River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-07-17
THE LATE CORNER In WHEAT.


MEME IN Or4AAfp-
Jim Keene thought he got scoop" on the |
Chicago papers by sojourning here whole
week and escaping to New York before the
obiquitous interviewer should 'tumble" to |
his presence in the city. But for an unfor-
tunate circumstance, he would have succeed I
ed in his scheme. A reporter for the Tunes |
CHANGED in the office of the general manager /
of the Lake Shore railway at O'Clock yes
terday afternoon. Presently, Mr.. Parsons,
division superintendent, entered the office, |
hat In hand, and introduced the gentleman |
accompanying him as Mr.. James keene. MIR. |
Keene declining the proffer of chair, ex
planned to Mr.. Newell that he wished TO take
the 5;15 train Eastward, and asked for the
privilege of attaching his private car. He
explained. further, that the coach was the
directors car of the Union Pacific company,
and it had been sent over to San Francisco
for his wife and children, who had just ar
rived from Omaha. Mr.. Keene, unsuspicious
Of the reporter. whom he evidently mistook
for Mr.. NeweIIs private secretary, dropped
the remark that he had been in town for
week, but had chosen not TO let the fact be-
come known. Orders were given TO have
the private coach hooked on to the tram,
and Mr.. Keene bowed hims-lf out of the of
fee. The reporter set out at once to ascer-
tain what Jim Keene could have been doing
here for a week past. Why had he not put
up at hotel and registered like any other
stranger? How had it happened that his
presence in town had not been
discovered by the board of
trade? What kind of a scheme
could he have been engineering during bis
weeks seclusion hereY Some of these conun-
drums were partially solved. The reporter
learned tina Keene came here on last Tues.
day. and was driven in a close carriage to
the house of a friend. He has not been away
from that house, except to go oriving once
or twice. until yesterday, when he went to
the depot to meet his S1ifA ord children
The house where he secreted himself from
the commission men And reporters is situa-
ted on the North side, and is a massive and
ornate pile of architecture. There he re-
ceived his business associates and confden
tial brokers, and from that hiding place he
gave directions regarding his transactions on
the market. A gentleman who was IN the
secret, but who might never have breathed it
to a soul had Keene not "given himself
away" to reporter. admitted, when pressed
for an answer, hat Keene had chosen to Sc
elude himself because announcement in the
papers of his presence here would have
disturbed the market and interfered with the
success of his scheme. He was asked to de-
fine the nature and scope of the scheme"
1 his he declined te do, but the little things
he incautiously let drop in his conversation
| justify the conclusion that Keene's brokers
and business associates in this city have
been quietly selling his wheat for July de-
| livery. The amount of wheat owned by
/ the Keene crowd and stored here is about
| four millions of bushels. The theory is
that they are getting rid of this before the
new spring wheat begins to come in. There
hasn't been a suspicion on the board of
| trade that Keene was within stones throw
of the building and was personally direct
ing the operations of his brokers and con-
| fdential agents, and but for the accidental
circumstance related above, the fact of his
/ being here might never have become known
to more than half-dozen persons, who were
enjoined to the most perfect secrecy.