Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-02
The Annual Fitting of Families Takes
Place in the Rain.
FEWER CHANGES THAN FORMERLY
Real Estate and Business Men Say That
Money is Plentiful.
THE BOOM IN LAND TRANSACTIONS

is old, but it just happened to fit the day,
and, as people often have q eft Of
laughter" it was thought that the fitness of
the sentence might make it suitable to the
occasion. You are to imagine the horrible
awfulness of some fearful occurrence which
strikes the shuddering heartstrings at the
rate of so much per shudder and 40 per
cent of the gate receipts. Your hair is to
rise like the landlords rent until you can
hear the latest-styled Mercury among the
new Government building busts fall with
dull plunkety-plunk. The scene is to move
you.
The moving consists only of some poor
unfortunate victim of circumstances and
back rent and his belongings, changing his
residence from one part of the city to an
other. The change is as old as Noah, who
was one of the first movers mentioned in the
Bible. Wives who complain about the
amount of house cleaning they have to do
at this season of the year need only think of
| Mrs Noah, and then hold their peace for
ever. She didn't have the opportunity of
telling her next-door neighbor what a dirty
| family was in the house before they moved
| in.
There has not been SO much moving in
Pittsburg or Allegheny this year as last
year, for some reason. But there has been
enough. People are evidently well enough
satisfied with their present residence, and do
not care to go out into the cold, unfeeling
world and seek another.
JUST RECOGNIZE THE TABLE.
L. L.
supper from the mantelpiece or the bottom
of the upturned wash-boiler tonight, and at
the same time humming the once popular
song, "There's No Place Like Home"
while he munches some of Sundays roast
beef, now as cold as Jay Gould, or drinks
hot water and coffee-grounds from Dres-
den china.
every dog has its day" is homely old
proberb, but it very forcibly calls to mind
the strange .whirligig of the movers life.
Yesterday was the day for the man who
moved you; and he was king for day, if it
did rain.
There are some families who move annu-
ally at least. They are like the Mohamme-
dams and the hegira. All chronological
events are dated from their hittings-"John
was born here" "Mary had the measles
there" etc.-for all the domestic occur
rences which go to make family history.
Some move of necessity, and in the night;
but veil must be drawn over these pro-
ceedings.
Moving in Pittsburg was commenced at
8 o'clock yesterday morning, and if it had
not been raining midnight would have been
the hour. 1t was almost midnight when the
last load was delivered. Every available
vehicle, from ponderous furniture van to
wheelbarrow. was pressed into service.
The Allegheny Express Company had two
vans, six two-horse wagons and eight one
horse wagons at work all dav. The ALLIE
gheny Transfer Company had one van and
ten two-horse wagons on the road from A.
M. to IL P. NJ. Such are examples of the
amount of work done by the larger con-
Germs. Every livery stable had from one to
five wagons in use, and you could not ride
five blocks and count the movers on the
fingers of both hands, It was a day OF de-
light for the necessary evil, the small boy;
no school, and every boy was out for fun.
He will do more work carrying articles
from one house to another than a man; but
if it is bis own family that is moving it is
impossible to get him to help.
=. STRANGE AS IT MAY SEEM.
In conversations with real estate dealers
yesterday they, all declared that there were
fewer changes of residence this year than
last. In the business portion of the city the
changes are very few. 1t is almost an i'm
possibility to secure location on Fifth ave-
nue., Wood or Smithfeld streets. When a
firm needs more room, instead of going to a
larger building it reaches out and obtains
control of smaller building adjoining it,
and converts it into storeroom. The want
of room has caused the recent growth OF
Penn avenue and a few Of the side streets.
In the suburbs good houses do not remain !
tenantless long There is plenty of ready
money in the city at present, and the work
ing people are obtaining and occupying bet
ter houses now than formerly. Rents are
about the same as last year. They are quite
high. The increase made three years ago
has not been reduced; it has, on the con-
trary, been enhanced in many cases.
There has been an enormous number of
transfers in real estate this spring. People
who have always invested money In other
than real estate are now turning their at
tention to land transactions, and are buying
and selling very rapidly.
With moving time comes house-cleaning,
and with the latter comes new household
articles Mr.. W. II. Keech, who controls
the largest "time house" in the city, was
seen yesterday, up to his ears in work. He
managed to say, between customers, that
business was prosperous. He deals exclu-
sively with the working classes at this
season. Plenty of household articles are
being purchased.
SOME OF THE sMILERs.
1t is booming time for the furniture
dealers; so many articles are broken and
have to be replaced at his profit, and at the
loss of the humble citizen.
Many amusing moving incidents occur.
They are enjoyed only by the spectators,
however. It is not the least bit funny to be
laughed at. There is a man in Oakland
who played an April fool joke on himself. |
He refused to move, as it was raining. Two |
constables came along and placed his house.
hold goods out on the pavement. He had |
to do some rapid work to get wagon and |
get his goods in out of the wet before night. |
Moving was not confined to families. |
Passing along the streets last evening, there |
might have been noticed the large number |
of trunks moving from one room to another; |
some in wagons, others carried; and, in one |
case, we'll dressed young fellow had placed |
his goods in little red push-cart, and was
contentedly showing it along to his destina-
ton.
There is a fascination in moving. You
wonder what kind ofpeople the new neigh |
bors will be; then there is the new house
with the unexplored rooms and the mys-
terious attic, which is usually the favorite |
resort for the children. 1t is an excellent !
opportunity of seeing what kind OF furni- |
ture your neighbors have, and, to woman,
the sight of load of household goods NOV
ing is only equaled by the observance of
wedding or funeral.
OH, SUCH DELIGHTS
Then there are the pleasures of getting
acquainted and the enjoyment of cutting
one anNher after you have learned all you
wished to know
1t has its disagreeable features, yet it has !
its pleasures, which would undoubtedly be |
increased or the former would be decreased |
were the LIST of May selected as the time for !
moving, and not the first day in the showery |
month that makes fools of good folk.
The most noticeable change yesterday
the commencement of the destruction of old
X. of L. Hall, on Wood street, which is to
be replaced BY new bank building. An |