The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-09-26
DE YOUNG---S PRECKELS.
English Views of the Great San Fran
cisco Gaseous Spreckels Endorsed.

From the London ''Times," August II, 1885.
SAN Francisco, July IS, 1885.
The reputa ton of our local press has
hitherto been by no means sans peur sans
reprOche; hence the events recorded and the
opinions expressed by our daily newspapers
have generally been regarded with doubt,
or have been utterly ignored by leading
Eastern and foreign journals. This want of
faith has been OccasiOned in great measure
by the INSCRIPTIONS way in which some of
these publications have been conducted.
Where matters of public interest are lost
sight of, and are made to give way to sour
rility and misstatements, the effect may be
satisfactory to the degenerate minds of the
Californians who appreciate this style Of
thing and like the temporary sensation it
creates, but to the educated or refined
reader it becomes offensive and causes a
feeling of disgust
Personal journalism has been INDUCED
in to large extent in this State, and it has
led at various times to serious consequences.
The aggrieVed party, whose chara cter has
been attacked and whose reputation has
been damaged, knows that in most cases an
appeal to the law would be useless, and has
therefore taken the law into his own hands.
In doing so he has generally been supported
by public opinion, and has thus scaped the
consequences of an infringement of the law.
very remarkable case of this kind has
just terminated in our criminal courts. The
defendant was Mr.. A. B. Spreckels, who was
charged with having attempted to kill the
prosecutor Mr.. M. II. De Young, the pro-
priotor of the San Francisco Chronicle"
The trial lasted several days, and excited q
large amount of interest the best legal
talent being engaged on either side.
1t was brought out in evidence that the
Chronicle" had some years since been en-
plOyed by certain sugar efneries in the East
ern States to oppose the Reciprocity Treaty
which exists between the United States and
the Hawaiian Government, by which treaty
sugar and other products of the Islands were
admitted into the country duty free. Not
satisfied, however, with attaching the treaty,
it commenced an onslaught on Mr.. Claus
Spreckels, the father of the defendant
prominent sugar refner of this city, q large
ship owner, and extensively interested in
where he exercised great commer cial and
political influence. These personal attacks
on him were of the most violent and abusive
character, and ever tually extended to his
wife and children. 1t was shown that they
were continued for a period of four years
with undated bitterness, and that they
were made with malice pretense, and had no
founda ton whatever in truth. Mr.. Spreck-
els was charged with instituting and en-
couraging barbarous system of slavery on
the Islands, and it was asserted that he was
himself slave owner who starved his serfs
and permitted atrocities to be practiced on
them of an unheard of character. These
charges, published continuously and under
the most sensational headings, in large
type, created an intense feeling of excite
ment throughout this country and in
Europe, the subject being taken up by the
governments of Portugal and Sweden, which
instituted commissions of inquiry into the
state of those emigrants who had left those
countries to settle in the Hawaiian Islands.
The result of these inquiries proved that
the statements made in the Chronicle"
were utterly without foundation. Neverthe-
less, the attacks on Mr.. Spreckels were con-
tinued and as they had been scattered
broadcast throughout the country, they
seriously affected his character as a man,
and impaired his interest as merchant.
He sturdily refused to adopt the usual
means of conciliating his enemy and securing
immunity from other attacks by the pay
ment of money; hence the defamatory
articles continued to appear. His son, the
defendant, Mr.. A. b. SpreckeIs, who, with
his brothers, is engaged in mercantile pur-
suits in this city, and who bears the highest
character for honor and integrity, had long
and keenly felt the wrongs heaped upon his
father and on his family by the Chronicle"
and Cd the appearance of a very venomous
article again attacking the integrity, not
only of his father but of himself, he decided
on having explanation with Mr.. De
Young. Meeting the latter in the street, he
followed him into the Chronicle Office,
and called on him twice, to attract his atten-
ton. It was we'll known that Mr.. De Young
always went armed, and Mr.. Spreckels him
self carried revolver. Instead of replying,
De Young turned round, faced Mr.. Spreck-
els, and put his hand on his hip pocket, APP
parently with the intention of drawing his
revolver, whereupon Mr. Spreckels fred two
shots at him, and was shot through the arm
in return by one of the clerks in the Office.
These facts having been duly considered