The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-04-05
Methods and Personality Of Mr..
Keene, and the Light His Record
Throws on Wall Street.


jures I'm the popular mind visions
of the struggles in the stock exc
change which result in the winning or
losing of millions. That Mr.. Keene is
a great "piunger." that he is in fact
the leader of the stock market is well
known 20 newspaper readers. The av-
erage Wall street man. with an en-
thusiasm born of profound convictions.
IS forever telling the average outsider
that Mr.. Keene IS the greatest ma
nipulatOr" OF stocks that ever lived
And it is as manipulation Of stocks
that Nj Keene win be remembered
longest. He has never sought TO be-
come identified with the management
OF the companies whose stocks he has
bought and sold by the hundreds Of
thousands OF shares. Because of this
Discrimination 10 upbuiId. or TO water
or tO consolidate companies he has
been regarded as an impulsiye, reck-
less stock trader. who has found i'm the
stock exchange a kind of adventure
with 'the limit 20 the sky" His plain
speech has often been exaggerated and
mlslnterpreteG. but he has a remark
able record as a Wall street leader who
has always given his opinions with
absolute candor. whenever he has felt
that his views were of public interest
"BuI" statements by him have inaug-
urated "buu" markets. just as bear
interviews with him have marked the
end of bOOms.
His career has been of extraordinary
interest. He went 20 California i'm the
l50s-a FRAN boy of -. whose health had
been impaired by Oyerstudy. AT 10 he
had a mans mind and was a hustler"
lie became a miner, a farmer. cow
boy. a government mule puncher" a
newspaper reporter and proprietor and
mining man on the COmstOck lode,
From Virginia City he took $4,000 TO
San Francisco; he ran it up to $685. 900
in a few months. specializing i'm mining
stocks, and he lost 10 all. and more. too.
After two years Of privatiOns and pen
ury he arranged with his creditors 10
bo allowed 10 join the mining exchange,
and soon he became the leading mining
stock broker I'm San Francisco and
millionaire. They still tell many stories
OF him on the coast for he had for as
sociales, when he was president of the
mining exchange the big milliOnaires.
Tn 1876 he came east. but not 70
bust JAY Gould as tradition has it,
He had $6000.000 and was on his way 90
Europe for his health; but what he
saw on his trip across the country
made him bear ON railroad stocks.
and he sold short" 10 600 shares Of
New York Central at $ll0 a share.
which some time later he bought at
below $50 a share. clearing about $780,
600 by that deal-his first on the New
Ork stock exchange He abandoned
his European trip and stuck 90 Wall
street. He became "bull' that sum
mer and bought huge amounts of low
priced railroad stocks. Ii was not n
mere gamble; he had read conditions
and dlscerned what the future would
inevitably bring 10 the country. To
him DO brought SO, 100000 i'm two years.
Against his own judgment he was
persuaded by Rufus Hatch 20 buy L.
100000 bushels of wheat Little bv little
circumstances led him 10 join a pool
formed 20 control the Chicago market.
but his associates one after another
abandoned him and he endeavored.
sngle-handed. 90 carry out the cam
palgn. His brokers PLAYED him false.
friends proved traitors or pleaded the
baby act as losing gamblers some
times viii. and ne was forced 10 relln-
qulsh his lines of railroad stocks which
Dee had carried In expectation of a big
advance. He lost 81 800 00O and he has
said that If he had kept out of wheat
he would have made $4,000. 900 out of
DTS other deals, and that he would
not have lost his entire fortune later.
little by htte-Sl 900 600 I'm the Hanui-
bal q ST. Joe corner" and other re-
verses. until he was not only peuniless.
but $500 900 In debt. some fifteen years
ago.
A veteran of the street said to the
writer fen DAYS ago. while discuss
ing Mr. htel-s wonderful work i'm
United States Steel NV views ON
hrrne are not shared BIZ the street gem
elally. ] have no liking FOR him as an
operator but I have the greatest adj
muauou for him as "a man. Ny liking
dates from his dark days To was after
Dc tailed. There yas.a man who was
used to the best iu the land. lavish Dy
nature fond of the good things of fife.
accustomed 90 The nauery of lesser
spectators. loving above everything 10
back his views Iu the market with mil
lions. 90 whom operating iu stocks was
as Che breath OF his u0strils. a man
proud by instinct q bundle of nerves.
impatient OF Obstdcles-noW flat
broke Once So powerful and cOurted
and feared. now uuuOticed. unsOught
regarded 10y the street as an exploded
bubble about 20 join the ranks of the
vast army OF Wall street failures. I
What did De do2 i used 10 see him
going Co and from his little cottage i'm
the country every day. because he was, /
like myself TOO poor 90 live I'M the city.
] was poor too but i could stil afford
90 have nay Wife's phaet0u meet me at
tho station. Not SO with Eeene He
walked from the station 20 his house, /
j have seen him iu the dead of winter
struggling through the snow drifts |
with his head lowered and his body
BENT walking against The wind. a dis .
mai figure u the chill Landscape. How I.
many men would have survived the /.
sudden descent from millions tO PEN
lest 10 The New street saloons are .
iuI of men who once swung big lines
OF Stock and now gaze on the saloon ,
ticker with hlear eyes ana handle the I
cape with trembling fingers. why .
should not have Eeeue. that bundle OF +
nerves sought consolation there. or .
gone to ruin ON some other way or Civ /
en- mp me hsht3 No. He bent his head .
NAeA the storm ragged and pushed on
Ma9d. ana twenty years later ne was
inc admired ard enyled and feared king
g.. me stock market That's why I /
like Che man."
Ar- heeue owes hi5 rehabilitation to- /
ms lam3rEdb.c abilities as a maniru-
lllar. AS mere specua.Or working
lor himself he would have been
Obliged % operate ON am insignificant
scale ly reason OF lack of capital and
the recovery of his LOST millions would
nave been slow process. But capital-
lists and promoters associated them /,