, 1884-06-20
THE HAMMER.
The Household Goods of a Million
aire Sold at Auction.
The Furniture, Articles OF yIrtu,
Tableware. Etc. DeionEIng TO .
Jim keene's Old Residenee-
= Mirror OF Character.


lodh FIhlClsCO 1ufOulcle.
A motley crowd attended an auction sale
Of household goods yesterday morning in one
of tho finest residences on Bush street. Some
cameto get bargains, others to walk through
the ele ant rooms which were once tenanted
by a millionaire who has since become a per-
sonage Of general interest all over the coun-
try. Jim Keeneis household effects passed
under the nuctiOneer's hammer yesterday
morning in his former residence. There was
keen interest displayed in the bidding. Old
Irishwomen were there to pick up n bargain
in a carpet, or blankets, or bed-linen, which
they examined without regard to the position
of the owner. Others of the crowd came to
satisfy a vulgar curiosity to see the kind of
a house that Jim keeue used to live in, or to
purchase a small article OF virtu il it vent
cheap. All day rich and poor jostled from
one room to another, commenting on the
taste Of the mill oIaire.
1t is said TINT u mans house is a mirror in
which his character is reflected. 1t is GER
tainly true that some of Jim Keene's leading
traits may be clearly read in the furniture,
the articles of yirtu, the paintings on the
wall and the glassware on the side-board in
his former house. 1t is well known that he
has a passionate fondness for horses. This
trait OF his character is so we'll marked that
the people locked TO the stables to see how he
had lavished his money on his pet hobby. In
this particular, however, his Bush street
property gives no trace of the SPECTATORS
love for horses and jockeys. In the rear of
ms residence there is a shed resembling a
wood-house more than a stable. There is no
evidence there that the owner paid any par
ticular attention to blooded animals, yet in
this shed he kept his team. 1t was a griev-
Gus disappointment to the curious crowd to
see only a ruined rookery where they ex-
pected to find an equine palace.
In the residence itself there were evidences
Of Keene's tastes. With all his love for
money and his thirst for gold, the tramp
from Shasta, after no acquired his wealth,
was a high liver. Spread out on the dining
room table there glistened IN the sun thirteen
cut-glass decanters, of all sizes and shapes,
but all of a costly nature. There were also
glasses Of all sizes, shapes add colors. His
tableware, however, was not SO elaborate or
elegant as one might expect to find in the
house of so wealthy a man. The cupboards
had either been robbed to furnish the mill
ionaire's New York mansion, or else passion
for fine dishes cannot be ascribed to him.
Judging from the evidences in his former
home, Keene's artistic nature is not broadly
or symmetrically developed. He has a
passion for gaudy decoration on ceiling and
wall, and he seems TO have used his house to
try experiments in colors and designs. One
of his fancies was for a domed bed-chambsr.
Accordingly, one of the large rooms on the
second story has a vaulted ceiling done in
dull brown. Although this style Is very
pleasing in itself, it creates rather a curious
impression upon one to pass from this lofty
room to an adjoining chamber with a fat
ceiling and an entirely different style of
ornament. But Keene, as one OF. his init
mate friend said yesterday, was an impul-
sive genius, one day bulling and the next
HnV hnnPtnU fla "a ~ gtnpi- a,l .l.--
vagaries in wall and ceiling architecture
must be- attributed to the samo whimsical
nature. q
The pictures of the breaker of other peo-
pies fortunes are a study, and might afford
the many who have not shared in the profits
of his schemes "A suggestive scheme for refeo-
ton. The willy stock manipulation when he
sought the seclusion of his home evidently
did not want to be reminded Of the strife or
Pine and Montgomery streets. His pictures
were intended TO divert his mind from the
busy scenes of city life and refresh him with
green landscapes and scenes of shepherds
watching their quiet aocks. Keeno evidently
believed that a picture, like u novel, is spoiled
when its object is to teach a moral lesson. In
articles Of virtu he sought the nude in
bronze. His m~antelpieces are ornamented
with Amazons and Vepuses in warlike or
charming attitudes. The house contained
one book-a prayer-book-wen fingered.
The auctioneer, with little deference to the
~magnate's former household gods, knocked
down the articles to Bridget, Levi or Madame
In sealskins, according to the offer. He put
up for sale a pile of hose or a silk bed-uuilt
adorned with Keene's monogram with equal
Indifference. 1t was a lucky day for that
growing army that haunts auction sales to
catch a secondhand article for on~s.tentn Of
its original cost. .;r