The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-05

years before the man whose lead he IL now
follcwins; When ,. he landed r. New York
his mental training had been OF the most
rudirnental sort and he had no knowledge
were robust health, happy disposition ana
an enormous capacity for work He began
life here Is ia6orer II ltts srs sons
every possible cent. In time he bought
a small retail grocery store down on Church
somewhat faster. Then came the gold fever
and he disposed of his grocery and SET
SUIT Sutro did, that the actual digging for gold
was not to his liking He Went INTO the
brewery business rIS, anu me- was suceessfu 1
from the beginning and In a comparatively
few years was ready to retire win soovo.
I2ut that was not enough and he went into
sugar Importing the crude from the sand
wien Islands and refining IL in san Fran
snccessflil: he proved phenomenal money
maker. cmulating the financial giants OF the
seventies-Flood. Mackay, sharon, rais'oh'
SPRECKELS AT HAWAII
Az Hawaii he soon became the real mon
arch On his first visit to the beautiful
,s,a,as of the Pacific he succeeded in win
ming the enthusiastic friendship of King
Kalakaua. who was sadly In need or
money. Spreckels had money a-plenty; not
the enormous sums now in his possession
but enough to relieve the Kings neees-
stiles. Spreckels wanted land on whlch 10
plant sugar cane as badly as King Saheo
wanted cash, and in his royal capacity tho
dusky monarch was abundantly able to
issue land grants and so fill the wants Oh
his new found German ,Thaa regular steam
communication between HaWaii anu odn
Francisco. and because ms snips c ssnS
make the voyage quicker and cheaper thah
the old sailing vessels 1t was not long be-
fore he was able to command the trade.
the island in his power Meanwhile he kept
advancing money to the King, VINO az one
time was SO completely uhuer SpaseSe rs
resignation of Cabinet that failed 10
please the sugar king. This did not last
Kalakaua there was rupture between the
monarch and the German. FOR time our
ing the reign of Queen Liliuokaam SprecK.
els had as much power over her as he had
ever possessed over her predecessor, put
before the revolution this had greatly de-
SpreckeIs's contests with the Sugar Trust.
his establishment OF refinery In Phila-
by Young Adolph Spreckeis--aI these are
One of the most interesting of Claua
SpreckeIs's performances was his PROPOSE
ton, made in evident good faith, some four
or five years ago, to build an addition to
blocks of sugar. While experimenting with
a process for the hardening or beet sugar
for export he hit upon plan ,n ,p,. woa o
the sugar king said, the saccharine sub
stance would be as hard marble and
practically indestructible by fire or other
wise. Spreckeis proposed TO put up the
sugar addition to the executive manson at
his own expense and then have IL examined
by committee of experts. IL they could
find any fault whatever with the material
he said. he would take 1t down and leave
the original building as he found II.
Unlike most millionaires of the day. Claus
Spreckels has never showed any desire to
get into society. He married a wholesome
German girl many years ago when he was
poor young man. She had been a domes-
tic in the family of an Eastern sugar re-
finer and was not fond of style or DESTROYS
of shining 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 in
stead of German, and he has never learned
the English well. When he is angry in
deed it is not even easy to understand him,
so imperfect is his enunciation, but he il
said TO have large ind varied assortment
of expletives and to utter them in per-
fectly Ineligible fashion.