The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-02-01
"Knightly Jim Keene."

York Times says: Jim Keene is man
averse to notoriety, and despising king
ship, but if the facts of his private be-
nefcence and royal charity were known
to the community, as they are to q Sc
lect few whom he loves, and who love
him, the public voice would proclaim
him far superior man to Ralston. For
the latter, with noble qualities, was
only kind to those with whom it was
polite to be kind. But Jim Keene has
placed his kindness where it will do
him most good in another world. Once
when a widow, whose husband had
done much service to the State of Cali
fornia, found herself, through the per-
tidy OF a trustee, without resources and
without bread for three helpless chill
dren, went to Ralston with fearful eyes,
and writhing appeal of hands, he sent
her away grufiiy and without a dol
lar. She went to Colonel Barnes,
the great lawyer of the State; he heard
three words of her story and at once
said: "My dear madam, say no more.
| know all about your sad story, but my
time is precious; please accept this"
and he thrust a hundred dollars into
her hand. A lady friend insisted on
her going to Jim Keene, who heard her
with such pain of sympathy that he al
most shed tears himself. He began
walking up and down the room with
agitation, and then came to her with
5000, and said: "Don't try to do any
thing to support yourself just yet. Give
yourself over for ten days, and by that
time we shall know something of a lit
tie speculation that will make for your
benefit at once.'' And within the ten
days he placed in her hand $1,000,
wrung probably on the stock exchange
from the reluctant fingers of the
bonanza kings. Nor is this solitary
instance. Every Christmas he does the
same thing for a group of poor widows,
to whom he is Providence in visible
shape.
Jim Keene will never be king, for
he is adverse to the display and the
cumbrous conditions of royalty. l
think, however, he is not displeased
with the title the San Francisco papers
give him of knightly. He must smile
at the occasional rhapsodies of the
financial editors, who are always drop
ping into poetry on his account. His
personal magnetism is so well known
fact that whenever he comes upon the
floor of the San Francisco Exchange
and his clear voice rings out demand
for certain stocks, the gloom of depres-
sion disappears and stocks mount tenn
porarily two Or three points. 1t is not I'M
usual in moments of panic to see in the
financial columns piteous appeals to Jim
Keene to come down for half an hour to
California Street and right mat
tiers, for it is one of his pecu-
liarities to visit the Exchange
very seldom. "Oh, for one hour of
VIM. Wight, or knightly Jim to rule
the fig ht," is a quotation that has ap-
peared pretty often of late. His house
is neither large nor small, but, like
himself, cultured, refined, and comfort
able: His wife, lady from Virginia,
an F. F. v, and niece of Commodore
Parker, dispenses hospitality with the
gentlest modesty and sincerest kind
ness in the world. There is French
cook and an English waiter, and the
dinners that knightly Jim Keenie gives
are admirable, and yet absolutely free
from ostentation. He himself is an
Englishman, and though very fond of
California is ready to die in the belief
that limited monarchy is an admira-
BILE form of government, and that the
of England are unequaled
by any thing in America, either East
or West.