The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-07-28
Jim Keene'S WasherWoman.

|
''The fact is" said Jim Keene, the
great New York rival to Jay Gould, as
he relaxed his usual taciturnity under
the genial Influence of one of sam
Wards dinners the other day; 1.-THE fact
is, that no matter how clever and thor
ough mans system of stock operating
may be, there is always occurring some
little unforeseen and apparently insig-
nificant circumstance that is forever
knocking the best laid plans into a
cooked hat"
LAS how?"
Swell, for instance, about year ago
was doing good deal in Lake Shore,
and counted on making big clean up.
| discovered, however, that there was
some hidden influence in the market
that was always against me. 1t didn't
exactly 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"
g Broker gave you away?" said sew
eral.
''Not at all. | never gave an order
in advance, and, besides, used as now
half a dozen brokers, and also gave
cross and dummy orders in plenty.
One day, while l was standing at the
window of my up town place cogitating
over this state of affairs, an elegant pri-
vate coupe drove past, and stopped Just
around the corner from nv door. It con-
tanned richly dressed lady and ragged
looking girl. The latter got out, rang
my basement bell, and was admitted.
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
coupeP' inquired.
- Why, no, SIR said my man, very
much surprised; her mother, the wash
erwoman, is very poor
"Just then my own carriage drove
round for me, and asst passed the other
| could see the lady eagerly sorting the
sailed clothes In the coupe on her lap.
This excited my curiosity. so I had my
driver follow along behind. Pretty soon
the coupe stopped, and the dirty little
girl got out with the bundle and went
into 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 nv
entire lot of soiled shirt cuffs in her
hand.''
"Shirt euns?" cried the entire com.
pany.
Exactly; shirt cuffs. ! saw through
it all in moment. You see, 1 amor
rather was-a great hand while at din
her, or at theater in the evening, to
think over my plans for the next dav,
and to make memorandum on nv cuffs
to consult before starting down town in
the morning. My washerwoman had
found this out. and had been quietly
'coppering' my game by means of nv
cuffs for over year."
"Well, by Jove!'' said Sam Ward.
pausing for single instant in the sacred
mystery of Said dressing.
'sIts the cold fact, continued
Keene. In less than eight months she
had cleaned up over 5000, 900 and was
washing my clothes-at least the cuffs
lin an $4,000 house. She had dia-
monds and horses until you couldn't |
rest"
'.You didn't make any more cuff
mems. after thatP'' laughed several.
swell. not many-just few," said
the great operator, holding his Bur-
gundy up to the light. Il believe 1 |
kept it up about a month longer, at the
end OF which time had raked in the
washerwoman's bank account, and even
had mortgage on the brown stone |
mousse. 1t was queer coincidence, |
wasn't itP 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 liking of the Street, emptied
his glass with an indescribable wink
that made Beach, who was short on
Harlem, shiver like cat who had lust
swallowed live mouse.-San Fran
cisco Post.