The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-07-07
KEENl,s CUFFS.
How He Gave Himself Clean Away to a
Washer Woman.

"The fact u.s." said Jim Keene, the
great New York rival to Jay Gould, as
be relaxed his usual taciturnity under
the genial influence of one of Sam
Wards dinners the other day, cite fact
is, that no matter how clever aud thor.
ough mans system Of stock operating
may be, there is always occurring some
little unforeseen and apparently insig'
nifcant circumstance that is forever
knocking the best laid plans into a
cooked hat"
"As how?''
"Well, for instance, about year ago
I was doing good deal in Lake Shore.
and counted on making big cleanup.
I discovered, however, that there was
some hidden influence in the market that
was always against me. 1t didn't exact
| ly defeat my plans, but it lessened the
profits. I 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 awayp said sew
eral.
"Noe at all. never gave an order in
advance. and besides / used as now half
dozen brokers, and also gave cross
and dunn ~ orders in plenty. One day
while was standing at the window of
my uptown place, cogitating over this
state Of affairs, an elegant private coupe
drove past, and stopped just around the
corner from my Office. 1t contained q
richly dressed lady and ragged looking
girl. The latter got out, rang my base
ment 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 coupe ?"
inquired.
"Why, no, sir, said my man, very much
surprised; 'her mother, the washerwo-
man is very poor
"Just then my own carriage drove
round for me, and just as it passed the
other I could see the lady eagerly sort
ing the soiled clothes in the coupe in her
lap. This excited my curiosity, so l
had my driver 10 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
kept 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 cuAs?" cried the entire com.
papy.
it in moment. You see, amor
rather was-a great hand while at din
ner, or at the theatre in the evening, to
think over my plans for the next day, and
to make memorandums on my cuffs to
consult before starting down town in the
morning. My washerwoman had found
this out, and had been quietly copper.
ing my game by means Of my cuffs for
over year."
"Well, by Joyew said Sam Ward,
pausing for a single instant in the sacred
mystery Of salad dressing.
"It's the cold fact" continued Keene.
'In less than eight months she cleaned up
over $500, 900, and was washing my clothes
at least the cuffs-in an $4,000 house.
She had diamonds ana 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 Burgundy up
to the light. 81 believe kept it up
about month longer, at the end of
which time I had raked in the washer.
woman's bank account, and even had
mortgage on the brown stone house. 1t
was queer coincidence, wasn': 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 "King of the Street" emptied
his glass with an indescribable wink that
made Beach, who was short on Harlem,
shiver like a cat who had just swallowed
live mouse.-tSan Francisco Post.