Famous Speculator Who Tries to Limit
His Investments to "Sure Things"
Has Had Many Stumbles.
James R. Keene, famous as a leader of the Wall Street bulls--or
occasionally of the bears--asserts that he never gambles in stocks, and
that gambling is one of the worst of vices.
"I try not to touch anything that is not worth while," he said. "If a
stock is good and is selling under price it is legitimate to take that
stock and push it up to its real value."
Several times in attempting to do that Keene has been cleaned out and left
as poor as he was when he started out in California in the fifties. He was
a sickly, nervous, near-sighted boy of twelve when he arrived in the West.
Three years of life in the open built him up, and he started in as a
prospector on his own account. It didn't pan out well, and he turned
farmer for a while, left that work as a cowboy, and then put in a year as
a newspaper reporter.
But the mines drew him back, and he managed to get ten thousand dollars
out of the Comstock lode. With this he went to San Francisco, and when he
saw how things were run on the exchange there he decided that he would
enter the game. It took him three months to turn his ten thousand dollars
into a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and it took his opponents two
days to take that away from him and leave him not only without a cent, but
also heavily in debt.
Young Keene's Period of Poverty.
The period that followed was one of poverty for Keene, and for two years
he fought through it, working at whatever he could find to do, but all the
time intent on getting back to the exchange. Finally, his creditors
allowed him to join the Mining Exchange, and his knowledge of mining
properties soon put him at the head of the mining stockbrokers.
Keene won his success as a broker through his painstaking study of the
property in which he invested either for himself or for others, and
through the amazing courage he evinced in taking a chance on properties in
which he believed.
"Keene's too blamed conscientious," said one of his fellow-brokers. "Why,
he's taken a week to look over some Idaho property, and he could just as
well have handled the investments even if there wasn't a sign of metal
there. He wouldn't lose anything."
That was not Keene's way. He was not in the game to make a little and risk
nothing. He was willing to risk everything in order to make a big killing,
and usually the campaigns that looked like wild and reckless gambles were
backed by good, solid knowledge, gained after examination of the value of
the property involved.
Keene's clients liked such methods, and they came to him in such numbers
that in a short time he forced his way to the leading position among the
San Francisco brokers, and as an operator on his own account he easily
distanced all the others both in daring and in winnings.
Thirty years ago he had a fortune of six million dollars, and he started
for Europe, but stopped off in New York to sell railroad shares short, for
what he had seen on his trip East convinced him that there would be a
break. His first deal netted him two hundred thousand dollars, and he
threw up all thoughts of a European trip.
There was a story current at the time that Keene had all his wealth turned
into gold, and the gold was done up in neat little parcels. With this, so
he was credited with saying, he intended to wipe Jay Gould off the
financial map. This story, however, is not true. It was Keene's intention
to take a little flier, gain a little spending money, and continue on his
way to Europe for rest.
But Wall Street fascinated him. Everything there was done upon such a
lavish scale that it just suited him. So instead of taking a vacation he
plunged into the market, and his winnings at first were enormous. During
the next two years he cleared nine million dollars. Then he went into a
wheat corner, and before he got out again he was squeezed dry, and a
million and a half in debt.
Turning Failure into Success.
He fought the old San Francisco fight over again and he manifested the
same old San Francisco courage.
They had pushed him down to such a point that he could no longer afford to
live in New York, and he hired a little house in the suburbs. A cab was a
luxury that was not to be thought of, and so every day, pleasant or
stormy, Keene walked from the cars to his office. His lunch, and sometimes
his dinner, consisted of fruit bought from a basket.
Around him were scores of men reduced to a similar pass, and most of them
lost courage and drifted down and out. Courage was the only thing Keene
did not lose. He hung on tight, and his former experience enabled him
slowly to recover the position he had lost. Little by little, he got on to
his feet, and when once he had wiped out his debts he began the fight
again on a big scale, and has managed to make himself one of the richest
men in the country.
The Tapestried Chamber.