The St. Johns herald., 1894-04-05
PROFIT IN WRITING.
There Is. Much for Famous Men
 Who Care to Wield the Pen.
Leading Politicians, Financiers and Lit terateurs Who Have Been Offered and Paid EIg Prices for
 Their Work.

reason Of their writings. Mir. James R. Kecne, who is we'll known as one of the most successful and picturesque of those men who deal in Wall street in New York city. has been many times asked to write over his own signature upon any topic which he chose and to name his own price, which would chcerfully be paid. As Mir. Keene sometimes has found his fortune ap- preciate as much as $100,000 in a single day it is easy to sec that if he charged for such service in proportion to his earning capacity he would receive an almost fabulous sum for an article from 2,000 to 5000 words in length.
 The only occasion since those early days of his poverty, when he made his living as a newspaper writer, that MT. Keene overcame his disinclination to write was in the summer of 1877, just after he had held at bay an army of Wall street spectators, having sus- tained the market single handed for an entire day, backed by gold which his California friends sent to him, and thereby unquestionably yprevented such a panic as this country has not seen, excepting possibly in 1857 and 1873.
 The strain upon his nervous system of thus maintaining the market against the combined assault of frightened in- vestors and spectators was so great that few days after Mir. Keene was stricken with an illness which threat cned to develop into paralysis of the brain. He was removed to Long Branch as soon as it was possible to lift him from his bed, and there, after some difficulty and through the offices of the late Sam Ward, GIr. Keene con- sentcd to dictate an interview for pub lication.
 At that time Mir Ward was enter taining his nephew, F. Marion Craw- ford, and had been so highly pleased with story which MT. Crawford told him of an experience in India that he advised the young man to write it out and that he would see that it found publisher, and thus it was that the story which made Marion Crawford famous, ''Mr. Isaacs," came to be writ ten and printed and Crawfords career determined.
 MT. Keene was greatly interested in Mr. Wards narration to him of this tale, which had not been printed, and he told MT. Ward some of the early California experiences of his which seemed quite as marvellous as did the story Of MT. Isaacs, and it was then that MT. Ward said to him: ''Mr. Keene, if you were not a great specu- lator you might become a great novel ist''
 MT. Keene finally received the repre- sentative of one of the New York news papers. He lay upon his bed, which was in a quiet room of one of the Long Branch hotels. The room was very simply furnished, and it seemed impOs- sible to believe that the man who lay there content apparently with the al- most humble surroundings of this ten by twelve room was able, if he chose, to buy the hotel and good deal of the adjacent property without materially affecting his pocketbook
 He began slowly to dictate. It seemed as though he weighed every word. He frequently changed word in order to put in it's place another which would more clearly express his meaning. When a sentence or a para graph had been written down Mir. Keene would ask to have it read over, and when this was done he repeated it several times, his patience and care be- ing quite as great as characterized Ruskin or Russell Lowell when they were engaged in prose composition.
 Thus for five hours this great fnan- cier lay there composing and dictating this article The mental strain was exhaustive both upon Mir. Ward, who was present, and upon the newspaper reporter. Once during the interview a telegram was brought to Mir. Keene from the hotel office. He opened it, read it and tossed it upon the table with no more concern than though it had announced most trivial matter to him.
 This article appeared the following day in print. It was the sensational publication of the month. It was re- published either in whole or part in great number of newspapers. It com manded attention not only from fnan- ciers, to whom every word uttered by MT. Keene then and since upon finan- cial matters was received with absorb ing interest, but it also made a deep impression upon literary men on ac- count of the singular purity of it's English and the lucidity and felicity of it's style.
 The editor of the paper in which the article appeared would gladly have sent MT. Keene check for 8, 800 for it, but the great financier did not and would not write for pay. He earned a fortune while he was dictating that article, for the telegram which he re- ceived announced that sudden ap- preciation that day in a line of stocks held by Mr. Keene was so great that if he chose to sell his profits would be S15O,O0O.
 Ex-Speai1er Reed has only recently ! been tempted to write, and for his | writings he nas received a price quite | as large as the handsome sum once l maid Mir Gladstone hv an American |