Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-08-14
A LUCKY WIDOW.
How Jim Keenc Was Enabled to Get
Into the Bonanza


OF that great fortune of $1O.000.0OO
which he brought from San Francisco
TO New York ten years ago. Innumer-
able stories are told of his rise in tho
world and of those he helped TO better
fortunes, and | shall try to tell one OF
these rs it was told to me ut Saratoga
two years ago. 'sDo you see that little
woman with the India shawl who is
just going to drive?n inquired an ex-
senator from California of the writer
as we sat together on the great hotel
piazza one afternoon. '.She has had a
wonderful experience. Would YOU like
to hear how Jim Keene helped her to .
fortune?" Relighting his cigar. the
Forty-niner proceeded: Il remember
very we'll in 1856 when Tom Crittenden
came back from New York with pref
ty little wife. He was a daring opera
tor then, and for while all he under
took succeeded. But times changed.
Crittenden got on the wrong side OF
the market and could not get right
One day he came home ruined, and at
ter brief illness died, some said, of
q broken heart. 1t was hard lines for
his wife. She had been gently reared
and was no more fitted to battle with
poverty and the world than is turtle
dove. A few friends who had known
her husband in his better days inter-
ested themselves in her, and their
wives gave her enough in the shape of
plain sewing to keep the wolf hunger
from the door.
''In 1874 Flood, O'Brien, Mackay and
Fair organized the largest scheme of
mining speculation even known on the
Pacific slope. The stock of Bonanza
mines was then very iow-about %,
believe. One afternoon Mackay, who
was the general perintendent OF these
mines Gall part OF the great Com
stock system). came in q hurry to San
Francisco and went at once to Flood
and O. Brien. He said that they had
struck the most wonderful lot of bon
anzas,' OF pockets, full of almost pure
gold that lie in ali his experience 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 pub
lie. This was on Thursday. By Satur-
day evening they had three-fifths OF all
the stock. Only two outsiders rSharon
and Bill Ralston- were allowed to
come in, and the only reason the latter
was told they wanted the bank of Cali
fornia to carry them through. Keene,
shreWd and sharp, felt that something
was in the air, but for the life of him
he could not tell what it was. One af-
ternoon little woman in rusty black
came into the Office and, with q timid
air, asked q clerk if she could see Mr.
keene.
The young man addressed was very
busy just then telling 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
shabby-looking woman. He supposed
it was someone who was begging. and
insolently answered that Mr. Keene
was very busy then and could see no
one. she waited q moment and mod
estly said: VIII you take my name
in to him?' just then q tall, slender
man came out of u back office with
two OF three others, and, hearing the
conversation, said: ! am Mr.. Keene;
did you wish TO see me? Come into
my office, madam She went with him.
He offered her chair with as much
courtesy as if she had been the reign
ing belle of San Francisco and waited
for her to speak. Mr.. Keene,' she
said, L am the widow of Tom Critten-
den, of whom you once knew, and I
have been used to hearing of mining
operations all my married life. l am
COY fC1,
/ was at the house Obtaining one of
the bonanza set-and heard CONVEX
sation which convinced me that great
operation is being engineered by Flood,
O'Brlen, Mackey, and Fair. They say
that they have made q wonderful dis
covery that will put up the Comstock
certificates OF stock 800 Oh 400 per
cent. She then opened a little box,
and handing it to Keene, said: These
diamond ear ornaments were my
mothers present to me the day was
married. Throughout all my distress
and poverty have kept them. They
are worth $500. Will you take them
as security and buy for me on margin
all of this mining stock they are good
forp'
'.Keene saw it all in a second. Here
was the clew he had SO vainly tried to
find. You have rendered me q most
important service, Mrs. Crittenden,
said he. Keep your diamonds. | will
buy you 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 lose, but by working
diligently he had stock enough to make
$1,000, 900 profit if the stock went above
200. Four days after the wonderful
news became public. At first the
brokers thought it was q job, but the
experts they sent down to examine said
that nothing like such deposit had
ever been known in mining history.
The stock started. From % it jumped
to 60 in one day, then to so, 100, 120,
100, 200, 285. The little woman watch
ed the upward rise with feelings that
can only be imagined. She scarcely
slept; she could not work. At 205 she
sent Mr.. Keene note to sell whatever
ba boI fo,. bor. Che