The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-08-11
ON HIS FEET AGAIN
Jim Keene Has Become a Power
i'm Wall Street.
HOW HE WON BACK HIS FORTUNE
With Few Thousands He Made small
Ventures, Being Cautious and Keeping
In the Baekground-Ihe Sugar Deal

lSpecialto THE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Dispatch. I
NEW YORK, Aug. 10.--No more interest
ing man walks on Wall street thsn James
*. Keene. Even in that section. where big
men are seen by tue hundreds every week,
he is among the few whom bankers,
brokers, and messenger boys alike turn TO
look at. If they are with strangers they
point him out and whisper, That's jim
Keene." Perhaps no man could to-day
make q fortune On the street and create
that he is even now far on the road toward
retrieving his fortune of s13,0OO,0 goo. which
Gould and Addison Cammack so coyly beat
him out eff ten years ago.
keene's office Is at the corner OF Broad
street and Exchange place, scarcely 800
feet from the Broad street entrance TO the
stock exchange. 1t Is really the Office Of
SAN" Boocock, one OF the most quiet but
most popular members OF the stock ex-
change. The offices are comfortably fur
nlshed but very unpretentious. During
business hours Keene wanders like an un-
easy spirit from one room TO another of the
the ticker sharply. Even while
he is talking TO brokers. bust
ness acquaintance, or chance
visitors, the white tape with caOalistic
figures is always slipping through his nerv-
Gus fingers.
Mr. Keene was very quiet for several
years after his failure in the great me
tropolis. He was seldom seen on the
street, and was beginning to be forgotten.
1t does not take long for man TO be for
gotten down there. For a long time he had
dark, dingey little Office up in the third
story of Broad street building. Out of
his handsome fortune he gathered rev
odd thousand dollars, the tiotsam and jet
sam out of his millions. He began to give
modest orders in one stock and another as
they became prominent and active. His
shrewdness and good judgment stood him
in good stead. He did not plunge but the
little money he had began to increase.
Three or four years ago his name began TO
be heard again. A quick move in a single
stock would attract attention. IL was
whispered that Jim Keene had engineered
il and had made nice little stake out of il.
Men began 10 hunt him up, ana they were
men who needed him in their
business. They had the money
and ne had the brains. keene
tried hard to remain in the background. No
one knew who his brokers were, for they
were instructed not to know him in their
transactions. He slid into the market
-
again and waited for his next opportunity
He did not confine himself to one stock, but
fitted from one TO another. Sometimes he
was bear on q stock. He discovered a
weak spot and would work il like an augur
for turn. Sometimes he was bull and
the stock he tackled would assume an IN
wonted buoyancy. Mr.. Keene, however,
would hardly be suspected as interested
until the deal had become achapter in Wall
street history. A while ago there was a
suspicious weakness In Baltimore * OHIO
shares. Then there came story OF a new
issue Of stock proposed by the company.
Whether the new stock was issued or not
did not matter. keene had heard oil tue
proposition and was aware OF the senti-
mentality that Baltimorisns had for their
pet railroad. He sold them goedly block
of shares, and when the story Of the new
issue became public sharp drop of six to
ten points resulted. keene covered and re-
tired.
Two years ago the Sugar trust people,
who had been trying 10 make an active
market for their shares, struck hands with
the old time manipulation. He commenced
operations when the stock was selling be-
tween 80 and 30. 1t was not listed and was
an industrial stock, and Wall street was
not accustomed to industrials and besides
was always little charry about unlisted
shares. But the way the market was
worked on sugar showed there was a master
hand at the helm. 1t began to advance
fluctuations mounted TO 1.29. At this point
something gave way. There was flood of
stock on the market and the master hand
seemed to have been withdrawn. No one
knows except himself what keene made on
this deal, which was and will always be
remembered as one OF the most sensational
even Wall street has ever known. 1t was
L. III hot Il har caA ht-A
previous to that time, but II was currently
reported that after the Sugar trust deal,
which brought millions to the insiders IN
the trust and probably an independent
fortune to himself, that he has paid of all
claims against MIN and was free from en-
barrassment on the score of creditors.
Keene could no longer remain hidden
after the sugar deal, and when National
Cordage, another industrial stock, began to
show tine usual signs of life at 40, il was
almost a foregone conclusion that keene
was in it. The street had confidence in
his ability and tried TO follow him, and not
d few made handsome profits by their
faith, for the stock went up TO ITO. With
his debts out of the way, all he made out
of Cordage accumulated as an additional
capital Since the panic OF last fall, when
Barring Bros. failed and the market had
such a crash, Keene has devoted himself to
the grangers and the Could stocks in a
large measure. He has been u bull and a
bear by turns, for he was quick to see the
trend Of affairs and as quick to act. There
has been too much uncertainty in the mar
ket for any man TO be always
right, but those who know ''Jim''
best say that he has been wrong
less than most men, and that he
has added to his capital until IL mas grown
to be q good round sum with which he can
afford 10 play for larger stakes than he has
dared 10 think of since he attempted to cor
ner the wheat crop OF the United States.
Keene is believed to have been associ-
ated in some Of his deals with WASH
Connor, long known as one OF the shrewd-
est men on the street, and his name mas
even been coupled in some bear movements
of late against Burlington, St Paul and
Rock Island with his old time enemy, AID
Cammack, who is never q bull except for
effect But be his associates who they
may, one thing is certain that "Jim''
Keene Is on his feet again with host of
friends and followers.
Woman Kills a Negro
An