The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-08-02

New York Aug. lit lacks only
few days of being exactly twenty-seven
years since James r. Keene set foot
in New York Within a week after
he came here the town was talking
about him. and it has been talking
about him ever since.
For Keene's performance has been
a continuous one. virtually. despite
the fact that there have been OCCASION
al stretches during which his name
has not been heard often on the street
or seen often in the newspaper. These
stretches have followed his big re-
verses, of them have been several
most of which were far more disas-
trous than it now appears was the
one which overlook him about week
ago 1t goes without saying that Mr.
Keene has been the most talked of
New Yorker ever since the suspen-
sion of T. ]. Taylor & Co, the part
ners in which were Talbot j. Taylor,
his son-in-law, and FoXhall F. keene'
his son. It goes without saying, too,
that he will continue to hold the
boards of public attention mere Tor
some time to come.
paper Editor.
1t is probably unsupported by the
public-certainly not half his friends
with whom I have talked in the last
few days are aware of the fact-but
James r. Keene once had literary am
billions, and sought to begin the ascent
of the ladder of letters by becoming a
reporter. From the task of the news
gatherer he graduated to the editors
desk, and held that job down long
enough to learn that 1t wasn't good
enough for him from the money view
point.
That was in Shasta Basin, California,
more than forty years ago. Just when
the crescent Wall street financier gave
up Pacific coast journalism and what
was the name of his paper, nobody
that 1 have seen appears to know and
nobody likes to ask him. 1t Is on the
testimony of Joaquin Miller, the poet of
an ultimate Oregon shore,
that the authenticity of the incident Is
predicated. Miller, in telling about
Keene at that time, says he was
poor, prosecuted man." from which 1t
IS fair TO infer that his paper was
pretty hot stuff, and that he used to say
quite as biting things in print then as
he has ever said verbally since. Miller
is authority also for the statement
that Keene could write well enough to
have made his mark in literature had
he been so minded. His letters to the
poet, the latter once said. were eXcep-
tionaily brilliant, and, as everyone
knows. the man VINO can write a brill
liant letter can write almost anything
he wishes to. if he will but try. Some
of the most brilliant masters of Eng
lish the world has known were indif
ferent epistolarians, as those who have
read some of the recently published
oTaI,, xrsiI Il
lily testify.
Keene's literary judgment cannot
have been good back in his editorial
days, however. since he often turned
down Miller's productions, and never
could see that the Singer of the Ser
ras' could write poetry. Miller thought
very highly of him. though, for all
that. and has spoken quite recently of
Keene's great big heart and of his
kindly words Miller is authority. too,
for the statement that Keene was a
brilliant hand with the cards in those
remote days, playing nearly everybody
he sat down with "out of his boots"
with Miller himself.
Keene Followed Man, Occupations
i'm His Youth.
James r. Keene had a tough time
making things go at the start. His
should have been a rich man, lost his
property. and, like Col. Esmond,
fled from London to Virginia to
recoup his fortunes. Not doing
we'll there he drifted with his
little son to the Californian gold
fields soon after AZ. 1t wasn't on the
cards, however, for the Keenes to
succeed in getting the precious metal
out of the ground in paying quantities,
and the boy had to turn his hand to
whatever came next" at an early
age.
There is no complete list of the
various ways he earned a living in
existence now, and of late years Keene
himself has been rather chary of re-
citing them. 1t is known, though,
that in Shasta county, California. he
was a cowpuncher, a school teacher
and a milk peddler, as well as re-
porter and editor. He also worked as
clerk there for some time and
studied law, though that wasn't a
noneygetting occupation, and he
liked thel law so little that he never
practiced it much. In those days he
was economical to a fault; he had to
be, for the matter of that. There were
often whole weeks then during each
of which he didn't earn as much
money as he now spends in half a day
for the Perfecto cigars that he de-
smoking for which he has become
famous
Notwithstanding the mans tremen-
dous nerve, which he showed then as
well as now, he was excessively nerv-
GUS and mercurial from the very be-
ginning of his career, a characteristic
which may be better understood when
his ancestry is considered. There are
many who believe him to be of Vir-
gilman birth, and many more who con-
slider London his natal place The
latter are right, and the English strain
predominates in his veins, but he has
also a strain of Irish and another of
Spanish blood. The Keenes went to
London from the northwest of Ire
land, where they had been persons of
some prominence in the days when
the trade relations between Spain and
the Emerald Isle were extensive, and
when there were many intermarriages
between the natives of the two coun-
tries. 1t is perhaps to his Spanish
blood that James r. owes his tenn
permanent. 1t is to the same source,
doubtless. that he owes his fondness
for looking smart-he is always as
slick as if just out of a bandbox-and
his general personal appearance, for,
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