St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-07

then into the grocery business again.
He was successful from the beginning,
and in a comparatively few years was
ready to retire with $4,000. But that
was not enough, and he went into sug-
ar, importing the crude from the Sand
witch Islands and refining it in San
Francisco. In this venture he was more
than successful; he proved a phenom-
email money maker, emulating the finan-
cial giants of the seventies-Flood, Mac
kay, Sharon and RalSton.
SPRECKELS AT HAWAII
At Hawaii he soon became the real
monarch. On his first visit to the
beautiful islands of the Pacific he
succeeded in winning the enthusiastic
friendship of King Kalakaua, who
was sadly in need of money. Sprekels
had money a-plenty; not the enormous
sums now in his possession, but
enough to relieve the Kings necessi-
ties. Spreckels wanted land on which
to plant sugar cane as badly as King
Calico" wanted cash, and in his royal
capacity the dusky monarch was
abundantly able to issue land grants
and so fill the wants of his new found
German friend.
Soon Spreckels established regular
steam communication between Hawaii
and San Francisco, and because his
ships could make the voyage quicker
and cheaper than the old sailing YES
sells it was not long before he was
able to command the trade. In lit
tie while he had all the planters on the
island in his power. Meanwhile he
who at one time was so completely
under Spreckels' thumb that he more
than once ordered the resignation of
a cabinet that failed to please the
sugar king. This did not last always,
however, and before the death of
Kalakaua there was a rupture be-
tween the monarch and the German.
For a time during the reign of Queen
Liliuokalani, Spreckels had as much
power over her any one had ever pos
sessed over her predecessor, but be-
fore the revolution this had greatly
decreased.
Spreckels' contests with the Sugar
Trust, his establishment of refinery
in Philadelphia, the shooting of M. III.
De Young by young Adolph Spreckels
all these are matters of general
knowledge.
AN ANECDOTE OR TWO.
One of the most interesting of Claus
SpreckeIs' performances was his pro-
position, made in evident good faith,
some four or five years ago, to build
an addition to the, White house in
Washington out of blocks of sugar.
While experimenting with a process
for the hardening of meet sugar for
export he hit upon a plan that would
practically petrify it. Treated in this
way, the sugar king said, the saccliar-
inc substance would be as hard as
marble and practically indestr.HtiDle
by fire or otherwise. Sprecxels Fro
posed to put up the sugar addition to
the executive mansion at his own eX-
pense, and then have it examined by
a committee of experts. If they could
find any fault whatever with the ma
terial. he said, he would take it down
and leave the original building as he
found it.
Unlike most millionaires of the day,
Claus Spreckels has never shown any
desire to get into society. He married
wholesome German girl many years
f ago when he was a poor young man.
She had been domestic in the family
of an Eastern sugar refiner, and was
not fond of style or DESTROYS of shin
ing in elegant circles, and no one will
ever be able to say of her or her hus-
band that they ever made fun for. the
nations by trying to break down the
social gates.
Spreckels is proud of his German
birth, though his accent is apparently
Dutch instead of German, and he has
never learned the English well. When
ne Is angry, indeed, it is not even easy
TO understand him. so imperfect is his
enunciatfon, but he is said to have a
large and varied assortment of ex-
-pletives, and to utter them in a per-
fecdy ineligible fashion.