The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-07-29


OF books. Standing side by side on
the same shelf were French romances
and the Holy Bible, much bethumeed
and penciled- There were schoolbooks
alongside of sentimental love tales.
Greek lexicons and quaint old fairy
stories, law books and works on Grim
inology; books on botany, geology.
anatomy and physics. In all perhaps
there were 200 volumes. A life OF Ma
poleon revealed signs OF almost con-
slant usage. There were three por-
traits of the Corsican on the dingy
green walls.
The strange character of the man
was best shown by the pictures that
adorned or rather disfgured the walls
Vulgar photographs and prints were 10
be seen on all sizes. Mingled with
these cheap creations were excellent
copies of famous Madonnas. quaint
Scriptural drawings, engravings of the
Saviour and an allegorical colored
print which EMPHASIZED the joys of
heaven. There was also badly drawn
but localized portrait OF broom, done
in crayon at the age of twenty. This
portrait was one of his priced posses
sions. He loved II best because it was
a bust and did not expose his longitu-
dfnal defects. = broom ever had en-
tertained a feminine visitor in his
apartments. there is no record of the
fact But few men had seen the inte-
rior of his home. and they had gone
away with distressed. perplexed sensi-
bilities.
He cooked his own meals on the oil
stove and, alone, ate them from the lit
tie table that stood near the heater.
Occasionally he went out to a nearby
eating house for a lonely feast. His
rooms usually .reeked with the odor of
boiled coffee. burned cabbage and
grease. pungent chemicals and long
suffering bed linen. OF his front"
room it may be said that it was kitch-
en-, dining room, parlor, library. work
shop, laboratory and conservatory.
Four fiowerpots, in which as many
geraniums existed with difficulty de-
spite Droom's constant and unwaver-
ing care, occupied a conspicuous place
on the window stills overlooking the
street. He watched over them with
all the tender solicitude of a lover, sur
prtsing as it may appear when one
pauses to consider the vicious exterior
Of the man.
broom was frugal. He was. in truth.
a miser. If any one had asked him
what he expected to do with the money
he was putting away in the bank, he
could not have answered, calculating
as he was by nature. He had no rela-
tive to whom he would leave It, and
he had no inclination to give up the
habit of active employment. His salary
was small, but he managed to save
more than half Of it-for a rainy day"
as he said. He did his reading and ex-
perimenting by kerosene light and
went to bed by candlelight, saving n
few pennies a week In that way. The
windows in his apartment were wash
ed not oftener than once a year. He
was seldom obliged to look through
them during the day. and their only
duty at night was to provide ventila-
ton, and even that was Characteristic
ally meager.
He was a man of habit, not habits.
A pipe at night was his only form Of
dissipation. 1t was not too far for
him to walk home from the office of
evenings, and he invariably did so un-
less the weather was extremely IN
pleasant So methodical was he that
he never had walked over any other
bridge than the one in Wells street
coming and going.
Past sixty-five years Of age, Droom's
hair still was black and snaky, his
teeth were as yellow and jagged as
| they were in the seventies, and his
eyes were as blue and ugly as ever.
He had not aged with James Ban
semer. In truth, he looked but little
older than when we made his ac-
| quaintance. The outside world knew
no more of Droom's private transac-
tions than 1t knew of Bansemer's. Up
street the queer old man could do as
he willed, unobserved and unannoyed
He could pursue his experiments with
strange chemicals, he could construct
odd devices with his kit of tools, and
he could let off an endless amount OF
| inventive energy that no one knew he
| possessed
When he left Graydon Bansemer on
the sidewalk in front of the Office
building he swung Off with his long
strides toward the Wells street bridge.
His brain had laid aside everything
that had occupied its attention during
office hours and had given itself over
to the project that FASTENED his steps
/ homeward. His supper that night was
a small one and hurriedly eaten in Or
| der that he might get to work on his
new device. broom grinned and
cackled to himself all alone up there
In the lamplight. for he was perfecting
an Invention" by which the honest
citizen could successfully put to rout
the ''holdup" man that has made Chi
cago famous.
Elias Droom's inventive genius I'M
, faflingly led him toward devices that
could infict pain and discontinue. His
plan to get the better Of the wretched.
hard working holdup man was unique.
IL not entirely practical He was con-
st11cting the models for two lfth'
bulbs, made OF rubber and lined witt
a material that would resist the effect
| ~ al 49, ft.f