Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-05-13
Jim Keene's Failure.

''Jim Keene has failed.' Such was the
announcement that sped along the telegraph
wires yesterday morning: These few words
presented picture of a restless, nervous
man whose wealth ran into the millions,
surrounded by all the paraphernalia OF
luxury and elegance that such vast riches
could give, the world itself hardly large
encagh for the reaching, grasping, sensa-
tional career of the great specuIator, and a
sudden plunge downward, the view changes
and poor broken old man with help
less family clinging about him stands out
in the foreground. A careful study of this
picture brings with it lessons of value.
The time was when Jim Keene was the
proprietor of common gambling den in the
city of San Francisco. The keen witted,
handsome young Irishman was brought in
contact with a Virginia girl who had gone
from her home under the shadow of the
Allegheny mountains to teach d school in
the family of a wealthy gentleman on the
Pacific Coast. She loved the dashing ways
of the Irish gambler, and notwithstanding
his position beyond the pale of society and
the earnest entreaties of friends, she linked
her destinies with his. That was the begin
ming Of his reformation and subsequent sue
cess. Her influence raised him from the
common gambler to the position of banker
and peer with Gould and Astor and Wander
bilt. When he had accumulated fifty thou
sand dollars, at the earnest solicitation of
his wife, he laid aside dice and cards for
ever. Then commenced his career of spec
ulation-still gambling, but of that species
that the world for some unknown reason has
clothed with respectability. Ventures in
mining stocks realized him in the course of
time the sum of five millions of dollars
With that amount in cash he went to New
York, and with his characteristic dash en-
tered the field against the bulls of Wall
street. His career in that city since 1872 is
fresh in the minds of our readers
Three years ago this summer Jim Keene
took his family down to the Warm Springs
in Virginia to spend the summer. He found
the people of his wife's family in INDECENT
circumstances. The war had bereft them
of even a comfortable living. With the
generosity of a true Irishman he went over
into the Valley of Virginia and bought the
finest farm in Augusta county, with elegant
buildings on it, and had it conveyed in fee
simple to the brothers and sisters of his
faithful wife. This home may yet prove an
asylum for the broken man whose generous
nature prompted him to provide for his
friends.
Keene had a fondness for horses and kept
a fine stud at Sheepshead Bay. His cele-
brated race horse Foxhall was named in
honor Of his wife's family. He was also
lover of fine pictures, and was the owner of
Rosa Bonheur's most famous painting.
But horses, pictures, lands, home, and all
are gone-except the faithful wife, who
doubtless stands by his side to-day with
more beautiful devotion than ever.
The picture changes again, and we see the
once restless, over-worked millionaire, whose
energies were only bounded by the limits of
the globe he inhabitated, quietly resting in
a little cottage home in the mountains of
Virginia while she who has been his star in
all the storms of his phenomenal career ten
derly clears the shadows from his pathway,
and smooths the wrinkles from his brow
While the world is startled and the financial
centres are shaken, and loud lamentations
go up over the fall of Wall streets reckless
broker, we venture the assertion that Jim
Keene is happier to-day than ever in his life
before. WheeliBg Register.