River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-08-16
Keene SelOver.

Long Branch Correspondence OF the New York World
The present all-engrossing topic of con-
versation is Mai. Selover's encounter with
Jay Gould. Mr.. Gould has a cottage near
by at Seabright and is well known here,
though he has now joined his family at
Irvington. SelOver is the constant com
panion of Keene. The two were friends
long ago in California when Kecne, as
Flood 4 OBrien's broker, amassed a
large fortune-$6,000, 600 it is said-and
afterward waged prosperous war against
the Bonanza stocks, while Selover made
and lost money with equal ease in various
fancy speculatiOns. The two men are
very unlike in appearance and in DISPOSE
ton. Selover is six foot something,
weighs two hundred and thirty pounds
and is very muscuar-his red face made
rcdder By a pair of heavy whiskers to
match. He is usually a good natured,
easy-going man, not easily excited and
never excited long. Keene, who is an
Englishman by birth, is tall, thin, of very
white complexion, with light auburn
mustache and goatee, restless eyes and
generally nervous temperament. lie is
most excitable and, when reused has an
uncomfortable temper. lie came To-
New York TO fix Jay Gould, and Shar-
on is said to have remarked of him: "Of
all keen men Keene is the keenest.' But
Gould was not in the humOr for war and
spiked Keene's gun by offering to go sin
cahoots with him. in the phrase of the
streets. Keene accepted, and trusted his
ally implicitly in many an undertaking
usually coming out loser while Gould did
MOI seem at all affected. Recently came
Gould's little plan for himself and Rus
sci Sage and Keene TO bear Western Union
and not to touch the stock over 60
Keene kept up to his contract, but the
stock continued to raise and Gould kept
telling Selover to sell, which Selover did.
One fine day Keene learned that Gould
was buying straight along, and was long
some thirty thousand or forty thousand
shares. Keene threatened and swore.
Selover said he would smash Gould--and
dill it; and now Gould is long of Western
Union and his partners are short Of it,
while they have got white elephant on
their hands in the shape of Atlantic and
Pacific, of which, according to all reports,
Gould was very glad to be rid and is now
bearing as hard as he can. In his and
other experiences with Gould, Keene
il said 10 have lost heavily, while Selover,
who had not much to lose except his
temper, lost that and whatever he had be-
side. If Russell Sage is sore he is wise
enough to keep it to himself
Keene's most intimate friends hardly
dare to talk to him about his experiences
with Gould, for the mention of the name
of that arch-f iend of hell and stocks" as
he calls him, is apt TO send the Californ-
ian into rage, during which his CONVEX
sation is so emphatic and violent a. to be
hardly coherent. There is no doubt that
Keene is real i'll; he looks utterly shat
tered, and the mental anguish he has
gone through of late shows in his every
feature He evidently has a strong hold
upon his inmates. His disposition is de-
scribed as usually kind and of almost WON
anly tenderness, but he has an utter hOr-
ror of publicity. Here he keeps mostly
in his room, taking an occasional walk on
the piazza, and, just now, either sullenly
silent or loudly denunciatory and en-
phatic. Fears are entertained that, if he
is not soon removed from the scenes and
causes of his undue excitement, his
health will be permanently injured. and
it is therefore proposed that he shall go
IOI Il rev NtthS 10 liit lllbuHtd1ilS, Mlillhtl
he will probably start early next week.
The Wall.street men here speak very
kindly of Keene and very much other
wise of Gould. OF Keene many an act of
generosity is related by his old California
chums. 1t is reported that some years
ago while he was at the zenith of his
California career, he met an acquaintance
Familiarity known as Jack Levy, who had
had run of very bad luck.
How are you, Jackl" asked Kcene.
sOh," very bad, Mr.. Keene," was the
reply; everything touch seems to turn
TO copper.
Not 80 bad as that was the good-na-
tured rejoinder; lust you go to BIS
and tell them to buy you one thousand
shares of C---and charge II TO me.
With thousand thanks Levy did as
he was told. and on coming to town again
a week later. found his stock had gone
up aud Melted him profit Of some $2s,-
600. With this he started in business
again and soon amassed a fortune.
This said Keenes friend, sis one IN
stance of hundreds, and there are manT
men know would go through--for
Jim Keene."
Other gossips tell about Jay Gould.
One story is to the effect that just before