to the point —this rich young man of business went in for political reform in his city. That alone is important, but that doesn’t half express Rudolph Spreckels’s mind. He has said that he will devote the rest of his life — and, if need be, his fortune — to reform: general reform. For when he has “made good” in San Francisco, he proposes to try some other cities. New York attracts him; so do Chicago and Denver.
New York will arch its brows and smile; Chicago may laugh. But Rudolph Spreckels has tackled big men and big jobs; he never has failed; he is unlicked. Pie has “hate of hate, scorn of scorn.” He doesn’t care who laughs first. With his quizzical, winning smile, he says:
“I don’t care who sneers in the beginning, or who doubts. I don’t doubt. I fix my eyes on a purpose, and — I’m sure of the end.”
It won’t do to waive this man lightly aside. He has health and youth, will-power, and persistence, and ability. This young captain of industry is the kind of man that has done so much evil in this country. He was born and bred to the type that has built and robbed railroads, “made” and unmade states; corrupting business and courts and governments, but accomplishing its end. When the goal of such a man is the creation of a monopoly of all the
