Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-23
WHEN JAY GOULD QUAkED.
Ssis Marrow Escape from Utter Ruin
Three Years Ago.

ago
THE BIGGEST SCHEMES EVER KNOWN IN
WALL sTREEr-JAY GOULD SQUEEZED By
kEENE, WILLING TO LEAVE THE STREET AND
GO TO EUROPE FOR HIS HEALTH.
From the N. Y. Times
1.-The history of Wall street can never be
written-no. my boy. not 1.-THE of it." re-
marked one of the maenates of the stock mar
Ret to Times reporter yesterday. There
IL one chapter particularly In that his
tory which has been kept amazingly quiet I'm
Confident that not more than dozen men have
ever known anything about it. and the major
fty Of that dozen are quite content to let the
world continue its jogging along in the dark.
II is an interesting story, all the more SO from
the fact that Jay Gould figures in the front of
1t, and figures in way that most folks will
wonder at. It's kind o. related to his latest
experience. too. The story, in a nutshell is
that as late as three years ago Jay Gould was
showed into a corner. and a half-doZen strong
men We're debating terms to him-terms which
contemplated nothing less than his almost
utter ruin And Gould had lost his backbone
He was ready to slide under, throw I'D every
thing. retire from the street, and commence
again, | suppose, to peddle tinware to the
backwGodSBen of Delaware county,"
In possession of this rather surprising bit of
history, representative of the Times called for
further light upon Mr. Russell Sage who figures
In the story and knows ali about it, Mr. Sage
was Very busy Mr. SAGE was likewise very shy
The reporter, however, persisted in asking
questions.
Il don't want to he interviewed on the sub-
Ject," INSISTED Mr. Sage; Il can't afford to be
mixed up in it."
But the story is true, every word of it.
isn't it -
Yes. yes: your story is straight but YOU had
better follow my advice and not print it, Now
won't say another word. and / don't want to
be quoted
Mir Sage turned to his puts and calls. The re-
porter was quite satisfied.
jim keene was the fellow who had Gould
down." explained the Times informaut-an
lnsIder known everywhere i'm Wall street
"and heene was happy. keene. you know
came on here from the Pacific slope. proposnp
TO clean out Wall street the moment he arrived
But, somehow. Keene got to staggering more
than the street did. He met Gould i'm several
deals. and each man tried to convince the other
that he had no other gods before him: but. nv
boy. they gouged one another right along all the
same Finally came the big Western Union deal
Gould was in with Belden. Jim Fisks old
chuIn, who went headong overheard
on Black Friday. Keene was work
ing with Shirley and Selover. and the
trio went to other heavy operators and whis-
pered that Gould was badly short of Western
Union; then Sam Mills got Instructions to run
up a pool Over 1OO. 600 shares of stock were
bought, out of an entire capital stock of
S36OO0O0O, and fellows on the inside were
already beginning to count up profits when
keene suddenly deserted them struck hands
with Gould. and the two walked off with spoils
to the amount of 800. 900. But nv bow before
that $4,000 was divided Mr. Keene was yery.
very wroth-ail but a few pennies of that same
500 600 had gone to the bottom of Jaw Gould's
private game OF their own. Mr.. Keene bought
new pistol. and Mr.. Keene's friend Seloyer
chucked Gould down an Exchange-place area
way.
.'Gould went to dealing heavily in Atlantic
and Pacific Telegraph. and had borrowed an i'm
mense block for speculation. Old Commodore
Harrison joined with keene to form pool and
Gould was admitted TO it. The market doomed
and prices shot up from Is to So Gould went
west and in the meantime Keene and the Com
modore went in for themselves and bought right
and LETT But somehow the milk came out freezer
than they had expected More stock was piled
on them than they could stagger under. They
suddenly discovered that Gould had been sell
Ing all the time they were buying. His trim
west was clever scheme-mighty clever: but
the break came sooner than Gould anticipated
harrison stampeded as soon as he learned
the true condition of things and his holding
went overheard for cash. When GOuId got
back surprise was awaiting him. The stock
he had expected to pick up at his own figures
TO return for that which he originally borrowed
was not on the market 1t was safely slowed
away In Russell SageS safe who had taken if i'm
at from IL TO 20. and who was quite willing TO
tel Goud all about it when that individual
dropped down town. Gould's jig was up His
pretty little game had bOomeranged, and Sage
was holding him on the hip to the time of
$200.G00 or so clear
Garrison worried nightly over his il-luck
All. how sorry the Commodore was that he
hadn held on TO his stock little longer instead
ef letting Russell Sage get his grip on it, But
the old mans courage had oozed out lust at the
wrong minute and the profits which could have
been his went into the Sage till. 1t wasn't lone
before he was taken to Saratoga stricken by
paralysis keene was in ecstacies over his own
GOOD fortune. Tor he didn't unload single share
though scared about as badly as Garrison Bnt
ne recognized the fact that his escape had been
u wonderfully narrow one. and that Gould had
come mighty near beating him. His longing for
revenge lost nothing of it's vigOr II was not
long ere he seemed about to accomplish that re-
'en@e Gould was down. Keene was on top
and Gould had lost his pluck. lost it entirely.
In the spring of 1878 Gould went west to
LOOK after the interests of his pet Union Pacific
railroad Just at that time he wasn't touching
any other stock in the market. Union Pacific
was AL he could be induced to think about The
sermons he heard at church-he does 90 to church
sometimes. you know-all meant Union Pacific;
and the funny stories told him were good or bad
as he could twist them into Union Pacific warns
Alter talking Union Pacific ali day he carried it
to bed with him. and, my boy, he snored Union
Paciic He was carrying some S22. 600 GOO of
stock. nearly every share Of it on borrowed
money His whole fortune at that time wasn't
more than 100000 or S5,OOO.GOO The risks
were terrible. and nobody appreciated those risks
more than did keene. his sworn enemy who
mad Closely canvassed the situation and was
ready 10 spring "A mine as soon as Gould Yhjrled
out-oi town. keene's scheme was a big one
there never was bigger in the history of the
street, and Jay Gould hadn't gone many miles
on MS journey before keenes operations began
pleasant little party was held at the Office of
work. Strong Co, where Mr.. Keene was met
by d. X. Morgan, W. l.. Scott, Charlie Osborn.
FRANK work and a-half dozen other operators
OF the anti-Gould stripe. 1t was a pleasant little
banquet, and everybody was of one mind
heene showed his cronies just how Gould could
De laid out The known fact that Gould
was overwhelmingly in debt and was. to
all appearances, without any means of uro-
lection should his creditors close on him
was taken a. basis for the plan of attack 1t was
taken for granted that the creditors would enter
the scheme ANY who wanted TO hold out We're
10 De c"erced A bold dash was to be made on
the market and prices sent down pell-mell, thus
liistItuting scare. keenp and his friends yaro