The Steel King of Prussia.
We are accustomed to think that we are a great manufacturing people; but our large establishments, particularly in the working of metals, are entirely overshadowed by some of the huge English workshops. And even the English are left behind now, and little Prussia, which has lately grown to be great Prussia, boasts an establishment for the working of steel alone which surpasses any general manufactory in the world. Krupp, the steel king of Essen, has, within the past forty years, built what is in effect a town by itself as his workshop. He employs 10,000 workmen; add to them their wives and children, and there is already a respectable population. Last year he turned out 62,500 tons of cast steel, valued at $7,500,000, and involving a daily consumption of 1,000 tons of coal. Of guns alone he has delivered 3,500 altogether, valued at $5,250,000. Such facts as these should make us ashamed of the restricted use we are able to make of the vast resources confided to our hands.