have a solution. I will put drains on the present
(cable) conduits, and keep them dry. I will
keep them so dry that you will yourselves admit
that they are dry. But, if I do that, I shall expect
you to install the underground trolley in those
conduits.”
They refused this proposition, and Mr. Spreckels told them why.
“You haven’t given me your real reason,
and I will continue to fight.”
Then came Mr. Patrick Calhoun talking “business.” There were three meetings. The first was a general, pleasant chat at the Bohemian Club between Messrs. Calhoun, R. B. Hale, James D. Phelan, Rufus B. Jennings, and others. They couldn’t get very far without Mr. Spreckels, so he was sent for, and Mr. Calhoun soon saw that Spreckels was the man. He was keen, firm, amiable, but not to be charmed or fooled. Evidently Patrick Calhoun made up his mind then to “get” Spreckels, for, after the meeting, he asked for a second meeting with him alone.
They met at the Canadian Bank and went to a private room in the Mercantile Club upstairs. After some preliminaries, Calhoun offered to modify his overhead trolley plans to this extent: he would except Pacific Avenue. That was the street on which Spreckels lived.
