DC
royal commissioner Of immigration.
"a part Of the above story looks and reads
we'll on the surface, but ] shall endeavor in a
brief way to give the true inwardness of this
move on the political chess board of the Ha-
waiian Islands. In the first place, it is a no
torious fact that King kalakaua is endowed
with more of the brute than Of the man, and
to accomplish a purpose, it matters not how
p~rofane or devilish. he can sioop to the level
Of the beast.
''The private history of the islands is re-
plete with his deviltry and sang froid OF
manner in the accomplishment of his hellish
purposes. In the qualification Of such de
signs he has been assisted by a certain clique
of men who call themselves Americans, and
they, having found how pliable the king is,
have set to work and formed a conspiracy to
get Kalakaua out of the way.
"The fact Of the matter is that The seat OF
government Of the Sandwich Islands is locat-
ed right here in San Francisco, and the king
proper is Sir Knight Claus Spreckels, the
large sugar refiner and the richest plantation
owner of the Hawaiian kingdom. 1t will be
remembered that several months ago Kala-
kaua changed his cabinet, putting a portfolio
into the hands of one renegade Moreno,
which act almost caused a revolution, and
which act was rectified on the demand oil