upp had been on the right track, and would
have won if his strength had held out. Alfred Krupp, though a boy, was not
afraid to do a man's work in the foundry during the day, and at night he
attended to the business end of affairs. His mother assisted him in
everything, working in the office, soliciting orders, performing the work
of an overseer in the foundry, and attending to the household. By the time
young Krupp was twenty-one the business had begun to move, and he was
employing a score of workmen.
When the business was on such a solid basis that the future was assured,
Alfred Krupp was urged to marry. He steadfastly refused. His father had
left to him the task of looking after his mother, as well as that of
building up the business of steel-making, and it was not until after Mrs.
Krupp died in 1852 that her son took a wife.
Even when the business had begun to prosper, all was not easy for him. The
Prussian government placed obstacles in his way, and it was not until 1859
that he received a government order for cannon. The "Cannon King" had at
last been recognized, and it was he who thereafter armed the Prussian
soldiers, and he made the batteries that wrought such havoc in the French
forces in the war of 1870.
When he died in 1887 he left a plant in which twenty thousand men were
employed. In Essen alone, at the present time, fifty thousand men find
work, and at the Krupp shipyards, where the German battleships are
constructed, and in the subsidiary Krupp industries, fifty thousand more
are employed.
FRIGHTENED JAY GOULD.
Man Destined to Revolutionize Street
Railway Traffic Unwittingly Caused
Prospective "Angel" to Flee.
Frank J. Sprague, formerly president of the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers, founder of the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor
Company, and builder of the Richmond trolley line, was, in 1883, a
lieutenant in the American navy. A future with a moderate amount of
success was assured, and fame was possible. He was determined, however, to
devote his attention to the study of electricity as a motive power. At
that time there did not exist a single mile of trolley-line.
His friends vainly tried to dissuade him. He went to work with Edison to
increase the knowledge of motors he had already acquired in the navy. He
remained a year at Menlo Park and then organized the Sprague Electric
Railway and Motor Company. It was capitalized at one hundred thousand
dollars with nothin
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