Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-07-02
Jim Keene,s xva..herwoman

"The fact ISL said Jim Keene,
the great New York rival to Jay
Gould, as he relaxed his usual tacit-
urnity under the genial influence
of one of Sam Wards dinners the
other day; the fact is, that no mat
ter how clever and thorough a
mans system of stock operating
may be, there is always occurring
some little unforeseen and appa-
rently insignificant circumstance
that is forever knocking the best
laid plans into a cooked hat
AS how ?''
"Well, for istanca, about a year
ago I was doing d great deal in
Lake Shore and counted on making
big clean up. | discovered, how
ever, that there was some hidden
influence in the market that was
always against me. 1t didn't ex-
act!y defeat my plans, but it lessen
ed the profits. / soon saw that
there was some operator who, was
kept, informed as to my move
ments in time to make me pay for
his knowledge"
Broker gave you away ?n said
several.
Not at all. j never gave an or
der in advance, and, besides, used
as now half dozen brokers, and
also gave cross and dummy or
ders in plenty. One day, while
was standing at the window of my
up town place, cogitating over this
state of affairs, an elegant private
coupe drove past, and stopped just
around the corner from my door.
1t contained richly-dressed lady
and a ragged-lookirlg girl. The lat
| ter got out, rang my basement bell,
and was admitted. I sent for my
man-servant, and inquired who the
girl might be-"
"She comes for the wash, sir, he
said.u
"'Does she generally come in a
coupe?' | inquired"
"tWhy, no, SIR said my man,
very much surprised ; cher mother
the washerwoman, is very poor =
"Just then my own carriage
drove around for me, and as it pass.
ed the other / could see the lady
eagerly sorting the soiled clothes in
the coupe on her lap. This excited
my curiosity, so had my driver to
follow along behind. Pretty soon
the coupe stopped, and the dirty lit
tie girl got out with the bundle and
went into a brown-stone front on
Twenty-ninth street. The coupe
then kept straight on down to
Wall street and stopped in front OF
brokers' Office, where the lady
alighted with my entire lot OF
soiIed shirt cuffs in her hand"
"Shirt cuffs ?' cried the entire
company.
"Exactly; shirt cuffs. l saw
through it all in a moment. You
see [ amor rather was-a great
hand while at dinner, or at the the
atre in the evening, to think over
my plans for the dext day, and to
make memoranda on my cuffs to
consult before starting down town
in the morning. My washerwo-
man had found this out, and had
been quietly '.oppering' my game
by means of my cuffs for over a
year"
"WeH, by Joven said Sam
w dAOy l'elu-4Al3 III a. o1Al9lC AAotfthl
in the sacred mystery of salad dress
ing.
tits the cold fact" continued
Keene. SIN less than eight months
she had cleaned up over 5000, 900
and was washing my clothes-at
least the cuffs-in an $50, 200 house.
She had diamonds and horses until
you couldn't rest.p
"You didn't make any more cuff
MEMS, after that 20 laughed sever
al.
swell, not many-just a few
said the great operator, holding his
Burgundy up to the light. 81 be-
lieve / kept it up about a month
longer, at the end of which time /
had raked in the washerWoman's
bank account, and even had a
mortgage on the broWn-stone house.
1t was queer coincidence, wasn't
it? But perhaps the information
she found on the cuffs after that
wasn't as exact as it had been,
somehow. nor as reliable"
And the "Kine of the Street"
emptied his glass with an indie
scribable wink that made Beach,
who was short on Harlem, shiver
like cat who had just swallowed a
| live mouse.