Droom had rooms over a millinery shop in Wells Street. There was a
bedroom at the back and a "living-room" in front, overlooking the
street from the third story of the building. Of the bedchamber there
is but little to say, except that it contained a bed, a washstand,
a mirror, two straight-backed chairs and a clothes-press. Droom
went out for his bath--every Saturday night. The "living-room,"
however, was queer in more ways than one. In one corner, on a chest
of drawers, stood his oil stove, while in the opposite corner, a
big sheet-iron heater made itself conspicuous. Firewood was piled
behind the stove winter and summer, Droom lamenting that one could
not safely discriminate between the seasons in Chicago. The chest
of drawers contained his stock of provisions, his cooking and table
utensils, his medicine and a small assortment of carpenter's tools.
He had no use for an icebox.
A bookcase, old enough to warm the heart of the most ardent antiquarian,
held his small and unusual collection of books. Standing side by
side, on the same shelf, were French romances, unexpurgated, and the
Holy Bible, much bethumbed and pencilled. There were schoolbooks
alongside of sentimental love tales, Greek lexicons and quaint
old fairy stories, law books and works on criminology; books on
botany, geology, anatomy, and physics. In all, perhaps, there were
two hundred volumes. A life of Napoleon revealed signs of almost
constant usage. There were three portraits of the Corsican on the
dingy green walls.
The strange character of the man was best shown by the pictures
that adorned--or rather disfigured the walls. Vulgar photographs
and prints were to be seen on all sides. Mingled with these cheap
creations were excellent copies of famous Madonnas, quaint Scriptural
drawings, engravings of the Saviour, and an allegorical coloured
print which emphasised the joys of heaven. There was also a badly
drawn but idealised portrait of Droom, done in crayon at the age of
twenty. This portrait was one of his prized possessions. He loved
it best because it was a bust and did not expose his longitudinal
defects. If Droom ever had entertained a feminine visitor in his
apartments, there is no record of the fact. But few men had seen
the interior of his home, and they had gone away with distressed,
perplexed sensibilities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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