Show 4 LIPTON TliJIGRAT AMBITIONS G iTO i To Found Alexandra Trust Win Yachting Championship I and Become a Peer i Special Correspondence f London Dec 11Slr Thomas Lipton the most astonishing citizen of London I Lon-don has planned to do three astonishIng astonish-Ing things during the year 1899 I FirstTo found the Alexandria trust cost 1000000 I SecondTo win the America cup cost 300000 I ThirdTo gain a British peerage 1 The first is a plan of practical philanthropy I I phil-anthropy the second is in the spirit of I goodnatured international rivalry for yacht saIling championship and the elevation to the British peerage is an honor which probably awaits Sir Thomas Thom-as as a reward at the hanfl of Queen Victoria if his boat shows her heels to the American sailors and British supremacy I su-premacy is thus again established Sir Thomas motto is The Lipton I flag never has been hoisted in vain and he firmly expects to carry out his I three clans I CHARITY LED TO KNIGHTHOOD I When the Queens jubilee dinner for 1 the London poor was in danger of fall I ing through the penurlqusness of the t English public Thomas Lipton came I forward and gave 25000 and thus made it possible for the committee to feed 110000 of the poor of London For ttiat and other charities he was knighted knight-ed and then last summer he announced announc-ed that he was ready to give half a million of dollars in the starting of the Alexandra trust for furnishing cheap and good meals to the poor and had another 500000 to add to the fund If the system proves a success Its patroness pa-troness is the Princess of Wales a good person to know when one wishes to be a peerand the trust was named in her honor The Alexandra scheme is much along the line of the soup kitchens which have proved such a success suc-cess in Vienna but Mr LiDtons wide business experience has suggested a great many details which will be new insuch movements He has given much sympathetic attention in the past to the fare of the lower classes and says it is not only of poor quality badly cooked and untidily served but costs too much to those who can illafford it All of these faults he plans to remedy rem-edy by a good bowl of soup or read or meal well cooked and served for a halfpenny For twopence a fair meal can be bought the diner having beyond I this a considerable range in price and selection This is the object of the Alexandra trust So soon ac the necessary charter is secured a large dining establishment will be ODened hi the poorest quarter of the city and other places of the kind will follow so soon as it is shown that the plan is a success Sir Thomas designs to make the institution eventually even-tually selfsustaining by the purchase of property in several places about town And he is quite business man enough to do It FISH DEALERS FIGHTING LIPTON I Opposition to the Alexandra trust has I developed from the keepers of small fish shops and coffee houses who say I they will be driven out of business if Lipton enters the field They have been memorializing the committee on charters char-ters asking that a permit be not granted I grant-ed and their union is making ready to present theirside of the matter lie I fore the parliament when it meets In 1 February These small victualers claim I that food In London is cheap enough I j for anybody already and that lowering lower-ing the price of living will simply meant mean-t that the present number of loafers I about the nubile houses will be im i i mensely multiplied i I Lipton is not discourage l by the opposition op-position aroused and says that the plan will Drove a imblic blessing if once tried and this view Is ahaied by the I Princess of Wafes the Duke of Nbr fqlk and Sir Francis Jeun who are associated with the promoter of the en terrise There is little doubt that the royal charter will be granted and that the interesting experiment will be inaugurated in-augurated next year TO WHIP THE YANKEES By a little dinner party held in the Savoy hotel a few nights ago the building build-ing plans for thg Irjsh yacht Shamrock were finally dlscuSsed and agreed upon and the keel of the trim racer will now shortly be laid in the Harland Wolff yards at Belfast Her plans have been approved but just what those plans call for Is not known only by a select coterie who after dinner at the Savoy Sa-voy turned all of the waiters out of the room locked the doors and held a I I star chamber session to go over the plans again an1 give the final building orders Those present were Sir Thomas Lipton owner of the Shamrock that is to be William Fife jr the designer de-signer W J Pirrie director of the Harland Wolff shipyard Hugh Mu Gildowney the Belfast yachtsman Baron Russell lord clllef justice of England and his son Charles Russell England and Scotland have both fought for the America cup but Ireland Ire-land never said Sir Thomas when after due persuasion he was prevailed upon to talk for publication on his Shamrock hopes I have been a member mem-ber of the Royal Ulster Yacht club for some years and as one whose parents belong to the north of Ireland though I was born in Glasgow 1 have long had a notion of sending an Irish challenge for the cup but Qne thing or another in the past has prevented me putting It into execution Over ten years ago I went so far as to make an offer I through Hon W J Lane of the New York Life company then a member of parliament for Cork to race for the America cup providing I could get a yacht designed built and manned by Irishmen but the matter fell through What I have always aimed at has been a challenge from an Irish yacht club with an Irishbuilt boat by an j Irish designer sailed by Irish skipper and crew and bearing I need hardly say an Irish name All these essentials essen-tials with the exception of the designer design-er will be fulfilled when the new Shamrock meets her American rival PREPARED TO SPEND A FORTUNE I do not wish to speak boastfully but I am prepared to spend 50000 to r i t I L rY 4 A I r 4 m ij i 4 i I IJ I J 1 jtt Li I SIB TTTmvrAS J jJEPTOlT mOM LATEST PHOTOGRAPH 60000 to lift that cup But money is not the only consideration as brains are needed and there will be more brains put into this boat than some people are aware of Everything that money and brains can devise will be done to make her the most perfect yacht that ever sailed I know the difficulties II dif-ficulties in front of us and by no means underestimate the task but lift that cup we will if skillful designing good workmanship and seamanship on I our side can do it Sir Thomas says one of the rules of I his business life is never to deal with an unsuccessful man George L Watson Wat-son and Beaver Webb the famous British yachtdesigners have had their boats repeatedly beaten in the American cup contests and so Lipton I would not consider them for a moment I when looking about for an architect for the Shamrock He took up a younger young-er and less famous man in William Fife jr aged 40 who belongs to a race winning family commonly known about Scotland as the Fifes o Fair lie Three generations of Fifes have built yachts for near a century at the little town of Fairlie on the Ayrshire coast and the grandson in the present pres-ent manager of the yards has turned out a number of winners The Minerva and the Canada are among his canvas creations which have swept in to victory vic-tory in the American regattas and Mr Fife cannot only built a yacht but can handle her in service to the best advantage It was only after careful consideration consider-ation that we decided to give the designing de-signing order to Mr Fife whom we have every confidence in and he thinks he can justify It Fife believes that hlthereto the best boat has won in the cup contests said Mr Lipton AN IRISHMAN FOR CAPTAIN The same rule of success has held in naming Captain William ONeill to skipper the new boat He comes of a seafaring family and is counted the samrtest sailing master along roe Irish coasts although his Initial races on the Thames in 1874 went against him and he wanted to leave his command after the first defeat Then his luck changed and for half a dozen years he kept his boat the Myosotis at the head of the winninw list Since then he has almost steadily kept first place with whatever boat he has been engaged en-gaged to captain winning thirty prizes In a single season with the Annasona a Fife cutter I have laid down no new conditions as to the race but will leave all arrangements ar-rangements to the nolders of the cup continued Mr Lipton I know the states well and a fairer or more sportsmanlike sports-manlike body of men never lived than American yachtsmen I am sure I shall get fair play from them as I know of no place where a Britisher can go where he will receive more true kindness kind-ness or be better treated than at the hands of our American cousins SHAMROCK WILL BE LIGHT Information as to details of the Shamrock wil be closely guarded until the new cutter is launched The use of aluminum in the hull of the Defender saved the American yacht tons in weight over the Valkyrie III in 1895 and probably gave Lord Dunraven his defeat Designer Fife has made a study for years of the use of metal in racers and it is whispered about that he will entirely match the Herreshoffs of Rhode sland when it comes to saying say-ing in weight As the Iirlsh boat must I cross the Atlantic on us own bottom I by the international rules it must ba I made several tons heavier than the i I American vessel need be The Sham rocks keel will be laid shortly now in the Harland Wolff yards at Belfast I where the White Star liners have had heir building She will be about ninety feet in length having a beam of near twentyfive feet will carry a canvas pread approximating 13006 feet and very possible improvement will be in tided in her makeup and equipment If necessary a balloon topsail will be put on of the best Belfast bleached linen woven from the beautiful blue I I I flax grown on the hills of Antrim and Down In the native district of the Lip ton family The Shamrock stands to i I cost 100000 twise as much more being 1 I I ready for those who make and operate I her and for the incidental expenses of the enterprise Launching will be made in June according to present plans I The Valkyrie III is now lying in Gou rock bay and it Is likely the old and the new contestants for the American cup will spin about a bit together SIR THOMAS WORTH 20000000 Twenty millions of dollars is what 1 u4 fT S Y < 4q t or I the Lipton fortune is accounted v at f present and this fs being added to rapidly i rap-idly by the receipts which daily roJl t into the counting house In the City Road from the immense provision business f bus-iness of the company around the world As one looks over the large and beautiful room where scores of clerks and typewriters are at work on the corporations accounts he sees a little of the perfection in the Immense system which makes todays quotations of the Lipton Limited stock on the exchange sell at nearly two and one half times abovepar Sir Thomas insists In-sists that In every department of his I mighty business antiquated English methods be cast aside and downto date American ways of doing business I alone btf employed which accounts In large part for his being able to spend a million or two offhand as he is doing do-ing in his yacht and Alexandra enterprises enter-prises LIPTON AS AN ANGLOAMERICAN I Mr Ljpton takes few hundred of t his employees now and again out to I i Ocidge his beautiful country residence I at Old Southgate where he invites them to take full possession of the I place in the hqlraay he gives them The American and British flags In the dec I orationsalways tell that the host is an AngloAmerican He likes fast horses I as well as a swift business and drives J a speedy span imported from Kentucky daily over the ten miles between his country home and city offices And all this charity this touching the pride of the Britisher in championing British seamanship this tremendous I activity in malting friends with royalty j this genius formoney getting Is leading lead-ing straight toward the greatest of all of Liptons plansthe elevation to the pelage I suggested the rumors about i his possible elevation to him the other j day but of course he wisely professed never to have dreamed of such a thing i EDWARD PAGEGASTON I I |