The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-03-14
WALL STREET GHOSTS.
Jim Keene Drops Out of Sight-Hov
Spectators Retrieve Their Fortunes-A
Wiser Plan.

The enforced sale of James r. Keene's
last horse, and his disposal of his final
remaining share in a large apartment
house, mark the failure of his latest at,
tempts to recoup. This has reminded
busy Wall Street that Ke3ne still existed,
but needed something of the sort to re-
call him to memory, for he has dropped
entirely out of the financial world, and
is no more a factor in the making of
prices than is any brokers' Office boy.
Yet keene had brilliant career while
it lasted. He came on here with So, 000,-
900 or Whereabouts in mis- pockets and
struck the boom of 1880. and at one
time was worth not far from S15, 000.-
600. The ritf-ratf and the hangers-on
and the adventures of the street
fastened on to him. fattered him, told
him his mission in life and his duty to-
ward mankind was to break Jay Gould,
and offered their advice and influence.
keene made money fast as long as
prices advanced. He bought with great
freedom and courage, and his name
was In every one 5 mouth. But when
the tide turned Keene was loaded. He
did not have the sagacity and CELEBRITY
of Gould, who has IA knack of turning
even misfortunes to good account, but
. kept on getting in deeper and deeper
until the inevitable raped at his door,
anG he found he had lost ALL Keene's
error seems to have been the error COM
wanted to trade all the time. The cool
headed operator waits until the market
suits him. Three or four times every
year all hands in the street agree that
stocks are very low. There has been
furry and prices have gone down ten
or twenty per cent; they are sure to re-
act within comparatively short time.
Then it is that the prudent man comes
to the front with his cash. But the man
who goes down into the street every day
and buys or sells for a short turn feels
as though he must do something every
day, and that kind of trading never fails
to wreck the longest purse. Keene was
always in the market, and he was always
buying. The sharp set of fell
lows who manipulated Denver and Rio
Grande up to 10 or Whereabouts sold a
great lot of stock to Keene, and he was
compelled to take more to hold the
price against their raids when they had
sold 1t short. He never was cunning
enough to conceal his operations, and
the sharks of the street marked him
from the first. He was indiscreet
enough to quarrel with JAY Gould and
to threaten him. and Gould thereafter
did not count him as a friend 1t is
very much better for Young Wall
Street man to have Gould's friendship
than his enmity. And so Keene
toundcred until his money was gone.
He bids fair to become what the bows
call ghost of Wall Street.
That thorou@hfare is full of Ghosts
of men who have been rich and who
now are pennileSs. They march down
to the street every morning regularly as
do the mllIiOnaireS, and wander from
one broker ) Office to another, bending
over the tape and talking all day long
about the market and predicting its
course. Once in while they put up a
tiye-dOllar bill in a bucket-shop and
strut around like fighting cocks if they
increase it to ten dollars but that is the
end. for they Immediately stake the ten
dollars and lose it. There are ex-railroad
Presidents and eX-bank Presidents and
eX-eYerybodys. 1t is sad to see them
and sadder to hear them talk; but it is
The old story of fortunes thrown away
IN gambling-for Wall Street operating
rs usually conducted on margin is
gambling simon pure, and YOU can not
make anything else of it. Nineteen out
OF twenty of the men who engage in it
leave money. They always have some
good explanation of why they fail, but
The fact remains that they do fail, And
that should be convincing and should
serve as a warning. Three-quartcrs OF
the Wall Street operators of to-day are
striving not to increase their fortunes,
but to get back what they have lost
There is a fascination about winning a
lew hundred dollars that overbalances
the regret of losing few thousand. A
man will lose four times running and
yet 90 in the fifth time with an assurance
within him that he can win back
all he has lost. If he chances to
win $1,000 after he has lost 81 900 he
instantly believes that he can make his
fortune. He never loses that belief
while he has a hundred dollars remain
ing, and when the hundred is broken
he repairs to a bucket shop-having
become a ghost of Wall Strcet-frm in
the belief that on a cash capital of SIC
or $50 he viii recuperate enough to
take him back into a regular brokers'
Office, where he will pile up the money
until he is rich again. And so he gam
bles every cent on which he can put
hands.
The Wall Street game as played at
present is losing game, and the sooner
man who is behind the game sewers
all connection with it. the better Off he
will find himself in the immediate here
after. Jay Gould did not make his
money trading in the fluctuations of
stocks. He did it by buying entire rail
roads, reorganizing them, watering
their stock, consolidating them, and
putting them on the public at an enor-
nous advance from first cost or cost to
himself. His gigantic schemes have
been originated by him. The theory
has been to get possession of bankrupt
roads and consolidate them and give
them the appearance of prosperity. The
Wabash system is made up of some
twenty different roads, not more than
three of which were paying running ex-
penses when Gould bought them. Yet
he threw them together and ran the
price of preferred stock up to 80, and
a 1.