The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1881-08-04
Jim KEENE,s WAsHERWoMAN.

"The fact is" said Jim Kecne, the
great New York rival of Jay Gould, as
he relaxed his usual taciturnIty under
the genial influence of one of Sam
Wards dinners the other day, "the fact
Is, that no matter how thorough mans
system of stock operating may be, there
is always occurring some little unfore-
seen and apparently insignificant cir
cumstance that is forever knocking some
of the best laid plans into a cooked hat"
GAS hOw?"
'Well, for instance, about year ago !
was doing a good deal in Lake Shore,
and counted on making good clean up.
l discovered, however, that there was
a hidden influence in the market that
was always against me. II didn't eX-
actly defeat my plans, but it lessened
the profits. / soon saw that there was
some operator who was kept informed
as to my movements in time TO make
me pay for his knowledge"
"Broker gave You away" said several.
"Not at all l never gave an order IN
advance, and besides, used, rs now,
half dozen brokers, and also gave
cross and dummy orders in plenty.
One day, while was standing by the
window of my uptown place, cogitating
over this state of affairs, an elegant pri-
ftlJt1 dlONC l1shob eAhN obOPPON Iu0S
around the corner of my door. 1t con-
tanned richly dressed lady and a rag
ged looking girl. The latter got out
and rang my basement bell, and was adj
mitted. l sent for my man servant
and inquired who the girl might be.
"She comes for the wash, SIR he said.
"Does she generally come in coupe =
/ inquired.
"Why, no, sir" said my man with
much surprise; her mother, the washer
woman, is very poor
Just then my own carriage drove
around for me, and as it passed the other
could see the lady eagerly sorting the
soiled clothes in the coupe
in her lap, This excited my
curiosity, so l had my driver follow
along behind. Pretty soon the
coupe stopped and the dirty little girl
got out with the bundle and went into a
brown stone front on Twenty-ninth street.
The coupe then went straight on down
to Wall street and stopped in front of a
brokers' Office, where the lady alighted
with my entire lot of soiled shirt cuffs
in her hand"
"Shirt cuffsg' cried the entire COM
pany.
Exactly; shirt cuffs. / saw through
IL all in a moment You see, am. or
rather was, great hand while at dinner
or the theater in the evening TO think
over my plans for the next day and to
make memoranda on my cuffs TO consult
before starting down town in the morn
ing. My washerwoman had found this
out and had been quietly 'coppering' my
game by my cuffs for over a year"
swell, by JoveI'' said Sam Ward,
pausing for single instant in the sacred
mastery of salad dressing.
"It's the cold fact" continued keene
"In less than eight months she had
cleaned up over 5000, coo, and was wash
ing my clothes-at least my cuffs-in an
$4,000 house. She had diamonds and
horses until you couldn't rest"
"You didn't make any more cuff
mems. after that ~ laughed several.
"Well not manY-just. few" said
the great operator, holding his burgun
DIV up TO the light al believe kept II
up about a month longer, at the end Of
which time had raked in the washer
w0man's bank account, and even had 9
mortgage on the brown stone house. IL
was q queer coincidence. wasn't it,
But perhaps the information she found
| on the cuffs after that wasn't as exact al
it had been, some how, nor as reliable
And the liking of the street" emptled his
glass with an indescribabie wink tha
made Beach. who was short on Harlem
shiver like a cat that had just swallow
| ed a live mouse-San Francisco Post.