The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-09-12
TIE WIDOWS
Where Tom crittsndsn's widow Got xsr
Profits.

go - Gx0Qt0s .laHS Es
The Pittshurg Commercial Gazette
tells the following: Innumerable
stories are told Of Jim Keene's rise in
Ithesworld and Of those he helped to
better fortunes, and / shall try to tell
one OF these as it was toldto me at Sar-
atoga two years ago. "Do you SEQ that
little women with the India shawl who
Is Just going to drive?" inquired an OK
senator from California OF tho writ
or, as We sat together on the great
hotel piazza one afternoon. aShe
has had . wonderful experience.
Would you like to hear how jim
Keene helped her to . fortune ?'
Relighting his cigar the forty miner
proceeded; Il remember very we'll in
1856, when Tom Crittenden came back
from New York with q pretty little wife.
He was a daring operator then, and. for
9 while, all he undertook 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, after . brief illness, died.
some said. of a broken heart. It was
hard lines for his wife. She had been
gently reared, and was no more fitted
| to battle with poverty aud 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 shapeof plain sewing to keep the
wolf burger from the door.
TN I847 Flood, O'Brien, Mackey and
Fair organized the largest scheme of
mining speculation ever known on
the Pacific slopa. The stock OF
bonanza mines was then very low
about twenty-eight, I believe.
One afternoon Mackey, who was the
ganeral superintendent of the mines (all
. part of the Comstock SYSTEM, came
In a hurry to San Francisco, and went
at once to Flood and OBrien. He said
that they had struck the most wonder
U lot OF ~'bonanzas' or pockets, full of
almost pure gold that he in all his ex-
perience had ever seen. He proposed to
the two gentlemen named and Fair that
they should quietly get nold Of all this
stock that could be had before thenews
Of this wonderful strike was made
public. This was on Thursday. BY
Saturday evening they had three-ffths
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 bank 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 . little woman, in rusty
black came into the Office and, with
. timid air, asked q clerk If she could see
Mr. Keene.
"The young nan addressed was very
busy just then telling q story to another
clerk of how he and several others had
painted the town red the night before.
He looked owe her head and eyery-
where, and finally saw it was only a
shabby-looking woman. He supposed
it was some one who was begging, and
imsolently answered that Mr.. Keene was
very busy then and could see no one.
She waited a moment and modestly
said: VIII you take my name in to
him? just then a tall, slender man
came out Of a back Office with two or
three others, and hearing the converse
tion, said: I am Mr.. 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.. Keene,' she said, lam
the widow Of Tom Crittenden of whom
you once knew, aud I have been used to
hearing Of mining operations all my
married life. Yesterday I was at the
house of-naming INT of the bonanza
set-eand / heard a conversation tnat
convinced me that a great operation is
being engineered by Flood, O'Brien,
Mackey and Fair. They say that they
have made o wonderful discovery that
will put up the Comstock certificates
of stock 300 or 400 per cent. She then
opened q little box and handing it to
Keene said: These diamond ear orna-
ments were my mothers present to me
the day I 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 forY
"Keene saw it all in q 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. I will buy you a 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 81, 900, 900 profit
if this stock went above 200. -Four days
after the wonderful news became pub
lie. AT first the brokers thought it was
q job, but the experts they sent down
to examine said that nothing like such
q deposit had ever been known in
mining history. The stock started.
From % it jumped to go in one day,
then to 80, 100, 100, 16O, 200, 2s5.
The little woman watched the upward
rise with feelings that can only be i'm
agined. She scarcely slept; she could
not work. At 285 she sent Mr.. Keene
9 note to sell whatever he had
bought for her. She HAD no idea hcw
much it was, but thought it might be
perhaps 200 shares-maybe not more
than 100. This would give her at least
$50, 600 after all commissions were paid.
That afternoon she went down to his
office. The smart young clerk remem
bered her, and was more oiyil this time.
He said MI. Keene was out lust
then, but was ~momentarily expected.
Would she take a seat and wait for
him. She sat down in q sort of daze,
hardly knowing what she did. How
long she waited she has no idea to this
day. Mr.. Keene's voice awakened her
faculties, and he was standing be-