The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-04-10
WAS A PICTURESQUE FIGURE
FOUGHT FOR HIS MILLIONS BUT
SPENT THEM GENEROUSLY.
Late John ArbuckIe Was Simple,
Direct, Rugged, Unspoiled. Some
of His BenefaCtions

The recent passing OF John Ar
| buckle brings to a close the career
of one whose character might prof.
itably be studied by other captains
of industry as well as those in lesser
stations of life; one whose ability tC
direct large enterprises did not be-
! fog his courtesy of manner and sim
plicity of habit; one who would fight
to the last ditch to earn an honest
dollare only to turn goodly portion
to some philantropic purpose. He
was ever an enemy of the trusts and
sympathizer of the young man
struggling at the bottom of lifes
ladder. In this connection he said;
"All this talk about trusts lessen
ing prices is bosh. They don't do
anything of the kind; they raise
them. Then take these talks that
Carnegie and others make about the
young mans opportunity being as
great today as it ever was. 1t isn't
so. The young man hasn't half the
chance his father had. The trusts
ties. 1t stands to reason there are
not so many chances. Where there
used to be a hundred Independent
concerns there is now one trust. The
men in charge of the branches
are merely head clerks. Only one
man can ever become the head of a
trust. The other SO must remain
head clerks"
Plain and Rugged.
To visit Mr.. Arbuckle's office in
the unpretentious brick building at
Old Slip and Water street was like
going back half a century in New
York mercantile life. The place had
neither the smartneSs nor the sump-
tuousness of furnishings of the typi-
cal big mans" office of today. Very
likely it was Mr. Arbuckle himself
who met you as you entered, inquired
your business and invited you to en-
ter. In the talk that followed he
was simplicity and directness itself.
If it was summer time Mr.. Arbuckle
had his coat off and his waistcoat
unbuttoned or if the day was chill
he was dressed not OVercarefully in
a we'll worn black cutaway suit with
black string tie and low Old-fash-
toned collar that suggested the
country parson. He was still a pow
erful man at 10, although the long
working days of his busy life had left
him little stopped, so that he did
not look his six feet of hight. He
wore full beard, but in the style of
many years ago. His features were
small, his face weather-beaten, and
his hair, like his beard, was turning
white. He had very bright eyes that
seemed to take in things at a glance.
But there was no suggestion of the
man of force and action in the look
of almost apologetic inquiry with
which they looked out upon the
world.
Arbuckle's Charities.
The name of John Arbuckle is
more or less commonly associated
with coffee and sugar, and while he
with his brother Charles went into
business in Pittsburg as wholesale
grocers, moving to Brooklyn in 1871,
when the great coffee roasting plant
bearing his name was started, after
wards erecting a massive sugar re-
finery in that city, his activities were
by no means confied to the conduct
OF these. In fact, his most interest
ing undertakings were far afield from
groceries, and not little of his great
fortune was made in breaking the
great towing monopoly on the Hud-
son river between New York and AL
hany, and as genius he added to his
other achievements by devising and
executing daring schemes for raising
sunken wrecks in the great deep.
And on top of all came his charities
He planned the big things and left
the details of execution to his assist
ants, but his charities-they we're
his hobby and must have his atten-
ton. These consisted of his floating
hotels, the old full-rigged ship Jacob
A. Stemler the schooner-yacht, Gil
tana, and his farm at New Paltz, N.
Y, for old men and women and chill
dren. He fitted the two vessels up
with well-lighted and we'll ventilated
llVlng apartments, the Stemler for
the women and the Gitana for men.
1t cost women $3.50 a week, and
men $3.50 to live at these hotels
and they were always crowded. On
Sundays the hotels went to sea, and
the guests we're given a restful day
off the coast. OF course the money
his guests paid didn't approximate
the cost of keeping the boats in COM
mission, but it was Mr.. Arbuckle's
idea to have them pay something so
that they might get in return self
| respect plus the comfort. He took
broad view of religion; he never drew
lines of creed in his benefactions and
wouldn't permit preaching on board
| his floating hotels.
Up at Lake Mohonk, where Mr.
Arbuckle had a summer home. a wo-
man Of the summer colony once said
to him:
why, Mr.. Arbuckle, how can Won
stand those people on your boat?"
Madam" he replied, chose peo-
pie are the best people in the world,
There isn't one snob in the whole lot
of them"
He was always looking for some
thing good in all sorts of people and
ne was always willing to give the
men and women he met the benefit
or the doubt and to believe that +baro