The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-09-19
TEE WIDOWS
where Tom c~rittenden's Widow Got Her
Profits.

The Pittsburg Commercial Gazette
tells the following: Innumerable
stories are told of Jim Keene's rise in
the world and of those he helped to
better fortunes, and / shall try to tell
one of these as ii was toldto me at Sar-
atoga two years ago. "Do you see that
little woman with the India shawl who
is Just going to driver" inquired an ex-
senator from California OF the writ.
er, as we sat together on the great
hotel piazza n afternoon. "She
has bad a wonderful experience.
Would You like to hear how Jim
Keene helped her TO a fortune?"
Relighting his cigar the torty-niner
proceeded; IT remember very well in
1856. when Tom Crittenden came back
from New York with a pretty little wife.
He was q daring operator then, and, for
q while, all he undertook succeeded.
But times changed. Crittenden got OF
the wrong side of the market and could
not get right. One day he came home
ruined, and, after . brief illness, died,
some said, of a broken heart. 1t was
hard lines for his wife. She had been
gently reared, and was M nor fitted
to battle with poverty and the world
than is a turtle dove. A few friends
who had known her husband in his bet.
ter DAYS, interested themselves in her
and their wives gave her enough work
in the shape of plain sewing to keep the
wolf hunger from the door.
an I847 Flood, O'Brien, Mackey and
Fair organized the largest scheme of
mining speculation aver known on
the Pacific slope. The stock of
bonanza mines was then very low
about tw~enty-eight, I believe.
One afternoon Mackey, who was the
ganeral superintendent of the mines Gall
a part of the Comstock SYSTEM, came
in a hurry to San Francisco, and went
st once to Flood and O'Brien. He said
that they had struck the most wonder
full lot of 'bonanzas' or pockets, full of
almost pure gold that he in all his ex-
p~erience had ever seen He proposed to
the two gentlemen named and Fair that
they should quietly get hold Of all this
stock that could be had before the news
of this wonderful strike was made
public. This was on Thursday. By
Saturday evening they had three-fifths
of all the stock. Only two outsiders
Sharon and Bill Ralston-were allowed
to come in, and the only reason the lat
ter was told, they wanted the hsuk of
California to carry them thorough.
Keene, shrewd and sharp, felt that
something was in the air, but for the
life of him he could not tell what 1t was.
One afternoon a little woman, In rusty
black came into the Office and, with
timid air, asked a clerk if she could see
Mr. Keene.
@The young man addressed was very
busy just then telling a story to another
clerk OF how he and several others had
painted the town red the night before.
He looked over her head and every
where, and finally saw it was only o
shabby-looking woman. He supposed
it was some one who was begging, and
imsolently answered that MIR. Keene vas
very busy then and could see no one
She waited a moment and modestly
said: viii you take my name In to
himY Just then a tall, slender man
came out of a back Office with two or
three others, and hearing the
ton, said: I am MI. Keene; did you
wish to see me? Come into my Office,
madam She went with him. He
offered her a chair with as much
courtesy as If she had been the reigning
belle of San Francisco, and waited for
her to speak. Mr.. Kesne she said. i am
the widaw es TTom Grl6tenden of whom
you N g knew, and I have been used to
hearing Of mining operations all my
married life. Yesterday / was at the
house ~of-naming one Of the bonanza
Set and | heard . conversation that
convinced me that a great operation is
being engineered by Flood, O'Brien,
Mackey and Fair. They say that they
have made a wonderful discovery that
Will put up the Comstock certificates
OF stock 800 or 400 per cent. She then
opened a little box and handing it to
keene said: These diamond ear orna-
ments were my mothers present to me
the day 1 was married. Throughout
all my distress and poverty I have kept
them. They are worth $500. Will you
take them as security and buy for me
on margin all this mining stock they
are good for?
"Keene saw it all in . second. Here
was the clew he had so vainIy
tried to find. 'You have rendered me
most important service, Mrs.
Srittenden,' said be, Keep your
diamonds. I will buy you q line Of
SHARES in the mining stock You mention,
and carry it for you. Whenever you
want your profits come to me- and he
bowed her out. There was no time to