Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-10-17
| CELEBRATED SPECULATOR.
pim Keene's Unsuccessfu1 Career
In NeW York - HIS Uptown

Jim Keene,s Unsuccessful Career
In NeW York - His Uptown
Fiat.
Jim Keene, the celebrated speculator,
is living this summer in q rented cottage
Of q very plain character at Far Rocka-
way, to which place he goes every night.
giving more time to his family in these
days OF privation than when he was at
the top Of the social and speculative
world. Persons who know him say that
he sometimes has to borrow his fare over
the ferry, not that he is so desperately
hard up, but that he has pinched his ex-
penses at every point in order to get
SQUARE with the world and have another
start. He is of rather cold bearing,
and is accused Of having too much con.
fidence in himself, so that from time to
time he has lost the support of powerful
men who would have, with little solici-
tation on his part, helped him through.
Mr.. Keene's condition when he came
10 New York city was very substantial.
He had at least "a, 600, 900, and was pre-
sumed to have in California further back
ing. lie arrived in the city when there
was no leader to Wall street, and the
brokers came around him with hungry
ewes to get his orders. One of those
brokers, who has made $4,000, 600 by his
commissions, has refused to carry 200
shares for him. He was one of the chief
inventors OF the grain speculation coin
eident with the stock market. He was
sharply reproved for having put specula
tion into the necessaries of life, and in
the end he lost s., 000, 900 in wheat, fol.
lowing the advice of Rufus Hatch. 1t is
said he met Hatch at the tape measure,
who was reading the quotations with his
eyes full Of tears. and he blubbered: !:
''Keene, if you don't help me l shall
break " Keene went to his assistance.
and Hatch showed him how q great deal
of money might be made. but it ended
in Keene being great loser. BE also
made q heavy loss in the Hannibal and
al Joseph corner, where John R. Duff,
of Boston, had attempted to scoop the
whole street.
A friend of Duff incautiously said to
another person at restaurant table:
"The man you see yonder is Jim Keene,
and we are going to break him." This
person bethought it well to 20 and tell
Keenc, whom he had not previously
known. Keene found that he was in
the tolls. SO he got to work quietly and
began to buy this stock, and for some Of
it he paid as high as 325, and the same
stock he ultimately sold at 20. He made
the most of his money in Northern Paci.
fs preferred. He believed himself in
1877, just after the Pittsburg riots, when
he became bull. worth $40. 600. 600.
When he sold his race horse, Foxhall,
he was already hard pressed, and unable
TO leave the city lest his absence might
be interpreted as fright or desertion. He
had no person to send but woman, who
had taken q sympathetic view of his case
and was o good negotiant. She sold
Foxhall to Lord Rosebery for $25, 900,
which was $4,000 more than Keenc ex
pected. Keene's fat uptown is said to
bring him the comfortable sum of $lS0C
month. 1t is no great amount of mon.
ey to man still in the street, satisfied
that there is no future for him unless he
reestablishes himself there.-["Gath" in
Philadelphia Times.