The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-04-04
A REMARKABLE MAN.
-us CAREER OF COLONEL NORTH,
The NITRATE KING.

-. nj the Richest Man In the World.
,umsnss wealth rhst Started In . Pile
NJ OLD scr~p Iron.
rowerfuliy built, redheaded English
arr dozen raw oysters at a restaurant
nIondon. washed down with bottle OF
~ ~ and was at onoe taken Ill. Then
81 drank two or three glasses OF strong
ne.ndv. fell over into the arms OF his son
I'd died. The Englishman was the oele-
s.ated Colonel john Thomas North, better
Known as the Nitrate King, a man who
BIZ. sunnosed to be worth 500, 000, 900,
w nS his death created big sensation. He
o. o. probably the most noted Englishman
", nrivate life, and his biography reads
III that of an American Jay Gould or
andrew Carnegie. In a country where
10 moor man Is supposed to have no chance
y. ali where inherited wealth and position |
aSo,,nv the field and frown upon the at |
.on,nts of n parvenu to rise in the world, |
Ellis man within IA quarter OF century, |
and entirely by his own efforts, amassed q
fabulous fortune and rose to high posi-
.Ion An business and social circles. There
~ certainly much Of interest in his career,
"a a Young man can learn something by
review of Colonel North's life.
ue was born at Leeds about 1885. His
sotber WAS a coal merchant, and young
North was apprenticed to boiler maker
AT the age of 30 he was sent out to the west
coast of South America with some ma
cbinery which he WAS commissioned to set
nm and put in order. When he had nnished
his lob. for which he received $3.50 per
day. he began to look about MIN, ana ne
then manifested some OF the traits Which
afterward brought him fame, prominence
and wealth. l..
Ionioue one day, he noticed that the estab-
,,shment was bankrupt and about to be
cold at auction. There was pile OF scrap
iron and old machinery heaped up In one
corner of the grounds which was to DO
closed out with the rest. North's quick
eve took It all In and he made an offer OF
90 for the lot. The assignee accepted 1t.
North at once hired an assistant with
team. sorted out the good stuff from the
worthless. found, as he suspected, large
amonnt of steel among the iron, and as
the result OF three or four days work he
nooketed $500 by the deal One OF the
Chilean towns where he was at work had
M waterworks All the water for drink
inc purposes was brought into town on
the backs of donkeys, and water was very
scarce North proposed to the municlpai-
ity to furnish complete system OF water
works for given price After much delp.
GRAFTON his o or was accepted, the material
was ordered from England and North
cleared $500. 600 in year. He built piers
for steamships, railroads, bridges, and
everything he undertook was immensely
profitable.
But his biggest enterprise and the one
with which his name will always be asso
oiated was in the development OF the
nitrate industry What is nitrateY Let mt
explain little Half q century ago money
was mourning into Peru at the rate or Slo,
600. 600 or $I2 900, 900 year for Its guano
Immense deposits of guapo had been mad
along the Peruvian coast by the sea birds
For countless ages, in a climate wher
rain never falls, these deposits had peel
accommodating until in 1887, when Tn
value of guano as a fertilizer had been dis
covered, the guano beds were often 10
feet thick. Ships from every part OF Europ
and the United States came to Peru ior el
new fertilizer, and wealth poured In Tx
magic. But by 1875 the guano was %
hausted and the money spent.
Suddenly it was discovered that IN TN
province Of Tarapaca, in southern feru
there was something far more vaiuapl
than puano. BY volcanic eruptions j
covered with a coating of white and oolore
stuff to the depth of 8 to IL inches.
was kind of crust, which was sometime
found ON the surface, but oftener covere
with n foot or two of sand. This cruz
had been examined by chemists and foun
to be- worth as much as gold quart
Properly treated, this crust, which WI
sometimes white and sometimes yeiioV
brown and red, would produce ~ or
chemicals which were In constant uemal
all over the world. Saltpcter, Dorax,
trate of soda, iodine and many other thlnl
could he produced from this volcanic depr
with but little treatment. Every part
IL was valuable, and much OF 1t sold at
pound, while the refuse was marKe1an
as a fertilizer. Iodine, which for ages
been made from the ashes OF seaweeu' ho
comes entirely from these nitrate neius
1t can readily be seen that the oiscove
of such valuable substance wouiu pr
duce big change in the CURRENT Vi ana
The Peruvian government imhieuis'e
mt on an export tax ON shipments of
trates, and this brought on the war WI
Chile. At the end of the war Chile III
the nitrate fields, and 1t is the income
s25. 600, 900 year that Chile gets from
nitrates that makes her Independent toua
And 1t was the nitrates that made Coioi
North fabulously wealthy. AS Carnes
found his opportunity In the PennsyiyaI
oil wells, so North made his stake IN a, !.
sand of Tarapaca. He was naturally
money maker. "North's luck, IL
called, for everything he toucheo .urnou |,
money. He was shrewd enough 10 see
possibilities of the nitrate business,
he "gobbled everything in sight %,
ated In a dry and rainless country,
"diggings" were useless without railroa
so North secured all the land poss,u
built railroads and controlled the wh
business, but, like gold mining an
money was made in selling stocks tnah
prosecuting the work, and so the rage
speoulating in "nitrates" began, ana
this North raked in an immense pie
money. The English specu,a.ors w
wild over North's stocks, and NORM
came the hero of the age. he wen'
England, and his bluff, outspoken,
l. M