The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-05-06

loose with famine
That was the way Keene fought on the
upward path. He started to accumulate
fortune by first gaining better class of
patronage and then by gambling heavily in
stocks. He planned carefully and kept an
eye on the future, with the result that he
chances, but they always turned out we'll
After he had gathered little capital with
which to work, his advance was not in arith-
metical but in geometrical progression; for
capital plus imagination equals the infinite
in the world of finance He literally stormed
through the ranks and crowned his success
with the big mansion onzthe heights. The
land on which he erected it he bought from
Burton.
For the latter was seeing stormy times.
The last day of college had been the first
day of real living for Keene, but for Bur-
ton, like many another fine young fellow, it
was the last. In the play-world of the I'M
dergraduate he had been hero; in the outer
world he took success for granted, not know
ing that the twentieth century forgets yes
terday in order to remember today. In his
emmy oAAiSS TIC WcHC W Sicep mo man ldO
finer social position; no man had more
lovely wife; his happiness was complete.
That was the trouble, perhaps. There
seemed nothing more toward which he
might aspire, and his grip relaxed. The club
held him more and more; ennui was his only
dread. 1t came about by such easy steps
a little too much drink, few too many
friends a 1ittla lo;e
pie stood agape, hearing the rumor that
whispered with thousand tongues: can
idol had fallen"
At this time Burton's father died and left
half what had been expected. After that,
tor few weeks, Hal bestirred himself for
little, but the habit had gripped him. In
a short time he was lodging his troubles in
stead OF fighting them, and when he couldn't
actually run away from them, he managed
to forget them with the aid of King Alcohol
Money had always represented to him
power and not need, so when his banker
told him that his account was RUNNING
trfle short, he renewed the supply of cash
by siapplng a heavy mortgage on the fine
estate which had come to him through his
mother. Three months later he sold the
property for very little more than the value
OF the mortgage. At that something shriv
eied up IN the heart of his mother, and the
little gray-haired lady was found dead one
DAY sitting In Halls chair on the porch with
her hands folded precisely in her lap.
1t was on this property that Steve Keen
erected his mansion, and standing, as it did.
IN Falrmont Hill, overlooking a glorious
prospect it was as much of landmark as
the old gray tower of the city hall. When
ne opened 1t with formal supper party, the
whole upper set came to sheer at the rich
interloper on the North Side. They re-
NAMED to wonder, for Steve had created
thing of beauty that changed sneers to
smiles and smiles to something like awe.
Because it was easy to see that the man had
taken dream and reproduced it in the
deathless white marble. It was built
around an exquisite garden court, where
there were benches of marble yellow with
age and veined delicately with blue. He
had brought them from Italy, and the were
only type of the beauty which reigred like
living spirit through every hall of his
house.
All this sounds like the story of many
years, but it must be remembered that time
runs fast in the American business world,
and it was really not such great interval
between the opening of the dingy office on
the South Side and the construction of his
palace on the hll-the house that Steve
built.
Put the day after the supper party the
whole city was asking: "Now that he has