Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-30
HE HANDLED MILLIONS
METEoRIC CAREER OF MAN WHO
PIRsT MADE SOAP.

Today the name of Adolph Segai Is on the
lips of everybody in Philadelphia. His rise
from toiler over soap cauldron In a
ten by twelve cellar In West Philadelphia
less than twenty years ago to a handler Of
millions of dollars has certainly been Spec
tacular.
Although he has figured for years as a
builder of sugar refineries. railroads, apart
ment houses handsome residences and
modest homes for working men, little was
known of his personality until the news
papers were read today.
Built Model Sugar Refinery.
AFTER building a large independent
sugar refinery In Camden. N J.. across tina
Delaware river from Philadelphia. and
selling 1t to the American Sugar Refining
company at an alleged profit of s70o. 900
he built another in the sugar district of
TINS s city along the river front But as
far as Is known the second venture was
never bought by the purchaser Of the
nrst. although the statement Is made that
.nose whose money is tied up in the
structure receive per cent on their in
Vestment from some source
The sugar refinery is as a refinery what
she majestic Is as a hotel. Moving plat
forms. automatic cranes turbine engines
make II a place which works itself The
raw product can be unloaded from the
snip, lying at one of the most compietelv
equipped wharves on the river front by
these automatic cranes and save for tha
sittihS OF the bag at the head of the
inter and the occasional turning OF a
alreetinS rod, the agency of the human
mana Is not required elsewhere in the
course of the evolution of sugar One
VINO has been through IL SAYS that a man
might work in any part Of II in evening
ciothes. TILED bathrooms and copper fin
lshings abound throughout 1t cost as
much as the Majestic hotel. and has been
Idle since It's erection-two or three years
ago. Segal has been the promoter of sew
erai enterprises in the state, outside OF
Philadelphia. 1t is said that the Real Es-
tate Trust Company has been involved in
all of them to some extent. Two are sit
uated in Lancaster county: one, the
Swedish Crucible Iron and Steel Works.
at Lancaster. and the other. the Safe Har-
Dor Match Works. at Safe Harbor OF
these enterprises a dispatch says:
The Iron Plant Fiasco.
The Swedish Crucible Iron and Steel
Company was organized about eight years
ago by Segal. Several hundred acres OF
land. supposed to be rich in magnetic ore.
was bought. The first company was known
as the Champion Iron Company. later
the Standard Iron and Steel Company. and
finally as the Swedish Crucible Iron and
Steel Company.
A four-mile railroad was built from the
works to the Columbia and Port Deposit
| road at Safe Manor. and a reducing plant
was erected and machinery installed at
rather heavy expense.
The entire property was bonded for
S2.OG.0oO. the Real Estate Trust Company
acting trustees for the bondholders. The
valuation, financiers say, was greatly in eX-
cess of its real value. The hailroad has
never been completed, and operations at the
plant have been suspended for two years.
Another big enterprise was building op-
Grafton at Altoona, Pa. Segal secured a
large plot of ground and planned the new
town of South Altoona. 1t was planned to
erect ego houses, built in rows, city style.
People there did not take kindly to this
method of living, and refused to buy or
rent them. After about $50 were erected the
building operations ceased, leaving the
foundations of "a hundred or more exposed.
Few of the completed dwellings were sold
and few rented. Most of them are idle to-
day.
Spent Money Lavishly.
Segal is forty-six years old and about five
feet ten inches In height. Directness and
frankness of manner. habit of going di-
rectly to the point of proposition he had
to present to a man, are said to have been
the means of his success. He has made
| To- laxr fSh1