Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/273

 RUDOLPH SPRECKELS: A BUSINESS REFORMER

important to know Rudolph Spreckels.

He is a business man. He never has been anything but a business man. He did not go to college and, except for some interrupted private schooling and tutoring, all the education he ever had was in business. That was thorough and practical. It began when, as a boy, he sat, silent, listening to his father and older brothers talking business at home. And he caught the spirit of modern business. His boyish ambition, confessed to the amusement of the family, was to be a millionaire. That was all. He didn’t mean to run a locomotive, find the North Pole, write a sonnet, or set the world on fire. He didn’t dream even of the management of some great business. No, young Rudolph looked past the work to the end thereof; he was “for results.” He wanted millions. And he succeeded; before he was twenty-six he was able to retire a millionaire, self-made.

Certain events in the business world called him back to life in a year or two, and — to get