HE STARTS IN SPECULATION AS A CALIFORNIA BROKER.—A LUCKY HIT IN A MINING STOCK PUTS HIM ON THE ROAD TO BE A MILLIONAIRE.—HIS SPECULATIVE ENCOUNTER WITH THE BONANZA KINGS.—HE MAKES FOUR MILLIONS, STARTS FOR EUROPE AND STOPS AT WALL STREET, WHERE HE FORMS AN ALLIANCE WITH GOULD, WHO “EUCHRES” HIM AND OTHERS.—SELOVER DROPS GOULD IN AN AREA WAY.—KEENE GOES ALONE AND ADDS NINE MILLIONS MORE TO HIS FORTUNE.—HE THEN SPECULATES RECKLESSLY IN EVERYTHING.—SUFFERS A SUDDEN REVERSAL AND GETS SWAMPED.—OVERWHELMING DISASTER IN A BEAR CAMPAIGN, LED BY GOULD AND CAMMACK, IN WHICH KEENE LOSES SEVEN MILLIONS.—HIS DESPERATE ATTEMPTS TO RECOVER A PART ENTAIL FURTHER LOSSES, AND HE APPROACHES THE END OF HIS THIRTEEN MILLIONS.—HIS PRINCELY LIBERALITY AND SOCIAL RELATIONS WITH SAM WARD. One of the most remarkable up-and-down lives known to Wall Street is that of James R. Keene. His rise and fall are both of recent date. Mr. Keene is of English parentage, and was born in London, about 48 years ago. He came to this country at the age of 17, lived in the South and studied law there. He removed to San Francisco in 1853, and became well informed in mining matters through several mining cases that were put into his hands while practising at the bar in that city. I am told he was also connected with a Western newspaper for some time. He caught the speculative fever shortly after his arrival in California, and, as it seems, abandoned both law and journalism to become a broker. Keene had hard work for some time to make both ends meet, and his struggle for existence in the wild West made serious inroads on his health. His physician told him he must give up work, and advised him to take a long sea voyage if he intended to prolong his life. Acting on this advice, he secured his passage to the East. This was the turning point in both his health and fortune. Prior to his departure, Mr. Keene was urged to invest a few hundred dollars in a mining stock then selling very low. The length of his journey and the change of scene caused him almost to forget about his investment, and the methods of communication between the far West and the far East in those days were so very slow that he had hardly any chance of being informed of his lucky venture until his return. As an illustration of this slow transit of news at that time, it may be stated that gold was discovered January 19, 1848, but the news did not reach the Eastern States until the following December. It was authoritatively announced in the President’s annual message, and created great excitement. Mr. Alfred Robinson, with about twenty companions, were the first to leave New York for the scene of the new El Dorado, on the bark “John Benton.”