The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-01-10
THE LATE JAMES R. KEENE NOTABLE FIGURE IN TURF
 AND FINANCIAL CIRCLES
Remarkable Career of Poor Lad Who Started Life Without Cent and Subsequently Became Leader of
 Men and Millions

James R. Keene was born in Lon don in 1898. After he was brought to this country as a child, his family settled in Virginia. but when he was the gold and silver were. He did not get any of it for some time On the contrary, he had to work hard to Est glsin eaw 1Tsa He peddisd pEfsr 1lh i1i hand. and a school teacher. At Shasta, Cal, he became newspaper editor.
 Finally he entered the mines of Ne vada and made $1O,0O0, his first for tune. With that money he journey ed to San Francisco, intending to prac- pick up in the course of his several other occupations. But he found that mining speculation was more profitable. so he became a, curb brok- CT and prospered sufficiently to mar " Sarah DangerfeId, sister of a Unit ed States judge in California, who threatened to disoWn her if she mar ried keene, whom he referred to as "an upstart on the curb.' But that personal decree of the court was over ruled by the courts sister, who liv- with her husband his lean and fat for years.
 Lost Every Cent fin 1870.
 The s'New York Post prints the following review of Keene's checker ed career. The first of the adversi- I1eS came soon d1C6 the marriage, Tor, in 1870, Keene lost every cent of the fortune which he had piled up to $30O,O00. Even his household goods were taken to satisfy the creditors. the life of the speculator. Senator Fenton of California was appointed as assistant treasurer of the United States about that time, and had to dispose of his seat on the San Fran cisco Exchange. He let Keene have it on credit and also lent him a shoe string on which to build another for tune. Keene did it as the result of his first bear operation He prosper ed at first by going with the market and buying everything that he could, $500 and $500 a share stn those boom days, Keene was apparently the only man in the business who didn't over stay the market. He began to sell and sold and sold and sold while ev- erybody else bought and declared he was crazy.
 Then the crash came. Some of those stocks dropped to 25, and Keene had $4, 900 900 as a result of his foresight. Incidentally the Bank of California failed and it's president committed suicide by jumping into the Pacific Ocean. Keene stayed in San Francis co long enough to cause the bank to be rehabilftated.
 It was mere curiosity that induced him to stay for a few days in New York on his way to Europe and see how things were done here. He want ed just glimpse of the great Jay Gould, who was then at the top. But the atmosphere of Wall Street fascin- ated him. He forgot Europe. He needed no rest, for the prospect of sit ting in a bigger game than CaIifor- mia had ever dreamed of was a stim- ulant. A friend pointed out Gould to him on Broadway and he remarked: T have $4,o09, GOO I guess I will stay right here and get that mans scalp
 Quarrel With Jay Gould.
 But the attempt for the scalp was not made immediately On the con trary, Keene and Gould became as- SOciated in several deals and worked as allies for a year or two. The new corners first operation in the New York market was on the bear side. He sold ten thousand shares of New York Central short at 110 and cleaned up