Evening star., 1901-05-18

Nfld-Mannered Villains.
And, standing at Mr.. whitney's side on
the club house lawn of the race track. and
chatting amiably. IL desultorlly. as quite
old men VIII. was Mr.. James r. Keene-
another Familiarity called Jim in the ecru
patois. Now, Mr.. keene has been ad-
vanced by the yellows as the MacchiayelH
the Mephtstopheles. OF the situation lie
mas been pictured standing at the tape IN
his office with a horrible sardonic grin on
his creased countenance. gloating over the
wreck or mems hopes. He has been Dor
trayed as having really been back Of All
OF the maniacal deVtltry in the fluctuations
and held up as a sort of black hooded al
chemist OF the evil. Bulwer-Lytton type.
And there he was on the club house lawn
or in the paddock, whispering In the ear Of
midget jockey and getting himself 5ol-
lied by Mr.. Whitney because his horses 100
were most distressfully beaten. For many
years past the yelows, by the way. have
solemnly claimed that keene and Whitney
were strong personal as well as vindictive
business enemies. Well, you would not have
thought so TO see the two old men touch
ing their Apollinaris glasses and wishing
each other success in the stake races,
One Result OF the slump.
THE big doings down IN Wall street dur
ing the past few weeks have brought me a
remarkable number OF men with hang
nails to be attended to" said a well-known
manicure. whose parlors are in one OF the
hyphenated hotels. Most OF my patrons
with the hang-naiis are Wall street oper-
ators whose digits / regularly take care ar
Some OF them have shown up with pretty
badly torn nails. Wall street men as a
class are great nail blters. anyway. but in
times OF storm and stress such as they've
recently been passing through the way
some of them abuse their nnger mails IS
scandaious. They gnaw them right down
to the quick, and not few of them get as
many four or five hang-nails a-going ut
the same time. They do IL unconsciously
and under the influence Of great mental ex-
citement, of course. yet few Of them know
what big chances they're taking In tearing
at their nails with their teeth until the
blood flows. Many serious cases OF blood
poisoning have resulted from the practice,
and a number of hang-nai cases that
know OF myself have caused amputations
of fingers. and even hands. when the blood
poisoning has become dangerous and
threatening. 1t is very easy for poisonous
matter to work it's way into the cavity of
a hang-naiI. Some of the men In the imam
cial district who never think OF biting their
nails in ordinary periods get TO gnawiug
upon one nail with great involuntary reso-
luton when they are a good deal wrought
up in the panicky times, and then they
come to me with badly MANNED fingers.
Mail gnawing is regarded as a real evil
in France, where IT is said that two-iifths
OF the school children are addicted to the
habit. That's a bad showing. / should say.
for the nervous state of the uprising gem
Grafton of Gaul.
Spoiled Many Diamond Sales.
THE big slump in the market on Thurs
day last lost ME a lot of conditional or
iers for gems" remarked a Maiden Lane
dealer in precious stones who has a large
trade among men in the financial district
Il cali them conditional orders because
their consummation depended upon the
maintenance for a while longer Of the bull
market Men flush with money would
come in and pick out stones that struck
their fancy, and have me put the gems -
one side for them, saying that they'd call
and claim them when such-and-such a
stock had climbed a few points higher At
the time they made these arrangements 1t
one side for them, saying that they'd call
their faith in were bound to go on climb
ing almost indefinitely. Well. when the
whole fabric began to tumble on Thurs
day I knew that / was out Of pocket
good many fine sales, and. sure enough, L
was not long in finding out that great
many OF my conditional customers had
been more or less badly nipped in the
squeeze.
"A curb operator whom I've known for
a good many years. and who made heap
of money during the early stages OF the
rise in Union Pacific, came IN on Iuesuay
and maid me 5000 spot cash for a pretty
neat article of diamond heart Tor ms
wife On Thursday afternoon he walked
in. looking pretty woe-oegone,, plamket I,.f,et
I'd buy it back for. Three thousand,
told him. for it's no part of good policy.
If nothing else. for me to take advantage
of the little hard luck streaks OF my reeu-
lar customers, and he was really delighted
and grateful. although only three weeks
ago this same man cleaned up little mat
ter of 100000 in two days.
Profitable Business.
''what we in the trade call the Johnny
on-the-spot gem-dealers have made big
thing of it in Wall street for a number OF
months past. These are the men who cir
culate in the financial district. selling jew
elry on memorandum. A limited number
of men of good address and OF persuasive
personality have been engaged in this
business for many years past. but their
ranks were recruited to three or four times
the former force when things began to sz-
zle down the line. and, from what can
hear every man-jack of the memorandum
fellows has made out big. There were four
or five of them covering the financial dis
trict for me for a couple of months, and
the amount of their commissions at the end
of each week was something surprising.
A good many of them, however, got to
fooling with the market, and lost the bet
ter part of their gains. Others that L
know of profited by their shrewdly worked
up acauaintanceships with the operators to
land right.
At any rate. slump or no slump In the
stock market. there is surely more ire
mendous, not to say vulgar, exhioition OK
massive gems. on the part of both men
ever before in the towns history.
Turned the Trick.
Three pretty weIl-dressed young fellows.
who nevertheless looked as if they might
belong to the Tenderloin "grafter' type.
rushed together into a Broadway saloon
near 3oth street one afternoon, when the
stock market excitement was at its height.
They were talking stocks, and full of busi-
ness.
Quart" said one of them to the bar
keep, naming a fayorite brand OF cham
pagne.
Then the one who had ordered went
talking excitedly of stocks with his pair OF
companions. When the barkeep had served
the quart of wine the three young fellows
almost gulped the first glass down and
pushed out their glasses for the other glass
coming to each of them. Thus they dis
posed of the quart of wine in much quicker
time than men ordinarily drink champagne
when the one who had done the ordering
rushed over to the ticker that had been
merrily clicking away since their entrance,
and exclaimed, picking up the tape:
BY Jove, here's a ticker. Let's see
where N P has scared"