The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1912-06-08

Sz1zAn wild markets on the San Francisco Gold Exchange
"A r ZEN during the memorable Bonanza BRA Some of
the giants on the stage at the time were John W. Mackay,
D. O. Mills Coils F. Huntington, Gee. Crocker. Senators
Stanford, Fair, Sharon, John P. Jones, Stewart, and many others of
almost equal prominence. Nearly all of them are dead. Keenes
dash and indomtable courage gave him the undisputed speculative
leadership of this remarkable group of men.
It was in 1877, that Mr.. Keene, broken in health, started in to
retire permanently from active business and enjoy an ideal life abroad.
He was born in England and his inclinations led him that way. En-
route from the Pacific coast he thought he would drop of In New
York for a few days. His few days al into a year, and in that
time he increased his $1,000 900, to $l5.OOOy0O0. He got into the
market at the very bottom of the great depression of 1877 and took
on a line of about 400, 900 shares of stock. That was the biggest
individual deal on the New York Exchange up to that time and was
the record for many years thereafter.
Flushed with his success in Wall street, Mi. Keene rashly at
tempted to corner Chicago wheat They trimmed him for the ST.
100000 he had extracted from Wall street. Within a few years
Jay Gould, Cammsck, Woerishofer and that crowd OF philanthrop-
lists took away from him what he had left and put him 5000, 900
in the hole. MI. Keene was 10 years n more pulling himself out
of the mire.
Mi. Keene's greatest achievement, however, was that of "mak-
ing a market for United States Steel in 1901. In the management
of that remarkable camgaign he was given carte blanche. The
underwriting syndicate had paid in a fund of $25.O00,OOO and given
MI. Morgan the right to call on it for $175,O00,000 more. It was
MI. Keene's job to sell the 100000 shares of underwritten stock,
and make a market broad enough to take whatever additional offer
ings there might be. The public was dead ripe for the extraordi-
nary boom that followed. 1t was Morgan mad, and Steel was a
Morgan creation. The public absorbed the syndicate stock and
the enormous offering of insiders, many of whom felt that the cor
poration had been extravagantly overcapitalized and were quite
willing to convert their certificates into cash. The Reed-Moore-
Leeds group alone is said to have realized more than $50, 900. 00O
for its holdings of Steel common and preferred. The campaign
lasted only few weeks. 1t realized for the underwriting syndicate
a profit of $50, 900 Mr.. Keene is elieved to have fattened his
fortune &c. 900. 1t was the biggest and most successful single
fotaion in the worlds history. 1t was especially favored of the
gods.
In the very heat of this steel campaign the Northern Pacific
incident came along al a disturbing factor. j. F. Morgan & Co. and
James J. Hill had discovered that E. Il. Hartman and Kuhn, Loeb
q CO. had been warily buying Northern Pacific stock and had already
secured almost enough to give them control. Messrs Morgan and
Hill and their associates lacked 10000 shares of owning a majority
of the stock, while the opposition was within less than $4,000 shares
of control. After a hurried and anxious consultation MI. Keene was
called in and was asked to take the case.
The very next day the financial world was electrified by a re-
markable convulsion on the Stock Exchange. A lvewire firm Of
brokers, Street and Norton, inagurated a wild and apparently
meaningless campaign in Northern Pacific. Huge blocks of the
stock were tossed about with an appearance of utter recklessness
Prices jumped and slumped points between sales. The turmoil
kept up ceaselessly all day. Wall street was ratified. The one
thing that everybody realized was that a climax had been reached
in the fight between Hill and Hartman for the control Of Northern
Pacific Beyond that it was all guesswork, but the common belief
was that MI. Hartman had captured the citadel of his arch rival
Mr.. Hartman knew he hadn't The fog had not lifted when the
Exchange closed for the day. It was bruited about that Street &
Norton had bought 10000 shares of stock of Northern Pacific and
saved the day for the Morgan Hill combination-or, was it Hartmann
at was SO like Hartman" many said.
As a matter of fact the play was almost a duplication of one Of
Mr.. Keene's earlier exploits on the San Francisco Exchange on
which occasion he had wrested control of the famous Ophir mine
from "Lucky" Baldwin for account of a Mackay- Ralston pool
At that particular juncture Mr. Keene did not care to have his
name identified with the purchase of 10000 shares of Northern
Pacific, as he was not sure he had won the batue-and it certainly
was a close call. The next day q sure enough corner developed in
Northern Pacific and $1,000 a share was paid by frightened specu-
lators caught short of the stock The fight turned out to be a draw,
compromised by the organization of the Northern Securities Com
pany. But for the lightning like play by MI. Keene control of
Northern Pacific would have passed from Mr. Morgan. Mr. Hill and
their associates to Mr. Hartman and the great banking house of
Kuhn. Loeb & Company.
AT the conclusion of the Steel Aotation and the Northern Pa