in the country, that of the Woolson Spice Co., of Toledo, Ohio, that had
in the Lion brand, a ready-made package coffee wherewith to fight
Ariosa. The re-organization of the Woolson Spice Co. in 1897, when A. M.
Woolson was relieved of the office of president, disclosed, among
others, the names of Hermann Sielcken in close juxtaposition to that of
H.O. Havemeyer on the board of directors. Both men helped to make
coffee-trade history.

The trade found the coffee-sugar war the all-absorbing topic for several
years. Hot debates were held on the question as to whether, on one hand,
the Arbuckles had the right to enter the sugar-refining business and, on
the other, as to whether the sugar-trust had a right to retaliate. The
answer seemed to be "yes" in both instances.

In two years, John Arbuckle's model sugar refinery in Brooklyn was
turning out package sugar at the rate of five thousand barrels a day.
The Woolson Spice Co. was credited with spending unheard-of sums of
money in advertising Lion brand coffee. The eastern newspaper displays
alone exceeded anything ever before attempted in this line. However,
many people are of the opinion that it was a tactical error on the part
of the sugar interests to spend so much money advertising a Rio coffee
in the central and New England states, while John Arbuckle was confining
his activities to the south and the west, where there already existed a
Rio taste among consumers.

The legal fight which the Arbuckles carried on with the Havemeyers for
the control of the sugar business in this celebrated coffee-sugar war is
said to have cost millions on both sides.

Eventually, the Havemeyers were glad to be relieved of their coffee
interests, but John Arbuckle continued to sell both coffee and sugar.

Mr. Arbuckle married Miss Mary Alice Kerr in Pittsburg, in 1868. She
died in 1907. His many charities included boat trips for children,
luxurious farm vacations for tired wage-earners, boat-raising and
life-saving schemes, a low-priced home for working girls and men on an
old full-rigged ship lying off a New York dock, which he called his
"Deep Sea Hotel," and a vacation enterprise for young men and young
women at New Paltz, N.Y., which was known as the "Mary and John Arbuckle
Farm." A magazine for children, called _Sunshine_, was another
benevolent enterprise of his.

When John Arbuckle died at his Brooklyn home, March 27, 1912, he had
been ill only four days. The New York Coffee Excha