Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1881-06-30
Jim keene's WasherWOman
San Francisco Post.

San Francisco Post.
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; "the
fact is, that no matter how clever and
thorough mans system of stock OPP
Grating may be, there is.always occur.
ring some little unforeseen and appar-
emily Insignificant circumstance that is
forever knocking the best laid plans
into a cooked hat"
Gas how"
"Well for instance, about year ago
I was doing good deal in Lake Shore,
and counted on making big cleanup.
l discover I'd, 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"
Broker gave you away" said sew
eral.
"Not at ALL l never gave an order
in advance, md, besides, | used as now
half deem brokers, and also gave
cross and dummy orders in plenty.
One day, while was standing at the
window of my uptown place, cogitat-
ing 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
ragged-looking girl. The latter got
out, rang my basement bell, and was
admitted. | sent for my man servant,
and inquired who the girl might be.
"She comes for the wash, SIR" he
said.
"Does she usaully come in coupe?"
l inquired.
"Why, no, sir" said my man, very
much surprised; cher mother, the
washerwoman, is very poor"
Gust then my own carriage drove
around for me, and as it passed the
other l could see the lady eagerly sort
ing the soiled clothes in the coupe, on
her lap. This excited my curiosity,
so l had my driver follow Pretty soon
the coupe stopped, and the dirty little
girl got out with her bundle and went
into brown-stone front on Twenty
ninth street. The coupe then kept on
down to Wall street, and stopped in
front of a brokers' Office, where the
lady alighted with my entire lot of soil
shirt cuffs in her hand"
"Shirt cuffs"cried the entire com
panv.
Exactly; shirt cuffs. saw through
it all in a moment. You see / amor
rather was great hand while at din
ner, or at the theatre, to think over
my plans for the next day, and to
make memoranda on my cuffs, to con-
suit before starting down town in the
morning. My washerwoman had
found this out, and had been quietly
'coppering' my game by means of my
cuffs, for over year"
"Well, by Jove !" said Sam Ward,
pausing for single instant in the sa-
cred mystery of salad dressing.
cts the cold fact" continued Keene.
SIN less than eight months she had
cleaned up over $500, 900 and was wash
ing my clothes-at least the cufis-in
an $50, 900 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 Bur
gundy up to the light. 81 believe |
kept it up about month longer, at
the end of which time had raked in
the washerwoman's bank account, and
even had mortgage on the brown
stone house. 1t was a queer coinci-
dence, wasn't it? But perhaps the in
formation 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.
Queen Victoria is quite as obseryant
of trifles as ever George III was, and
overlooks nothing, and if any members
of tn e royal family reside more than a
specified time at Buckingham Palace
they are obliged to edo for" themselves
at the end of the specified term. a
son-in-law of her Majesty, who was I'm
tied to three days at time, evaded the
regulation by going every third night
and returning to begin fresh stay the
next morning.
Uncle Nose asked Gus De somite why
....l