Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-03-17
SUGAR KING OF HAWAII
HOW CLAUS sPREoKKLs EARNED
THAT TITLE.

- the United States Tin 1879, but
IL was after that event that it took on
the large proportions aud improved
methods which characterize it to-day.
No small part of the improvement in
methods and enlarged scope OF the bust
cess Is due to an American citizen OF
German birth OF whom the American
people have heard a good deal In one
wsy or another. This is Claus SprecS-
les, the sugar king, who is drawing
dividends on millions Of Sugar stock.
Spreckles's work as financial artist is
drawn with a bold. free hand, which
produces startling effects. He got his
hrst foothold in the business world by
land speculstions in California. Having
achieved in this way the wherewithal to
pursue further operations, he got control
of the California Sugar Refinery. This
opened up an occupation most congenial
to his mind in the shutting of OF compe.
tition in the refining industry. He paid
| a rival refinery a comfortable income for
many years to stand idle, and made it
we'll worth his own while by the 10.
creased price he charged for the refined
sugar.
He succeeded in cornering the Ha-
waiiau sugar crop year after year aud en-
joyed a monopoly of the refined sugar
supply on the whole Pacific coast. Tue
Hawaiian sugar supply was ample for the
demands of the Pacific coast, even with
only the most favored spots brought
under cultivation. The easy going Ha-
waiian planters were long content to
work these rich lands until Spreckels
went into the planting business himself,
retaining vast areas of what had been
considered waste lands.
Previous to that time sugar planting
had been confined to areas within reach
of existing water courses. The cane re-
quires great deal Of water, aud the
rainfall is not to be depended on to
supply its needs. The resource is irri-
, cation. There is a vast amount of laud
in the Sandwich Islands which could
be made productive bya water supply,
either by digging wells or lengthy con
duits. Before Claus SprecSeIs's time
the planters huddled about the mouths
Of the valleys and along the streams,
from which they brought water for saort
distances in rickety wooden au nes.
Hawaiian sugar planters are the en-
bodiment Of hospitality. They are much
isolated from one another, and for long
periods their only intercourse with the
outside world is through the occasional
travellers who stop with the n for shelter
and food. SO they we!co ne all corners.
There are in this region plantation and
sugar mill run wholly by Cinnamon.
They are owned by Along, the wealthy
Chinese merchant in Honolulu, whose
son lie graduate of Yale College. The
overseer is Chinamau. The mill hands
are Cinnamon, and the field hands also.
The mill machinery was all made in
Honolulu.
The cane requires thirteen months to
mature. After the first crop is taken off,
a second and sometimes q third, called
the first or second ratoon crop, is raised
from the same seed, each time with d.
miuishing quantity and quality of sugar.
Then the cane is good for nothing
further, but to use as seed in replauting.
As this caue is cut in the fields aud
stripped, 1t is in most cases pitched into
one of the rickety fumes used to carry
the water for irrigation and floated down
to the mill, which is often run by the
same water.
In other cases the cane is carried to the
mill In OF carts. 1t Is then run between
heavy rollers and the juice pressed out.
The Juice is run first into clarifying
tanks with copper steam pipes in the
bottom. Upon being boiled the dirt and
foreign substances rise to the surface
and are skinned off. Tle evsporating
pans are very similar, but shallower, and
are used to clear the water from the
juice. The pure juice is then sucked
up into the vacuum pan-a gigantic in.
closed tank, from which che air can be
exhausted 10 order to save time in boil
ing the juice.
After boiling down to thick granu.
lar substance, it is turced into the centri.
fugai circular iron jars, which are set to
whirling at the rate of 1900 revolutions
a minute, and so separate the sparkling
sugar crystals from the fluid. The su.
gar is then dumped, still hot, on a clean
floor and from there shovelei into
sacks. Then it used to be slowed away
until Claus Spreckles came along and
offered his price for it.
This was the tranquil aud easy-going
way OF doing things which it struck
Claus Spreckles ten years ago could be
improved upon to his own advantage.
The island of Maui, next north OF Hawaii
In the group, is made up of two separate
clusters of mountain peaks twenty or
thirty miles apart and joined together by
a low-lying strip of land--'o low-lying
that it looks as though Maui had once
urcu twu isIauus. with the sea fiJwing
over this strip. There are several hun.
dred square miles of this iowland, and
there are no natural water courses flow.
ing through it.
The planters on Maui had conse-
quently never attempted to'plant sugar
in 1T, aud had confined themselves to the
mouths of the valleys on either side OF it.
But Sprecxels thought 1t was good land
aud that water could be brought to it.
SO he set to work to build an enormous
waterway or ditch from the southern
cluster of mountains. There were several
formidable gulches to be crossed on the
way. Through these he laid gigantic
iron pipes aud proceeded on his way to
the plain, while the Hawaiian planters
looked on at what seemed to them the
scheme OF mailman. IL took 81, 00O,.
700 to finish that ditch; but 1t was
finished.
Then spreckels proceeded to plant